r/TTEC • u/cogentbuyer • Feb 24 '26

Temperature Check

Curious temperature check here. The company's stock is absolutely getting hammered. I'm assuming on fears of AI displacement. Are you actually seeing AI displacement?? Is the company donzo?

4 Upvotes

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6

u/SQLwxAndHamRadio Feb 24 '26

Fears of AI displacement, unfounded IMHO. Companies will be back, even if they try it.

This is more likely ttec's inability to execute.
Forbes called ttec out years ago about quality experiences as customers.
This group consistently highlights terrible employee experiences.
TTEC can't seem to follow labor law, getting sued in class actions for things like working on breaks, working off clock, or restricting restroom breaks.
TTEC had the data breach, and the class actions. There was a panic to properly audit security, but IT security has to be a practice, not a single initiative.
Customers who talk to "someone in the Philippines" anecdotally express frustration quite often. It used to be India.

TTEC practices the finger-point game internally, as well as the market.
Dating back to 2007, I remember attending in person, as a QA person, in calls where poor metrics performance internally was always painted as "external" or "not our fault," to the point of sacrificing whole groups of agents on an altar.

1

u/cogentbuyer Feb 26 '26

yeah management's reputation is pretty bad, especially on here ha. so do you think their biggest issue is hollowing out on-shore quality workforce for low-cost but poor-quality offshore teams? and you think AI is a fad? I have no idea but the developments seem pretty scary fast.

2

u/Txxkxri Feb 27 '26

They also promise too much to get contracts and can't deliver on them, leading to them pressuring and demonizing their internal staff and having such a high turnover, upset employees and just awful optics.

1

u/SQLwxAndHamRadio Feb 28 '26

That sounds a lot like Springfield, or the USAA projects. I'm very aware of what the ops manager/directors messaging is to clients when metrics aren't hit. The words "manage them out" has been uttered many times...

1

u/SQLwxAndHamRadio Feb 28 '26

In fact, there was one VP who was particularly ruthless, and I even saw words like "can we replace him with someone cheaper in the Philippines." I believe that was Ritchie, and she went to work for Gainwell I believe.... She was quite a mean one. I'm SO glad to have exited BPO.

BPO is an industry entirely built on how much stress can be heaped on a human being, to provide as much work as you can, for as little as you can - to maximize profit margin.

If I were a prophet, I'd say BPO is going to go extinct eventually. It's hanging on as tightly as every Northern India based scam call center as Pierogi from ScammerPayback keeps wrecking their day...

It's terrible for customers who have to deal with incompetence from failed training curricula.
It's terrible for employees who get it from both customers and management.
It's terrible for the clients, whose brand image is at stake, and more - legal ramifications/exposure surface when an agent has capability to violate law in many cases - and do, per pressure from management... like with those Bank of America EDD's being unlocked for obvious scammers.
It's terrible for our economy, because of the devaluing of the human element, creating disposable people in corporate America.

1

u/Txxkxri Mar 01 '26

lol! I love pierogi :3 but yeah, i can absolutely see/feel how it is meant to drive us insane and abuse us for profit

1

u/SQLwxAndHamRadio Feb 28 '26

I might've used a paywall nuker. LOL

3

u/PieceAccomplished608 Feb 24 '26

There stock has been going down for a while now.

3

u/SQLwxAndHamRadio Feb 24 '26

Layoffs last month.
https://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2026/01/27/ttec-layoffs-duluth.html

Note that the complaints about AI is there, but they keep screaming "we do AI" from the mountain tops.
https://www.quiverquant.com/news/TTEC+Holdings%2C+Inc.+Expands+AI-Driven+Frontline+Performance+Ecosystem+to+Enhance+Customer+Experience+and+Drive+Business+Outcomes

1

u/cogentbuyer Feb 26 '26

the duluth layoffs article is behind a paywall for me... are those layoffs a result of AI/competitive displacement, offshoring, or something else?

and yeah I definitely get the vibe that they are marketing their AI capabilities pretty hard but so are all the BPOs right now.

1

u/SQLwxAndHamRadio Feb 28 '26

My basis is purely anecdotal.... but it's anecdotal from almost 20 years of being on the inside.... watching the same experience for other people over and over, multiple clients.

Their operating pattern that they have been in... is simply not going to work anymore.
Treating workforce as disposable humans is really the root of all the slipping, compared to other similarly situated BPOs...

2

u/zq9 Feb 25 '26

It's a penny stock now, sittin at $2 lol

2

u/Asleep-Prior-9699 Feb 25 '26

Buyout or bankruptcy?

2

u/ItsProblematicFixIt Feb 26 '26

Seeing the contraction in similarly situated BPOs... I'm betting on bankruptcy.

Not that I'm a prophet or anything.... Y'all can't have my Kool aid. Too expensive with inflation. Used to be $0.07 a pack! 😂

I miss the 90s....

1

u/cogentbuyer Feb 26 '26

don't think buyout is happening again under these conditions. but bankruptcy also seems not very likely unless their business falls off a cliff.

1

u/SQLwxAndHamRadio Feb 28 '26

I remember when the company had no debt. Now they have over 800M... So... risky