How Vodafone is going beyond the WOW factor with AI at scale

Episode 163: How Vodafone is going beyond the ‘WOW’ factor

“I think for now, leaders need to understand that the new AI capabilities are not just for technology people. So it’s a business transformation that needs to happen. They first need to understand that they are supposed to be role models and that they can’t leave it to their people. They can’t delegate and just say ‘You need to figure out how you work with that new type of technology and I’m waiting for the results.’ They need to learn that it starts with them at the top. And I think then obviously the education bit kicks in. This is our accountability to ensure that the technology is understood, well translated into something that also our leaders understand and can relate to in their business context. So this is one thing they need to learn; they need to learn today and really reflect and start leading, motivating their teams – and you can’t do that without being a role model and really exercising that by yourself.”

Carolin Lücker

Nancy Goebel
Every so often, we get a chance to shine a spotlight on a standout moment from our annual Digital Workplace of the Year awards. And this is one of those moments. Vodafone recently took home top honours for ‘AI Enablement at Scale’, a recognition that reflects not just a successful initiative but a wider movement underway across the organization. And that’s exactly where we’re going today.

I’m delighted to be joined in the studio by Carolin Lücker, Principal Manager of Strategy and Design and Architecture at Vodafone. Carolin and her team have been key architects behind the WOW programme, a campaign that has captured attention across Vodafone for its clarity, its impact and its humanity. But as anyone who knows, Carolin will tell you, WOW is just the beginning.

In this episode, we’ll move beyond the award entry to explore Vodafone’s broader digital workplace strategy. Whether you’re just starting out on your transformation journey or looking to elevate already what you have in place, there’s plenty of insight and advice from Carolin to inspire, to challenge and spark new ideas.

This is Nancy Goebel, DWG’s Chief Executive and your host for this conversation. Digital Workplace Impact is brought to you by Digital Workplace Group. Join me now in conversation with Carolin. Happy listening!

Nancy
Well, Carolin, it’s such a treat for me to have a chance to speak with you, what will have been twice now within a very short period of time. Of course, we’ve had great cause for celebration with the team’s win of the 2025 Digital Workplace of the Year Award.

But certainly we know that there’s always lots of good stuff going on vis-a-vis Vodafone’s digital workplace. And so to have a chance to go from a meeting behind closed doors with DWG members to a broader sharing session is really exciting because it’s a story worth sharing. And so I want to extend the warmest welcome to you to the podcast studio and thank you for taking some time out of a busy schedule to come and have a chat with me.

Carolin
Hi Nancy, I’m super excited to be here. Thank you for having me.

Nancy
One of the reasons that we wanted to spark this conversation was to put some context around the broader work that’s happening around the digital workplace at Vodafone. Of course, the launch point was the idea that we had seen some unique and impactful success in a programme that you and the team launched that achieved the ‘wow’ factor for the employee experience at Vodafone. Knowing you and your team, this is just one aspect of your wider strategy. And so I know we talked about the fact that it was important to step back for a little bit from the award itself and have a broader conversation about that strategy and the wider impact that it’s had on not only the organization’s culture, but agility. And so start by telling us a little bit about the big picture.

Carolin
Yes, and it’s true, the award centred around the way we have been introducing AI at scale and also the way we have been able to drive engagement. And for sure, engagement is a huge success factor for us and it’s a huge area of focus for us. You can’t really successfully, I think, run a digital workplace if you are not engaging your people and then somehow ensuring that people understand and work with your technology. So it’s a super important part.

But of course, for a broader digital workplace strategy, there is a bit more that also needs to come in place so that, for example, AI at scale can be launched. And that’s probably what we want to talk about a bit more in-depth here within this session. Yes, what is our broader strategy? Let’s talk about that. So, yes, it has been revolutionized by AI but let me just share a few words on our mission statement probably to give us a starting point and from there look a little bit into the strategy. So if you think of us and what it is that we are driving since probably more than a decade also within the organization that I’m forming part of – which is the global office IT organization across Vodafone and all markets – what we’re really focusing on, what we are committing to, is that we are creating a future-ready digital workplace solution and with that, we are creating an engaging, AI-enriched digital workplace experience globally that drives employee productivity and satisfaction. So these are the elements that we are really focusing on. And a part of this engagement piece, I think the areas that I’d like to bring up here basically, is really our dedication towards an excellent employee experience that is focused on driving employee productivity – so, engagement, productivity and the experience are really the three main factors.

And then how we are doing that; it’s also through something that we are describing as this highly standardized service offering. So this is very important if you’re trying to do something at global scale and also clear commitment to security – compliance, security. So these are the foundation elements that we have been driving as an organization very successfully over a long period of time. And that has been the foundation for us then also to be able to launch AI at scale, also within the timeframes that we were able to achieve.

If we think about then the agility, let’s reflect on that. So, agility. To get us to a common understanding, I think you have also been defining that in one of your posts. iI’s responding to change by doing it with structure, right? I think that’s probably our joint understanding. So, with that foundation, I think that we have been giving here within our digital workplace, we have been able to create a culture and give our employees the tools that allow them to respond to change – and doing it in a structured way.

For example, if we go back to COVID times, that was obviously a huge disruption point in the industry and also for Vodafone. And we all had to very quickly switch into remote ways of working. Our organization was very strong in the way we have been doing that. And I think the foundation has been a very modern technology. We have really been driving our modern workplace in the right way. And through also this engagement that has happened on a continued basis, our people were ready to embrace the technology and really do this disruptive change in behaviours. I truly believe that this would have been more difficult if we hadn’t had the kind of culture also of fostering technology change, bringing these little changes to our people so that they were used to hearing changes to our technology. So that’s definitely part of our ability to respond to change.

Nancy
I certainly think about the fact that those of us who have been in and around the digital workplace industry for some time used to see significant changes in blocks of time. So, when we were developing early-stage digital workplace capabilities, that would mean a team would disappear for a year, two years, three years sometimes, and then out of the other side present a new portal, a new experience, a new something. And so, change was concentrated around that launch. Whereas, you know, when you look at where we are as an industry, that change happens on a continuous level. The nature of technology is such that it’s ever-evolving, but then you start to factor in things that are happening on a global scale, an industry scale, a political level, and so on and so on, the changes that employees need to work through day to day happen at scale and at faster and faster intervals.

A challenge for teams like yours is to look for opportunities for impact. And so we know that the level of information overload is one that continues to be a challenge. And so the idea that

organizations need to provide increasingly intelligent, yes, but personalized experiences supported and enabled by AI keep taking on added importance. Tell us a little bit about how Vodafone is approaching that slice of the equation as well.

Carolin
You’re absolutely right. People within Vodafone have to work with a lot of information. We are in a corporate, very complex, matrix organization. Yes, people have to digest information from many different angles and then react with speed and progress and process that information. So, personalization of the digital workplace has been a topic, I think, for many years. It’s something that has been a classic theme, right? If we probably cast our eyes back 10 years, we already talked about intranets, we probably already talked about the ability to somehow personalize some of the content. But yes, with AI, GenAI, I think we are getting to a point where new technology allows us really to go into a much different mode of providing these kinds of personalized experiences. And within Vodafone we are experiencing the same.

So, how do we approach that? We have a landing page in place that already is a very distinct landing page. It’s a tailored experience that we have been building. It’s the core focus of where we are probably going away from a SaaS product (a software as a service product), but really focusing on something that we are building with our own resources within our own teams. Basically, it’s a tailored experience, already driving for tailored experiences across all of our markets. We are serving more than 20 markets and these variations also adjusting to different languages is definitely a classic theme that we have.

The way we are progressing now, given that AI also kicks in; certainly the introduction of Copilot as the foundation for our people has already changed the way people are able to personalize information. So we are going in stages.

I think it is fair to say we started with Copilot for M365 as something that is already at our employees’ fingertips for all knowledge workers. So that allows them in parallel to a traditional landing page where all the central information comes together to already interact in this real-time, very natural, interactive natural language type of format. So it’s complementary, also sitting as an integral part of Teams. And, with that, at every part of the digital workplace, people can interact and find information, much more tailored probably than what they had.

So we are seeing also that people are changing their behaviours in the way they are choosing, for example, not to take the search that is inbuilt in the intranet, but they’re switching then obviously to AI and they are just asking Copilot for an answer. So, that’s definitely a change, probably that we can see as a mirror also to the industry, right? To  consumer behaviour. People don’t take the search engines anymore; the same is happening within Vodafone.

We are also introducing the agentic world. So we are allowing our employees already to experiment with agents in all shapes and forms. And we are seeing that as the next stage where an even more tailored experience can be created that even more sits within a certain business context and therefore accelerates even further the way people get individual information that is far more personalized than what we had before. So these are definitely the themes we are seeing.

We had a major milestone just recently in December. We have been launching our Refresh Ask HR experience, the capabilities. They were already built here on Copilot capabilities embedded in the SAP experience. I think I can mention that. We are definitely a workplace that works in a multi-vendor approach and these kind of integration scenarios are important for us. And that’s really the tipping point of where we are. The Ask HR solution has been the first one that allowed us to build a cross-system AI-enriched experience where people can ask for information. And, as we go forward, our ambition really is to provide AI as a framework basically where these types of system integrations become feasible at scale. So that’s the factory approach we are working towards.

Nancy
This agentic space is one that is getting quite a lot of attention nowadays. Not only has Copilot embedded different agents to support research and analysis, but we’re now starting to see coaching capabilities coming into vogue as well. And so, can you share with us some examples of how agentic systems are transforming the ways employees are accessing information or collaborating or innovating inside of Vodafone?

Carolin
I have a very nice example. So, we have been leveraging agents to coach our senior leadership. It cascades through the entire organization; it’s not just tailored to leaders. But it was a very perfect example also of how we have been able to influence a very important target audience for us.

So, we have been using the flight academy concept basically – the flight school concept – where, with the support of agents, we’ve been building this kind of flight school that, in turn, then allowed us to educate our leaders on the excellent way of prompting. So I think that’s really a super-nice example where agents helped us to deliver this kind of education tool.

And then, all of the context of that; in this context of educating our leaders, because, for sure, this AI revolution, it needs to be driven from the top. So we need to find new ways of influencing our leaders to really understand the technology and be enabled to be role models for that change. That for sure needs to be a business transformation and not just a technology change. So these kind of flight schools – agents that are providing this kind of flight school environment – have been a huge success at our leadership level. And we are currently cascading that through the entire organization, so that people are enabled within their teams to get trained on finding their perfect prompts and upskilling basically their core skills. And that will be useful on all levels: for product innovation, for operational excellence. So I think that’s a very good example of the way we have been enabling this type of innovation.

Other than that, if you want another example, we are experimenting a lot with agents in certain business corners of our organization. We are seeing, for example, within the procurement space that we have lots of success in the way we have been enabling those teams to process RFPs much more quickly and with higher quality also. These kind of RFPs, they need to be answered and these are highly complex documents and the volume at which people need to consume the information and then process the information is very high. And, with Copilot and having the ability to have agents that are tapping into this kind of very dedicated knowledge pool, and then helping to pull together the information that is required for those RFPs to be answered. These have been very early successes of agents where we’ve been seeing business enablement, business empowerment in a very specific function. So not just here, a horizontal value across the entire workforce but also then very specific to corners of our organization, business-specific departments within our organization.

Nancy
I love the fact that you’ve shared both a horizontal and a vertical example of how this area is developing and changing ways of work very rapidly inside of the organization.

I also can’t help but think about something that you said very specifically, which is the importance of supporting and enabling leadership as a lever for creating wider change across the enterprise. So, leadership involvement, leadership sponsorship is always important. At the same time, we know that the leadership paradigm has to evolve very quickly as AI becomes more entrenched in how businesses run and then, of course, the agentic side that goes along with it. And so, I guess I’m wondering if you have a way that you’re thinking about how leadership will evolve as they need to drive teams that are both human and AI based looking at the world from this point forward?

Carolin
You’re spot on. This change, I think, in very basic leadership ingredients – this is really top of mind also for us in Vodafone. I think it’s probably happening in stages. I think, for now, leaders need to understand that the new AI capabilities are not just for technology people. So it’s a business transformation that needs to happen. They first need to understand that they are supposed to be role models and that they can’t leave it to their people. They can’t delegate and just say ‘You need to figure out how you work with that new type of technology and I’m waiting for the results.’ They need to learn that it starts with them at the top. And I think then obviously the education bit kicks in. This is our accountability to ensure that the technology is understood, well translated into something that also our leaders understand and can relate to in their business context. So this is one thing they need to learn; they need to learn today and really reflect and start leading, motivating their teams – and you can’t do that without being a role model and really exercising that by yourself.

And then, you’re right, I think as we go forward, it will be this change in this very core principle: leaders are here to lead people. I think that’s what we are currently seeing. And you’re right, as we go forward, we will have leaders that are leading teams and agents. It will take some time, I think, before this becomes a reality. That’s at least my view on the maturity of that. But as we go forward, leaders then need to be very much aware also of the framework in which they lead that from a business perspective. How do you split accountability between real people and those kind of technology identities, machine identities? What does it mean in terms of performance reviews and where accountabilities lie? And obviously the entire angle of ethical AI and those kinds of standards – they need to be first created. So that’s again, something that first needs to somehow be digested within the organization before it can be rolled out at scale. But it starts with leadership having a very clear view of that, having a vision, and then also being enabled really to work within such a framework and to lead in such a framework.

It’s a very exciting new world that definitely drives us across probably more than, let’s say, the next 12 to 18 months. I think this is really something that will drive us for a longer period before it becomes the standard. But it starts today. Now, we need to think about and we need to ask our leaders: ‘What is the type of people you want to lead? What is the type of workforce you want to create now to be successful in the future?’

Nancy
And I think it’s – and you’ve heard me say this before but I think it bears repeating in this context as well ­– and that is that we need to create environments where continuous learning is just part of the organizational dynamic and that needs to take different forms because we all have different learning styles, but the principle stands.

And the other is fostering a level of curiosity because it’s the combination of the two that will feed that change agility, number one, but number two, lead to new forms of innovation within our industry, supported and enabled not only by the leadership, but by the convergence of AI and people to form new team dynamics. And so, I think it’s a very exciting time to be part of our industry, understanding that there will be a new level of chemistry that comes together with these new dynamics in play. I guess I’m curious to hear what you see as some of the next-stage opportunities and challenges – the things that are on the horizon for Vodafone’s digital workplace team next?

Carolin
Let me just add one very critical element of our culture that is part of our core values. I’m very keen to share this. I’m also a Spirit ambassador within our organization. So, Spirit is our cultural transformation programme. And one theme that has been very prominent over the last years is psychological safety. And I think this is so important as a foundation for the organization to allow for this kind of innovation and curiosity that you just mentioned. As leaders, I think we need to make sure that we are creating these kinds of safe spaces where we are allowing people to be way they want to be. We need to create the safe space that allows them to share, without fear, what it is that they think needs to change. They need to share their ideas. And they can only do that if they feel safe. So I think that kind of cultural aspect, it has been a core training theme over the last few years in Vodafone. It’s an integral, super integral, part of any culture. If this is not in place, people will not open up to innovate and allow for this change to happen. Yes, I’m probably just mentioning this really as an integral part of a cultural transformation that I think every organization needs to reflect on.

The challenges and the biggest opportunities on the horizon for Vodafone when we think about the digital workplace. Yes, let me answer and give you my view. So, Vodafone is in a highly dynamic place, we are in tough competition. Vodafone is in a transformation journey for everyone who has been also listening a little bit about Vodafone’s journey in the market. So we need to continue to provide customer excellence in times of uncertainty, in times of these kinds of major transformational processes that are happening in the organization.

The digital workplace needs to provide the contributions. So the opportunity for us really is to help our people to be productive and to empower them basically to be at their best so that this challenging environment can be satisfied and they can deliver in that environment.

AI continues to be a major part of that. The opportunity obviously is to introduce AI even more within all corners of our organization. This is also part of our corporate AI strategy: embedding – so, not just fostering the curiosity, but embedding AI safely within our processes continues to be an opportunity and a challenge at the same time.

You need to go into this kind of sustained adoption of AI. And that goes beyond this initial curiosity. We need to ensure that people change their behaviours very consistently so that they can find new products, new innovation; they can accelerate ways of working, they can enhance the quality of ways of working. So, driving that kind of sustained change in the area of AI definitely is a key opportunity.

And what are our challenges in that space? My experience over the last 20 years in that space is that there are golden windows when technology, business, business priorities, and also then probably governance, if I’m bringing that in as well, when these things are coming together. So you need the technology that needs to be ready. You need the business priority because if you are not aligned with your business priorities, the technology alone doesn’t get adopted basically. And then the best technology doesn’t work if there is not governance in place, both from a business and from a technology perspective that brings structure in order to scale the change that needs to happen. So this golden window of orchestrating how technology change, business momentum and structures come together; I think that’s really the challenge we need to address. And those golden opportunities are opening up and you are achieving to orchestrate these three angles.

Nancy
I couldn’t agree more. It also does make me think about the fact that sometimes there can be a level of, shall we say, dynamic tension between some of the key enabling partners inside of the digital workplace, namely the trifecta of HR, Internal Communications and Technology. And so, as someone who has been a strong leader in this industry, I’m wondering if you have any advice or notable shares around how to bring the best of that trifecta to collaborate to support this level of business transformation that you’re talking about?

Carolin
You’re absolutely right. This trifecta, as you’re calling it; it’s the foundation for success. I definitely have the same experience also within Vodafone. We have been at our best at times where HR, Internal Comms and IT have been working together in a very seamless way.

What is my advice? It’s a top-down and a bottom-up dynamic, I think, that you need to bring in place. There needs to be joint priorities. So I think that’s the top-down thing. Ideally, you have a programme or you have a scope of work that is firmly embraced and endorsed by your top leadership team. There needs to be a very clear view, a clear vision driven from a business perspective but then empowered by technology. And you need to get that in place from a top-down perspective. If this is missing, you can bring together the best teams and the best ideas, but it wouldn’t come to fruition. So top-down, this needs to be in place. You need this executive sponsorship. And then it’s about orchestrating those teams from this diversity that you just mentioned. So, HR representatives need to be there; Internal Comms, you need those in order to help us communicate whatever is agreed in terms of scope; and then you need the right technology resources and also the right technology from a tooling perspective that needs to be put in place in order to empower the transformation that you want to achieve. So this is my advice, really creating structure, getting top-down executive sponsorship, and then this clarity of scope in order to orchestrate the change that is desired.

And then, on top of the iceberg, is the fun factor! This is also not to be forgotten. Whatever you do, and I’m coming back to this kind of engaging experience, whatever you do, you should not forget that you want to create something that is desirable for your employees. So making it lightweight, making it something that is easy and fun to learn about, to see how it helps people to be at their best or to improve business outcomes. I think that’s the part that we have also been learning in Vodafone across the years that is a success factor. The more you make it fun, the more you really get people into an engagement mode and that’s what you want to get to.

Nancy
Yes, well, sage advice, as always, Carolin. Any other advice that you’d want to fold into this conversation, based on years of leading Vodafone’s digital workplace transformation journey?

Carolin
I think, what would I say is the key thing? There is no alternative to embracing change. I think that’s one thing. I think AI – probably there might be still some organizations who are thinking whether they should tap into that – but I think there is no doubt that it needs to happen. It’s just, I think, a question of how quickly you get into that and how you’re structuring yourself. And I think that’s probably my overall reflection.

Why has Vodafone been so successful in changing or introducing AI at pace? We’ve been successful because we had this kind of operational strength and structure underneath. So I think my advice probably is more for the IT parts of our audience who are listening to this podcast.

Having this kind of operational strength, thinking about the way you are standardizing the different workplace components, the way you are driving for compliance – these are topics that are probably less sexy. They are probably less at a business experience perspective, but they are fundamental if you want to really drive change and introduce AI at scale – and if you want to create an environment that is attractive to your talent.

If you have the opposite, if you have something that is still somehow diverse and you are just plotting together multiple bits of technology pieces, and then you’re not creating a structure that creates this operational strength, you will not succeed. I think that’s probably the foundation really why as a very mature IT operational organization, we have been at ease when we had the opportunity to introduce AI then at scale.

So yeah, it’s not just the buzz of AI, but it’s really doing your homework and creating a foundation that is structured, compliant, standardized. That’s my recommendation for the broad organization, for the foundation basically. And then it’s all about the engagement and not letting go of the opportunity to create excitement with the employees so that the continued change is seen as something that is positive and that people enjoy.

Nancy
Well, you always spring conversation that makes people think, but also opens the door to possibilities. Hearing this conversation over the last half hour has left me inspired and energized. And I’m clearly seeing a formula that really amplifies how you, the team, the organization, have achieved the ‘wow’ factor. I have to cap this conversation off by saying, these insights are thoughtful and actionable, but I’d be remiss not to say, is there anything that we’ve missed, anything that you were hoping to share as part of this conversation before we cap off our time together?

Carolin
With everything we’ve been doing, the people are sitting at the centre. I think that’s probably what we want to have in mind. I have been talking a lot about the structure and standardization and everything. In the end, it all needs to be tailored towards our employees because they sit at the core of the digital workplace. So, yes, that’s probably the overlay that I’d like to give and then the final theme. Tie it back to the employees. It’s always about listening to the employees and then building the strategy around a proper understanding of how your people are feeling in the organization and how you think you can help them to be more productive and at their best.

Nancy
It’s all about having that clear view of what they’re thinking, what they’re feeling, and what they’re doing to continue to support and enable that in line with the greater purpose of the organization. Well said.

I have to thank you for coming into the studio, Carolin. It’s always a pleasure to be in conversation with you. And, of course, we look forward to continuing to follow the transformation journey at Vodafone, as well as your leadership.

Thank you so much for coming into the studio today.

Carolin
Thank you, Nancy.

Nancy
Digital Workplace Impact is brought to you by Digital Workplace Group. DWG is a strategic partner covering all aspects of the evolving digital workplace industry, not only through membership, but also benchmarking and boutique consulting services. For more information, visit digitalworkplacegroup.com.