AI Quietly Slashes Call Center Jobs Across Portugal, Fuelling Reskilling Race

If you work, study or simply do business in Portugal, you may have noticed that customer-service lines ring a little less these days. Behind the quieter headsets is a boom in artificial intelligence that is already reshaping call center jobs from Lisbon to Covilhã. Operators still pick up the phone, but a growing share of routine queries now land on algorithms. The change is saving companies money, unsettling thousands of workers and prompting a nationwide debate about how to retrain people before the next wave of automation hits.

The new sound of silence

Portugal’s once-noisy contact center floors are steadily filling with generative intelligence, cutting-edge voicebots and friendlier-than-ever chatbots. In hubs such as Lisbon and Porto, managers describe the tools as an essential productivity drive rather than a mass job killer, yet the numbers tell a different story. Advanced systems shorten call times, authorise refunds and even coach junior staff, leaving only complex cases for humans. The trend is encouraged, not hindered, by the EU AI Act, whose latest rules carve out space for low-risk customer-service applications. Economists now warn that the same technologies bringing Portugal closer to Europe’s digital leaders could turn many entry-level positions into temporary posts.

When restructuring becomes reality

Two high-profile cases made the abstract fear of automation painfully concrete this year. Teleperformance cuts announced in early autumn will remove roughly 200 layoffs across Lisboa, Covilhã and Vila Nova de Gaia. Officially, the company cited “motivos estruturais”, but insiders point to rapid deployment of self-service portals and multilingual automation programs. Weeks earlier, Altice downsizing claimed 1,000 exits, equal to 16% workforce reduction, after an ambitious chatbot rollout on its telecom help lines. Both firms insist they are merely future-proofing operations, yet for the employees walking out with severance cheques that nuance offers little comfort.

What the data whisper to economists

Labour specialists such as Pedro Martins of Nova SBE call the contact center industry a textbook case of the substitution curve: technology first augments, then replaces. A recent Randstad study predicted that nationwide automation could erase 481 000 jobs by 2030 while creating 401 000 new ones. The FFMS report puts 28.8% exposure to AI across the labour market, and a McKinsey forecast counts a net loss of 80.3k jobs if reskilling lags. Even so, researchers emphasise a hybrid model in which people supervise the machines and step in for high-value conversations. In other words, the call center desk may survive—but it will look little like today’s.

Unions and state scramble for answers

Worker representatives are not waiting for the next round of pink slips. SINTTAV has filed multiple complaints, demanding stricter collective bargaining clauses when algorithms displace staff. On the policy side, programmes such as Reskilling 4 Employment—known locally as PRO_MOV—are expanding under the IEFP umbrella. New measures include training budgets, upskilling vouchers and experiments with a shorter workweek in heavily automated sectors. Government officials frame the initiatives as part of the broader EU Just Transition agenda, stressing that Portugal must capture productivity gains without sidelining workers.

Staying employable when bots answer first

Career advisers say the safest investment is in talents no machine can yet mimic. Courses in AI literacy and digital fluency help staff oversee the very systems replacing old tasks. Equally crucial are human-only skills such as empathy-first conversations, critical thinking and creative problem solving—traits recruiters now highlight in job posts. Although some operators may opt for immediate career pivots, the majority will likely pursue lifelong learning to ride the hybrid wave. One thing is clear: Portugal’s contact center workforce sits at the crossroads of disruption and opportunity, and the direction it takes will depend on how fast both companies and governments can teach people to thrive alongside their silicon colleagues.