20VC: NVIDIA Bonanza: Buys Poolside & Invests in Mercor and Perplexity | Anthropic's $30TRN Revenue Assumption & OpenAI Confirms IPO | Why Customer Service, Defence and Robotics are Overinflated

Your team might be looking at AI to cut customer service costs. Be careful. The promise of fully automated support is a mirage right now. Chasing it will likely lead to wasted money and frustrated customers, not the savings you expect. The real gains from AI in customer service are much narrower, focused on specific tasks that help your human agents work faster, not replace them entirely. Most teams get this backwards, aiming for full replacement too soon.

This caution is echoed by venture capitalists on the 20VC podcast. They name customer service as one of "AI's Biggest Bubbles," alongside defense and robotics. The discussion suggests that while the long-term potential is real, the immediate expectations for AI in these areas are overinflated. This means the money you spend now might not deliver the quick wins many are predicting.