Gartner predicts that 30% of staff laid off in AI-driven cuts will be rehired by 2029, often at higher pay. Customer service is where that reversal will show first, says Emily Potosky, a senior director analyst at Gartner. Contact centre staff and software developers were hit first and hardest. Gartner said in February that half of firms cutting service headcount for AI will rehire by 2027. Klarna did this, hiring service reps a year after saying its chatbot matched 700 of them. Gartner blames tools that underdeliver, misjudged costs and unchanged job design. Service and support spent a median of nearly $6 million on AI in 2025. About a quarter of service AI uses lost money, a quarter paid off, and 42% showed unclear value. Potosky urges reshaping roles instead, with reps managing AI agents or handling hard cases. Forrester analyst Max Ball has described such roles as bot unblockers, judges and experts.

• 30% of AI-related layoffs rehired by 2029
• 50% of service cuts rehired by 2027
• ~$6M median AI spend in service, 2025
• 25% of use cases with negative returns