Female swimmer, that jumping into indoor swimming pool.
Teleperformance shares have hit a seven-year low after plummeting by 29 percent last week.
Although it has since recovered somewhat, the stock was still 16.5 percent down when the French Stock Exchange ceased trading yesterday.
Some have attributed the sudden drop to Klarna’s announcement that its AI assistant was handling two-thirds of customer service chats and completing the work of 700 employees.
The Swedish fintech’s claims have strengthened existing fears that AI will replace human agents in the customer services space.
In response to the sudden drop, Teleperformance – the largest employer of contact center advisors globally – released a statement rubbishing AI concerns:
(Our) current activity in no way reflects negative conclusions in its business that could be drawn from technological developments mentioned in this communication.
The French communications provider also emphasized that it is already embracing AI in several of its offerings.
For instance, last year, the company announced that due to the popularity of chatbots, up to 30 percent of its call volume could be automated within three years.
The Klarna Effect
Klarna’s self-reported AI successes follow the news that the financial service company has teamed up with OpenAI to develop its inaugural virtual assistant.
One month in, as well as the workload output mentioned above, Klarna has also announced that its virtual assistant has helped bring about a significant reduction in query resolution time from 11 minutes to just two minutes while maintaining consistent levels of customer satisfaction.
Altogether, Klarna anticipates that the AI innovation will contribute to a $40 million USD profit improvement for the company in 2024, with Co-Founder and CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski enthusiastic about the potential of the new tool:
This AI breakthrough in customer interaction means superior experiences for our customers at better prices, more interesting challenges for our employees, and better returns for our investors.
However, some have questioned the capabilities of Klarna’s virtual assistant.
People who have used the Klarna chatbot have reported several issues, including it providing details about competing companies, discussing irrelevant or unrelated topics, and issuing incorrect information.
These use cases call into question Klarna’s AI assertions.
Although they are all examples of automated replies – so could be considered among the two-thirds of customer service chats that Klarna has reported are being handled by the assistant – they are not solving customer queries.
Andrei Papancea – CEO & Chief Product Officer of NLX – was one of the users underwhelmed by Klarna’s assistant, posting on LinkedIn:
“Generative AI output cannot be guaranteed and thus is not great for customer-facing use cases.
You can leverage these technologies safely without putting your brand at risk by not leveraging generative AI technology blindly.
Papancea’s criticism of Klarna’s GenAI offering has been echoed elsewhere, with French multi-channel customer relations publication En Contact describing the virtual assistant as “nothing more than a version of ChatGPT dedicated to businesses.”
It is clear that both Papancea and En Contact are unconvinced by the capabilities of Klarna’s virtual assistant to single-handedly fulfill the role of 700 employees.
With the fintech’s AI tool still in its infancy, it may be some time before its impact on staff cuts is fully revealed. In the meantime, however, skepticism surrounding Klarna’s claims may help Teleperformance’s share prices rebound.
Artificial IntelligenceBPOChatGPTConversational AIGenerative AIVirtual Assistant
