Schulman diagnoses Verizon as a bureaucratic, risk-averse company that had been losing market share for years. His strategy involves being brutally honest about this reality and shifting the focus from repeated price increases to improving the end-to-end customer experience to create sustainable differentiation.
AI is presented as a transformative tool capable of dramatically improving productivity and customer satisfaction, as evidenced by Verizon's AI agents outperforming humans. However, Schulman is also candid about the inevitable and large-scale job displacement in roles like customer service.
Schulman predicts an unprecedented pace of technological change, with AGI and quantum computing arriving within the next 2-4 years. He stresses the need for proactive preparation, such as Verizon's work on post-quantum encryption for 'Q-Day,' when quantum computers could break current standards.
Schulman argues that leaders have a responsibility to be transparent about AI's impact and to invest heavily in reskilling their workforce and communities. He is actively working with the government and has initiated a $20 million fund at Verizon as a starting point for these efforts.
Keep pulling the thread on Dan Schulman.