C-Suite Perspectives On AI: Consumer Cellular’s Ed Evans On Where to Use AI and Where to Rely Only on Humans
An Interview With Kieran Powell
Ensure security always comes first. AI requires a lot of high-quality data to function effectively, and it’s crucial that companies take the appropriate steps to protect sensitive customer data from unauthorized access and cyberattacks.
As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to advance and integrate into various aspects of business, decision-makers at the highest levels face the complex task of determining where AI can be most effectively utilized and where the human touch remains irreplaceable. This series seeks to explore the nuanced decisions made by C-Suite executives regarding the implementation of AI in their operations. As part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Ed Evans, Chairman and CEO of Consumer Cellular.
Ed Evans serves as Chairman and CEO of Consumer Cellular. He is an accomplished executive in the wireless space with more than three decades of experience. Ed served as Chief Executive Officer of Inteliquent (NASDAQ: IQNT), Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Syniverse Technologies, a GTCR portfolio company (NYSE:SVR) as well as President and Chief Operating Officer at Dobson Communications (NASDAQ:DCEL).
Before joining Dobson, he held a variety of management positions with BellSouth and GTE from 1989 to 1996. Ed has served on the Boards of Solix, Neutral Tandem, Carolina West Wireless and The University of Florida Athletic Association. Ed is currently a Trustee for The First Tee. Ed earned his MBA in Finance from the J. Mack Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University.
Thank you so much for your time! I know that you are a very busy person. Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?
I have spent the majority of my career in wireless communications, starting at BellSouth Mobility where I gained a deep understanding of the industry’s intricacies. I later transitioned to leadership roles at Dobson Communications overseeing growth and innovation as President and COO. I then became CEO of a communications company called Inteliquent, which leverages cloud technology to revolutionize the way people communicate.
Now at Consumer Cellular, my focus has shifted to providing affordable, reliable wireless service to the 50+ demographic. Throughout my career, I’ve always been passionate about putting the customer first, and that’s exactly what we do here. Our company’s goal is to make wireless connectivity accessible and affordable for everyone.
It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
During my first few months as a new Marketing Director for BellSouth in Birmingham, Alabama I received a call from the CEO’s office in Atlanta. The CEO, Odie Donald, wanted to meet with me in Atlanta the next day. I was pretty concerned as no topic was given. My meeting was scheduled for 10am the next day. I left Birmingham giving myself an extra hour to make the drive. At around 9am, my phone rang. It was the CEO’s assistant asking where I was? I informed her I was 15 minutes away from the office. She responded that my meeting was at 10am. I said yes, it’s 9am now. She replied, no, it’s 10am now. I failed to realize Birmingham was in the Central time zone and Atlanta was in the Eastern time zone. I was already late. When I arrived I was informed I was being interviewed for his Chief of Staff. It was the most embarrassing moment of my career. After getting ribbed for not understanding time zones, I was offered the position.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
We recently launched the IRIS Ally, an affordable, easy-to-use lightweight medical alert device. This product will provide our customers and their loved ones the freedom to live independently with a little back-pocket support. Since the device is waterproof, consumers can wear the device around their neck making it easy to wear where most falls seem to occur. With the push of a button, people can reach a real human agent 24/7, 365 days a year, giving peace of mind while at home and on the go.
Thank you for that. Let’s now shift to the central focus of our discussion. In your experience, what have been the most challenging aspects of integrating AI into your business operations, and how have you balanced these with the need to preserve human-centric roles?
We’re taking a close and careful look at AI to ensure the technology will best serve our employees and customers. Currently, our human approach to business is what sets us apart from our competitors. Earlier this year, J.D Power honored Consumer Cellular as #1 in Customer Service among Value MVNOs, 17 Times in a Row, making it the Most Awarded Brand for wireless customer service! With 100% US-based call centers and the option to chat with a live customer support representative, people regularly select us as their trusted phone network provider because of the human elements that simply can’t be replaced with technology.
Can you share a specific instance where AI initially seemed like the optimal solution but ultimately proved less effective than human intervention? What did this experience teach you about the limitations of AI in your field?
As of today, we haven’t fully implemented AI due to concerns that our customer base may not be comfortable or familiar with advanced technology. Results from the surveys we conduct show our customers prefer the traditional, person-to-person interactions we are known to provide in helping them with their service or any technical questions they might have.
How do you navigate the ethical implications of implementing AI in your company, especially concerning potential job displacement and ensuring ethical AI usage?
As a company committed to providing exceptional customer service, we see AI as a powerful tool to expand and enhance our capabilities, not replace them. Like I’ve said, we’re not rushing to implement AI across our business. I believe that AI might create some new opportunities for us — better equipping our employees in an increasingly digital world — but it won’t impact the core structure of our business. Ultimately, our goal is to use AI as a means to empower our team and deliver outstanding customer service, two things we’re always striving to do.
Could you describe a successful instance in your company where AI and human skills were synergistically combined to achieve a result that neither could have accomplished alone?
Our marketing team has been using generative AI tools successfully over the past year — we’ve found that AI is often a good creative sparring partner when our team is creating new ideas. Additionally, we are in the testing phase with back-office applications to see how AI technology can help our employees be more efficient.
Based on your experience and success, what are the “5 Things To Keep in Mind When Deciding Where to Use AI and Where to Rely Only on Humans, and Why?” How have these 5 things impacted your work or your career?
1. Understand the complexity of the problem you’re trying to solve. Challenging tasks often require nuanced thinking that’s best left to humans to assess. AI, while powerful, struggles with tasks that involve ambiguity or require a deep understanding of context or interpersonal communication.
2. Take a closer look and filter accordingly. AI doesn’t know everything, but it can sometimes make a compelling argument that can lead you down the wrong path if it’s not held accountable. Human oversight is crucial to identify and mitigate any potential risks.
Especially in our industry, there can be issues with fraudulent activity, with scammers breaking into billing systems, account takeovers, and SIM swapping to steal identities. We rely on our award-winning, live customer service team to handle these calls with care and ask the appropriate qualifying questions to determine who the customer is.
3. Think about the cost-benefit analysis when implementing AI. While AI can automate tasks and reduce costs, it’s important to consider the costs associated with building an AI approach that integrates seamlessly into your company. For example, an AI-powered customer service chatbot can free up time for customer service representatives to help with more complicated tasks, but it’s essential to consider the potential costs of training the AI, maintaining the system, while also addressing customer issues that require human intervention.
With our demographic skewing 50+, we must be cautious that any changes that are implemented are done so with the customer experience being top of mind. We are currently testing a product with one of our back-office systems that would assist our employees and how they engage with our customers to provide quick, accurate information. The platform would be capable of listening to the customers’ calls and proactively link to our internal resources for questions that arise during the call. This platform would increase agent efficiency while decreasing the number of repetitive tasks.
4. Ensure security always comes first. AI requires a lot of high-quality data to function effectively, and it’s crucial that companies take the appropriate steps to protect sensitive customer data from unauthorized access and cyberattacks. Data privacy is something we take very seriously here at Consumer Cellular. Our employees are trained to follow strict security protocols, we have multi-factor authentication steps and can address any concerns. By using this approach, it has added an additional layer of trust with our customers.
5. Make sure people always come first. AI should be used to augment human capabilities, not replace them. By marrying the strengths of AI and human intelligence, we can achieve better outcomes while freeing up opportunities for people to focus on more strategic and creative work. It’s all a balance.
Another platform we are currently testing would do just that. It would help our employees summarize each call they handle with our customers. This tool would enable our employees to quickly review and create accurate summaries, saving time for not only the customer but our employees as well.
Looking towards the future, in which areas of your business do you foresee AI making the most significant impact, and conversely, in which areas do you believe a human touch will remain indispensable?
While I don’t see our customers interacting directly with AI anytime soon, I do think we can leverage this technology to better support the backend of our business, particularly when it comes to detecting and preventing fraudulent activity. For example, AI can identify unusual patterns in call volume or usage, such as a sudden increase in international calls from a new device. It can also detect suspicious activity, such as unauthorized access to an account or unusual billing patterns. By identifying these patterns, AI can help prevent fraud and protect our customers’ personal information.
Consumer Cellular will always put people first, especially when it comes to solving unique customer problems. When customers come to us with specific questions or need a hands on demonstration, those issues are best served by people. Our customer service agents leverage their empathy and knowledge to provide a personalized experience for everyone, and we don’t see this going away anytime soon.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I would mandate all social media platforms to require biometric login to create accounts and post. The ability to anonymously post anything, true or false, is causing great harm to our society, especially to our children. By requiring identification confirmation through biometrics, we can hold people accountable for what they post.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
You can read all about our latest products, promos, and more on our blog at consumercellular.com/blog or follow us on social media by searching for ‘Consumer Cellular’.
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
About The Interviewer: Kieran Powell is the EVP of Channel V Media a New York City Public Relations agency with a global network of agency partners in over 30 countries. Kieran has advised more than 150 companies in the Technology, B2B, Retail and Financial sectors. Prior to taking over business operations at Channel V Media, Kieran held roles at Merrill Lynch, PwC and Ernst & Young. Get in touch with Kieran to discuss how marketing and public relations can be leveraged to achieve concrete business goals.
C-Suite Perspectives On AI: Consumer Cellular’s Ed Evans On Where to Use AI and Where to Rely Only… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.