French Call-Center Firm Plunges on AI Replacement Concerns (2)

Teleperformance SE shares plunged Wednesday after a statement from Swedish fintech Klarna rekindled concern that artificial intelligence will hurt the French company’s call-center business.

Buy-now-pay-later lender Klarna said its AI assistant, powered by OpenAI, is doing the equivalent work of 700 full-time agents and has had 2.3 million conversations, equal to two-thirds of the company’s customer service chats, within the first month of being deployed. The AI tool resolved errands much faster and matched human levels on customer satisfaction, Klarna said.

Teleperformance shares fell as much as 29% in Paris trading, the steepest drop since November 2022, amid regular halts ...