[blackle]

Consider a situation where the human operators only get the problems the LLMs can't solve. If LLMs are good but still limited, then the leftover cases will be those that are unusual, difficult, or downright impossible. Think of things like complicated fraud resolution, or the customer needing to change a piece of data on their profile that the engineers never considered could be changed.

If the switch to LLMs is largely a cost-cutting measure for organizations, I could see that the human operators—though downsized—would continue to receive the same compensation as before. In short, they will be paid the same to do more and harder work. If their performance metrics are based on how quickly they can close a case, these cases will never receive the amount of effort they need to get properly resolved. That is bad for the customer, who can't get a strange but pressing problem solved, and it is bad for the employee, who has to work harder at the same rate as before. The only person who comes out ahead is the capital owners.

I've sat with help-line operators for a medium-sized consumer tech company. It seems like 80% of their time is spent troubleshooting very niche issues, with the simple ones sprinkled in for levity. People need wins in order to feel good about their jobs. If it's all difficult problems—at bad pay, then that's just torture.