IKEA has retrained roughly 8,500 call center employees after rolling out its AI-powered customer service bot Billie, choosing to redeploy workers into more complex service and sales roles rather than cut them.
TL;DR - IKEA AI and Call Center Reskilling
- IKEA retrained roughly 8,500 call center employees after rolling out its AI customer service bot Billie.
- Billie could assist 47% of customers using the tool in its first two years; Fortune reports that figure is now 74%.
- Retrained employees now handle complex service queries and work as remote interior design sales advisors.
- IKEA’s remote-sales centers reportedly generated €1.25bn last fiscal year, up from €1.08bn.
- The key CX lesson: AI deflection can become a human redeployment and revenue strategy, not only a cost-cutting tactic.
The move is notable because it runs against the dominant AI contact center narrative. While many enterprises are using AI to reduce headcount or restructure customer service operations, IKEA is positioning automation as a way to free employees from routine work and move them into higher-value customer conversations.
“Human interaction can be a revenue driver, not a cost to be stripped away.”
That line from captures the significance for CX leaders. IKEA’s model suggests AI deflection does not have to be the end point of customer service transformation. Instead, it can be used to identify where human expertise creates more value.
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IKEA introduced Billie in 2021 to handle repetitive customer service questions, such as store opening hours, order updates, stock checks, and return-policy queries. In its first two years, the bot could assist 47% of customers using the tool; that figure has since risen to 74%.
Rather than remove the human roles partly displaced by Billie, IKEA retrained employees to handle complex queries or become sales-oriented interior design advisors. These workers now help customers plan room redesigns, solve kitchen and furniture configuration problems, and complete purchases through remote-sales centers.
The commercial impact appears significant. IKEA’s remote-sales centers, which cover the 31 countries where Ingka Group operates IKEA stores, have reportedly been the company’s fastest-growing sales channel over the past three years, growing 15% to 20% annually. Fortune reports that they generated €1.25 billion in sales last fiscal year, up from €1.08 billion the year before.
IKEA also says its in-house customer happiness score has risen to 89%, up from 60% before Billie’s rollout.
For contact center leaders, the lesson is clear: AI should not only be measured by containment or deflection. The bigger question is what happens to the capacity AI creates. In IKEA’s case, routine automation has helped redirect human agents toward empathy, judgment, product expertise, and consultative selling.
That distinction matters as AI reshapes service work. The World Economic Forum has estimated that 92 million jobs could be displaced by 2030 because of AI, related technologies, and demographic shifts, while 170 million new roles could be created. IKEA’s approach shows one practical version of that transition: reskilling existing agents into roles that automation cannot easily replicate.
The strategy also comes as other companies take a more aggressive workforce-reduction approach. Recent examples include Uber cutting 10% of its customer service operations as it embraces AI, while companies such as Salesforce, Verizon, Oracle, and Klarna have all faced scrutiny over how automation affects customer service staffing.
However, IKEA’s model is not simple to copy. It requires skills mapping, training investment, workforce planning, product expertise, process redesign, and a clear understanding of which interactions still need people. Fortune reports that IKEA’s reskilling process took around two years, while new hires now receive five to six weeks of training.