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Teneo.ai

Persona Briefing

For the CFO

As your regulatory team has likely flagged, the FCC NPRM on call center onshoring will materially change the contact center P&L. Here is the operating-model angle they may not have brought you yet.

Get the financial scenario walk-through

15 minutes on the numbers. No pitch.
01

RELEVANCE

Why this is nowa CFO conversation

The FCC adopted NPRM 26-16 on March 26, with comments due May 26 and reply comments June 22. Final rules are 12 to 18 months out. Your regulatory affairs team has almost certainly flagged the rule and its compliance posture.
What may not have made it to your desk yet is the operating-model decision behind the regulatory response. The carriers we are seeing move fastest are not waiting for the final rule — they are running the relocate-vs-automate-vs-hybrid analysis now, because that decision drives 12-18 months of capex, BPO contract renegotiation and headcount planning. Those decisions have material P&L implications.

The Financial Headline

US contact center labor costs run materially higher than the offshore equivalent. A naive "relocate everything onshore" response to the FCC rule expands your contact center cost line by a margin not absorbed in any current operating model.

02

SCENARIOS

Three scenarios withmaterial P&L impact

Scenario 01

Scenario 02

Scenario 03

Scenario 01

Full US relocation

Offshore Customer Service Repatriation:

Bring all offshore customer service back to US labor rates within the FCC final-rule timeline

Direct Labor Cost Impact:

Significant

Real Estate and Capital Expenditure:

Meaningful — new US facilities or expanded existing footprint

Implementation Feasibility:

Low — Charter is the only carrier that has publicly committed to this path and only as a merger condition with an 18-month runway

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03

MODEL

What to model

Driver

Direct labor cost

Direction under FCC rule

Up — material

Mitigation lever

AI-led volume reduction reduces total agent demand

Driver

Real estate & capex

Direction under FCC rule

Up — moderate

Mitigation lever

Distributed remote model + smaller targeted hubs

Driver

Compliance & reporting

Direction under FCC rule

Up — new line item

Mitigation lever

Build into operations stack now, before mandate

Driver

CSAT-driven churn

Direction under FCC rule

Variable — strategic

Mitigation lever

Resolution-led AI improves first-contact resolution; protects retention

Driver

BPO contract exposure

Direction under FCC rule

Down — partial

Mitigation lever

Reduce volume commitments before peers do

04

PRECEDENT

The Charter precedent — what ittells you about the deal math

Charter's $34.5B Cox acquisition was approved with a public commitment to onshore Cox call center operations within 18 months. Charter's financial model for the deal almost certainly does not assume full US labor rates on Cox's entire offshore call volume — that math does not work. What it assumes is that AI-led automation absorbs enough of the volume to make the onshoring of the residual operationally and financially viable.

In other words: the largest cable operator in the country has effectively underwritten the hybrid model in its merger thesis. That is the closest thing to a public peer benchmark for the AI-led contact center transition you will get.
05

DUE DILIGENCE

What to ask your CX andoperations leads

01 / 05

What percentage of our inbound calls are sensitive transactions (mandatory onshore)?

02 / 05

What percentage are "resolvable without a human" — and have we tested AI on that volume?

03 / 05

What is our current offshore BPO contract exposure, and when can we renegotiate?

04 / 05

What does our broadband label disclosure look like today, and what do we want it to say?

00 / 05

Who is on our short-list of voice AI partners that can run at our volume?

06

TENEO

Where Teneo fitsin the financial conversation

Teneo is the AI orchestration and resolution layer that makes the hybrid model work. We integrate with your existing contact center stack (Genesys, NICE, Five9, AWS Connect — we do not replace it).

01

The hybrid model.

Teneo is the AI orchestration and resolution layer that makes it work—sits on top of your existing stack.
02

No replacement.

Integrate with Genesys, NICE, Five9, AWS Connect. We work with what you have.
03

Published outcomes.

30% cost reduction, 100% Level 1 automation, 50%+ Level 2, 99% first contact resolution, 60 days to deploy.
04

The controllable variable.

When you model the hybrid scenario, the AI partner cost is the controllable variable.
100%

Level 1 support automated

50%+

Level 2 support automated

99%

First contact resolution

30%

Operational cost reduction

60days

Typical deployment timeline

Get the financial scenario walk-through

15 minutes on the numbers. We bring the model, you bring the questions.

FCC NPRM 26-16 was adopted on March 26, 2026. Public comments are due May 26, 2026; reply comments are due June 22, 2026. Final rules are expected 12-18 months out and may differ materially from the proposal. This page reflects our reading of the rule as of publication.