Apple has indefinitely put on hold a plan that could have replaced approximately 5,000 AppleCare customer support employees with AI agents, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported. The company believed AI phone and web agents could take on some of the employees’ responsibilities.
Apple has already begun adding generative AI to its customer support channels. In recent months, customers calling AppleCare in the U.S. and Canada have been routed to an AI assistant that can answer questions and offer troubleshooting steps. The assistant can transfer callers to a human representative when needed.
Apple is not currently pursuing the large-scale layoffs, according to the report. It remains unclear whether the company will revisit the plan.