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Phone a call centre and the person on the end of the line will often try to sell you something. Now it seems this upselling is fuelled by artificial intelligence.

Afiniti, an AI firm based in Washington DC, claims to be able to pair call-centre agents with the people they are most likely to be able to influence, based on a prediction of how both will act during the call.

Many large firms around the world, including Virgin Media and Sky, use Afiniti’s software to manage millions of calls a year. It also …