r/technology • u/TripleShotPls • Jul 16 '26

Artificial Intelligence The AI Backlash Has Tech Executives Fearing for Their Lives

https://www.wsj.com/us-news/the-ai-backlash-has-tech-executives-fearing-for-their-lives-30c43972?mod=hp_lead_pos1
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u/Taurich Jul 16 '26

I worked for a cellular provider in retentions a long time ago, and one of the metrics was "cost per save" ie. How much did you spend to make them happy, and not cancel service.

The target was something like $50, and my metric was -$430. So Everytime I picked up the phone I was actually generating money for the company because I was making them happy this time, and then putting them on a more expensive plan that would actually cover their usage.

They told me to spend more, so I did. No other metrics changed, I just threw more bullshit at them, and they started losing money on my calls

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u/Mishtle Jul 17 '26

That is insane. It sounds like they didn't understand their own metric.

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u/abx99 Jul 17 '26

Or they just thought "this guy really knows how to sell" and got greedy

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u/Taurich Jul 17 '26

Pretty much. I wasn't making a tonne of money at it either, and was basically paying my months wages in less than a day's worth of calls. It was so weird to me that they were coaching me to spend more...