Dive Brief:
- Verizon and Google Cloud announced a strategic partnership Monday, a deal the telecommunications company said would help it continue to modernize its customer experiences, unify data and scale AI across the enterprise.
- Verizon will deploy Google Cloud’s full-stack AI — including its data infrastructure and Gemini Enterprise — as part of an expansion of the two companies’ longstanding partnership.
- The technology will lay the groundwork for Verizon’s AI acceleration, including breaking down data silos and creating uniform processes across the business, the companies said in the announcement.
Dive Insight:
Verizon has been eyeing AI as a part of its strategy to focus on customer experience and retain users following net losses in 2024 and 2025.
Despite increased customer churn during those years, its mobile and broadband service revenue reached about $23.4 billion in Q2 2026, a 2.8% increase year-over-year, according to the company’s most recent earnings report.
Telecom operators are facing similar challenges to other tech verticals: data traffic continues to rise, networks require continued investment and traditional connectivity revenues are growing too slowly to absorb the pressure, according to PwC research from July.
The company is actively investing in AI infrastructure, including deploying fiber at scale, a decades-long project essential for the internet that has also been crucial for hyperscalers’ ability to connect compute, CFO Tony Skiadas said during the Q2 earnings call. AI infrastructure represents an opportunity for Verizon, with a new, long-term revenue stream that the company expects will ramp up in the coming years, he said.
“The build-out of AI infrastructure across the United States is one of the largest capital cycles of our lifetime, and Verizon is uniquely positioned to participate in it,” CEO Dan Schulman said during the call.
The expanded capabilities of Monday’s deal build on Verizon’s AI and customer experience investments from last year, which sought to deploy AI via its mobile assistants for store associates and call routing tools in call centers.
With Google Cloud’s enterprise capabilities, Verizon is targeting several areas for AI implementation through the partnership.
First, it will use Gemini’s conversational, multimodal capabilities as an AI-first toolbox for customers, including updates to its automated resolution platform, which handles the majority of inbound customer calls and chats.
The partnership will aid Verizon’s efforts in building an autonomous network intelligence framework to predict and resolve network anomalies before they affect customers, the companies said. Google Cloud data will also help Verizon strengthen its cloud security and threat detection and modernize its marketing platforms by automating content creation and campaigns to drive customer engagement and retention.
Lastly, Google’s Agentic Data Cloud will help Verizon unify its data across the company to build and deploy AI agents, the companies said. Verizon employees will use Gemini Enterprise agents to boost productivity and improve the operating model of the company’s core business functions.
