British Gas Owner Centrica to Cut 1,300 Call Centre Jobs, 800 Linked to AI Tools

Centrica is cutting 1,300 British Gas call centre jobs across six UK cities — Glasgow, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Leicester, Stockport, and Leeds — a 14% reduction to customer service teams. The company links 800 roles to "targeted deployment of AI tools." CEO Chris O'Shea attributes cuts to a 20% drop in calls; the GMB union disputes this, claiming 500 roles are directly replaced by AI. The two-year rollout follows retail profits of £346 million in H1 2026.