Co-op Legal Services is using AI to score the phone calls its staff make to customers, in a rollout a whistleblower describes as "oppressive and dystopian". The co-op legal services AI technology records, analyses and gives percentage scores to calls between workers and people seeking advice on probate, wills and estates, handing pass and fail marks to managers.

How the call-scoring system works

The monitoring arrived in the last couple of months and now sits in the work of dozens of legal services staff. An OpenAI model was trained to assess more than 50 discrete aspects of each call and provide pass and fail scores to managers. The conversations it listens to are interactions between agents and customers seeking advice about probate, wills and estates.

According to the report of the scheme:

• •Every scored call is rated by an automated listening technology.
• •The tool is used in part to identify ways staff can boost their sales performance.
• •It applies to calls made by some, not all, workers.

Workers describe being watched

Staff affected say the reach of the system goes well beyond a spot check. One worker said it can mean their work is monitored by AI for several hours a day, often while dealing with recently bereaved customers.

An anonymous Co-op worker said the AI created a sense of distrust and that being watched felt dystopian.

The whistleblower who raised the scheme described it as "oppressive and dystopian".

The Co-op's response

The company said it did not recognise the criticism and said its probate advisers were highly engaged. It said it supports colleagues with AI as a "key aspect of our quality assurance processes", ensuring clients consistently receive "empathetic expert guidance".

Caoilionn Hurley, managing director of Co-op Life Services, said the efficiency of AI lets the company review all customer conversations to ensure high standards, while "human judgment, accountability, care and kindness remain at the heart of every client relationship".

The Co-op also stressed the AI is solely a support tool, not a decision-maker, and helps leaders "support colleagues and continuously improve the experience we provide to clients".

A wider pattern of AI workplace monitoring

The Co-op case fits a broader spread of AI monitoring of employees. The Guardian had previously reported that Multiverse, Euan Blair's AI training company, uses AI for blanket monitoring of online classroom sessions, which teachers called "remorseless" and "unnerving". Multiverse said it was "using AI to improve the experience of learners and customers".

Other employers have moved in the same direction. In February, Burger King in the US announced it would use AI to track restaurant workers' customer interactions. This summer, Meta paused tracking of employees' computer keystrokes amid data privacy concerns and a staff backlash.

Unions and experts have raised the alarm. John Chadfield, national officer of the Communication Workers Union, said unaccountable computer systems should not be people's managers, and that these hard-working employees demand far more respect.

Hayfa Mohdzaini, senior policy and practice adviser at the Chartered Institute of Professional Development, said "the office is becoming more like a factory now our performance feedback can be given in a more structured way".

This year the International Labour Organization warned about the "psychosocial" risks of AI monitoring, including increasing work-related stress. The ILO said "AI systems are being deployed in workplaces in the absence of a comprehensive regulatory framework", and that preventing harm may not be straightforward. Experts have voiced fears that increasing AI monitoring of workers risks increasing stress.

The monitoring was introduced in the last couple of months into the work of dozens of legal services staff; no further next step has been named.