VCs are starting to partner with private equity to buy up call centers, accounting firms and other "mature companies" to replace their operations with AI
Khosla Ventures among VCs experimenting with AI-infused roll-ups of mature companies | TechCrunch
Seems like they may be hurting themselves in the long run, I hope it fails miserably
They don't care about the long run.
Yep, just gut one business after another for the quarterly returns. Same logic as the thieves stripping copper from street lights, just at a bigger scale
When they bought a firm I worked at, their goal was to asset-strip the pension fund. Luckily they lost a big court case over that and were forced to repay their ill-gotten gains, though we were still worse off than we would have been because of the legal fees.
People with money will always find a way to run away from consequences.
Sure. But in the meantime, calls will get worse.
Just tried call a appliance service fucking told me that customer service was now all AI no human. I fucking hung up.
No no. Don't just hang up. Tell us who it was so we can ALL avoid buying their products.
Sears appliance repair.
.......that only raises MORE questions!!! Where the hell did you even FIND a Sears in 2025??? I thought they went out of business around the same time Toys R Us did. Like, 10 years ago.
Me too, but I called for appliance repair anc it redirected me to the local Sears repair. https://www.searshomeservices.com/repair/refrigerator-repair-service
That deters people from using call centers, which saves the firm money.
True innovation in the area of making existence even more miserable, as if using phones for support wasn't bad enough on its own already.
Odds are there will be no other options left for us and we'll have to use them whether we like it or not.
call centers got worse after outsourcing them overseas and we still have them.
"I experienced imperfect health, had herpes. So don't complain about your cancer."
uh, you completely missed the point. the point is we could very well be stuck with this shit because it'll save businesses money. they don't care if it's worse.