Anyone have an insight regarding VCG? Customer service is going through training to become universal reps, our jobs are now ai and outsourced. My supervisor is extremely paranoid about everything! This makes our team feel like something is up.
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Basically the Customer Experience side of US Customer Service is now being trained in as Technical Support. My buddy on the Retention side says the only calls they get now are abusive credit seekers or escalations due to PSOs telling the customer they're crediting the account or adding recurring credits, but they do not do it. They said the PSOs even remark it and send texts to the customers, but leadership doesn't really care since they're not the ones getting crapped on every day.
Good luck CS and Tech
We still have customer care reps and tech support based in this country? Wow! Who knew.
@b1 remeber, dan outsources romantic poems to ai. he also probably outsources hard-onz to a strap on
@c2 About whether it is people with final written warnings, lower wages then tenured tech reps that will get laid off first?
I think higher wages would be first to go if cost reduction is the goal. But realistically, if you have a heartbeat, you are in the layoff lottery pool to be replaced by AI. Dan didn't stutter when he said it. He was quite proud to announce it in every interview.
Colonel Steve Austin may get an exemption for obvious reasons.
The goal is AI bots will handle the majority customer inquiries. They are going to reduce PSO by a lot. Internal is going to be last line of defense.
As someone previously stated the agentic bots are not assisting at all and the PSO has to hire. The agentic Google IVR is complete sh-t and sending calls all over the place, which is complicating the customer experience.
@be This is my question. I understand to be prepared for anything.
@ab When the many who are hired finish training the beast, there will be a Hunger games competition to determine the few that will remain and have the honor of caring for the beast they created. So sayeth the AI Dan, so let it be done.
So just to get this straight, coming up there is a layoff for customer service and tech support? Is it people with final written warnings or lower wages then tenured tech reps?
Wireline has tried to unionize wireless for years and couldn’t get it over the goal line things would be very different if they had a real shame for all of us workers
So, using round numbers, 100 people are hired for a certain position but aren't told the real position is to train AI. Or maybe they are. If anyone asks, they are told that being skilled at training AI is preparing them for the future job market. The skill needed to train AI is the ability to do your job while AI watches over your shoulder.
AI "learns" by watching the 100 learn and noting how they respond to every known situation they may encounter.
Then it determines why 100 people responded to the same variable in different ways and it will determine the best response through an evaluation of all responses.
It will be limited to corp policy so it will know when someone has strayed and "should" avoid that path.
Once it has locked in, 90 out of 100 humans are useless to it.
10 are needed to cover the random unexpected variables that AI wasn't able to discern a response to "I'm sorry, I don't know how to help you with that question" (Because it has watched anyone respond to that question... yet... but it will and it will get better each time)
I thought this had already started but when no one used AI at the level needed, they moved the jobs offshore and people in another country thought they had new customer service careers not realizing they were only hired to train AI and then get laid off themselves in a few months. The backlash was covered by a few news agencies a few months ago.
As a real world example of what I am describing, my friend, who works in the medical field, was excited about a new opportunity they were offered to train AI.
They spent the last ten years getting education, training, degrees, certifications and licenses to perform their function in any hospital.
After a few interviews, the details of the opportunity were fully revealed and they called me saying how upset and disappointed they were at what they were told.
This opportunity was to:
- Log onto a system that would simulate an actual patient interaction.
- There would be simulations to mimic almost every possible patient experience.
3: They would diagnose and treat each simulated patient exactly as they would if they were real and sitting in front of them. - AI would silently watch every patient interaction and learn
- It would not only be watching my friend, it would watch everyone that accepted the offer.
- The job was temporary and almost everyone would be let go in 6 months to a year after AI was able to operate effectively.
- For each hospital that signs on to use this new groundbreaking technology that mimics what real people have done for years but without the added cost of benefits, vacation, sick time, maternity leave, office space, severance, etc. most humans that have educated and trained for years to do this work will be laid off.
My friend declined the offer and decided to wait until AI comes for their job.
They figure, at best, they may have an additional 6 months to a year to prepare. But what they have found is that almost every field has the same story right now.
They could do physical labor of some type if they were a young physically fit person.
So what do you tell someone who is mid 50's, health starting to decline, to young to retire and not much of a retirement package anyhow because it took years to get into a career that offered one and thought they had another 10-20 years to catch up?
At 50+, a lot of people will be SOL trying to find another job unless they lift 40-50lbs throughout the day and are technically incline at using tools and even then only an id--t thinks ageism isn't a factor.
Remember, in an April 19, 2026 interview with the WSJ, Dan predicted that AI could drive U.S. unemployment up to 20%–30% within the next two to five years.
The percentage of unemployment during the Great Depression? 24.9%-25%
On April 26, 2026 Senator Bernie responded with "When the CEO of Verizon predicts AI & robotics could lead to 20%-30% unemployment within the next few years, we may want to take notice" and "We're not prepared for it economically or socially."
It stinks but it is what it is.
It is a fact and it has been well documented.
Upvote if you recognize that this is the truth and you are aware even if it su-ks.
Downvote if you live in denial of the undisputed facts so we will know how well the brainwashing campaign of reskilling for AI has worked for Verizon.
Downvote by default is expected from most managers and executives
Keep in mind, Verizon invested $20 million into reskilling for AI.
To put that into perspective, in 2025-2026, Verizon has paid out or faced cumulative major fines, class-action distributions, and regulatory/legal penalties totaling roughly $154.6 million.
Again, all publicly available facts for those in denial. Look it up.
PSO agents are being moved to universal as well. Eventually it'll be AI bot in IVR and some universal agents from PSO. Good news is call volumes are higher than expected and the AI isnt handling the calls as well as anticipated... so PSO has to increase agent headcount. What that means is internal is probably safe for another 6 months to a year. Advice for any internal CS or Tech, have your resume ready, plan out your finances, don't go crazy spending money. Save save save, the job market is not great and getting worse. Pay off anything you can the next 6 months. Don't say no one gave you a heads up.
I’m concerned as well! But why train all reps only to lay them off?
Pack your bags if your not union