, Sept. 8 -- Armen Kirakosian recalls the challenges of his early days as a call center agent nearly a decade ago: upset callers, endless menu navigation, and manually jotting down notes after every call.

Now 29 and working in Athens, Greece, Kirakosian's experience has changed dramatically thanks to artificial intelligence. He no longer has to take notes or endlessly click through systems. When a customer calls, their profile and likely issue are often already on his screen-allowing him to focus more on solving the problem.

"A.I. has taken the robot out of us," he said.

Around 3 million Americans and millions more worldwide work in call centers, handling billions of customer inquiries each year-from tech support to online orders. Kira...