Dive Brief:
- Verizon Wireless is using AI to improve customer service at scale, CEO Hans Vestberg said on a Q1 2024 earnings call Monday.
- Verizon’s AI-powered personalized recommendations — offered to customers using its MyPlan service — is an early success, Vestberg said. MyPlan, which Verizon rolled out last August, allows customers to add individual subscription services to their unlimited data plans.
- Verizon is also leaning on AI to reduce customer turnover, Vestberg said. The wireless provider used generative AI to focus its retention efforts on the customers most likely to drop their service.
Dive Insight:
After several years of using AI, Verizon now plans to leverage its technology network to “lead the AI revolution,” Vestberg said during the call. “Enabling AI at scale for improved customer service is key.”
Key to implementing that vision is Brian Higgins, Verizon’s first chief customer experience officer. Higgins, who joined the company in February, will focus on improving AI use cases, personalization and improving digital use cases across the company.
Higgins wants to equip Verizon’s frontline workers with AI-powered tools to help them offer faster and more efficient service.
“I’m excited about the innovation we’re bringing through new tools for our internal frontlines and for our customers; things like personalization, online tools that help ensure customers have the most seamless experience possible,” Higgins told CX Dive in a February email.
