The CEO of Verizon's mobile unit has a bold ambition for salespeople and call centers in 2024

Sowmyanarayan Sampath, the CEO of Verizon’s consumer group. Tayo “TAYOJR” Kuku

• Sowmyanarayan Sampath is the CEO of Verizon’s consumer group — his seventh job at the company.
• He wants leaders to keep planning for the long term despite economic uncertainty.
• Sampath’s insights are part of Business Insider’s year-end leadership series, “Looking Ahead 2024.”

Sowmyanarayan Sampath, who goes by Sampath and has worked at Verizon since 2014, took on his latest challenge at the communications giant in March.

He became the CEO of Verizon’s consumer group, which includes its flagging mobile unit.

“It’s a stabilization and a turnaround role, which is typically what I get pulled into every time,” he told Business Insider. “This is my seventh job in nine years at Verizon. I tend to go where something needs to be solved.”

His first order of business is getting back to basics.

“Why do customers need connectivity? What do they want? What are the criteria they use to choose connectivity?” he asked, describing some questions that drive his work.

Internet access is essential for modern life, Sampath added.

“If a kid doesn’t have connectivity earlier, he can’t play video games, do homework. If there is no connectivity, a mom cannot log into a Zoom call from home,” Sampath said. “Connectivity is the bridge to everything.”

Internet access is so important that people are unwilling to settle for bad service.

“‘Good enough’ is really not good enough,” he said. “Customers want the best and they’re willing to pay a little more for it.”

As he took on his new role, Sampath worked at Verizon stores and one of the company’s overseas call centers. “I’m not as good of a salesman as I thought I was,” he joked. “But it’s been a good start.”

One of Sampath’s goals is to simplify. To him, that includes using AI to help workers “reduce cognitive load” — meaning all the information they must keep in their heads and relay to fellow employees.

Sampath’s 2024 goal is for Verizon to be “the world’s best AI-applied company” and use it daily — first within internal workflows, then for customer interactions.

“We have a very bold ambition,” he said.

But first, it’s imperative to test out AI-driven processes with “pilots and trials.” “I want to put them in production, responsibly,” he added. “I don’t want the algo doing things I wouldn’t do myself.”

Sampath’s insights are part of BI’s year-end leadership package “Looking Ahead 2024” that digs into vision, strategy, and challenges across corporate America.

The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What are you most excited about for 2024?

I want to be the world’s best AI-applied company. I think there’s something interesting about AI: Everyone talks about it. Everyone claims they love technology, but no one’s using it at scale.

The gap between technology and adoption is never this big. Even previous technology jumps — there was always a little gap between the technology’s greatness and adoption. Here, the technology is light years ahead of what’s being adopted.

I would like to be one of the first companies to adopt it at scale and for production — for our sales, service teams, and install teams are going to be supercritical. We’re doing ungodly amounts of work to make that happen in 2024. We’d probably be one of the first companies to do it at the scale we’re working on.

I want my reps and call centers and salespeople to use it. Second, I want to infuse it deep into the product stack. I’ve got six or seven very clear use cases that we are pretty far along on.

But step one is internal. Step two is customer interactions.

What are you most worried about for 2024?

Uncertainty. There’s not a single 2024 plan or document I write or I look at that doesn’t have the word “uncertainty” in it.

The uncertainty is coming from a few areas. The first is interest rates, which are driven by our fiscal policy. Are long-term interest rates here — are long-term interest rates high? Or do we go back to something a little more benign? It’s going to have a pretty radical impact our customers’ behavior.

There’s uncertainty about the economy. There’s uncertainty with elections looming, and it’s going to be massively polarizing. Along with geopolitical uncertainty and potential supply shocks as well.

I’ve never seen a year that has everything baked into it. The US has done very well in last three, four years compared to the rest of the world, because we are playing the long game. We are investing for the future. We’re not cutting back on investment.

My biggest worry is with all this uncertainty: Folks like myself saying, “You know what? The uncertainty is too much. I’m going to pull back and wait and watch.” Many people in my role do it.

There is nothing more stressful than “wait and watch.” Because then the economy comes to a grinding halt and everyone’s watching the other person, and it has far-reaching implications.

Stay firm, stay the course. America is going to be here. Do not let short-term distractions take us off a long-term game.

What is one thing that you got right in 2023?

I think it is the connectivity piece — how critical connectivity is for everything. It’s the gateway to banks, the gateway to education, the gateway to work. It has brought some renewed purpose back in our mission.

One of the things I had to do early on is get the team aligned on our purpose. And the purpose is: We like connecting things and people. It has helped us in our company internally to rally around.

I tell people, “You know, when a grandmother is calling a grandson, there’s a high chance Verizon made that call happened. When a girlfriend calls you, there is a high chance we made that happen. When you can’t go into work, you’re not well, and you need to do a teledoc appointment, we made it work.”

So connectivity is key.

What is one thing you got wrong in 2023?

Return to office.

At best, it has mixed results. We didn’t have a mandate. We just told people, “At some point, you’ve got to start coming back to the office for two, three days a week.” And I dug into that a little more.

Gen Z is going to become the biggest workforce in the next couple of years. They have been pretty clear: They don’t want to come into the office. They want to come in when they want to. They’re willing to move cities, they’re willing to move jobs. If we as a society, as a company, don’t align on how they want to be served and how they want to work, we risk losing the talent pool.

I’m part of a “bridge generation” of leaders. Most of my peers are 10 to 15 years older than me. I’m the bridge, and it’s a generational thing.

You will have companies that attract certain talent and companies that don’t attract certain talent, and that’s going to have long-term consequences. Continuing to be flexible, continuing to listen, and not having sharp mandates are important to us.