The Future of Retail Contact Centres: AI-to-AI Service

Calabrio examines the emerging shift toward AI-to-AI customer service, its impact on shopping and complaint handling, and the evolving role of human agents.

The contact centre has always been the frontline of customer experience. But as artificial intelligence reshapes how we shop, it’s only natural to ask: what happens when it also reshapes how we complain?

We may be heading toward a world where AI agents negotiate directly with each other, customer AIs contacting retailer AIs to resolve issues instantly, with humans barely involved at all.

From Endless Choice to Intelligent Delegation

Modern shopping has reached a tipping point. The average supermarket now carries around 40,000 products, compared to just 7,000 in the late 1990s.

Online marketplaces add millions more at a click. It’s no surprise that shoppers report “aisle anxiety,” with a third walking away from purchases altogether because the options felt overwhelming.

In response, many consumers are turning to AI for help. Nearly 60% already use AI to assist with shopping decisions, and almost half trust AI more than friends for something as personal as outfit advice. The logical next step? Delegating entire purchases to AI agents who decide and transact on our behalf.

Extending the Logic: AI-to-AI Service

If AI is doing the buying, it makes sense it could also handle the problems. Instead of phoning a retailer to report a damaged order, customers might simply say to their AI assistant: “The blender arrived broken, please sort it out.”

From there:

• The customer AI contacts the retailer’s service AI.
• The issue is verified in real time.
• A refund or replacement is arranged.
• The human receives only a final update: “Refund approved. Replacement arriving Tuesday.”

No hold music. No waiting. No effort.

Where Humans Still Matter

Of course, people won’t disappear from customer service. They’ll step in when issues are too complex, emotional, or unusual for AI to resolve.

This means the role of the contact centre agent will shift from routine case handling to problem-solving specialist, where empathy and judgment are more valuable than speed.

Preparing For The AI-to-AI Era

We’re not there yet, but the building blocks are already visible in today’s AI-powered shopping assistants, conversational commerce tools, and automated workflows.

OpenAI has even introduced ChatGPT Agent with a shopping assistant feature, capable of browsing, comparing, and purchasing on behalf of users, evidence that agentic shopping is moving from theory to reality.

In the near future, it may be AI assistants speaking directly with human contact center agents, streamlining interactions and reducing effort on both sides.

Further down the road, it could further evolve again into AI contact centre agents speaking directly to AI shopping assistants, with humans stepping in only when getting to resolution requires nuance or empathy.

Retailers that prepare now, by investing in automation, building transparency into AI decisions, and re-skilling agents for higher-value work, will be the ones ready for this next leap in customer experience.

Because the future of contact centres might not be about connecting people to people at all. It might be about connecting AIs to AIs, in service of people.

This blog post has been re-published by kind permission of Calabrio – View the Original Article

For more information about Calabrio - visit the Calabrio Website

Call Centre Helper is not responsible for the content of these guest blog posts. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect those of Call Centre Helper.

Author: Calabrio
Reviewed by: Robyn Coppell