New Bill Aims to Protect American Call Center Jobs and Consumers From AI

WASHINGTON, Aug. 13, 2025 — Communicating with automated phone systems for customer service often highlights the importance of a personal touch found in human conversations.

Market research shows that nearly 70 percent of Americans find interacting with automated systems more frustrating than speaking with human customer support representatives.

After conducting an assessment of the ground-level situation in IT services such as call center operations, the bill moved by Senator Ruben Gallego, among other aspects, advocates for consumers to speak with a human during their communication with a customer service agent.

The bill also wants to ensure that if a person opts to speak with a customer service agent within the US, there is an option for choosing the preferred geography.

As reported by the media in the US and globally, the bill clearly reflects that Senator Ruben has taken into consideration that artificial intelligence poses a threat to American workers.

On a policy level, the bill is committed to protecting the roughly three million Americans who work in call centers across the country, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Notably, the new bipartisan Keep Call Centers in America Act of 2025, introduced earlier this month by Senator Gallego and Senator Jim Justice of West Virginia, proposes to retain such jobs in the US by restricting federal benefits for companies that move them overseas.

What Does the Bill Require of Companies?

Among the key takeaways of the bill is that companies moving call centers overseas must notify the Department of Labor at least 120 days in advance. The bill also directs the DOL to maintain a public list of employers that have relocated such work abroad. Companies would remain on the list for five years, as part of an effort to return call center jobs to the US.

Those on the list would be ineligible for new federal grants and federally guaranteed loans, while preference for federal contracts would go to non-listed companies. The DOL would also be required to track any call center job losses related to AI.

Bill’s Protection to Consumers You Should Know

Disclosing Coordinates: To safeguard consumers, the bill would make it mandatory that call center workers disclose their physical locations to callers and reveal whether AI is being used. Under the proposed legislation, customers must be transferred to a US-based call center if they opt for such a provision.

“People want the option of speaking to a human or AI. This isn't new — who hasn't pressed zero repeatedly to skip automated systems because they want to talk to a human? This is a consumer check people want to see,” Senator Gallego told CBS.

Protecting Consumer Data and AI: While boosting domestic jobs by keeping call center work in the US, the bill also helps safeguard American consumers' data, Senator Gallego said. “We are concerned about what it means for American consumers if they are not talking to a human based in the U.S., when it comes to security around their private information.”

Responding to the trend of humans being replaced by AI, Senator Gallego admitted the technology will inevitably bring some job displacement. “There will be changes and AI will cause some unemployment,” he said. “We can't stop it entirely.”

The senator expressed his willingness for AI to take over some customer service work. “If someone has a really good experience with an AI bot, there won’t be a problem as long as that person knows they're talking to AI versus to a human,” he said.

CWA Endorsed Proposed Bill

Endorsing the proposed bill, Director of Government Affairs at Communications Workers of America (CWA), Dan Mauer, said, “This much-needed legislation protects US call center jobs and addresses the growing threats posed by artificial intelligence and offshoring.”

“Historically, companies have offshored customer service jobs to avoid paying good union wages and benefits. Now companies are using AI to de-skill, speed up work, and displace jobs, which undermines worker rights and degrades service quality for consumers.”

Companies that decide to ship call centers overseas must notify Department of Labor at least 120 days in advance before making such a move.

Inputs from Saqib Malik

Editing by David Ryder