#employeerelations

Verizon Replacing Its Customer Service Personnel With AI Has Turned Live Chat Queries Into Low-Quality ChatGPT-Like Replies, Enraging Customers -- Omar Sohail
Jun 5, 2026 at 11:52am EDT.

Companies will eventually replace humans carrying out what they believe to be menial tasks with AI, and U.S. carriers are no exception, with their Live Chat department now being handled with chatbots that are providing less-than-useful replies to customers. In fact, a regular user of ChatGPT likely noticed that Verizon’s own service is providing similar low-quality responses, tarnishing the company’s reputation while also impacting the experience for millions.

Knowing the technical mistakes that AI can make, Verizon should only completely replace its Live Chat service after properly training its models.

The AI’s responses being similar to ChatGPT’s were noticed by Redditor “Hot_Saguaro,” who says that Verizon wasn’t even hiding the fact that the chatbot was providing technical answers similar to OpenAI’s service. After attempting to ask why her iPad wasn’t connecting to the internet, a Verizon representative said it’s because her service address is still her old address. She immediately countered, saying that another customer living in the same block was facing the same problem.

Verizon CEO Dan Schulman has previously stated that the company will focus more on customer service to boost the experience than shell out promotions, but it appears that the Chief Executive’s efforts have fallen short.

As expected in the Reddit thread, people were not thrilled with Verizon’s direction of replacing humans with AI, with a former employee saying that “one of our selling points was that we didn’t offshore call centers. It’s gone so downhill from when I used to work there.” It’s only appropriate that Verizon holds off on completely replacing its Live Chat with AI until it has properly trained its model to handle customer queries properly.

Simply integrating its service with ChatGPT won’t win the company any awards, especially when AI can make a boatload of technical mistakes that will be pointed out by users who are even slightly knowledgeable about carriers and their network’s functionality.

https://wccftech.com/verizon-replacing-humans-with-ai-for-live-chat-is-lowering-response-quality/

Does anyone have recommendations for a reliable moving company with minimal damage? We are planning to box up most of our home goods but will will need help loading and unloading heavy furniture and large boxes. We are prepping for a mid-summer move. Any known discounts would be a plus.

I notice that the losers from Integrated Services haven’t updated their profiles with their new titles. Aren’t they proud to be working at the intersection Ford and unemployment?

Our manager explained to his team leads that the only reason he still has a job is the director knows if he removed the manager he will have to manage the team leads and direct reports. The manager also shared that he owes management a breakdown of his reports workloads and knowledge transfer requirements for those workloads to overseas teams.

“The way I see it is if you want a rainbow you gotta put up with the rain” - Dolly Parton

I am 52 and want to take VRP but not eligible for it. Anyone knows if HR would bridge 3 years and give me the package? It would be hard to stay 3 more years. I will lose more than 50% of my pension if I leave before 55.

EastTown MSP
6am?
5am?

Anyone ever had their bonus be $0 due to not working the full 8 hours in office on connect weeks?

Federal agents raided Wicked Superstore on June 2. The owner then announced indefinite layoffs for all staff. He stated he lacked funds to pay them for recent work. Former employees claimed no knowledge of illegal activities. The store had a history of numerous police calls and a homic--e.

Springfield, Missouri

https://sgfcitizen.org/government/crime/wicked-superstore-raided-employees/

Somerville Mayor Jake Wilson unveiled his proposed $394 million budget for fiscal year 2027. This plan aims to address an estimated $5.4 million financial shortfall. The budget includes a record investment increase for Somerville public schools. However, it also involved the layoff of 13 city staffers on May 22. Mayor Wilson described these staff reductions as "traumatic."

Somerville, Massachusetts

https://www.cambridgeday.com/2026/06/06/somerville-mayor-budget-layoffs/

And already some good deselections… who should go next ?

I am writing this to explain to the rest of Verizon about a pervasive and ongoing culture of discrimination, hostility, and bias within our workplace that directly violates standard conduct and zero-tolerance policies. Throughout my tenure, I have routinely witnessed and been subjected to an unsustainable environment where discussions surrounding race are treated contentiously and divisively. Furthermore, the workplace culture frequently involves highly offensive and inappropriate language, including racial slurs, antisemitic remarks, and derogatory comments targeted at various ethnic and cultural groups, specifically Black, Italian, Irish, Hispanic, and immigrant communities. This toxicity is further compounded by frequent misogynistic behavior and a fundamental lack of respect for employee dignity.

The persistence of this behavior is directly tied to the current management team, who have demonstrated a continuous failure to enforce company policies, address ongoing misconduct, or implement corrective actions. By refusing to intervene, leadership has effectively condoned a toxic workplace culture, damaging employee morale and exposing the organization to significant liability. Because the current management has shown they will not foster a safe, inclusive, and respectful environment, I request that higher leadership step in immediately. To resolve these systemic issues and ensure the safety and well-being of the staff, I strongly urge a formal review of the current management team, up to and including demotion or termination, alongside the immediate implementation of strict accountability measures.

NY CSSC Brooklyn. All the offices in NY.

when management only cares about checking the box and how fast they can get out of belle chasse instead of fixing the real issues morale tanks and the plant goes downhill.

I am put on a PIP. The second line manager is according to the HR message the evaluator. First line manager is supposed to support.
First line manager creates hard to achieves goals.
The normal thing would be that the second line manager gets his own opinion. However 1st says he is in charge and I have not directly reached out to 2nd line.

How others have experienced it.

The chatter surrounding Verizon's workforce changes has been a major point of anxiety and discussion across the company, especially following the major structural realignments that began late last year.
Here is what is currently happening on the ground and what is projected for July:
The July 16th Outlook
While Verizon's executive leadership has not issued a formal, public press release detailing a specific number of cuts for mid-summer, internal communications and widespread industry grapevine reports have consistently pointed to July 16, 2026 as the next major milestone date for localized headcount reductions and structural adjustments.
PhoneArena
Rather than a single, massive sweeping announcement, these upcoming cuts are tracking as part of a "rolling" optimization strategy. This next phase is expected to heavily tie into:
The "R2B" (Retail to Business / SMB) Shifts: Wholesale changes to Small and Medium Business sales structures are scheduled to fully take effect in July, leaving internal groups bracing for localized role eliminations or commission structure realignments.
Network & Field Engineering Pressure: Field operations have already taken massive hits over the last two quarters. Staffing discussions on internal forums indicate severe strain on the remaining field engineers, who are carrying an unprecedented number of cell sites per person to keep up with break/fix backlogs.
Reddit
The Broader Multi-Year Blueprint
The July activity isn't happening in a vacuum; it is the continuation of the aggressive cost-reduction mandate set by CEO Dan Schulman when he took the helm in October 2025.
Wireless Estimator
The Mandate: Achieve $5 billion in annual operating expense savings and reduce capital expenditure down to the $16–$16.5 billion range by the end of 2026.
Wireless Estimator
To put the current trajectory into perspective, the operational shifts follow a clear timeline:
Timeline Action / Focus Area Operational Impact
Q4 2025 The Initial Wave Verizon initiated the largest workforce reduction in its history, cutting over 13,000 corporate positions (roughly 13% of total headcount) and taking a $1.8 billion severance charge.
Early 2026 Outsourcing & Contracting Leadership aggressively squeezed third-party expenses, renegotiating cell tower construction vendor contracts well below 2021 pricing and moving heavily toward automated customer service tools.
Mid-2026 Retail Franchising & AI Shifts Ongoing transition of 180 to 200 corporate retail locations into outsourced franchise models, removing store employees from the direct payroll.
July 2026 & Beyond Rolling Departmental Audits Expected targeting of overlapping management layers, marketing, and the newly restructured SMB sales organizations. Total 2026 role impacts are projected to hit closer to 15,000 total roles as automation tools scale up.
The "Age of AI" Pivot
A significant piece of the narrative coming from the top floor is that these cuts are "inevitable" to free up capital for core 5G network innovation and subscriber acquisition to fight off T-Mobile and AT&T. Management has leaned heavily into framing these transitions as preparing for an "AI-first" operating model—even establishing a $20 million skill development fund for departing workers.
The HR Digest

• 1
  However, the internal reality remains incredibly challenging for the staff left behind, who are absorbing massive workloads, navigating altered corporate reporting structures, and managing the friction of a leaner, highly consolidated organization

Many companies who totally dependent on AI are realizing the true value of employees. Dan is doing continues layoffs just like anything... AI is much much costlier.

Because we are so short of manpower what a way to treat your people .

When? Plan to leave after!!!!

Any ideas?

What roles / departments are being targeted in the uk. Lots of muttering but no real facts. Any information is appreciated.

JPMorgan Chase is managing its workforce evolution in response to artificial intelligence. The bank plans to rely on natural attrition rather than implementing layoffs. CEO Jamie Dimon anticipates AI will eventually reduce the total number of jobs. The company intends to hire more AI specialists and fewer traditional bankers. This strategy allows for retraining and redeploying existing employees through natural turnover.

https://aimagazine.com/news/jpmorgans-workforce-strategy-attrition-over-layoffs

Layoffs are planned for the Chelan-Douglas Health District. This follows the chief administrator's departure last month. The public health department serves two counties. It manages child nutrition programs and vaccinations. The district also handles disease outbreaks for the Wenatchee Valley.

Wenatchee, WA

https://www.ncwlife.com/news/videos/layoffs-follow-health-agency-chiefs-resignation/video_53e0476a-e59b-51ea-85dc-d2064519150c.html

ESPN expects another round of layoffs. This follows its recent acquisition of NFL Network. The NFL gained a 10-percent interest in ESPN in the deal. The NFL Network purchase is a major factor in these upcoming job cuts. Both off-air and on-air employees are expected to be affected.

https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/rumor-mill/news/report-nfl-network-acquisition-will-spark-more-espn-layoffs

I've worked closely with a few core systems for years and always believed that made me valuable to Cisco. Recently I've watched people with deep knowledge get pushed aside during layoffs and it's changed the way a lot of us look at long term stability here. We still work hard, but there's definitely less confidence that loyalty or expertise will matter when decisions get made. So many of us have started looking. Loyalty has to be a two way street or it simply disappears.

Not a damn thing. No innovation. Horrible take on human capital. Stay away from these mushroom clouds

Q: How does it feel to be one of the ones who was LR harvested, whilst the Bread and Circuses of CiscoLive! commences?

A: It feels pretty sh£tty.

What a joke this all had been. To the old teammates who won't reply to texts, emails, or LinkedIn messaging...F-off, the lot of you.

No really, why?

Lots of posts deleted. Surely now everyone (employees, management, board, supply chain and peers) can see why bp has been a train wreck since Browne left. It’s culturally corrupt and that prevails everywhere. You can remove the cancer - it’s too late

Close contact in HR told me more RIFS definitely coming and oh, this will be an annual thing. Good luck to who remains.

In all the 20 years Ive worked here ne we felt so unstable or unappreciated. Dumpster fire !

Everyone quit your crying 😢 about RTO and get back to the office five days a week. If the complaints don’t stop you will required to work seven days a week on 12 hour shifts. Oh and no holidays off either!

Welcome to corporate America 🇺🇸!

Great line by NVIDIA CEO.

Truth is, Verizon should have many empty chairs then…

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/entrepreneursanctuary_jensen-huang-co-founded-nvidia-in-1993-and-activity-7453027411870371840-5DK2?

I just returned to work on 5/28 after being out on short term disability for a heart condition. Apparently I missed the mass video firing? I came back to see my supervisor and others in my team chat as "user unknown" Confused, I reached out to get some understanding of what I missed, I was ignored. So I clocked in and began my day. Member choice center btw. About 2 hours in, I received a meeting invite and was informed that my job was eliminated and was to clock out after the meeting. Which actually is fine because this job was soul su-king and I found something better. I do have a question about severance though. How long does it take to get severance and the email with info on that?

Alright, let's hear it! Comment below on the first week back under the new RTO mandate. People going from 3 to 4 days a week, how bad was it having that extra day and having 3x the amount of people around you all day? HBAs returning to office (myself included), was it as bad as you thought, worse or better? My personal opinion and observations were the following:

• Commutes: These are only 'tolerable' if you get there before 7 and leave before 3. Traffic is and always will su-k in a post covid world where everyone drives like they are either on me-h or sleeping pills.

• Collaboration: We have to sit around people we already work with (I work with cool people thank goodness). Zero difference in teamwork, communication etc other than talking over a cube wall instead of in a teams chat. The idea that being in person will "increase collaboration" is one of the biggest lies told to us. In fact, it seems that people are less likely to do any type of extra "collaborating" because everyone is tired, burnt out, and of patience. Another Fail for ELT. (put this L on the stack with the others)

-"Culture": Day one had lots of chatter and "summit energy" from associates seeing others they had not seen in years. This type of "energy" also can be found at Founders Day. Oh wait, PP ki-led that whole event with no explaination. By day 3 people appeared to be less "bubbly" and were more or less just focused on staying in their cubes, plugging the ears with a headset or ear buds, and counting down the hours until it was time to leave. Everyone looks tired and checked out. If EDJ had any brains, 2 days in office seems to be the sweet spot if you were going to have RTO and not make it fail horribly. But, these people are stupid and will never notice this. Also, for the folks that think HBA peeps are lazy because we are (or were) at home, please sit down and take your L. Lazy people in the office are no different than a lazy HBA. In office are actually worse about getting out of doing work because there is nobody watching them. HBAs always felt like they had to go above and beyond to stay off the radar.

• Productivity: This was the biggest fail of them all. The distractions of having people walking by my cube, the background noise, hearing other calls, and just general in office vibes. This is a horrible, outdated, beyond stupid way to complete non client/branch facing work. It is unbelievable how much less productive I was this week in office VS at home. The time it took to get day to day work done was increased due to having so many distractions. I made more errors this week than I have in years. Stupid errors from simply not being 100% locked in on the work I was doing.

• Leaders: The only leaders that seem to be enjoying this new RTO are the ones at or above DL. The ones who wear the sport coat/blazer every day. They have the talking points down, the fake persona like a politician, and generally walk around thinking they are Gods gift to this company as they figure out new and creative ways to break everything they touch. They don't even seem like real people and make zero effort to interact or have any personal relationship with the people under them, unless of course they need a new 'work around' created for a system tech failure. They stay in their clique` with the other 'jackets'. They seem almost completely detached from reality and have zero ability to "read the room".

Summary: I knew it would be bad, but this is much worse than I imagined now that I'm seeing it in real time. People that love WFH don't care if someone is in office, teams chat is yellow/away, or someone doesnt reply right away. We simply do not care and only focus on the job we are paid to do. Nothing else matters to us if the work is getting done correctly. The in office junkies (the ones who love RTO) seem to be nothing more than micro managing control freaks. They dont have enough to do and have major insecurities. They love being in the office and therefore everyone needs to be in the office to fill whatever mental void they have. These people are borderline psychopaths with the way they obsess over what their coworkers are doing. It's sick and childish when it comes down to it. The obsession with seeing bodies in the cubes and nothing more has to be one of the biggest fumbles and fails EDJ has ever done (next to layoffs and outsourcing). I'm generally curious at this point as to how much extra $ is wasted on these buildings to keep them functional VS when the company was fully remote for almost 4 years. It's going to be a very long summer.

Humana gives the bare ** minimum

Hi Wells Fargo friends,
I am with Edward Jones and here for some info & advice.

As a remote employee (not in St Louis), I feel that my days are numbered because Edward Jones put in place 4 day return to office.

As Wells has had return to office for longer, wondering how they had handled remote employees. Were all remote employees terminated? Did they run a survey to ask who would relocate and terminate those who said no? Or was there a different criteria?

I appreciate any insight you can share. My sense is Edward Jones will copy Wells and other industry peers in how they handle remote employees.

Republic National Distributing Company is laying off 689 workers in Grand Prairie. This information comes from a WARN Act listing. The company recently sold 11 locations to Reyes Beverage Group. Reyes Beverage Group hired over 5,200 former Republic employees. Republic National plans to lay off 1,903 employees in Texas overall.

Grand Prairie, Texas

https://www.star-telegram.com/news/business/fort-worth/article316006326.html

ESPN is reportedly preparing for another round of layoffs. On-camera talent are said to be at risk this time. ESPN previously laid off about 30 off-camera workers this spring. These reported layoffs follow the company's NFL Network acquisition. Cord-cutting and new expensive rights deals affect ESPN's operation.

https://awfulannouncing.com/espn/planning-layoffs-on-air-talent.html

You hit 40, they'll retire you.

CHK them Linkedin posts folks!

For whatever reason, they tried to sneak me into COBRA after my layoff. If I hadn't called to fight it I'd have had to may 800 something dollars. But for some messed up reason, they want to still make sure I pay something so I have a 300 something dollar bill (thank you useless offshore rep) that I have to once again fight.

Oh and the reps were all offshored. Man fu-k this place and its current leaders to he-l.

What the he-l is wrong with you kiss-a-s corporate boot-lickers?

Beth doesn't support families, women, disabled people, and those with extenuating circumstances with the RTO requirements that make FTO impossible. And to add insult to injury, the recent layoffs despite record stock prices and revenue...

Have some god-damn self respect for yourselves.

Or is that just me?