Co-op reportedly using AI to score employees’ customer calls

The Co-op, a UK legal services company, is reportedly using an OpenAI model to record and assess employees’ calls with customers, turning conversations into scored evaluations. The account was reported by The Guardian and summarized by Futurism.

According to the report, the system evaluates more than 50 aspects of each call and assigns pass-or-fail scores. One employee told The Guardian that workers could be monitored for hours a day, depending on how much time they spent speaking with customers, and described the experience as having “every word” they said watched.

The Co-op told The Guardian that AI is a “key aspect” of its quality assurance process, but said it is used as a support tool rather than a decision-maker. A Communication Workers Union official questioned whether such systems improve workplace practices, warning that unaccountable software should not act as people’s manager.

The reported use places the Co-op among employers applying AI to monitor and assess frontline work. Futurism also cited other examples, including Burger King’s AI-powered employee headsets and Meta’s paused plan to collect workers’ keystrokes and screen activity for AI training — illustrations of how workplace AI can extend monitoring as well as automate tasks.