STOCKHOLM – US telecom company Verizon will be leveraging generative AI to retain 100,000 customers. According to Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg, the AI predicts the reasons behind customer calls and directs them to the most suitable agent, significantly reducing store visit times.
Improving customer service with AI
During a conference in Sweden, Vestberg mentioned that Verizon receives around 170 million calls annually, and with GenAI, the company can now determine the reason for a call 80% of the time.
“I have 60,000 call agents, and I know what they are really good at, so I can match your call with the right agent,” he explained, emphasizing that this capability would help retain 100,000 customers.
Earlier this year, Verizon rolled out GenAI-powered programs to improve customer service. The firm developed and deployed these programs to “simplify experiences and help make every interaction a positive one.”
Vestberg highlighted, “We already have four generative AI products in commercial use,” during his speech at the Future Talent Summit in Stockholm.
“We have 1,500 data points on each telephone number. We don’t expose the data to anybody else. We run all our data and large language models inside our network, not outside.”
Impact on CX and business
Verizon handles about 70 million store visits annually, and the company can personalize any offer as soon as a customer visits, reducing store visit times by roughly seven minutes.
In 2023, Verizon reported about 145 million wireless retail connections with a churn rate of around 1%.
“We believe this year we can have less churn … it’s an experience for you, for my employee, and ultimately I’ll make some more money,” Vestberg stated.
In the company’s Q1 earnings call, Verizon reported a loss of 158,000 wireless retail post-paid phone subscribers compared to 263,000 in Q1 2023. Vestberg noted it was the company’s best Q1 postpaid phone net performance since 2018, recording 90,000 postpaid phone net additions across its business sector.
Retail prepaid net losses stood at 216,000, excluding 131,000 subscribers from the government-sponsored Affordable Connectivity Programme (ACP).
