Virgin Media O2 has begun a gradual rollout of an AI voice agent for selected broadband fault calls, which make up a small share of its volume, while customers retain access to human advisers.
The company announced the rollout Sept. 24. Developed with conversational AI platform Sierra, the agent is intended to address routine problems. Virgin Media O2 says it will assess the service through call monitoring and customer feedback; it has not published results or given a date for an update.
In separate interviews reported by CNBC, credit-card customer-service worker Kaylee Harris said AI gives her more time to focus on individual customers. A telecom worker in Cardiff identified only as Shannon told the outlet she writes her own notes when AI-generated versions contain errors.
Amanda Jones, an organizational-behavior and future-of-work researcher at King’s College London, told CNBC that routine exchanges can offer agents a brief mental pause between harder conversations. She warned that automating those tasks could leave workers with a greater share of demanding cases.
Workload data show pressure in the sector, but do not connect it to AI. MaxContact’s 2025–26 report surveyed 300 UK contact-center decision-makers in September and October 2025. Of those surveyed, 52.6% said workloads had increased over the previous year, compared with 42% in the prior survey. The latest figure included 8.3% who reported a significant rise and 44.3% who reported a slight one.
In the same survey, 66% said their organizations were using or piloting AI, while 60% expected AI and automation to be a main area of increased investment in 2026. The responses describe what survey participants reported; they do not establish that AI caused the workload increase.
A study published in The Quarterly Journal of Economics examined AI assistance for 5,172 customer-support agents at one business-process software company. It found an average 15% increase in issues resolved per hour. Newer agents and those with lower skill levels saw the biggest gains; the study does not establish the effect of automated voice agents across the industry.
Virgin Media O2 says it will use call reviews and customer feedback to assess the rollout, but has not set a date to report its findings.
