I'm sure this system can and will be used to handle you on hold. ;) Be prepared for obfuscating phone trees that can talk back.

Deep learning RNN "Retention Department" bots, trained on every customer complaint ever. (kill me now...)

Precisely, the implications of this are just AIs getting stuck in a recursive loop or getting into a battle of training to best the other.

Exactly. People think it will be used for better service. It won't. It will he used to save money. At the expense of the human. When was the last time you were satisfied with a web site help page ? They usually suck big time. They have zero way to help you on your specific situation.

I would feel infuriated to have to talk to a robot making me waste my time. At least during a waiting song I can put the speakers on and do something else.

fine by me if it uses tail recursion.

would be funny if it didn't and somehow blew the phone system's stack.

Some IVR systems do this now, it gives you an estimated wait time, and calls you back when you get near the front of the queue.

Or cancelling your cable.

Or monitronics account