T-Mobile is making a nine-figure bet on AI customer service

The carrier is investing $100 million in an OpenAI-powered customer-service solution.

11/5/24 2:37PM

One of the bigger questions to emerge since ChatGPT was launched two years ago is which jobs will be most quickly replaced by generative AI. Two years later, one of the front-runners appears to be customer service. This year, we’ve seen more and more stories of companies increasingly turning to AI for customer-service solutions, such as Klarna’s AI assistant handling two-thirds of its customer-service chats in February 2024. On Monday, The Information reported that T-Mobile was shelling out $100 million to OpenAI over the next three years to build out “the first intent-driven AI-decisioning platform of its kind”: IntentCX. (The news of this deal broke in September, but the price tag wasn’t reported until this week).

According to T-Mobile, today’s customer-service options are limited because they “are rules-based and work from a finite set of data, and a fixed library of customer treatment options.” As such, “they can only offer an educated guess at the solution for a customer, and then have limited ability to actually take action.”

T-Mobile is training IntentCX on “billions” of data points from customer interactions, and because it will be integrated into T-Mobile’s operations and transaction systems, it will be able to take actions for customers.

While T-Mobile doesn’t explicitly say that it’s looking to replace customer-service representatives with artificial intelligence, it certainly implies that human contact soon won’t be needed for a lot of tasks:

“Proactive Action: IntentCX will connect directly to T-Mobile’s transaction and care systems, to preemptively identify and address customer needs and, where needed, execute tasks autonomously with customer permission. Not just AI-summarized information, but actual solutions.
Real-time decisioning: If a customer contacts T-Mobile about an issue with T-Mobile’s network or service, IntentCX will analyze T-Mobile’s network and service data in real-time and provide a solution that’s appropriate to the moment. This is an unprecedented approach to customer journey management.”

And T-Mobile may look to sell its customer-service software to other companies, too.

“Eventually, this technology could also offer other customer-obsessed companies worldwide the same opportunity to transform their approach to customer engagement, as the technology and business processes being created by this partnership have broad applications across customer-serving industries.”

A couple of thoughts here. First, this is a huge deal for OpenAI. The Information noted that this is one of the largest contracts the company has landed with an enterprise customer so far. If IntentCX is deemed a success, other companies could follow T-Mobile’s lead in 2025, benefiting OpenAI’s top line.

However, more broadly, T-Mobile’s investment marks a shift in how the world is thinking about customer service. T-Mobile is a $263 billion company, not a startup experimenting with different AI tools. If it has decided that AI customer service that automates many customer interactions is worth a $100 million investment, it’s safe to say that other large companies are probably considering automating their customer-service solutions, too, meaning that the days of talking to human representatives about your tech issues might be numbered.

Max Knoblauch19h

The Trump administration is reportedly planning a 50% made-in-America requirement for USMCA tariff relief

Qualifying for USMCA-related lower tariffs may soon require more US-made vehicle components, according to reporting by The Wall Street Journal.

The Trump administration is reportedly planning to introduce a 50% US content requirement for vehicles covered by the trade pact to receive lower tariffs. The content would be measured by cost, according to the WSJ.

There currently isn’t any US-specific requirement for those lower tariff rates, but in order to receive preferential tariffs, vehicles are must contain at least 75% regional content (components made in North America). Per Reuters reporting, the Trump admin is seeking to raise the regional requirement to 82%.

These reported plans are subject to change as the US negotiates USMCA terms with Mexico over the next few months.

Overall, Tesla will likely have the easiest time qualifying for any stricter requirements. The automaker’s vehicles contained the highest amount of US/Canadian content in 2025, according to American University research. Ford, GM, and Stellantis all scored lower.

Notably: the underlying government data that many domestic content measurements rely on intentionally combines US and Canadian components, so it’s difficult to know exactly how much of any given vehicle is specifically US-made.

Exclusive | Trump Administration Wants Autos Under USMCA to Be at Least 50% Made in America

These reported plans are subject to change as the US negotiates USMCA terms with Mexico over the next few months.

Tom Jones5/29/26

The $640,000 Luce makes the average Ferrari look like a bargain

Put aside the shape; put aside the smoothing out of Ferrari’s iconic sharp edges; put aside, even, the calls from former Chairman and President Luca Cordero di Montezemolo to “take the Prancing Horse off.” On the grounds of price alone, Luce detractors might have a point.

By now, many of us will have read the criticisms of Ferrari’s first fully electric vehicle, as the Luce — which was unveiled to the world earlier this week and promptly saw the company’s shares crash out in New York and Milan — gets subtly shaded by competitors online and not-so-subtly shaded by basically everyone else.

What makes all of this worse for Ferrari is that, even by the luxury car maker’s notoriously high standards, they’ve slapped a pretty hefty price tag on the Luce, and the company’s CEO, Benedetto Vigna, has already been forced to defend the €550,000 ($640,000) price point, saying yesterday that it’s “fair to pay for innovation,” per Reuters.

While Ferrari’s cars have been getting more expensive of late, as recently as 2022, Ferrari’s average revenue per car sold was around $340,000. At nearly twice that price, this new electric model is obviously proving a little much (visually, conceptually, and financially) for many loyal and long-standing fans of the Prancing Horse to stomach.