The customer relationship industry is on the brink of a major upheaval. For over thirty years, its model has been based on internal and outsourced call centers, demanding schedules and performance indicators, and service contracts billed by volume or success. However, the advent of two innovations, the AP2 protocol launched by Google to facilitate payment interoperability, and the rise of AI commerce, could profoundly reconfigure this ecosystem.

Tomorrow, a consumer may directly compensate a call center agent, per minute or even per interaction, through a micropayment made via credit card, digital wallet, or blockchain. This evolution promises the emergence of a radically new economy, based on decentralization and the hybridization between artificial intelligence and human support.

Micropayments and AI commerce: the birth of a new model

Until now, customer service centers have relied on a simple principle: the company pays for the availability of agents who represent its brand to the consumer. However, with the rise of micropayment solutions, now standardized and interoperable thanks to AP2, another scenario becomes possible: it is the consumer who directly finances the interaction they benefit from.

• Urgent need for technical support? An instant payment unlocks a direct connection without waiting time to a certified expert.

• Want personalized handling beyond automated scripts? The client can “tip” their adviser, as they would for a ride-share driver or content creator.

• Simple interaction resolved by a chatbot? No cost. But a transition to human assistance becomes a paid option, at the consumer's discretion.

This model inaugurates a market logic where the perceived value of customer relations becomes directly monetizable, adjusted by urgency, expertise, or advisor scarcity.

And it transforms the relationship into a profit center for the emerging ecosystem of 'self-advisors', rather than a cost center for businesses.

Customer centers: towards a platformization of advisors

This economic shift transforms the very role of advisors. Where they were once employees or subcontractors, they could become freelance customer service experts, available on open platforms, paid based on services rendered and rated by their “clients.”

The parallel with mobility or delivery platforms is striking:

• The advisor would choose their slots, brand portfolio, and specializations.

• Businesses would benefit from a global, flexible, and qualified pool of talent.

• The compensation, variable, would be indexed on customer satisfaction and loyalty.

This scenario also raises social and legal questions: worker status, social protection, quality, and confidentiality management. But it aligns with a deep trend: the individualization and disintermediation of service work.

Technological challenges: security and controlled access to client data

This transformation is only conceivable if robust solutions guarantee data protection. Providing access to an external freelancer within the company's ecosystem requires tools capable of:

• Connecting multiple CRMs in a unified and secure manner;

• Limiting access rights in real-time, to what's strictly necessary for handling an interaction;

• Ensuring complete traceability of sensitive data consultations;

• Offering compatibility with existing regulations (GDPR, AI Act, etc.).

“Ephemeral data room” architectures or “dynamic access control” will become indispensable to enable this openness while protecting companies’ most valuable asset: customer trust.

Bot / Human hybridization: the new relational continuum

In this emerging future, interaction will no longer be binary – bot or human – but hybrid and graduated.

• The bots will handle the essentials: FAQs, simple requests, standard transactions.

• Humans will intervene in escalation, but also in value-add support: education, empathy, creative resolution.

• Both will cooperate in an agentic model where AI acts as a copilot, guiding the advisor, enriching responses, and automating repetitive tasks.

This hybridization could restore prestige to the role of advisor, focusing less on repetition and more on human-added value.

Anticipating the revolution at the intersection of AI – customer relations – payments

As early as 2017, ViaDialog tasked a team of Master's students at Fordham University in New York with research on blockchain adoption in the customer relations industry, and in the summer of 2022, alongside Gil Monin, we shared our vision of what the industry could become by adopting micropayments for customer interactions. 

Since then, the meeting of AI, next-generation payments, and customer relationships heralds a future that will be profoundly transformed. The AP2 protocol paves the way for global micropayment standardization, AI commerce redefines the value of interactions, and the decentralization of talent challenges the traditional customer service center model.

Companies that can anticipate this revolution by experimenting with hybrid solutions today, securing access to their data, and imagining new economic models will gain a significant advantage.

Because one thing is certain: tomorrow's customer relationships will no longer be just a cost center, but a genuine marketplace where humans and artificial intelligences co-create value that will be monetized with each new interaction.

Article written by Jean-David Benichou, Founder & CEO of ViaDialog