IDG Contributor Network: Is the call center era over?

The heyday of the big and bustling call center is coming to an end. While customer inquiries, outreach and grievances never go away, the ways in which they are managed are changing quickly. The majority of B2C interactions will soon be person-to-machine rather than person-to-person due to the rapid rise of RPA (robotic process automation) and artificial intelligence (A.I.).Does that mean mega call centers, which once staffed hundreds and sometimes thousands of people, will now look like data cen