Call centre stocks fall on fear AI makes them ‘uninvestible’

The big worry among investors is that call centre business models will struggle to compete against cheaper and faster AI systems. Photo by Allen McInnis/MONTREAL GAZETTE

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Signs that companies are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence to handle customer service tasks has triggered a fresh selloff in shares of two call-centre companies.

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Concentrix Corp. and Teleperformance SE fell sharply on Tuesday. The losses started after Concentrix cut its revenue outlook and warned that some of its customers are cutting back spending, exacerbating worries among analysts that the industry faces a severe threat from new artificial intelligence tools.

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“Too many investors see the sub-sector as uninvestable,” wrote RBC Capital Markets analyst Karl Green. “The biggest negative in our view is the comment that some clients have simply withdrawn customer support altogether in some areas.”

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Concentrix sank as much as 24 per cent in early trading in New York. French firm Teleperformance tumbled as much as 16 per cent to the lowest levels in more than a decade.

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Concentrix lowered the mid-point of its fiscal 2026 revenue outlook range by about US$130 million. As well, executives on a post-earnings conference call flagged several scenarios where its clients ended up cutting down on call centre spending. Some of them are moving works offshore to cut costs at a faster pace. Others may decide to ditch support for some high-cost markets at all, according to chief executive Chris Caldwell.

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“We are definitely seeing increased financial pressure on our clients as they try and cope with their own investment needs and their current operating environments,” Caldwell said.

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Both stocks have been swept up in a broader selloff in software and business services stocks this year. The big worry among investors is that their business models will struggle to compete against cheaper and faster AI systems, and customers are putting a bigger portion of IT budgets to firms like OpenAI and Anthropic.

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“Concentrix reinforced concerns that AI is shrinking demand for its core customer-experience outsourcing business faster than higher-value AI services are expanding,” said Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Tamlin Bason.

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Concentrix operates in 483 locations in 74 countries. More than 160 of Fortune Global 500 companies used its services as of end-November, according to its latest annual report.

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—With assistance from Rainier Harris.

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