Commonwealth Bank of Australia has rowed back its decision to cut 45 contact centre jobs after finding that the AI-powered "voice-bot" designed to reduce calls actually led to an increase in work for humans.
In July, the Australian bank confirmed that it was axing 45 positions, stating: "Our investment in technology, including AI, is making it easier and faster for customers to get help, especially in our call centres."
However, according to the Finance Sector Union, the claim that the new bot led to a reduction in call volumes "was an outright lie".
"Call volumes were in fact increasing and CBA was scrambling to manage the situation by offering staff overtime and directing Team Leaders to answer calls," says the union.
CommBank has now conceded that the job cuts were an "error" and has apologised to the affected employees.
The bank says it "did not adequately consider all relevant business considerations" when announcing the redundancies and acknowledges "we should have been more thorough in our assessment of the roles required," according to ABC.
The 45 staffers have been given the choice of carrying on in their jobs, seeking a redeployment or leaving CommBank.
The Finance Sector Union says that "getting CBA to rescind these job cuts is a massive win - but the damage has already been done for our 45 colleagues".
The incident has not dampened CommBank's enthusiasm for AI - last week it unveiled a relationship with OpenAI, striking a multi-year deal to provide employees with access to ChatGPT Enterprise.