Co-op Legal Services using AI to rate workers’ phone calls to customers

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Whistleblower says recording and analysis of all probate calls is ‘oppressive and dystopian

The Co-op has become the latest employer to place workers under AI surveillance with an automated listening technology that rates every phone call some of them make to customers.

In a system described as “oppressive and dystopian” by a whistleblower, Co-op Legal Services is using AI models to record, analyse and award a percentage score for interactions between agents and customers seeking advice about probate, wills and estates.

A model from OpenAI has been trained to assess more than 50 discrete aspects of each phone call and provide pass and fail scores to managers who use the data to analyse employee performance. One worker said the system can mean their work is monitored by AI for several hours a day as they handle inquiries often from recently bereaved customers.

It comes after the Guardian last week revealed Euan Blair’s AI training company, Multiverse, has started using an AI for blanket monitoring of online classroom sessions, which teachers called “remorseless” and “unnerving”, while Multiverse said it was “using AI to improve the experience of learners and customers”. Experts have voiced fears that increasing AI monitoring of workers risks increasing stress.