Verizon launched the Verizon Business Assistant, a new AI-powered solution for small businesses. By incorporating generative AI, the tool aims to enhance customer interactions and efficiency by automating responses to frequent questions. This system instantly delivers answers to common inquiries and, when necessary, connects customers to live representatives for more complex issues.
Small businesses, like a bakery handling questions about gluten-free options, stand to benefit from this technology. The AI learns continuously, creating opportunities to improve customer service over time and allowing the staff to focus on other tasks. Iris Meijer, Chief Product & Marketing Officer at Verizon Business, stated, “Our goal is to streamline engagement, helping business owners focus on growth.”
Setting up the assistant is straightforward, and it provides a dashboard with customer insights. This aligns with a trend among telecom companies to integrate AI into customer service, aiming for improved engagement and support efficiency.
The integration of AI in customer service isn’t entirely new, with companies like T-Mobile and Orange actively pursuing similar ventures. T-Mobile, for example, partnered with OpenAI to design IntentCX, a platform that uses customer data to automate tasks and reduce store visits.
Orange, on the other hand, joined forces with Meta and OpenAI to refine AI models for translating African languages. Meanwhile, Telstra has rolled out AI tools, AskTelstra and One Sentence Summary, to enhance customer interactions.
Aside from Verizon Business Assistant, Verizon has been advancing other AI tools. They launched human-assisted generative AI tools in 2024 and a Contact Center AI Platform, reflecting their commitment to AI in customer service.
