Field study 04/Tests Thesis 004
Pricing the exception
Agents handle 70 percent of contacts. The people handling the remaining 30 percent are paid on a scale designed for the first 70. What happens to retention and quality when pay follows the exception?
In progress- Organization
- Financial services · 6,500 people · contact operations
- Duration
- Quarter 2 of 4 · 2026
- Sponsor
- Head of operations
- Institute
- Rachel Okafor, Daniel Osei
Thesis 004 · Every Organization Is Becoming a Human-Machine System
Humans and machines have no shared operating model.
AI is deployed one workflow at a time and nobody owns the whole-organization design. The system sets decision rights, handoffs, exception paths, and accountability when a machine acts.
Quarter by quarter
- Q0
Baseline written with the sponsor before any intervention.
- Q1
Intervention designed against the thesis under test and put into practice with the operator's own people.
Against the written baseline
70% of contacts now resolved without a person.
Q2 baseline written, intervention live in two of five centers.
This study is recorded against Thesis 004. Its verdict (in progress) is reflected in that thesis's revision history.
What this study cannot establish
- No results reported before the study closes. Baseline and design are published now.