Verizon
Verizon Communications Inc., based in New York and incorporated in Delaware, was formed on June 30, 2000, through the merger of Bell Atlantic Corp. and GTE Corp. The new “Verizon” brand was launched on April 3, 2000, and the wireless joint venture began operations as Verizon Wireless on April 4. GTE’s wireless operations became part of Verizon Wireless, creating the nation’s largest wireless company, when the merger between Bell Atlantic and GTE closed nearly three months later.
Today, according to the company’s website, Verizon is a global communications technology company that delivers the promise of the digital world to millions of customers every day. Headquartered in New York, Verizon serves more than 150 countries around the world. The company generated revenue of $134.0 billion in 2023 and ranks 31st on the Fortune 1000. It is the second largest telecommunications company in the world by revenue. business and its mobile network is the largest wireless carrier in the United States, with 130 million subscribers.
An innovator in the telecommunications space, Verizon leverages data and AI as one of the foundations of its innovation journey.
To secure its leadership position and maintain its trajectory of continued innovation, Verizon named Kalyani Sekar as Senior Vice President and Chief Data Officer (CDO) in December 2022. Sekar is a 22-year veteran of Verizon, having joined the company in 2002. as a systems engineer and held a dozen technology and management positions during his tenure.
I recently hosted Sekar on a panel of industry data leaders and at an intimate industry roundtable for Fortune 1000 CDOs and AI leaders. organized by DataIQ. I spoke with Sekar about the data and AI leadership journey at Verizon. In his role as CDO, Sekar leads the strategic direction and execution of Verizon’s data and AI initiatives, focused on planning, building and managing the network, delivering a customer/employee experience differentiated, product expansion, new revenue generation and improved operational efficiency.
Sekar brings deep knowledge of Verizon’s business and organizational culture, as well as expertise in technology strategy, creating scalable solutions and process excellence. She explains: “As CDO of Verizon, my mandate is to establish a comprehensive data structure that seamlessly integrates Verizon’s diverse assets and accelerates the time to insights and actions by industrializing data end-to-end and AI lifecycle. » Sekar adds. “Data governance and responsible integration of AI at every stage of the process to deliver business impact is a key objective. »
Investing in AI innovation
For Verizon, the key to developing and maintaining leadership in the use of data and analytics lies in the application of artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities. Verizon has been on its AI journey for over a decade. Sekar explains: “We have come a long way from descriptive analytics to harnessing the combined power of GenAI. Today, Verizon deploys a full spectrum of AI, including predictive/prescriptive AI with machine learning/deep learning algorithms and generative AI across all business functions. She adds: “Verizon is also using AI to create new products and develop new revenue streams. »
Sekar said: “As a company that relies on the innovative application of technology, Verizon is setting high standards for its AI ambitions with a clear message from management to become the best company in AI. AI applied to the world. She continues: “Verizon is bringing all of its data together into a common AI-powered platform, which will improve and modernize every aspect of the company’s operations, driving significant value for its customers. » These AI innovation initiatives are applied across the Verizon network, as well as business and enterprise functions.
Generating business value through AI investments
Verizon’s investment in data, analytics and AI relies on a progression of time horizons to drive business value. In the short term, AI investments are expected to generate value within the same year, with a focus on measuring the incremental benefits generated by these AI-based interventions. Over a multi-year horizon, these investments aim to generate long-term efficiencies and expand capabilities that unlock new business opportunities. Sekar comments: “To drive value in a large enterprise, it is very important to realize that there are many ‘unknown unknowns’ that these capabilities will uncover and which will continue to drive value in an iterative manner.”
Today, Verizon leverages a combination of traditional AI and GenAI to deliver significant value across all areas of business. Sekar explains: “Verizon’s unique AI fabric design focuses end-to-end on the entire customer and employee lifecycle. She continues: “To illustrate this with a real-world example of a customer experience that helps Verizon better understand how customers feel, Verizon has developed and implemented measurement systems that evaluate the overall journey experience, including network experience. Verizon then leverages all the data and experience scores to predict the customer’s next best action and intelligently matches the customer with an agent for both outbound and inbound calls.
Sekar elaborates: “Even during the call, AI generates experiences that reduce the cognitive load on agents through an essential feature called personal search assistant. Throughout the lifecycle, rigorous attention is paid to model operations and measurements. She continues: “For example, in the Personal Research Assistant, the response rate is 95% and the accuracy rate is 96%. On the retail side, with approximately 70 million store visits per year, AI helps Verizon personalize customer offers during visits, reducing dwell time by approximately seven minutes per store visit. Sekar summarizes: “Verizon leverages AI across the entire customer journey: learn, buy, get, use, pay and assist. The idea is to simplify business relations with Verizon.
Sekar notes that Verizon has taken a thoughtful and deliberate approach to scaling AI, using an industrialization strategy. This approach involves developing basic models that work for one use case, then designing them with flexibility and interchangeable components to be extended to multiple use cases or reused with minor modifications. As sales teams adopt reusable solutions, they measure not only model accuracy, but also user adoption and business outcomes. Sekar concludes: “With a dynamic environment in which AI resides, it’s great to see Verizon’s focus on holistic, iterative feedback mechanisms that also include humans in the loop. »
Building a culture of data and AI
Execution of Verizon’s data and AI vision is organized around establishing a culture of data and AI awareness at all levels of the company, where responsible AI is at the heart of Verizon’s AI mandate. To ensure responsible AI, the company has rolled out a set of guiding principles for teams to responsibly innovate with AI.
Sekar observes that from the beginning, Verizon’s leadership has focused on the ethical deployment of AI, adhering to AI principles that guide its company-wide efforts to leverage new technologies . Responsible AI principles help the company serve stakeholders and strengthen Verizon as a trusted brand and AI partner.
To achieve this goal, Verizon created an AI Council that includes senior executives from legal, security, IT, networking, commerce and other business portfolios. This council focuses on five key pillars: AI strategy, AI adoption, responsible AI, AI talent, and AI technology and infrastructure. To improve understanding of AI within Verizon, the company is offering company-wide AI training courses to its employees. These courses are designed to develop a basic understanding of AI at all levels of the organization, from basic courses for all employees to advanced technical courses ensuring AI readiness at scale. the company.
By leveraging AI, Verizon aims to deliver a simplified yet differentiated experience for its customers and employees, while improving operational agility and ensuring sustainable competitive advantage.
Reflecting on the teamwork and commitment needed to build a culture that prioritizes AI, Sekar notes: “Progress at Verizon has been a team effort, driven by a commitment to accountability at every stage of the journey,” adding: “That would not have been the case. been possible without the commitment of leaders as well as people at all levels of the organization. Sekar concludes: “This approach ensures a positive impact on both customers and other stakeholders, now and in the future.”
