Dive Brief:
- Verizon will fully revamp its end-to-end customer experience as part of its plan to drive financial success through subscriber growth, CEO Dan Schulman said during a Q4 2025 earnings call Friday.
- The wireless carrier plans to deploy AI at scale to help it reduce complexity, anticipate customer pain points and personalize interactions, among other goals, according to Schulman.
- “We will use our data and AI capabilities to not just massively improve our efficiency and customer satisfaction, but to redefine our value propositions and deliver hyper personalized experiences,” Schulman said. “Eventually, every individual customer will have a tailored proposition.”
Dive Insight:
Verizon’s planned investments in customer experience, as well as other business improvements, are being partially funded by mass layoffs. The company aims to shift to a customer-first focus with leaner operations.
“No company ever cost cut its way to greatness,” Schulman said. “We are examining every dollar of [operating expenses and capital expenses] to ensure it is being spent on initiatives that will drive customer loyalty and brand trust.”
The company laid off 13,000 employees in November and the cuts included both full-time employees and contractors, Schulman said. The layoffs focused on “aggressively removing pockets of underperformance, eliminating redundant organizational structures, reducing layers of hierarchy and cutting resources not focused on our priorities.”
The staff reduction was a “substantial” piece in a broader effort to save $5 billion in operating expenses, Schulman said. Verizon will use the savings to become more agile and reinvest in areas that will boost growth and customer loyalty.
“The first thing is to stop doing things customers hate,” Schulman said. “That's not rocket science. Fix the end-to-end experience. Again, not rocket science, but it’s hard to do.”
The wireless provider already has initiatives underway to address key points of friction, including in onboarding, billing and calling customer service, according to Schulman.
Verizon Consumer reported 551,000 total postpaid phone net additions in the fourth quarter of 2025, up from 367,000 in the fourth quarter of 2024, according to an earnings release. The growth marked a reversal from the postpaid net losses in the first three quarters of the year.
Verizon will improve its experience and work to regain customer trust as part of its fight against churn, Schulman said. From there, the company can offer customers incremental options that drive incremental revenue, helping the company move away from price increases that make customers quit.
