Alex Mercier-Dalphond, senior vice-president of infrastructure modernisation and operations at Lumen, says the company's AI-driven overhaul of its network has already delivered $350 million in annualised cost savings and could reach $1 billion by 2027.
What happened
Lumen, a global network infrastructure provider, inherited a tangled web of more than 22 inventory systems, hundreds of disconnected data sources and decades-old equipment after a series of acquisitions spanning four decades. The resulting "structural debt" slowed basic operations and limited the firm's ability to meet evolving client technology needs.
To address this, Lumen launched a multiyear transformation that placed an artificial-intelligence agent atop a semantic abstraction layer covering over 500 data systems, tools and applications. The AI can answer a single prompt by querying the entire data estate, allowing the team to identify duplicate or conflicting records and to rebuild them into a unified model.
"If there was an equipment that was made in the last 40 years, the chance of it being in our network is fairly high, extremely high," said Alex Mercier-Dalphond. "Trying to transform our network to be more simplified, more agile to support the AI workloads that we're facing now is not a novel idea. AI just enabled us to deliver on that vision."
Why it matters
The consolidation of legacy systems and the modernisation of near-obsolete equipment are not new cost-cutting tactics, but Lumen's approach combined strict governance, a dedicated Lumen Transformation Office (LTO) and an obsessive focus on key performance indicators (KPIs) from the outset of each project. This disciplined framework allowed the company to measure impact at a granular level, linking AI initiatives directly to customer satisfaction, churn reduction and ticket volume.
Kina Corcoran, chief data officer at Lumen, explains that the new workflow reduced the time required to answer complex customer queries from months to seconds. The speed gains also extend to field operations: planners can now generate and execute network consolidation plans in 15-minute intervals rather than days, with the AI automatically sequencing tasks and updating the network operating centre.
"That complex question could sometimes take us months to answer with multiple people. Now we get an output in a matter of seconds," said Kina Corcoran. "The value for both employees and customers can't be overstated."
What happens next
Lumen's LTO continues to standardise business cases across units, ensuring every AI investment is tied to a measurable KPI. The company plans to extend the AI-enabled workflow to additional service lines, further reducing manual handoffs and accelerating response times for enterprise customers.
With the $350 million savings already realised in 2025, Lumen aims to hit $1 billion by 2027, reinforcing its competitive position in a market where rapid digital transformation is increasingly essential.