{"id":3745740,"date":"2026-05-19T12:51:46","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T16:51:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pymnts.com\/?p=3745740"},"modified":"2026-05-19T12:51:46","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T16:51:46","slug":"ikea-turned-8500-call-agents-into-design-consultants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pymnts.com\/news\/artificial-intelligence\/2026\/ikea-turned-8500-call-agents-into-design-consultants\/","title":{"rendered":"IKEA Turned 8,500 Call Agents Into Design Consultants"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In 2021, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ikea.com\/us\/en\/\">IKEA<\/a> had a customer service problem that it couldn\u2019t automate away.<\/p><div\r\n\tid=\"article-paywall-overlay\"\r\n\tclass=\"d-none\"\r\n>\r\n\t<div id=\"article-paywall-content\" class=\"my-4\">\r\n\t\t\n<div class=\"wpcf7 no-js\" id=\"wpcf7-f2699550-o1\" lang=\"en-US\" dir=\"ltr\" data-wpcf7-id=\"2699550\">\n<div class=\"screen-reader-response\"><p role=\"status\" aria-live=\"polite\" 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href=\"https:\/\/pymnts-com-develop.go-vip.net\/terms-conditions\/\">Terms and Conditions<\/a>.\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p><input id='hiddenPath' type='hidden' name='path' value='' \/><input type='hidden' name='userDeviceId' id='userDeviceId' \/><input type='hidden' name='pageTitle' id='pageTitle' \/>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<div class=\"col-12\">\n\t\t\t\t<div id='formButtonRow' class='container mt-1 px-0'>\n\t\t\t\t\t<p><input class=\"wpcf7-form-control wpcf7-submit has-spinner btn btn-dark text-uppercase py-2 px-5 small\" id=\"theSubmitButton\" type=\"submit\" value=\"Submit\" \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"post_id\" value=\"3745740\" \/><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"source\" value=\"https:\/\/www.pymnts.com\/news\/artificial-intelligence\/2026\/ikea-turned-8500-call-agents-into-design-consultants\/\" \/><p style=\"display: none !important;\" class=\"akismet-fields-container\" data-prefix=\"_wpcf7_ak_\"><label>&#916;<textarea name=\"_wpcf7_ak_hp_textarea\" cols=\"45\" rows=\"8\" maxlength=\"100\"><\/textarea><\/label><input type=\"hidden\" id=\"ak_js_1\" name=\"_wpcf7_ak_js\" value=\"15\"\/><script>document.getElementById( \"ak_js_1\" ).setAttribute( \"value\", ( new Date() ).getTime() );<\/script><\/p><div class=\"wpcf7-response-output\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/div>\n<\/form>\n<\/div>\n\r\n\t<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"article-paywall-hidden-content\">\r\n\t\n<p>While some callers were asking about delivery times or return policies, others wanted help <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pymnts.com\/news\/retail\/2023\/ikea-uses-artificial-intelligence-transform-call-center-employees-into-interior-design-advisors\/\">designing<\/a> their homes. No chatbot was going to solve that.<\/p>\n<p>Ingka Group, the largest IKEA franchisee, deployed its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ingka.com\/newsroom\/ai-and-remote-selling-bring-ikea-design-expertise-to-the-many\/\">AI assistant<\/a>, Billie, across customer service channels that year. By 2023, the chatbot was handling roughly 47% of all inbound inquiries, about 3.2 million conversations covering product information and recommendations. The operating savings came to nearly 13 million euros (about $15 million).<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Reading the Unresolved Queue<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>IKEA then looked at the other 53%.<\/p>\n<p>Customers were reaching out for help designing rooms, problems that required taste and contextual judgment to solve. Rather than deprioritizing these requests, Ingka treated them as a demand signal.<\/p>\n<p>The company launched a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ingka.com\/newsroom\/ai-and-remote-selling-bring-ikea-design-expertise-to-the-many\/\">reskilling<\/a> program, converting roughly 8,500 call center employees into remote interior design consultants. Workers were retrained in digital retail sales, room planning and relationship management. Billie handled the operational load. The reskilled workforce handled conversations that required human judgment.<\/p><div id=\"pymnt-4123729545\" class=\"pymnt-content pymnt-entity-placement\" style=\"margin-top: 50px;\"><p style=\"text-align:center\">Advertisement: Scroll to Continue<\/p><script async type=\"text\/javascript\" id=\"dianomi_context_script\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dianomi.com\/js\/contextfeed.js\"><\/script> \r\n<div class=\"dianomi_context\" data-dianomi-context-id=\"4329\"><\/div><\/div>\n<h2><strong>A Cost Center Becomes a Revenue Line<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The remote customer meeting channel generated 1.3 billion euros (about $1.5 billion) in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ingka.com\/newsroom\/ai-and-remote-selling-bring-ikea-design-expertise-to-the-many\/\">revenue<\/a> by the end of fiscal year 2022, representing 3.3% of Ingka Group\u2019s total sales. Ingka set a target of growing that share to 10% by 2028, in part as a strategy to attract young customers, Reuters <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/technology\/ikea-bets-remote-interior-design-ai-changes-sales-strategy-2023-06-13\/\">reported<\/a> at the time.<\/p>\n<p>The chatbot savings was predictable. The revenue line was not. It came from reading customer service data as a demand map rather than a cost metric.<\/p>\n<p>Ingka reported 41.5 billion euros (about $48 billion) in total <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ingka.com\/newsroom\/ikea-becoming-more-affordable-accessible-and-sustainable-serving-more-customers-and-delivering-eur-41-5-billion-in-revenue\/\">revenue<\/a> for fiscal year 2025, with retail sales of 39 billion euros (about $45 billion), as it absorbed cost-of-living pressures across its major markets. Online visits rose 4.6%, and units sold grew 1.6%. The company helped over 73,000 customers with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ikea.com\/us\/en\/newsroom\/corporate-news\/ikea-u-s-releases-fy25-annual-summary-and-announces-four-new-stores-planned-for-2026-pubf0e047b0\/\">remote furniture<\/a> and kitchen planning<b> <\/b>expertise.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>A Different Workforce Model<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Most companies haven\u2019t built a comparable program. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pymnts.com\/pymnts-intelligence\/\">PYMNTS Intelligence<\/a> report \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pymnts.com\/study_posts\/no-roadmap-no-problem-how-enterprises-are-reinventing-the-ai-workforce\">No Roadmap, No Problem: How Enterprises Are Reinventing the AI Workforce<\/a>,\u201d based on a study of chief financial officers at large firms in the United States, found that half expect AI to create new roles requiring new skills, and 47% expect it to significantly reduce headcount. Only 12% said their organizations feel very prepared to manage the shift.<\/p>\n<p>CFOs reported investing in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pymnts.com\/artificial-intelligence-2\/2025\/retraining-emerges-as-leading-response-to-ai-job-disruption\/\">AI tools<\/a> faster than they are adjusting workforce strategies, leaving most companies without a clear plan for retraining, redeployment or job redesign.<\/p>\n<p>Ingka built the program. Beyond Billie, the company launched an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ingka.com\/newsroom\/ikea-retail-unleashes-ai-revolution-empowering-thousands-to-master-the-future-of-tech\/\">AI literacy<\/a> initiative targeting 30,000 workers, with more than 4,000 <a href=\"https:\/\/digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu\/en\/policies\/ai-literacy-practices\/ingka-group\">trained<\/a> during fiscal year 2024.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bain.com\/\">Bain &amp; Company<\/a> found that \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bain.com\/insights\/the-future-of-retail-six-disruptions-that-could-shape-the-next-decade\/\">beyond trade<\/a>\u201d activities, or services adjacent to core retail transactions, accounted for 15% of sales and 25% of profit at a typical U.S. or European retailer in 2024, up from 10% in both cases in 2021.<\/p>\n<p>Ingka\u2019s next test is whether the channel reaches 10% of revenue by 2028.<\/p>\n<p><em>For all PYMNTS AI coverage, subscribe to the daily <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/pymnts.com\/subscribe\/\"><em>AI Newsletter<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<script>\r\n\twindow.pymntsAllowedArticleCount = 1;\r\n\twindow.pymntsPostID = 3745740;\r\n<\/script>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 2021, IKEA had a customer service problem that it couldn\u2019t automate away. Get the Full Story Complete the form to unlock this article and enjoy unlimited free access to all PYMNTS content \u2014 no additional logins required. yesSubscribe to our daily newsletter, PYMNTS Today. By completing this form, you agree to receive marketing communications [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1301003,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","pymnts_footnotes":""},"categories":[15099],"tags":[9680,6446,9206,133069,9621],"class_list":["post-3745740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-ikea","tag-news","tag-pymnts-news","tag-retail"],"acf":{"suggested_titles":""},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.2 (Yoast SEO v27.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>IKEA Turned 8,500 Call Agents Into Design Consultants<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Customers wanted home design help, so IKEA retrained 8,500 call center workers as remote interior design consultants.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pymnts.com\/news\/artificial-intelligence\/2026\/ikea-turned-8500-call-agents-into-design-consultants\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"IKEA Turned 8,500 Call Agents Into Design Consultants | PYMNTS.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In 2021, IKEA had a customer service problem that it couldn\u2019t automate away. 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