Verizon CEO: AI Agents Will Displace 'Large Percentage' of CX Jobs
Dan Schulman says three-month pilot already shows AI outperforming human reps, even as company commits $20M to workforce retraining.
Verizon CEO Breaks Ranks on AI Job Displacement
Verizon CEO Dan Schulman delivered one of the most direct assessments yet from a Fortune 100 leader about AI's impact on customer service employment, telling Bloomberg TV that workforce disruption is inevitable and could affect "a large percentage" of contact center roles.
"For sure you're going to see disruption with AI in certain job functions. I don't see how that's not possible," Schulman said, departing from the prevailing corporate narrative that AI will primarily augment rather than replace human workers.
The comments come as Verizon runs live pilots replacing customer service representatives with AI agents—experiments Schulman says have produced customer satisfaction scores 12.8 percentage points higher than previous benchmarks.
Why it matters
Schulman's candor marks a significant shift in how enterprise leaders discuss AI's workforce impact publicly. While most executives emphasize augmentation and upskilling, Verizon's CEO is acknowledging substantial job displacement while simultaneously investing in retraining—a combination that may become the template for how large companies navigate AI transformation in customer-facing operations.
Where AI Takes Over, Where Humans Remain
Verizon is targeting routine interactions for full automation. Password resets, billing inquiries, and similar transactional requests represent what Schulman calls "rote" work that AI agents can handle independently.
More complex customer issues will require hybrid approaches. "More complex things will be a combination of human and machines working together," Schulman explained, suggesting AI will handle information retrieval and routine steps while humans provide judgment and relationship management.
The telco has committed $20 million to workforce retraining, though Schulman described this as "the tip of the iceberg." Training spans basic AI literacy through agent development, with the CEO urging employees to embrace rather than fear the technology.
Industry Tension Between Automation and Empathy
Schulman's remarks highlight an unresolved tension in customer experience strategy. While Verizon promotes an "every customer has a name" initiative emphasizing individualized, empathetic service, the company is simultaneously automating the interactions where that philosophy would traditionally apply.
Simon Thorpe, Director at Pegasystems, recently told CX Today that board-level pressure to capture AI returns is driving aggressive automation timelines. "Reducing the reliance on human labor forces is a big one that we hear a lot of quotes from the analysts about," Thorpe said.
Even OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has expressed uncertainty about where automation boundaries should fall. Speaking at a CommBank event, Altman said he revised his views on AI replacing customer service jobs after finding he couldn't outsource his own email and messaging. "We really do care about our interactions with people," he noted.
The Unanswered Operating Model Question
Verizon's early satisfaction gains suggest AI agents may already exceed human performance in specific scenarios. But Schulman's acknowledgment of "large percentage" displacement underscores that the industry hasn't yet established clear principles for which interactions should be automated, which augmented, and which kept fully human.
As Schulman put it: "You cannot be a part of this age without understanding the technological revolution." For contact center leaders, that revolution now includes answering whether better AI performance justifies widespread workforce restructuring—and whether customers will accept the trade-off.
These details were first reported by CX Today.
This is an original analysis by the Omega editorial team. Source reporting: Automation Watch.
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