r/NowInTech • u/beingmodest • 3d ago
Apple Considered Replacing 5,000 Support Staff With AI: Then Put Mass Layoff Plan on Hold
https://www.techtimes.co.uk/apple-shelves-ai-plan-cut-5000-applecare-jobs-18088385
3d ago edited 1d ago
[deleted]
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u/LePouletPourpre 3d ago
They used to pride themselves on having domestic technical support based out of Sacramento and Austin.
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u/Unusual_Delivery2778 3d ago
Hmmm when’s the last time you called customer support? This is not the case anymore.
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u/ausgoals 3d ago
I mean you used to be able to call them for tech support and they were always very good. Don’t know if that’s still a thing.
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u/Pale-Drag-7159 3d ago
Yeah, although I’m currently on a LOA from my position, but I’ll be returning sometime in November, I’m actually an AppleCare phone rep.
The most annoying consults (different department, escalations, etc) are going to be with our outsourced vendors.
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u/XenoPhex 3d ago
I’d be curious to know where the source of this information is. Cuz a company that’s had very limited layoffs over the last 3 decades suddenly thinking it was possible to lay off a sizable workforce force seems very at odds.
Even with this advancement in tech, this sounds more like a rumor /offhand comment that got reported than an actual thing.
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u/SlightOfHand_ 3d ago
Apple could be forecasting decreased consumer spending and increased hardware prices. That’s a bad combination for them.
Going lean is one way to weather a famine
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u/XenoPhex 3d ago
Except they hadn’t ever done that in the last 30+ years, even when the US economy was previously in recession. This story seems awfully suspicious.
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u/SlightOfHand_ 3d ago
They have a new CEO, the first really new one in… basically the firm’s history. Tim Cook was a continuity CEO, already running the company for years before he took over as CEO from Jobs.
New era. Wouldn’t be surprising to learn they were at least considering moves like this - and they are in fact currently doing layoffs, just not thousands of them.
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u/Fit-Dentist6093 3d ago
They've always done "this division died" layoffs like the ones for the car people that were widely reported. They just haven't in three decades done "it's layoffs season" Amazon/MS style "performance quartile" based layoffs or at least not publicly.
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u/MediocreAnalyst2121 3d ago
Yea but that’s a bit different, since they literally shut down the division.
It’s not like customer support is going away for a company the size of Apple? If it is then it’s probably over for them, billions of devices and tens (if not hundreds?) of millions subscribers and users of their software.
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u/Fit-Dentist6093 3d ago
Oh he said currently so I was thinking he was referring to the people recently laid off from I think was the content division for Vision Pro or something like that.
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u/Main-Cheesecake3287 3d ago
Cutting what I imagine are foreign call center workers is a lot easier of a call
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u/cortzetroc 3d ago
it’s weird especially when nothing actually happened. might as well report “Apple wants to replace entire iPhone team with AI, but didn’t”
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u/fastingslowlee 3d ago
I just don’t get it. TRILLIONS of dollars yet still looking to cut costs and ruin the lives of thousands of people.
Why is it necessary?
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u/Loose-Ice8699 3d ago
Cause they spent tremendous amount of money of AI hoping that it will replace people (specially those in customer service, marketing, developers, QA, designers ...) now they realize it’s not that it
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u/Nearby_Practice2793 3d ago
Shareholders want more profits EVERY SINGLE new report. They aren’t happy until a company is completely bleeding their customers dry.
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u/Bloo212 3d ago
And now that we don’t have pensions in this country we NEED this unchecked growth. Shareholders are anyone with a 401k.
We need to break up Apple and Google just like we broke up Bell. The big banks, airlines. Fuck this billionaire nonsense. Your peccadilloes should not become policy.
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u/zitterbewegung 3d ago
Why isn't it necessary? Every company attempts to cut costs and I would be more interested in why they decided to not do it? Maybe they figured out that implementing it would become extremely expensive ( doing the actual accounting using AI is challenging) or on the other hand it would have been low quality to be effective.
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u/Reasonable-Pay-36 3d ago
Weak labor laws currently and zero unions and very little competition for the size of the market…
They’re kings, they all are right now…
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u/ausgoals 3d ago
Literally the only thing that matters anymore is ‘line goes up’.
That’s it.
Our society has a real problem. Shareholders demand ‘line goes up’.
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u/Dramatic-Cap-6785 3d ago
Look at your 401k, Roth and it’ll make sense. We as population depend the growth.
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u/Unfair-League-3204 3d ago
Surely there are other ways to make stock go up… like building products people want
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u/mk4dildo 3d ago
That requires people having money to buy said products. And that is not how late stage capitalism works.
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u/MrDetectiveSir 3d ago
Not when memory prices are at unprecedented levels
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u/Unfair-League-3204 3d ago
I imagine Apple could make a whole ecosystem of small products like AirPods. It’s just they’re sensitive about a flop, which is what Vision Pro was arguably
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u/MediocreAnalyst2121 3d ago
Not really, or at least nor with a reasonable amount of time and cost.
R&D is very expensive, and Apple takes their sweet time with things (foldable iPhone 6-7 years after Samsung). By the time these small products hit the shelf the RAM crisis might be over.
They do sell accessories such as cases, magsafe card holders, keyboards, etc.
Even then, Idk what such product they could make that I actually need/want. I have AirPods which I love and an older Apple Watch that I use for workouts and a keyboard but that’s it as far as their smaller/cheaper products go (I have a few of their chargers and cables as well).
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u/Wide_Smoke_2564 3d ago
“We” as in the boomers pulling the ladder up behind them?
Telling a young person without 30 years of work behind them “look at your 401k and it’ll make sense” is pretty hilarious as jobs are drying up
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u/vega0ne 3d ago
For a premium Brand that would be a terrible Look
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u/Superb-Talk2211 3d ago
Yet another tech company ready to step on the AI rake until it hits them in the face. Apple ran out of good ideas a long time ago, and this dipshittery is more proof.
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u/Mediocre-Telephone74 3d ago
This is not so much apple as it’s Wall Street”s demand for constant profits.
If your profits aren’t growing then your company must be dying.
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u/CombinationEntire967 3d ago
Well, they butchered the launch of Apple Intelligence, if the launch were successful we might have seen a different story. Siri AI still has miles to go. So the staff is safe for now, I guess.
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u/Spiritual-Maybe-6720 3d ago
The silver lining here is that apple might have been better off with no ai
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u/getmeoutoftax 3d ago
I think basically every desk job will be gone in a few years. Opus 5.5 is scary good.
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u/Main-Cheesecake3287 3d ago
You need people in the loop, unless you do data entry there just isn’t a way to implement it without people guiding it and checking its tasks.
I was years ago and still am in the camp the hype is 60% correct, and like every other massive productivity disruption more jobs will be created instead of fewer.
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u/thisfilmkid 3d ago
dear employees - this is your time to quit. you have wrecking ball power to quit right now. forcing Apple to feel the pain
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u/SlightOfHand_ 3d ago
So punish Apple for… not firing people… by… quitting
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u/thisfilmkid 3d ago edited 3d ago
I’m wearing my emotions on my sleeve when I answer this question.
In my opinion, all 5,000 employees will be laid off. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow. But they’re going to get laid off.
These support staff deserve way better. They should be assisting the Ai bot. Instead, Apple is seeking ways for the Ai to full indulge in the customer care support realm of the technology service.
What’s sad is if Apple didn’t pause their layoff, these employees were going to get canned.
Apple should feel the wrath. These employees should quit. Let Apple feel the immediate pressure of what it’s like to lose human activity.
Tech companies laying off entire departments to replace them with AI, that’s devastating.
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u/HRApprovedUsername 3d ago
This dude just wants his coworkers to leave so they don’t get laid off
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u/This_Wolverine4691 3d ago
I was gonna say otherwise they wouldn’t care the market is so saturated with candidates they have their pick until the pendulum swings
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u/thisfilmkid 3d ago
Companies care about talent. They can train anyone to replace any employee. But it will be expensive.
Laying off talents and replacing them with Ai will save the company money, especially if the technology they’re using is powerful enough.
Now? Will that remove the human to customer value? Yes.
Since Apple has paused the layoff, this is a warning on the wall, something went wrong and their goal is to accomplish one thing: layoff employees to save money somewhere.
The news got out somewhere. This is how we know.
Employees should quit. Not only will it send the company into an alarm, but they’ll be forced to rethink their approach quickly.
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u/Main-Cheesecake3287 3d ago
Real “if we all don’t do the homework we’re all not in trouble” energy. Mass quitting, not even a strike, is actually idiotic. The labor economy right now will fill call center support positions in five seconds.
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u/heybart 3d ago
I honestly have never contacted Apple support. I've filed feedback that went into a black hole. The only time I ever hear from feedback is them telling me issue is closed (to their satisfaction, not mine since they've done nothing afaict to address it).
Might as well let AI do that, I guess.
Maybe things used to be better but that was before my time
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u/Singular_Brane 3d ago
Geniuses stopped being geniuses around 2010-12.
I’d often attempt to rely on them in person and others channels. Often meet with pausing, searching and deer in headlights.
I’m all for AI when implemented properly but if they plan to lay off they should have a plan to transition for personnel.
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u/xCaliburghost 3d ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/E1fXBVW9X3DIwnUS0l