Teleperformance: Buoyed by exploits of fintech Klarna’s AI tool, Teleperformance dives into stock market

(BFM Bourse) – The call center specialist weighed on the Paris stock exchange, with the market worried about the consequences on activity of the rise of Klarna’s AI tool that has created 700 full-time equivalents in a month.

A new warning shot for teleperformance in the stock market. The outsourced customer relations specialist plunged 25% at the end of Wednesday morning and was suspended for ten minutes due to a large flow of sell orders.

According to the financial intermediary, the call center group’s plunge is linked to several articles reporting the prowess of an artificial intelligence (AI) tool developed by Swedish fintech Klarna.

In a press release, the Scandinavian company announced the achievements of its AI assistant, which is the result of a partnership with ChatGPT’s parent company OpenAI.

Klarna claims the assistant has 2.3 million conversations a month, representing two-thirds of the company’s customer relationship interactions. She also estimates that these assistants employ 700 full-time equivalents.

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Additional profit of 40 million dollars

In addition, this assistant is “on par with human agents when it comes to customer satisfaction rates” and “is more accurate in solving tasks, which has led to a 25% reduction in repeat requests”, explained the Swedish company. Klarna estimates that this support will enable it to generate additional profits of $40 million in 2024.

Contacted by BFM Bourse, Teleperformance was not immediately available for comment.

Klarna’s ads refuel fears about teleperformance. Throughout 2023, the group’s stock suffered from market concerns about the impact of generative artificial intelligence on its business. If the company asserts that it will benefit from advances in AI, for example, through increased productivity, investors for their part fear upheaval, and some analysts have warned of the risk of increased pressure on prices for relationship services clients.

“We believe that large-scale automation could result in a turbulent operating environment and strong price pressures in the medium term, leading to significantly slower revenue growth and lower profitability for teleperformance compared to the last decade”, predicts, for example, Deutsche Bank in October .

Teleperformance will deliver its annual results as well as a strategic update on March 6.

Julian Marion – ©2024 BFM Bourse