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 …