Verizon’s Project 624 Is an AI-Powered Customer Service Initiative

In April, Verizon CEO of his consumer group, Sowmyanarayan Sampath, dropped a cryptic teaser on his Linkedin page: “Project 624. Everything on the customer. To come soon.” And then … nothing more about it. Until today.

We now know that 624 represents the date on June 24, and the project is an ambitious customer service program intended to do so so that subscribers can solve the problems by contacting Verizon only once. And yes, AI is involved, but does not yet roll their eyes.

Sampath presented changes to the customer experience that has been put online today just before revealing the details of the 624 project on a call. These changes include a team dedicated to customer satisfaction during their first call (called the customer champion team) and improvements to the Myveron application which take advantage of Google Gemini AI Technology. There are also widen live customer agent hours and a live cat 24/7, a larger fingerprint of Verizon physical stores and more advantages and gifts.

In a open letter In the implementation of the new customer service initiative of the carrier published today, the CEO of the consumer group also included a direct email address, s.sampath@verizon.comSo that customers contact it.

But before I got into the details of the news, I wondered if today’s announcements were a direct reaction in the last quarter during which the company lost nearly 300,000 customers In the first quarter of 2025. Does the carrier stimulate customer service to win back more subscribers?

“It’s a very fair question,” said Sampath. “The answer is quite straight: each first quarter, we lose customers, it is the seasonality of the company. So it has nothing to do with our first quarter of activity. It has to do with the transformation of two, three years that we are in the middle.”

He explained that improving the customer experience is the next step after its previous efforts to reorganize Verizon’s sales infrastructure and price plans.

Verizon is perhaps the first carrier to obtain AI in its customer service platforms, but it is not the only one to think of including it. Last September, T-Mobile announced that he was Partnership with OPENAI Including a new offer of artificial intelligence to help customers, who would launch in 2025. The question of whether the Verizon system will get one step ahead depends on what it is in store to help subscribers answer their essential questions.

Operating AI to create client champions

Customer service for any industry is difficult, but this is aggravated for major mobile players such as Verizon who provide connectivity to millions of customers in large area and technological equipment. And because phones have acquired disproportionate importance in our lives, having something that does not go with its link to the outside world can increase frustration.

“I receive a lot of customer emails every day, and they are not pretty,” said Sampath. He estimates that 80% of the time, customers come down to resolving the first call. About 15% should call again, maybe twice. “The 5% of the 5% enter a buckle of destiny, and they are the most dissatisfied. It is a very difficult journey for them. We see it, and it is not fair for them.”

To try to avoid this loop, Verizon launches its so-called customer champion team who uses personalized implementation on Verizon of Google Gemini 2.0 models to process calls, identify the solutions and keep the customer up to date throughout the resolution process. It is an approach inherited from Verizon Systems used for its corporate customers.

“We have been doing this for a few months now in Pilot [programs]And 90% of the time we solve the problems the first time, “he said. As the program takes place, he hopes to get this number up to 95 or 96%.

Google Gemini is also an important part of an update of the Myverizon application. The Verizon assistant powered by AI was built with the entries of Google Engineers and integrated into the specific context in Verizon. As a practical example, technology can allow Verizon to deal with problems proactively.

“If your phone is lost in transit, I know because Fedex told me that it had not been delivered,” he said. “Why do I need you calling me and you let me know that your phone got lost?”

In such a case, Verizon uses AI to identify the problem, automatically open a case and return to the customer with a plan to solve it. Sampath explained that Verizon essentially creates a model of small language for each case, and compared it to the models of large language (LLM) which have more visibility in the industry at the moment. Small tailor -made models have no general knowledge about life.

“I don’t need to know what the Romans have done,” he said. “I need to know why my bill has increased. And we are going ahead and do exactly that.”

The LLM, however, are not always known for their precision. Sampath said that a year and a half ago, they saw an error rate of 30% to 40%, but this has now improved for “well north of 90% precision. And when it is inaccurate, it is only slightly inaccurate because of the way we do it. We do not get crazy answers on the crazy answers [it]. “”

Expansion of live customer support and the store’s imprint

With this increase in the use of AI to manage customer problems, I naturally wanted to know if it would negatively affect Verizon staff. If Verizon’s Gemini model can face most requests, does that eliminate humans from the loop and beyond pay?

“We used the AI ​​to essentially remove the cognitive workload of our employees so that they can concentrate their bandwidth and their head space on listening to customers,” said Sampath. “This is the right way for us to leave. Look, if I need to withdraw the costs, there are simpler ways for me to do it. I don’t need to deploy AI and all the complexity that goes with it. And for us, AI is a question of problem solving.”

As part of this new customer support initiative, Verizon extends its live support options in several ways. Representatives will be available from 9 a.m. to midnight (local time) via telephone calls, extended from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. and during the rest of the clock via live cat.

“”[Stuff] Performs when you expect the least, and I don’t want you to wait in the morning, because things can change, “he said.

The Network of Physical Stores Verizon also plays a role, because “we want to be in your community,” said Sampath. He noted that Verizon goes to the retail sales experience, after adding around 400 new stores in the past two years and plans to continue to extend the company’s brick and mortar footprint.

Verizon Access award platform

In the environment of mobile suppliers today, the advantages have become powerful incentives, carriers offering extras from conventional additional modules such as streaming and streaming services Wi-fi in flight to the assortment of gifts in T-Mobile Tuesdays. On this front, Sampath wanted to differentiate Verizon’s offers from the competition.

“Listen, we do not give you 3 $ of reduction on your little pizza caesars … You do not get a big popcorn against an average popcorn. I’m sure there is a good value in there,” he said. “We give you things of the list of buckets you can do”, citing examples such as tickets for the NFL, Katy Perry and Beyonce games.

From today until June 30, Verizon gives 35,000 free drops in drops of its Verizon access program, “anything, from tickets to devices and a lot of other things to maintain our loyalty.”