How Verizon uses AI to elevate customer experience

2024 was a big year for customer experience enhancements on behalf of Verizon’s customers. 

Verizon launched an entirely new customer experience organization designed to address customer pain points and go beyond expectations, leveraged AI to build a whole new level of service and responsiveness - and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. 

While the list of opportunities is long, there are two specific AI innovations that Verizon is especially focused on for customer experience: agentic AI and specialized language models. Let’s take a closer look at each one:

Agentic AI

Agentic AI takes the intertwining of artificial intelligence and human agents one step further by giving AI "agency" to help take on even more tasks. For growth companies like Verizon, agentic AI will create opportunities for faster customer resolutions with less friction. 

It will be another tool that takes some of the workload off our employees so they can focus on more important areas, like providing the personal touch and human connection that only we can provide.

But not every customer wants to talk to a service agent. What they really want, in many cases, is to have their problems solved quickly and easily. Issues like refunds and service changes aren’t particularly complicated. 

If we can resolve a problem or fulfill a request in seconds using AI, it might be the better approach for certain situations. And automation doesn’t mean a more generic experience.

Agentic AI can analyze millions of data points including the customer’s device history, service preferences, and situational context, and apply problem solving techniques that are insightful and relevant to the customer. Instead of one-size-fits all, it’s the custom size that fits one.

Specialized language models (SLMs) 

Unlike large language models (LLMs) trained on general text data, SLMs are fine-tuned on specific domains, offering enhanced accuracy and efficiency for domain-specific tasks, and they do it in a cost and energy efficient manner.

From telecom and healthcare to finance and legal, SLMs will be streamlining processes and improving customer experiences across the board.

I can imagine a time in the near future when we will be able to apply SLMs to specific elements of every interaction we have with the customer. While AI has already given us a measurable boost in key performance metrics, it’s still not perfect. 

SLMs should allow us to use our data sets in a way that can zero in on what works best in any given situation. For example, we know generally what customers want, but with SLMs we’ll be able to anticipate what a customer may be expecting and tailor our offers to provide them with the best option proactively. That’s the kind of hyper-personalized experience we are aiming for.

The next frontier

Agentic AI and SLMs will unlock a new level of understanding, accuracy, efficiency and customer experience that will allow companies to not just keep pace with customer expectations but make improvements that set a whole new standard. 

Consider it a VIP pass to a smoother, more intuitive experience, where every interaction feels tailored, and every solution hits the mark. I believe these two new areas of combined tech and capability will accelerate and further elevate the way we think about how best to serve our customers.

Brian Higgins is chief customer experience officer for Verizon’s consumer group.