Credit: verizon.com (edited)
Stung by rising customer churn after recent price hikes, Verizon is betting heavily that AI can be more than just a cost-cutter, claiming its new Google-powered tools are already turning thousands of service reps into effective sellers. The telco is touting significant early wins from its AI deployment, even as it positions the technology as a crucial fix for deepening customer loyalty challenges.
The AI-powered sales pitch: Verizon told Reuters that sales through its 28,000-strong customer service team surged nearly 40% following the rollout of an AI assistant built using Google Cloud technology. According to Sampath Sowmyanarayan, CEO of Verizon's consumer group, the AI provides on-screen guidance, freeing up agents from tedious information lookups. "We are doing reskilling in real time from customer care agents to selling agents," Sowmyanarayan said.
The system, developed by feeding nearly 15,000 internal documents into Google's Gemini large language model, includes tools like a "Personal Research Assistant" designed to provide context-aware answers, achieving 95% comprehensive answerability for inquiries, according to a joint announcement with Google Cloud. The AI features were deployed between July 2024 and January 2025.
Churn pressures mount: This aggressive push into AI-assisted selling comes as Verizon faces significant headwinds. During its Q1 2025 earnings call on April 22, the company reported losing 356,000 wireless retail postpaid phone subscribers, a substantial increase from 194,000 losses in the same quarter last year, following price increases implemented earlier in the year.
Executives framed their ongoing AI investments as a key part of the strategy to combat this churn. "Over the past few years, we have dedicated substantial resources... to enhance our customer experience through various initiatives, including AI for customer care and personalization," Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg said on the call. Sowmyanarayan added that the company plans to launch more AI-driven customer experiences in the second half of 2025 specifically to improve retention, calling the current churn "transitory."
Augmentation over automation – for now: Verizon's strategy explicitly contrasts with other firms like Swedish payments company Klarna, which has used AI to reduce customer service headcount. Verizon maintains its focus is on augmenting its existing workforce, using AI to handle routine tasks so humans can focus on complex issues and, increasingly, sales. This "reskilling" narrative positions AI as a partner, though it fundamentally alters the agent's role and performance metrics.
Whether this represents a stable human-AI collaboration model or merely a step towards further automation remains an open question, even as Verizon executives like Chief Customer Experience Officer Brian Higgins emphasize goals like using AI for hyper-personalized experiences tailored to individual customer needs.