AI-Driven CX Boosts Telecom Consumer Revenue by $150M, Speeds Campaigns 30%

Context

A leading Australian telecommunications and technology company sought to transform its consumer customer experience across all channels. The objective was to drive a consistent AI-first approach across Digital, Retail and Email by building a standardized, industrial-scale AI engine to deliver measurable revenue growth, improved retention and higher-quality customer decisions across consumer products. The program targeted an omnichannel, cross-functional uplift that combined Product, Marketing and Retail execution with rigorous data-to-delivery practices.

Challenges

Marketing and Product teams were competing for the same customers using volume-based tactics, producing inconsistent customer experiences, offer cannibalisation and low marketing ROI. AI work remained largely experimental: models were developed in isolation with no clear path to permanent implementation, and prior implementations were siloed and often underpinned by inaccurate or over-complicated academic practices that did not translate into commercial value. A lack of translatable evidence of AI’s value made it difficult for the C-suite to justify ongoing investment in Data & AI capability. Technical AI delivery was fragmented across the consumer organisation, slowed speed-to-market, and left specialists isolated with no central “ways of working” capable of scaling across Mobile, Fixed and Loyalty divisions simultaneously.

Implementation

Our Fractional Head of AI developed the business case for a flagship “Lighthouse AI Mission” presented to the executive team. The business case emphasised the structural changes required to enable AI from data to execution, defined necessary shifts in data management, and quantified the immediate and long-term financial uplift expected from AI-driven personalization. That case secured leadership buy-in across the functional areas required to establish a mission structure, enable remit and execute at scale.

Under the Lighthouse AI Mission, a cross-functional team of 20 data science specialists was unified and placed under a single operating model. Standardised practices for how AI models and features were built, validated and monitored replaced fragmented approaches, improving repeatability and reliability. Technical delivery was standardised end-to-end: data ingestion, feature engineering, model deployment and execution pathways were codified so the same processes could scale across Digital, Retail and Email channels.

To close the evidence gap for leadership and accelerate adoption, live commercial reporting and bi-weekly performance updates were introduced that directly compared AI-driven revenue to champion-challenger strategies. This high-transparency reporting provided clear proof of incremental growth and cost savings, enabling rapid commercial decisions and removing barriers that had kept models in experimental phases.

The implementation emphasised industrialisation: an operational AI engine that supported omnichannel campaign orchestration, consistent offer logic to prevent cannibalisation, and automated monitoring to maintain decision quality. Ways of working were unified across Marketing, Product and Retail to ensure aligned objectives, shared KPIs and a single source of truth for campaign performance.

Results

The program delivered an annual $150 million revenue uplift through a scaled, omnichannel AI-driven customer experience program across Product, Marketing and Retail. Standardising technical delivery, data ingestion and execution improved speed-to-market for personalised campaigns by 30%, enabling faster experimentation-to-production cycles and more timely customer interactions.

High-transparency commercial reporting proved AI’s superior ROI compared to traditional marketing methods and provided the C-suite with quantifiable evidence to justify continued investment in Data & AI capability. Models that had been stuck in experimentation were transitioned into permanent production pathways, driving consistent customer experiences and reducing offer cannibalisation. Standardised model development and monitoring increased campaign reliability and effectiveness, while a single mission structure removed cross-functional friction and aligned objectives across Mobile, Fixed and Loyalty businesses.

Overall, the Lighthouse AI Mission established a repeatable, industrial approach to AI that delivered both rapid commercial wins and a durable operating model for sustained growth, retention and improved customer decision quality across the consumer business.