When a global retail business introduced an AI chatbot to handle routine customer enquiries, it was the stuff of cost-cutting dreams.
Between 2021 and 2023, the technology handled 3.2 million customer interactions, saving the company almost €13 million.
For most businesses, that would be the end of the story – so long call centre reps, hello bottom line savings. But that’s not what happened.
Instead of reducing its workforce, IKEA retrained 8,500 call-centre employees in remote interior design, digital sales and customer relationships.
The retailer redirected its people’s energy, skills and expertise towards helping customers make better purchasing decisions. While AI took care of routine customer service enquiries, they built a new human-led online customer experience.
In 2023, IKEA reported 24% y-o-y growth in UK remote sales. And by 2028, the company predicts that channel will account for up to 10% of total global sales.
Redeploying human value
In January 2026, as AI agents took over routine customer support enquiries, Salesforce revealed how it had redeployed hundreds of employees into higher-value roles to support developing and evaluating AI solutions.
Clearly recognising an opportunity, the tech giant introduced new roles and tools to help employees transfer their existing skills into growing areas of the business.
Which raises an uncomfortable question for businesses racing to cut costs with AI: What if you’re measuring success against the wrong outcomes?
What is the point of AI?
In 2026, much of the conversation around AI remains focused on cutting costs. We see investment cases built around headcount reduction, task automation and extracting more from remaining employees.
But efficiency is a fragile competitive advantage. Netiro Partner and culture & behaviour change specialist Chloe Foy warns that an excessive focus on short-term savings can create much bigger problems further down the line.
“The savings from reducing headcount are easy to measure,” she says. “What’s harder to quantify is the experience you lose, the damage to your reputation and the cost of rebuilding capabilities when you realise you still need them.”
AI created the opportunity for IKEA. But the value came from redesigning roles and peoples’ careers to deliver a more meaningful and sustainable type of value. Chloe says that shift in strategy is critical in securing longer term attraction, engagement and retention in the transformation.
“Leaders need to demonstrate how AI creates opportunities and meaning, rather than simply replacing what they do,” she says. “The conversation becomes more engaging when it incorporates what employees stand to gain too.”
Transformation mindset
An efficiency-first mindset asks how AI can help the business do the same things faster, cheaper, with fewer people. But freeing up capacity isn’t AI transformation.
A transformation mindset steps back and asks what new possibilities the technology enables. Redeploying people towards more meaningful, rewarding work can improve employee engagement and retention, helping businesses retain the experience and expertise they’ve already invested in.
One is short term and focused on extracting value today. The other is concerned with creating a more valuable business tomorrow.
At Netiro, we help businesses see that bigger picture, identifying where human capabilities can create greater value and putting strategies in place to realise that potential.
Because the biggest opportunity AI creates is the human potential it frees up. So if you’re ready to think beyond efficiency, let’s talk about what’s possible.
