Yahoo Finance Verizon Sees AI as ‘Next Growth Machine’ for Internet Demand
(Bloomberg) -- Over the past five years, virtually all of the growth on Verizon Communications Inc.’s network could be traced back to people watching and streaming videos, the chief of the wireless carrier’s consumer division said.
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That’s about to change: While video traffic growth may soon plateau, Verizon Consumer Chief Executive Officer Sowmyanarayan Sampath said, demand tied to artificial intelligence tools is picking up and is set to more than double the company’s network over the next five years.
AI “is the next growth machine for us” because it creates mountains of data that will need to be carried, for example, from data centers to end-users for analysis and then back to data centers, Sampath said in an interview with Bloomberg on Monday ahead of an announcement on Tuesday about how Verizon is using AI in its customer service operation.
The largest US retail wireless carrier has lost ground in subscriber growth to rivals. To regain momentum, it has simplified pricing for unlimited-data plans and offered add-on perks such as bundled Netflix and Max streaming plans. Still, Sampath sees AI as the next big growth driver.
“We are getting to the edge of how much people can consume video at any given time,” Sampath said in the interview. “You’re gonna see a massive growth in traffic over the next, I don’t think a decade — less than that — which will be driven by AI,” he said.
Additionally, Verizon is using AI software from Google to help its customer relations teams, and has deployed it to 40,000 agents, he said. An AI tool is now, for example, listening in on representatives’ calls with customers and tracking human sentiment and tone. “If you’re really annoyed, the supervisor will get a ping asking her if she wants to barge into your call and help,” Sampath said. He said Verizon is also using AI to come up with curated offers for customers in real-time.
AI will eventually also handle routine processes, he said, answering questions like “When’s my bill due?” and “What do I need to pay?” “All those will go get automated out,” Sampath said. “So what will be left behind will be more complex work,” he added, such as customers who need help with service while traveling internationally or making account changes.
Last month, Verizon Chief Executive Officer Hans Vestberg told investors that AI can offer capabilities such as personalized recommendations for add-on video service perks on wireless service plans.
Sampath said Verizon has already positioned its infrastructure for a surge in AI-related traffic. That bet on demand “is why we went out and bought all the spectrum,” he said.
“That was a bet on traffic growth,” he said. “They say you build a church for Easter. We definitely built that church for Easter.”
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