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

Murfreesboro residents should treat 2025 as a pivot year: national research finds AI will touch most support interactions - one roundup projects up to 95% of customer exchanges will be AI-powered by 2025 - and companies report plans to expand AI in CX (65% by 2025), meaning routine tickets and first‑contact answers will increasingly be automated while human roles shift to complex, empathetic, and escalation work; with chat interactions costing roughly 12x less than live calls, frontline staff who learn to operate and supervise AI tools will be the most hireable.

For Tennessee customer‑service workers, that means practical AI skills - prompting, tool selection, and agent‑augmentation - are now career insurance; a focused option is the 15‑week AI Essentials for Work bootcamp that teaches prompts and real‑world AI workflows and includes a registration path for working adults (Zendesk AI customer service statistics) and a direct sign‑up for skill training (AI Essentials for Work bootcamp registration (Nucamp)).

Automation in Tennessee customer service is moving from experimental to operational: local businesses are deploying AI chatbots for 24/7 first‑contact handling while outsourcing routine phone and intake work to virtual receptionist services, which frees small teams to handle complex escalations and empathetic cases that still need humans; for example, Murfreesboro firms can contract 24/7 virtual receptionists that integrate with CRMs and calendars and start at about $292.50/month with vendor‑reported savings - 24/7 virtual receptionists in Murfreesboro - Smith.ai.

Nashville and regional IT SMBs are layering AI chatbots to cut response time and escalate security or technical tickets to humans when required - AI chatbot guidance for Nashville SMBs - Shyft, while Murfreesboro developers build custom integrations and NLP tools to keep data local and compliant - AI development partners in Murfreesboro - Flatirons; the clear takeaway: automation reduces round‑the‑clock workload but raises demand for employees who can train, supervise, and triage AI systems.

up to $33,000/year

Rutherford County government services and Murfreesboro emergency communications are already shifting toward tools that pair CAD data, training, and policy workflows - a change that means routine call‑handling will increasingly rely on integrated platforms while staff focus on oversight, training, and exceptions.

Tools like PowerDMS's PowerReady bring CAD integration into on‑the‑job training and compliance management (PowerDMS PowerReady CAD training and compliance software), and a recent partnership between PowerDMS and CentralSquare aims to deepen that CAD-to-workforce connection for public‑safety agencies (PowerDMS and CentralSquare public-safety integration announcement).

Local job specs already reflect the technical tilt: the Rutherford County 911 Operations Coordinator listing calls for CAD, GIS, LMRS and other systems expertise and posts a salary range of about $50,144–$52,683, signaling that upskilling on CAD, scheduling, and policy‑management tools is now a practical route to stay employable in county services (Rutherford County 911 Operations Coordinator job specification and salary details).

"This new partnership between CentralSquare and PowerDMS by NEOGOV marks a pivotal moment in emergency response technology... We are thrilled to see how this integration will streamline workflows, improve community satisfaction, and ultimately contribute to a safer future for local communities around the country." - Sarah McWhorter, CentralSquare

Private employers in Murfreesboro are shifting hiring toward scale and specialization: recent announcements show logistics and manufacturing driving bulk hiring (Amazon's new sort center plans for about 1,100 associates, while McNeilus lists both a 100‑job Parkway Place expansion and a separate plan for roughly 230 jobs over five years), even as advanced manufacturing and food‑processing investments (General Mills' $65M upgrade) and software hires (Saltworks' 25+ engineers) create mid‑ and high‑skill openings; the net effect is more entry‑level logistics roles plus a rising demand for hybrid workers who pair customer service skills with basic technical fluency.

Hospitality and retail also benefit from a tourism economy that generated $772,865,400 in visitor spending in 2023, which supports stable frontline roles but rewards employees who can operate AI‑augmented tools - learnable skills covered in the local industry guide for AI in customer service (AI in customer service guide for Murfreesboro (2025)) and summarized in regional announcements from the Rutherford County business news and announcements.

“The continued growth in visitor spending reflects the hard work and collaboration of our community, local businesses and tourism partners… Rutherford County's appeal as a top destination in Tennessee.”

To stay employable in Murfreesboro in 2025, prioritize practical, local-facing skills: learn prompt engineering and AI‑augmented workflows so agents can shorten handle time and supervise automated triage; build basic data‑literacy and privacy awareness to spot model errors and protect customer data; strengthen empathetic communication and escalation handling that AI cannot replicate; and for public‑sector roles add CAD/GIS familiarity and policy‑management tools already requested in Rutherford County job specs.

Start where locals teach it - join events from the MTSU Initiative on Artificial Intelligence seminars and workshops (seminars and a “AI and You: Plan Your Next Step” career session are scheduled) and consider the statewide workforce conference in Murfreesboro on February 7, 2025 to network with educators and employers at the Tennessee AI in Education & Workforce Development Conference.

Employers will favor candidates who can operate and evaluate tools, document workflows, and calmly resolve exceptions - one clear, actionable step: attend a campus workshop or the Feb.

7 conference and leave with a one‑page workflow you can use in an interview.

“I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for your dedication and generosity in teaching us English. Your patience, enthusiasm and way of making learning enjoyable have made a huge difference in my path.”

Practical steps for Murfreesboro workers start with focused, short wins: enroll in local workforce-development and evening certificate classes at TCAT Murfreesboro workforce development programs to earn WIOA‑eligible credentials and fast, employer‑recognized skills; pair a customer‑service resume with a compact digital or AI‑adjacent credential (local options are summarized in the Murfreesboro digital marketing course guide) to show measurable online skills via the IIDE guide to digital marketing courses in Murfreesboro; and use Tennessee's workforce programs and job portals to reduce cost and widen exposure - Drive to 55, Tennessee Promise/Reconnect pathways, and Jobs4TN are practical routes to tuition help and posted openings, detailed at Tennessee workforce and education programs.

Concrete routine: update one concise resume line for AI‑augmented support, build a one‑page workflow you can demo in interviews, and apply through Jobs4TN or local career centers within two weeks of finishing any short course to convert training into interviews.

“Tennessee's attractive business environment, integrated supply chain, skilled workforce, and supportive regulation means we can rapidly develop our operations to supply the growing energy storage, solar power, aluminum and EV markets.” - Jayson Tymko, CEO, Sinova Global

Rutherford County has paired policy with money to protect and grow human-centered services that AI can't replace: the County Commission approved an extra $1.5 million to expand the Recovery Court facility - adding meeting and training space for participants - and the Rutherford Opioid Board expects nearly $4.5 million in opioid-abatement funds for 2023–2026 to back prevention, treatment, harm reduction, and recovery-support grants administered with MTSU's Office of Prevention Science and Recovery (Rutherford County Recovery Court program, Rutherford Opioid Settlement with MTSU Office of Prevention Science and Recovery).

Grant cycles (April 15, July 15, September 15) plus MTSU-hosted workshops create practical entry points for nonprofits and training programs to fund staff development.

Those investments translate into paid, local roles: Rutherford County's Recovery Court Counselor listing posts a salary around $43,554–$46,741, signaling concrete career paths in counseling, case management, and supervised services that emphasize empathy, legal compliance, and in-person support - skills that remain resilient even as AI takes on routine tasks (Rutherford County Recovery Court Counselor job listing).

The net result is simple and vital: public funds are buying space, training, and jobs that preserve human work in Murfreesboro's service ecosystem.

“This isn't just a turning of the page, but a new chapter in your life.” - Mayor Joe Carr

Concrete Tennessee case studies show AI moving from theory to revenue‑grade work: University of Tennessee researchers built classroom chatbots that cut faculty email load and a surgical‑landmark AI to train better cleft‑lip outcomes, while radiology teams are deploying algorithms to speed lung‑cancer reads so clinicians spend less time searching and more on interpretation - efforts coordinated under UT's statewide AI Tennessee program and its new AI TechX initiative, which offers up to $60,000 in seed funding for one‑year university‑industry pilots (UT's AI Tennessee and AI TechX projects); at public briefings Lynne Parker framed the urgency - more than 500,000 Tennessee jobs will be augmented or replaced by AI - underscoring why practical, funded pilots matter for local hiring and reskilling (Lynne Parker on training an AI‑ready workforce).

The takeaway for Murfreesboro employers and workers: targeted pilots backed by university expertise and modest grants can turn automation into new, higher‑value roles rather than straight layoffs.

“AI won't take your job. It's somebody using AI that will take your job” - Lynne Parker

Murfreesboro employers should pair leadership buy‑in with practical pilots and training: establish an Automation Center of Excellence to align business and technical strategy and set governance for tools and workflows (Automation Center of Excellence guidance - Microsoft Power Automate), launch short, measurable pilots (for example, scheduling automation pilots that local hospitals typically plan for a 3–6 month rollout and that vendors report can cut scheduler admin time by up to 80%) to prove value (Scheduling automation implementation guidance - Shyft), and pair pilots with comprehensive training, clear communication, and KPIs so successes can be quantified and scaled (Five adoption strategies for automation - CTG).

The concrete payoff: a short pilot and public KPI wins convert staff anxiety into promotable skills and give managers data to justify retention investments and role redesigns.

The bottom line for Murfreesboro in 2025 is pragmatic: while a local analysis finds about 9.7% of workers in the Murfreesboro/Rutherford County area face elevated risk from AI‑driven automation, the larger trend is role transformation - AI will absorb routine contacts while humans keep escalation, empathy, and complex problem solving; actionable next steps are concrete and local: learn agent‑augmentation skills at MTSU seminars (practical workshops on AI workflows), consider the 15‑week AI Essentials for Work bootcamp (practical prompting, tool selection, and workplace workflows; early‑bird cost $3,582, registration available), and translate training into job wins by producing a one‑page AI‑augmented workflow to show in interviews and by applying through Tennessee job portals.

Start with one short credential, one demoable workflow, and one employer outreach in the next 30 days to move from risk to advantage - these three moves convert automation pressure into promotable skills for Murfreesboro customer‑service workers.

“AI won't take your job. It's somebody using AI that will take your job” - Lynne Parker