In fiscal 2021 (FY21), Ingka Group, the largest IKEA retailer, rolled out an AI-powered chatbot called Billie. According to Ingka Group (June 2023), from 2021 to 2023 Billie resolved about 47% of the customer enquiries it received, which came to 3.2 million interactions and nearly EUR 13 million in savings. In the same release, Ingka said 8,500 call centre co-workers had been reskilled to gain different skills, including remote interior design competence, digital retail sales and relationship building.
This page reports what Ingka Group said in that release. It does not establish how the reskilled roles were split, how many of the 8,500 now work as interior designers, or whether any jobs were cut. The release does not say.
Corrected: October 2026 (unsupported figures removed; not a full re-verification)
What is IKEA’s AI chatbot Billie?
Billie is an AI-powered chatbot used by Ingka Group. The company says it uses natural language processing, is available 24/7 across time zones, and can handle multiple conversations at once. FY21 is the period from 1 September 2020 to 31 August 2021. Ingka says it handles simpler enquiries; the full scope, countries covered and current resolution rate are not established by the sources reviewed here.
What did Ingka say about reskilling?
Parag Parekh, Ingka Group’s chief digital officer, and Ulrika Biesèrt, its People and Culture Manager, are quoted in the release. Ingka said that 8,500 call centre co-workers had been reskilled to gain skills such as remote interior design competence, digital retail sales, building relationships, and handling complex enquiries. Biesèrt said Ingka is “committed to strengthening co-workers’ employability in Ingka or elsewhere through lifelong learning and development and reskilling, and to accelerate the creation of new jobs.”
The release does not say that all of these workers became interior designers, and it does not say whether any layoffs took place.
What are the remote sales figures?
Per Ingka, sales through its remote customer meeting points reached EUR 1.3 billion at the end of FY22 (1 September 2021 to 31 August 2022), accounting for 3.3% of total sales. The company said it aims to grow that share to 10% in the next few years. This is total remote sales revenue. It is not revenue from a stand-alone design consulting service, and the release does not tie it to the reskilled workers alone.
What can other companies take from this?
The release describes one company’s approach: let a chatbot take simpler enquiries, then move call centre staff toward higher-skill work. Whether that raises sales or avoids layoffs elsewhere is not established by the sources reviewed here. Related reading: AI leadership and transparency, micro SaaS ideas, building an app without coding, how creators make money, XChat for founders, Claude Mythos Preview for founders.
