Will AI Replace Customer Service Jobs in Colombia? Here’s What to Do in 2025

Colombia should care about AI in customer service because the tools arriving now change expectations - customers want fast, personalized, 24/7 support, and AI can deliver it while freeing agents for high‑empathy work.

Industry guides show AI automates routine requests, improves agent productivity, enables multilingual routing and smart summarization, and can deflect huge ticket volumes (Zendesk highlights Unity's AI agent deflecting 8,000 tickets and saving $1.3M), meaning Bogotá and Medellín contact centers could redirect staff toward complex calls that build loyalty.

For workers and managers the priority is practical upskilling - learn to use agent‑assist tools, write effective prompts, and manage change; see Zendesk's guide to AI in customer service and consider hands‑on training like Nucamp AI Essentials for Work bootcamp (registration) to build workplace AI skills fast.

“With AI purpose-built for customer service, you can resolve more issues through automation, enhance agent productivity, and provide support with confidence. It all adds up to exceptional service that's more accurate, personalized, and empathetic for every human that you touch.” - Tom Eggemeier, Zendesk CEO

Across Bogotá, Medellín and other Colombian contact centers, AI is already reshaping the day‑to‑day: companies are embedding smarter AI agents and agent‑assist tools that automate routine triage, surface the right context, and summarize post‑call work so people can focus on emotional, high‑value problems rather than manual admin.

Global studies show this is not just hype - Zendesk forecasts AI will touch virtually all customer interactions and reports strong gains in agent productivity and decision‑making, even as only about one‑fifth of agents today have generative AI tools at their disposal; meanwhile LATAM adoption is growing (Leal notes ~40% of regional businesses using AI and 62% applying it to CX).

Colombian tech teams are already part of that wave - regional partners and local shops are building targeted solutions and pilots - and contact center reports (Calabrio, Qualtrics) find AI in use at scale globally while urging a people‑first rollout: put AI behind the scenes to boost personalization and speed, train agents on new workflows, and design escalation paths so customers who want a human still get one.

For practical tool lists and Colombia‑specific tactics, see Zendesk's collection of AI CX stats and the Nucamp roundup of Top 10 AI Tools for customer service professionals in Colombia.

“This customer is calling about a billing issue, but the problem is that they haven't updated their payment method. We've sent them a new payment authorization.”

In Colombia the customer‑facing jobs most exposed to AI are the familiar call‑center and clerical roles - think customer‑service clerks, keyboard clerks and other “customer query” positions - which studies place squarely in the zone between augmentation and outright automation: many customer‑query clerks already appear in the high automation or “big unknown” categories, while retail and hospitality front‑line roles sit more often in the augmentation / big‑unknown band where outcomes depend on how firms deploy tools.

Local research and regional analyses warn this is not evenly spread: younger and female workers (who are over‑represented in clerical and service roles) face higher automation exposure, and limited workplace digital access can both delay and distort the gains from augmentation.

For practical reading on these patterns see the Fedesarrollo note on automation in Colombia and the ILO working paper on GenAI exposure in LAC, and Nucamp's Top 10 AI Tools for Colombian customer service pros for ideas on how to move toward augmentation rather than replacement.

Expect Colombia's customer‑service landscape to accelerate as the global AI infrastructure buildout lowers latency and raises capabilities: research shows generative‑AI infrastructure could become a near‑trillion‑dollar industry and hyperscale data centres topped 1,000 in 2024, with capacity doubling every few years - trends that make richer agent‑assist tools and edge/on‑device AI practical for Bogotá and Medellín (see the GlobalX briefing on AI infrastructure).

At the national level, CONPES 4144 rings the bell for a coordinated push - COP 479 billion (≈USD 115.9M) is earmarked through 2030 to boost data, infrastructure and skills - which should speed pilots and public‑private programs for CX (Access Partnership summary).

Local market reports also point to a fast‑growing tech ecosystem, rising cloud adoption and nearshoring momentum that will help deploy AI at scale in contact centres (Alcor's Colombia tech overview).

The likely result by 2030: faster automation of routine calls, smarter multilingual routing, and new hybrid roles for agents who combine empathy with prompt‑crafting and data literacy - though uneven connectivity and skills gaps mean gains will arrive at different speeds across regions; picture smarter support running quietly on a backbone of ever‑bigger data centres.

“This next generation of AI is changing how organizations operate and innovate everywhere, including in Colombia.” - Satya Nadella

Colombia faces clear economic and social risks as AI reshapes customer service: modest national growth (BBVA projects about 2.5% in 2025) limits fiscal room for large retraining programs, while unemployment and informality leave many workers exposed - unemployment hovered near 9.1% in 2024 and informal employment accounts for more than half the workforce (≈13.2 million people), so automation shocks could quickly translate into income instability for millions.

A widening current‑account deficit and weaker remittances (BBVA) make firms and households more vulnerable to external shocks, and currency volatility - analysts expect the TRM to trade roughly 4,500–4,700 COP/USD - raises the cost of imported cloud services and hardware for contact centres (Medellín Advisors).

At the same time global growth is easing (PwC sees world GDP slowing to ~2.6% in 2025), which could dampen demand for Colombia's nearshoring services and slow job creation in higher‑productivity sectors that absorb displaced agents.

The policy implication is urgent but practical: targeted public funding, employer‑led pilots, and rapid upskilling are needed to turn automation into augmentation rather than displacement - see BBVA's March 2025 outlook and local analysis from Medellín Advisors for context.

“Higher productivity growth requires investments in infrastructure, more efficient public services, a more equitable tax system to encourage private investment and a more open business environment to foster competition and innovation.”

As contact centers in Colombia shift from rote scripts to AI‑assisted workflows, a fresh crop of hybrid jobs is taking shape: trainers who now teach agents to work with AI tools, QA analysts using automated quality‑monitoring to catch issues early, multilingual specialists who pair cultural intelligence with real‑time translation, and AI‑annotation teams that prepare data for models - roles that are already showing up at local providers and outsourcers.

Bogotá, which accounts for nearly half the country's BPO jobs, remains the hotbed for these transitions (see TTEC's roundup of top Bogotá call‑center roles), while Colombia's heavy investment in multilingual training supports agents moving into higher‑value, cross‑border work (read how Colombia builds multilingual teams).

On the frontline this looks like workforce managers combining forecasting with AI analytics and trainers swapping slide decks for hands‑on coaching in prompt craft - practical skills any agent can start building (Nucamp's guide to piloting AI prompts offers a good place to begin).

The result: more career ladders in one sector rather than fewer, and a contact‑center floor where human empathy and machine speed come together to resolve more problems, faster.

Workers in Colombia should begin 2025 with clear, practical moves: first, learn what Law 2466 of 2025 changes for day‑to‑day work - apprenticeship protections, new telework rules and a mandatory connectivity allowance for lower‑paid roles - and bookmark a plain‑language summary like the Leglobal Law 2466 (2025) Colombia labour reform overview so rights are never a guessing game; second, prepare to negotiate schedules and telework options as the reform phases in shorter weekly hours and new surcharges, using the employer‑action checklist in Baker McKenzie Colombia labor reform summary and employer actions; third, close practical skills gaps by piloting small AI projects and prompt training (follow a tested Nucamp AI Essentials for Work 15‑Week syllabus and 60‑day pilot resources), sign up for short courses that teach agent‑assist tools and prompt craft, and look for employers tapping the CREA EMPLEO hiring incentives - those firms may be more likely to invest in upskilling.

Treat rights, retraining and small, measurable pilots as a single strategy: legal protection plus usable AI skills keeps more jobs human‑centred and better paid.

Companies in Colombia should adopt AI responsibly by building clear, documented governance that maps each AI use case to a risk category, follows CONPES 4144's ethics-and-governance pillars, and treats high‑risk systems as human‑in‑the‑loop processes with auditable trails and failovers - think of AI controls like seatbelts for automated decisions.

Start with a risk classification and data‑protection checklist (aligning with the SIC's External Directive 002), require transparency where customers interact with AI, and enforce vendor due diligence and retraining plans so affected agents can move into higher‑value, hybrid roles; these steps echo national guidance and the proposed risk‑based bill that names the Ministry of Science as the lead regulator.

Operationally, set up cross‑functional oversight (legal, HR, product, security), pilot in regulatory sandboxes, and document impact assessments and workforce transition measures so compliance and ethics are visible to clients and regulators.

For practical templates and policy framing, consult Colombia's regulatory tracker and national policy resources and lean on emerging corporate roles that embed ethics into everyday AI use.

“This must be on the minds of a whole group of experts across the business as part of a fully cross-functional approach.” - Tom Tropp (Gallagher)

Policymakers should move from plans to near-term, practical action: convert CONPES 4144's pillars into funded, enforceable programs that pair clear, risk‑based rules with workforce support, and finish a draft law that names the Ministry of Science as the national AI authority while keeping the Superintendence of Industry and Commerce (SIC) on data and consumer issues; see the National AI Policy for the budget and pillars and the current regulatory tracker for details on the proposed bill.

Require risk classification, transparency notices, human‑in‑the‑loop controls and mandatory impact assessments for high‑risk CX systems, while mandating employer‑led retraining and redeployment plans so automation becomes augmentation rather than displacement.

Launch regulatory sandboxes, SME incentives and rapid pilot grants (the CONPES plan earmarks COP 479 billion ≈ USD 115.9M through 2030) to tune Spanish and regional models, and publish simple compliance templates tied to SIC's External Directive 002 on personal data so firms can act fast.

Back rules with proportional enforcement - White & Case notes fines and suspension powers in draft texts - so businesses adopt safe AI while workers keep clear career pathways.

The path forward for Colombia is not an either/or between machines and people but a practical blend that leverages the country's biggest asset - agents who bring warmth, bilingual fluency and cultural fit - while letting AI handle repetitive triage and data work so human teams focus on empathy, escalation and complex problem‑solving; industry writing points to Colombia's strong BPO growth and workforce strengths that make this hybrid future realistic (Outsourcing call centers in Colombia - Callin.io).

Employers and policymakers must pair smart pilots with rapid, repeatable upskilling so agents can move into prompt‑crafting, quality‑monitoring and analytics roles rather than being displaced - practical training and employer‑led reskilling are already a proven route (AJG generative AI upskilling analysis), and hands‑on courses like Nucamp AI Essentials for Work syllabus offer the task‑driven skills employers need.

When firms deploy AI behind the scenes, fund transition plans, and measure pilots against clear KPIs, Colombia can scale better CX, preserve jobs, and create new career ladders that marry machine speed with distinctly human care.

“If people don't understand the purpose and value of AI, the why and the how, you're going to sit there thinking, 'I'm going to lose my job', because that's human nature.” - Ben Reynolds, Gallagher