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

Detroit customer service workers and employers face a turning point in 2025 as Michigan's new AI and the Workforce Plan warns AI could reshape up to 2.8 million jobs statewide while offering as much as $70 billion in economic impact and 130,000 good‑paying jobs if the state leads on training and infrastructure; the plan's three pillars - invest in skill development, guide the workforce landscape, and enable businesses to adopt AI - mean Detroit firms and frontline teams need accessible, practical training and small‑business technical support now to stay competitive.

Read the state's announcement at Michigan's AI and the Workforce Plan and explore practical upskilling through Nucamp's AI Essentials for Work bootcamp to turn that statewide opportunity into a concrete pathway for local customer service roles.

“Working with AI technology helps prepare our workforce to lead with the skills and tools Michiganders need to thrive in a rapidly evolving economy,” said Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II.

Michigan's AI and the Workforce Plan signals a practical roadmap for Detroit: the state estimates AI could reshape up to 2.8 million jobs statewide and - if Michigan leads on strategy, infrastructure, and training - could generate as much as Michigan estimate: $70 billion economic impact and 130,000 good‑paying jobs, while the official plan outlines targeted action to invest in skills, guide worker transitions, and help small and medium businesses adopt AI via technical assistance; see the plan at Michigan's AI and the Workforce Plan - official state announcement and details.

So what this means for Detroit customer‑service teams: expect concrete state support for upskilling and shared tools, a surge in demand for hybrid roles (agents who use AI to resolve tickets faster), and employer incentives to retrain staff - mirroring manufacturing's need for upskilling (about 75% of roles require new training), this plan makes clear that reskilling, not mass displacement, is the near‑term outcome if employers and workers act now.

“Michigan needs to take action now to make sure we stay ahead in the future – creating a resilient economy for our residents and employers,” said LEO Director Susan Corbin.

AI is already changing customer service in Michigan and Detroit in practical ways: lenders and brokers in Pontiac and beyond are using chatbots and virtual assistants to triage routine questions, parse documents, and surface next steps so human agents can focus on complex cases.

Pontiac‑based United Wholesale Mortgage has rolled out tools such as ChatUWM, MIA and LEO - ChatUWM now supports “chat with documents,” instant income calculations, and reportedly serves over 25,000 active external users with roughly 400,000 prompts - so brokers get answers and product recommendations in seconds (UWM ChatUWM enhancements and user metrics).

Strategic partnerships to embed Google Cloud AI aim to speed underwriting and client support at scale (UWM and Google Cloud AI partnership announcement).

At the same time, research shows chatbot design and voice clones affect consumer trust and negotiation behavior, which means Detroit employers must pair automation with transparent handoffs and guardrails to preserve trust while cutting backlog - the clear payoff is faster resolution for routine tickets and more human time for relationship‑saving work (research on chatbots, trust, and voice clones).

“AI agents (can) fill this sort of human-facing job role,” Schanke said.

National surveys make clear why many Detroit customers still reach for a person: 93% of U.S. consumers say they prefer human agents and large shares report better speed and accuracy with people - 78% say humans resolve problems faster and 84% say humans are more accurate - according to a Kinsta survey on AI vs. human customer service preferences, a point reinforced by summaries at NoJitter coverage of contact center surveys showing preference for human agents.

The drivers are concrete and relevant to Detroit contact centers: 71% encountered situations where AI struggled with complex issues, 61% received inaccurate information from AI, and 55% “frequently” needed to escalate to a human - so more than one in two AI interactions still require a staffed handoff.

The takeaway for local employers is clear and practical: automate predictable, low‑risk tasks, but keep skilled human agents available (and trained) for nuance, accountability, and relationship‑saving work where customers explicitly prefer a person.

“Talk to your customers, find out what they like or don't like about the service they're getting. If you get a lot of complaints, maybe rethink what you're doing... I'm not saying not to use bots. I'm saying you need to use them properly.”

Detroit contact centers should adopt a human‑AI hybrid model in 2025: let AI automate predictable, high‑volume tasks (FAQ triage, routing, sentiment flags) and surface context while trained agents handle complex, emotional, or high‑value interactions - CMSWire argues this balance preserves empathy and reduces friction while keeping humans in the loop (CMSWire: Human-AI hybrid teams in customer service).

Practical steps for Detroit: embed AI as real‑time agent assist (suggested replies, knowledge pulls), define frictionless escalation paths so customers never wait for a human, and invest in short, role‑focused AI training so agents use tools instead of competing with them - Zendesk data shows most CX leaders view AI as amplifying human intelligence and expect faster, personalized responses when tools are well integrated (Zendesk report: AI customer service statistics for 2025).

The payoff is concrete: fewer routine tickets bogging down queues and more skilled agents available to save customer relationships when it matters most.

Customers should always know when they're interacting with AI.

Detroit customer service workers can choose clear, local pathways to update skills for AI‑augmented roles: the Apple Developer Academy in Detroit offers a free, in‑person learning track (10‑month Academy or 4‑week Foundation, 20 hours/week) at 660 Woodward Ave.

to teach coding, UI/UX, and professional skills useful for prompt engineers and tool‑savvy agents (Apple Developer Academy Detroit free coding and UI/UX programs); Michigan State University's IT group publishes practical campus AI resources and enterprise tools (Microsoft Copilot available since Sept.

2024 at no extra cost to MSU students/faculty) that local workers and employers can use for hands‑on Copilot, ChatGPT, and tool‑governance training (MSU AI resources: Copilot and AI training for students and faculty).

For faster credentialing, MSU bootcamps run 24‑week coding and data‑analytics cohorts geared to bring workers to workplace‑ready levels for roles that combine customer care with data and automation skills.

Small and medium Detroit businesses should run small, measurable AI pilots (for example, combine a Zendesk Answer Bot with analytics to reduce ticket backlog and surface answers before agents intervene), tap county and regional technical assistance instead of building costly in‑house teams, and prioritize short, role‑focused upskilling for agents and prompt‑engineers so human staff handle complex or emotional cases; regional hubs and programs already exist to help - Oakland Thrive has connected more than 7,600 small businesses and Michigan Central hosts some 135 startups fueling shared tools and partnerships (see SEMCOG's Growing our Innovation Ecosystem), and local training and pathways for AI support roles are summarized in Nucamp AI Essentials for Work syllabus for using AI in customer service.

The practical payoff: fewer routine tickets, faster SLA compliance, and preserved human capacity to save high‑value relationships without large upfront investment.

“The region must lose the scarcity mindset and develop a strategy to collectively maximize the opportunities through a clear inclusive vision and collaboration.”

Protecting jobs and worker rights in Detroit means turning Michigan's AI plan and regional lessons into enforceable policy: require federally‑aligned, place‑based investments to fund wraparound services (transportation, child care, mental health) that TCF found critical to training completion in Detroit's $52.2M GEM Build Back Better Regional grant, insist employer participation be tied to job‑quality standards and hiring outcomes so reskilling pipelines actually lead to good jobs, and build standardized data infrastructure and regional talent ecosystems so workers, community colleges, and advocates can measure who benefits; these actions - mapped from Michigan's AI and the Workforce Plan and Midwest policy recommendations - reduce the risk that automation simply concentrates gains with large firms while leaving frontline agents behind, and they make the state's promise of up to 130,000 good‑paying jobs real for Detroit neighborhoods rather than theoretical.

Read the state plan at Michigan's AI and the Workforce Plan - Nucamp AI Essentials for Work syllabus and policy recommendations in Manufacturing Prosperity: Insights from the Midwest - Nucamp Full Stack Web + Mobile Development syllabus.

“Working with AI technology helps prepare our workforce to lead with the skills and tools Michiganders need to thrive in a rapidly evolving economy,” said Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II.

Expect a fast, phased shift between 2025 and 2030: in the near term Detroit agents will see AI touch an increasing share of everyday work (customer support is moving fastest), with industry forecasts projecting a tipping point for support channels as early as 2026 and steady acceleration after that; local risk estimates already put Detroit near the national cluster of higher exposure (about 14.02% of jobs in Detroit identified as at-risk), and McKinsey's Detroit analysis warns a bigger structural change by 2030 - up to 30% of hours worked could be automated.

The practical takeaway: within two years routine tickets will increasingly be routed to AI, so the most secure path for Detroit agents is rapid, targeted reskilling into AI‑augmented roles (promptcraft, verification, escalation ownership) that preserve human judgment where customers still prefer people.

“By 2030, we've estimated that up to 30% of current hours worked could be automated. This automation is driven by emerging AI-enabled technologies in robotics, predictive maintenance, dynamic scheduling, quality resolution, and new product design, among others. We're at dawn of a new era, which will require thoughtful management.”

Practical checklist for Detroit customer service workers and employers: 1) Build foundational awareness - run quick team briefings on what AI can and cannot do and use General Assembly's stepwise AI training checklist to map roles and gaps (General Assembly AI training checklist for 2025); 2) Prioritize hands‑on, short courses so agents learn prompt writing, agent‑assist workflows, and verification skills (a focused 15‑week program like Nucamp's AI Essentials for Work teaches promptcraft and job‑based AI skills employers can deploy immediately: Nucamp AI Essentials for Work 15‑week syllabus); 3) Pilot automation for routine tickets (measure escalation rate, CSAT, and resolution time), keep clear AI→human escalation, and redeploy saved capacity to relationship‑saving work; 4) Tie training to hiring outcomes and wraparound supports so Detroit residents actually access new roles.

The payoff is concrete: trained teams can capture efficiency gains reported in industry guides while preserving human judgment for complex cases, positioning Detroit firms to meet near‑term timelines as routine tickets shift to AI tools.

“Working with AI technology helps prepare our workforce to lead with the skills and tools Michiganders need to thrive in a rapidly evolving economy,” said Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II.