• TheRealKuni@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Having worked in a call center (doing survey research) during college, there are a lot of people employed by such places who really wouldn’t have many employment options anywhere else.

      I remember saying, while there, that the entire industry would be replaced by AI in 10-15 years. They all scoffed, saying they had ways to get people to answer surveys that an AI wouldn’t be able to do. I told them they were being naive.

      Here we are.

      That said, I do worry about some of those people. Just because they were borderline unemployable doesn’t mean they were worthless.

      • AA5B@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        There was a lot of talk about that when the call centers were sprouting up: generally poor jobs, minimum wage, and liable to be outsourced or ai’d. They were generally put places where there were no real options so those towns are going to suffer when it all goes away

      • Bloomcole@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        doesn’t mean they were worthless

        Not what I said, on the contrary.
        It’s a horrible mindnumbing job and anyone deserves better.
        The avg of employment is 6 months.
        Some don’t make their targets and get fired, most find a less shitty job.

      • Bloomcole@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Could be but it depends, inbound helpdesk is not the same as outbound selling stuff with targets to be made and clients to convince.

    • MangoCats@feddit.it
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      2 months ago

      The movie Outsourced (2006) didn’t foretell AI, but it did a pretty good job foretelling how the offshoring trend was going to unfold.

        • Markovchain@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          I liked the first half of the film, but it abruptly turns into a different movie. The second half isn’t bad, but it’s not what I wanted and it’s not what was advertised in the trailers and marketing.

    • Bristingr@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      Several companies still have a call center. You might get a robot at the start, but that’s usually to send you to the right specialist.

    • Deflated0ne@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Isn’t that what we call “Innovation” in our capitalist society?

      You build a thing. Pour your blood sweat and tears into it. Some VC goon buys it during a downturn. They fire most of the staff. Strip the copper out of the walls. Make the service shittier and shittier until all that is left is its faltering brand recognition then sell it all for a bundle to the very next sucker they can?

      • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Innovation is enshittification these days. It used to be invention, where entirely new products and materials came about. Then there was innovation, incremental improvement coupled with price hikes. Now “innovation” seems strictly rearranging deck chairs with worse service, and reducing employee count for increased profits.

        • MangoCats@feddit.it
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          2 months ago

          In the 90s it was “selling it for parts” where the market value of the whole company was lower than the component parts, so buy it on the open market for a bargain, then slice and dice and profit.

          These days, they’re squeezing the lemons for all they can get.

          • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            The “corporate raider” existed before that, infamously thanks to people like Frank Lorenzo dismantling Eastern Airlines in the ‘80s or Icahn to TWA. The late ‘70s and early ‘80s were rife with corporate raiders.

  • m_xy@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Necessity is the mother of invention and capitalism is its drunk abusive stepfather

    • pinball_wizard@lemmy.zip
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      2 months ago

      They have been for awhile. Early adopter communities like the fediverse used to argue about the good and harm done by the big four.

      For about the last five years, I haven’t heard an early adopter defend the big four.

      I saw/heard the same things around, for example, SEARS, back when it was week known that SEARS was too big and successful to fail.

  • BradleyUffner@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Ohh no. Please don’t destroy call centers. What will we do without them. Ohh the humanity.

    • tehn00bi@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      I had an issue with some equipment from ATT, it took about 6 different try’s before I finally found a human capable enough to help resolve my issue, which involved replacing the equipment.

      This future sounds so much worse to fix a complicated issue.

    • sunbytes@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      They’re not going away, they’re just going to be more persistent with their cold calling, and more infuriating with their call answering.

    • dantheclamman@lemmy.worldOP
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      2 months ago

      Good luck calling your bank, social security, healthcare, DMV, IRS, etc with the obscure problems we all have, if they’re a poorly trained chatbot

  • otacon239@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    I am so glad I got out of IT before AI hit. I don’t know how I would have handled customer calls asking why our chat is telling them their shit works when it doesn’t or to cover their computer in cooking oils or whatever.

    And only after they banged their head against the AI for two hours and are already pissed will they reach someone. No thanks.

    Thank god I can troubleshoot on my own.

    • tauisgod@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      When VC and PE call a company or industry “mature” it means they don’t see increasing revenue, only something to be sucked dry and sold for parts. To them, consistent revenue is worthless, it must be skyrocketing or nothing. If you want to see this in action right now, look what Broadcom is doing to VMWare. They also saw VMWare as a “mature company”.