AI helps Virgin Media O2 avoid over 1m call transfers
January 15, 2026
Virgin Media O2 saved customers a collective 1.45 billion seconds of their time last year – equivalent to more than 24 million minutes or more than 400,000 hours – after introducing AI and upskilling teams to improve how the company handles customer phone calls. Together, these improvements led to the company reducing call transfers by 1.3 million last year, compared with the previous year.
Historically, all customers calling Virgin Media or O2 would be prompted to press a number on their handset depending on the nature of their query, with their response dictating which team they’d be routed to. However, where a customer query didn’t fall perfectly within the options presented, or they wanted to discuss more than one issue, customers would sometimes be transferred between teams, causing frustration.
Today, the majority of customers are now invited to explain the reason for their call at the outset, with AI technology, Natural Language Understanding (NLU), used to better understand the customer’s intent and connect them to an agent who can provide the support required. The company plans to fully roll out this AI-led system across all customer journeys over the coming months, ensuring more customers get the help they need first time.
A comprehensive review was also undertaken to identify where and why high volumes of customer calls were being transferred. Using ‘heatmaps’ that showed particularly high traffic transfer routes, Virgin Media O2 implemented changes including simplifying teams to minimise the need for customers to speak to more than one agent. To enable this, the company has rolled out new agent training, with 5,000 employees cross-skilled to be able to provide a wider range of support to customers.
As a result of Virgin Media O2’s focus on improving customer service, complaints to the regulator about the company have more than halved over the past 12 months.
Alan Stott, Virgin Media O2’s Director of Customer Contact, said: “We always aim to provide a seamless experience for our customers and minimise the need to contact us for support. After all, nobody enjoys spending their time on the phone to their service provider, particularly when they’re being transferred between teams. Where a customer does need to speak to us, we want to make their experience as simple, efficient and productive as possible. That is why we’ve introduced AI technology which allows a customer to explain the reason for their call at the outset and quickly routes them to the appropriate team. Together with cross-skilling agents and simplifying our team structures, these improvements helped to reduce call transfers by over a million last year, saving our customers a combined 400,000 hours on the phone to us. We’ll continue to invest in our people and systems throughout 2026 and beyond to ensure we’re consistently giving our customers the best possible service.”
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