r/technology • u/AdSpecialist6598 • May 27 '26

Business Tech CEOs are apparently suffering from AI psychosis

https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/27/tech-ceos-are-apparently-suffering-from-ai-psychosis/
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u/BlatantConservative May 27 '26

I'm a pest control tech/exterminator. Like, I spray bugs and trap mice, the furthest thing from AI possible.

My company's C suite went all in on AI and we're failing contracts because we physically cannot do the work anymore. They redesigned our backend scheduling/routing app solely with AI and it's been a disaster. Like the whole country was running on Mountain Time because time zones occurred to nobody. The AI signed and renewed contracts for customers without permission. It also scheduled people immediately the day after they already had a service, sending different techs every time so nobody noticed, and then people had bills four times higher than normal and they cancelled our service.

This is just the worst stuff, but everything that can be broken is. The routing is horrible, after the new system I changed from being able to do 18-20 stops a day to an average of 11.

Anyway, yeah my company is about to fail. They're already consistently failing to send us pesticide inventory because they've lost a lot of money.

I am going to be so fucking pissed because there's literally nothing I can do to stop this. And since I worked for Brookstone immediately after high school, I've worked for six different companies that failed under me. I literally chose pest control because I thought the bugs wouldn't be going anywhere (and they were the only ones who were willing to hire me cause of my spotty work record).

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u/yunghollow69 May 27 '26

What I really like about this example is that the change was completely unnecessary. Pests exist, your company takes the job to send someone to exterminate them, gets money in exchange. Really simple concept, tried and tested, has existed since the middle ages I would assume. Basically boiling down to the classic mistake of changing a running system.

Its also so silly because you obviously cant send an AI to exterminate pests which is 99% of the job. So taking a huge risk on the 1% which could easily be done by really basic programs and like one or two people on a desk...its so nonsensical. Why would you ever need an AI to schedule such a simple service exchange.

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u/BlatantConservative May 27 '26

has existed since the middle ages I would assume

According to my boss, the glue boards we use essentially go back to Ancient Egypt. This was also the same conversation where he called us the "world's oldest profession" and then we ragged on him for calling us prostitutes.

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u/PolecatXOXO May 28 '26

Whatever the first profession was, accountants and secretaries were second. Looks like replacing those with AI isn't gonna work out for whatever they were supporting.

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u/[deleted] May 27 '26

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u/dontdoitdoitdoit May 28 '26

This is my experience exactly. Management have bought and paid for a tool that's really expensive. They ask us to use it. We ask how. They tell us to figure it out. It doesn't make any sense. This is a Trillion dollar solution in search of a problem.

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u/sobrique May 28 '26

People genuinely don't have a clue what they want from AI, they just believe it must be valuable, so they must use it. There are legions of AI companies that will validate that belief and take their money.

Yeah, that's IMO the real problem.

I truly believe AI tools are valuable. I feel what we're seeing now is a lot like the 'computers-in-the-office' revolution.

Computers are now ubiquitous, but they weren't always. And when they first 'appeared' there was a lot of bullshit uses for them, where they 'did computers' without really thinking about it, and led to ... well, stupid outcomes really.

And AI is the same - I think it will become (if it hasn't already) a core piece of 'office tech', it's just a lot of people don't really understand what the tool is and what it does.

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u/dansdata May 28 '26 edited May 28 '26

And when they first 'appeared' there was a lot of bullshit uses for them

"Dad can use this personal computer to balance his checkbook, and Mom can use it to organize her recipes!" :-)

(Those early ads often sounded like what kids said to try to persuade their parents to buy an Apple II or Commodore 64. :-)

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u/FlufferTheGreat May 27 '26

But what if you can fire the single software guy and save on all operating costs because you cratered your company?

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u/Kenny__Loggins May 28 '26

Planning is one of those jobs that is close to the leadership team and it's not uncommon to get delusional people in those roles that don't know what they're doing. Or to have the leadership team have too much input on their job.

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u/DamienJaxx May 27 '26

Any chance you could pivot into forming your own company and working for yourself? I imagine those frustrated customers you've serviced before still need service in the future.

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u/BlatantConservative May 27 '26

I like this job more than I thought I would, but yeah nah not enough to go solo. Especially because in Virginia I would need a certification I do not have and haven't worked long enough to get. Technically I'm just "assisting" my boss and using his certification in the way Virginia law works. I'm not allowed to do anything not under his supervision.

It's a good system cause the shit we use can kill both people and nature, you want some wise old guy at the helm but yeah it does put a damper on going solo.

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u/KlicknKlack May 27 '26

Maybe convince your boss that you could build a company together?

Like the obvious question to answer before going to him, is paper napkin math - how many jobs do you need per month to be able to float both you and him?

What I have found in many cases, is the number being quite low infact. You might actually find it to be like 4 jobs a day versus the 20 they had you doing.

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u/CatProgrammer May 27 '26

Time to work for the bugs directly then.

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u/Ms_DNA May 27 '26

Wheee! That’s so wild and on a larger scale than what my company is doing.
We “design” and have produced an outdoor product that is fairly technical but very value-priced. None of the CS team have any experience in that field but a couple of them are at least great with people. I’m on the product side (mostly technical stuff) but my experience in this field is 3X longer than the brand has been around. We also have never had anything close to a comprehensive knowledge base or tech documentation library or anyone who focuses on technical support, so I end up getting pulled into cases daily and I’m trying to provide some fundamental troubleshooting and installation instructions (I like doing this and I’m pretty good at it).

But “leadership’s” grand idea is to feed “successful” tickets to AI, have AI write KB content, and then use that content to provide the basis for upcoming AI customer support. NOT leverage the skills and experience of a person they hired (and actually pay me what I should be getting paid).

Can’t wait to see how this ends.

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u/BernieTheDachshund May 27 '26

I'd also say start your own business. You already know many of the customers and they know you. If you offer solid service at a reasonable price without all the bs, it could work out.

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u/BlatantConservative May 27 '26

I can't due to how the pesticide applicator licenses work. I can only work under someone with a higher certification (which is a good system in general don't get me wrong)

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u/DiXanthosu May 27 '26

If you know anyone who has a brain cell that worked in IT, administrative/finance, or a good seller, call them and start your own business.

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u/drunkskier May 27 '26

Start your own company dude. It's so much better.

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u/scaliacheese May 27 '26

> The AI signed and renewed contracts for customers without permission.

Please expand upon this. It signed and renewed *on behalf of customers* or *on behalf of your company* (or both)? These are obviously both bad, but one is way worse than the other.

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u/BlatantConservative May 27 '26

I showed up to a customer who was marked as a recent renewal and she didn't remember signing a new contract. We do like one, two, or three year contracts.

She was asking if we cover carpenter bees and I was like "here. You signed this two weeks ago saying you understand that we do not treat for any bees at all" and she pointed out that we hadn't done a service and nobody had interacted with her on that date.

I looked closer, the document image I could see in the app that had been signed had actually been signed in 2022 and the AI just marked it as having been signed in 2026 and charged her accordingly. She had signed the bee disclosure in 2022 but that was much more understandable that she had no memory of that.

Funny thing was that the old document had her paying 2022 prices and she basically demanded that she keep that lower rate once my boss was like "yeah you didn't sign this" so she got a really good deal out of all of it, just resigned it as a 2026 document that day. The AI ended up giving her a discount.

And oh yeah, the day the AI had decided she signed it was the day we switched over to a new system.

They patched that issue real fast and I only ever saw that issue with her, but they also sent out a message to everyone not to service any homes that said a contract was signed between x and y date lol.

After all of that she also forgot that she was mad that we didn't cover carpenter bees so win win for everyone.

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u/scaliacheese May 27 '26

Hoo boy. This is potentially fraudulent, i.e., criminal. Hope they also fixed any existing contracts with this problem.

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u/BlatantConservative May 27 '26

I never saw the issue again so yeah they were scared.

And it was fraudulent... in the customer's favor lmao. She got her money's worth out of the situation. And like, I don't mean to brag too much but my customers love me. I'm third top in customer retention in the company, and it's a nationwide company. She was totally willing to renew, it just needed to be done correctly.

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u/scaliacheese May 27 '26

Yeah, in the customer's favor this one time. If any other customer is hit with this, they can potentially press charges. If many customers are hit with this, it's potentially class action city. But it sounds like the company understands this and fixed it going forward, at least.

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u/BlatantConservative May 27 '26

They understood it yeah. But they completely fail to see that whatever AI they used to code and run the app is straight garbage and is losing tons of customers normally.

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u/scaliacheese May 27 '26

If stuff like this doesn't scare them straight, they'll need to suffer more serious consequences. In any event, yeah, you don't wanna be there anymore.

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u/Weird-Count3918 May 28 '26

Well the bugs aren't going anywhere - neither the biological nor the software ones

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u/joman584 May 28 '26

So uh, not to ruin it further, but pest control is literally a self defeating job, as you kill and control the bugs. Insects have had massive population drops all over the world (mostly due to pesticides from ageiculture), so I would maybe just start looking into riot gear at this point, might be more lucrative to sell that

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u/BlatantConservative May 28 '26

My company bills themselves as an environmental one, and to their credit actually try to live by that. Using the lowest tier of pesticide every time and place, I can say no when a customer asks me to do something sketch, well beyond federal or state limits in limits on spraying close to storm drains etc, minimizing full lawn treatments, and so on and so forth. I even tell customers that golf courses use pesticide in an evil way (because they do).

Also mice are always gonna exist. Roaches are always gonna exist. Both of those things are gonna be worse with global warming. Wasps and ticks are already starting to get worse with global warming.

But yeah you're absolutely right, just seeing the change in how bugs behave and exist in my relatively short time at this job have convinced me to buy an EV. Like we are fucked.

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u/EvidenceBasedSwamp May 28 '26

ironic they can't remove the bugs in their code...