AI agents are indisputably the hottest topic in the CX tech space today.
The autonomous capabilities of agentic AI are tailor-made for an industry that has been trying to embrace more cost-effective, efficient, and human-like artificial methods to communicate with customers for decades.
While there is no telling what the next CX tech craze might be, right now, agentic AI is transforming customer experience strategies across industries.
In an exclusive interview with CX Today, Brian Higgins, the Chief Customer Experience Officer at Verizon, described the tech as a strategic lever reshaping how the company serves its customers.
With over two decades of experience across various roles at Verizon, Higgins was recently placed in charge of the telco’s new dedicated customer experience organization.
His mission? Embed a customer-first mindset into every layer of the business.
Given the scope of his directive, Higgins looked to harness the power of AI to ensure that his customer-centric ethos "permeates through every team and every channel of the business.
"We work arm in arm with sales, strategy, product, network, marketing, marketing legal, etc., to make sure we are making every interaction with our customer a great one.
CX shouldn’t be 20-30 people sitting together making recommendations, and we certainly don’t operate that way at Verizon.
"Our philosophy is you need shared responsibility for the customer across every channel."
Higgins’ strategy of empowering every team to own the customer experience has been integral to how the company has gone about deploying and implementing AI.
When it comes to agentic AI specifically, the Verizon man sees it as "the next logical step along the AI path."
Higgins explains how improvements in AI – particularly the ability of generative AI (GenAI) to deliver better, more relevant resolution suggestions – will inevitably lead to some level of autonomy.
These AI agents won’t replace human teams, but they will complement them – especially for straightforward tasks where speed and efficiency are paramount, as Higgins explains:
“There will always be employees available, but I envision some situations where it might make sense to have AI solve an issue quickly, right at the initial point of contact.”
Hyper-Personalization at Scale
In discussing where AI agents can be most beneficial to organizations, Higgins points to their capacity to help deliver personalized experiences far beyond the level of traditional customer service calls.
The agents are able to autonomously analyze granular data points, which allows Verizon to tailor everything – from device upgrades to loyalty perks.
“Beyond the issue a customer is contacting us about, we’ll know who in the family is eligible for a phone upgrade, and what perks they might be missing,” Higgins explains.
AI can help us pinpoint some of our signature experiences and exclusive access passes to entertainment that our customers have earned with their loyalty.
The Chief CX Officer also provided details about specific Verizon tools that are leveraging agentic AI, such as the company’s Personal Shopper.
The solution uses customer insights to recommend products and services tailored to individual needs – helping resolve issues faster and improving satisfaction along the way.
