Residual Labor Ratio

Residual Labor Ratio is the share of call handling that still needs a human after an AI voice agent goes live: exceptions, escalations, identity checks, and callbacks the agent cannot close. It matters because agencies price retainers on the assumption that deployment removes labor, when in practice the labor moves rather than disappears. A clinic deploying Trillet for end-to-end booking still staffs someone for clinical questions and failed verifications, and a service business running Goodcall for lead capture still reviews transcripts and re-dials abandoned conversations. The ratio is measurable: pull 200 real call recordings, tag every transfer and every manual follow-up, then divide human-touched minutes by total call minutes. That number, not the vendor demo, sets your floor price. Forrester's 2027 predictions note AI expansion is colliding with real infrastructure constraints, which pushes usage costs up while residual labor stays fixed, so agencies that price before measuring the ratio absorb the gap on every retainer renewal.