A new report from the South African Institute of Race Relations finds that artificial intelligence has eliminated 34,000 call centre positions since 2023 — but created 61,000 new technology-adjacent roles in the same period.
By Vision6000 Tech Desk · 18 June 2026 · Category: Technology · 4 min read
Artificial intelligence has eliminated approximately 34,000 call centre and administrative support jobs in South Africa since 2023, according to a comprehensive new study by the South African Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR). However, the same research finds that AI adoption has simultaneously created 61,000 new roles in areas such as AI training and oversight, data annotation, customer experience design, and technology support — suggesting a net positive employment effect, at least in the short term.
South Africa’s Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) sector, which employs approximately 270,000 people and contributes R18 billion annually to the economy, is at the epicentre of AI disruption. Companies including Telkom, Standard Bank, Nedbank, and several large insurance providers have deployed AI-powered voice and chat assistants that handle millions of customer interactions each month without human intervention.
Who Is Most at Risk?
The SAIRR report identifies workers without post-secondary education as most vulnerable to AI displacement. Routine, script-based customer service roles — particularly inbound call handling for billing queries, account information, and basic troubleshooting — are being automated at the fastest rate. Workers in these roles tend to be young, female, and located in the major urban centres of Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Durban.
“The transition is happening faster than our education system can respond. We need emergency reskilling programmes that are funded by the companies benefiting from automation, not just by government.” — Dr. Sipho Moyo, Labour Economist, UCT
The New Jobs AI Is Creating
On the positive side, South Africa’s competitive English-language proficiency and relatively low labour costs are making it an attractive destination for AI training and data services work. Companies in the United States and Europe are increasingly outsourcing the human review of AI outputs — a process called Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF) — to South African workers. These roles pay 30–80% more than traditional call centre positions and can often be done remotely.