Lumen’s CEO: Why Executives Need to Rethink Their AI Use
According to Kate Johnson, CEO of Lumen Technologies Inc., the fact that half the planet’s online traffic consists of AI bots means that executives will have to rethink how their companies approach operations.
On 13 April, Kate wrote an open letter to fellow CEOs and company executives, warning that they must prepare for the industry-wide shift in AI-driven traffic patterns at amounts and speeds that are becoming increasingly harder to predict.
“The new corporate workforce is comprised of AI agents and bots. They’re proliferating rapidly, operating continuously, insatiably consuming and generating data and dynamically interacting with other agents, bots and humans,” Kate wrote in the letter.
“And despite the early days of AI adoption in most businesses, today, more than 50% of internet traffic is created by these autonomous workers.”
Kate said that companies who rely on computing power and data processing can no longer take their physical network capacity for granted.
She added that organisations that used to buy network capacity to cover set volumes and routes will have to rethink those options and consider switching to a consumption-based model.
Realigning operations for AI
Kate first took on the CEO role for Lumen, which handles 65% of global internet traffic, in November 2022, the same month as ChatGPT’s launch.
Since then, she has been instrumental in realigning Lumen’s operations to match the rising demand for AI.
“In the AI economy, what I also call the 'change economy,' there’s no greater superpower than the ability to pivot, to morph and to shape what the industry needs,” Kate said in an interview with Bernhard Kickenweiz for Spencer Stuart.
She went on to discuss how the company took a risk on scaling for AI prior to its rise, saying: “We knew AI would be big, but the essence was listening to customers. Some of our largest potential customers said, ‘I will buy from you if you are a going concern’. That clarity helped us focus the work.”
Much like other companies in the tech industry, Lumen is incorporating AI into its operations, such as using large language models to help identify network threats.
In 2024 the company said that it detected traces of activity tied to Salt Typhoon, a Chinese hacking group targeting US telecommunication networks, and subsequently removed the suspected culprits.
The company announced in February, that it was preparing to partner with Anthropic and expand its fibre network in the US as part of a US$13bn private connectivity contract, reinforcing the company’s efforts to tie itself to large AI players within the industry.
Adaptable and resilient networks
Under Kate’s leadership, Lumen sold its consumer fibre-to-the-home business to AT&T Inc. for US$5.75bn and used the proceeds to pay down US$4.8bn in debt.
Lumen is looking to source US$1bn in cost savings by the end of 2027 and has forged a US$200m software partnership with Palantir.
The partnership is designed to provide Lumen with software to support its telecommunications with more AI services and assist Palantir in growing its customer base.
Other tech firms have sought AI investments to improve areas like productivity and deliver company-wide cost transformations.
In a similar vein, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy wrote an open letter to shareholders detailing his plans to implement AI technologies across the company to enhance the e-commerce experience and lower service and product costs for customers.
“To support the brave new world of AI, networks need to be completely adaptable, programmable and consumption-based, just like cloud,” Kate added in the letter.
“Your network should be able to adapt to your business while being resilient to the environment around it.”