How This Director Is Innovating with Generative AI at Cox

Artificial Intelligence, or AI, is changing not only the tech landscape, but the world of work as we know it.  

The rise of AI brings new challenges. But like all emerging technologies, AI can be used for good — and that’s exactly what tech teams at Cox are doing every day.  

For instance, Chirag Gheewala was a senior technology manager working on cloud and infrastructure at Cox when generative AI was introduced to his team. He was excited for the opportunity to work with this technology because he saw how it would improve and streamline different projects and initiatives at the company.  

“I started doing small projects in AI when I was senior manager in late 2019 and 2020,” he explained.  

By the end of 2020, he had joined Cox’s natural language processing and AI team, which is where he started leading Cox Communications’ chatbot platform. Now, Chirag is a senior director focused on conversational AI at Cox.  

Here, Chirag talks about his journey in the world of AI and shares some examples of how his team is leveraging this technology at Cox. 

Chirag’s journey into AI at Cox   

Chirag joined Cox in 2013 as a lead software engineer. Within his first couple of years at the company, he was promoted into a management role and then senior management. Around the beginning of 2020, he started building bots during what he calls “the early days of AI.”   

His work with AI during that time led him to where he is today, working on conversational AI efforts for Cox Communications contact centers. He and his team are focused on developing and optimizing chatbots for Cox customer service.  

Applying AI to enhance customer service at Cox 

One of the big projects Chirag and his team are working on right now is improving the customer service chatbot for Cox Communications, known as Oliver, using generative AI.  

For Chirag and his team, the old model of AI meant building specific responses based on customers’ frequently asked questions. In this next phase of the project, the chatbot is able to generate responses based on the data provided to the AI.  

With the old model, customer services responses needed constant manual updates. Now, only the data sets have to be updated.  

“So now the generative AI can be a more personalized way of responding to the customer,” he said. 

Chirag and his team are looking forward to relaunching the next phase of the customer service chatbot with new generative AI capabilities. He also plans for his developers to use AI more often, which he expects will improve productivity by 50 to 60%. 

Navigating AI responsibly 

Chirag believes much of the fear around AI stems from people not seeing where they fit into the technology. 

“Every person as an individual needs to see where they fit into this new lifecycle of AI,” he said.  

AI is advancing fast, but it’s not perfect and we can’t rely on it completely. Human insight remains essential to bridge what technology can’t yet do. Chirag instills this perspective in his own work at Cox by using a “human-in-the-loop” approach to AI.   

With chatbots, for example, people will continue to play a crucial role helping the AI through different scenarios and use cases to make sure the chatbot is giving accurate and appropriate responses. Human oversight is also a key part in making sure AI is used responsibly. For example, it helps prevent bias against certain customers and address other ethical concerns. 

“We want humans to be in the loop to build that guardrail and to make sure that AI is doing what it’s supposed to,” Chirag said. 

Fostering and supporting innovation 

For Chirag, his experience working on generative AI has shown him just how much freedom and support he has to be innovative at Cox.  Whether he’s researching tools like Microsoft copilot or exploring emerging technologies, he knows he’s encouraged to think creatively and push boundaries. 

Chirag always feels comfortable bringing new ideas to the table, which is important in the world of technology. 

“There is a lot of good coaching from the leaders, which is making this place much more unique compared to any other company,” he said. 

Chirag encourages others — especially those interested in working in AI — to start using it in their everyday lives. Not only will it help build familiarity with the technology, but it will also reveal one of its biggest benefits: expediency. 

“One thing that is very clear is that AI is not going away,” Chirag said. “So, based on our individual skill set, we should be making sure that AI is useful for us.”