How ADT embraces AI to make every second count

For over 150 years, ADT has been a leader in home security, empowering customers to protect what matters most—their families, homes, and businesses.

When Wayne Thorsen, ADT's Chief Business Officer, joined in 2023, his mission was clear: sharpen ADT's competitive edge. His first step was launching the proprietary ADT+ platform, making it possible to bring new services and products to customers, serving more varied needs and getting to market faster. At the same time, ADT has been undergoing a transformation, built on leveraging AI and other technologies to enhance products and customer care for its customers.

With the ADT+ platform and app now earning rave reviews, especially following the launch of Trusted Neighbor, ADT expanded its sights to delivering step changes in the care experience for any customer that needs ADT’s help.

Delivering faster, more flexible customer care

In addition to the ADT+ mobile app, ADT manages millions of customer interactions each month, including two million care requests. Elevating customer care interactions —from password resets to account management and service appointments— to match the quality of product interactions requires alignment across technology, channels, and teams, with clearly defined performance metrics.

“Our employees are deeply committed to our mission of keeping customers safe and helping them improve their lives as they desire. Any technology investment has to amplify that commitment.” says Nadou Lawson, Senior Director of Strategic Partnerships. “We weren’t going to rush into AI for the sake of doing something new. We wanted to be deliberate—what problems could we solve with AI, and how could we do it in a way that brought real value to both our customers and employees?”

In defining target experience and goals, Wayne, Nadou, and ADT’s Care/CX leaders continuously come back to” every second counts” as the anchor for what an AI solution has to enable. “We need to have the right information and tools in place so that when customers need us, their issues are resolved quickly and effectively, especially when they want to self-service,” Nadou emphasizes. “And ideally, we consistently exceed their expectations.”

Finding a partner

Knowing that AI will play a key role in its ongoing customer experience transformation, ADT has been laying much of the groundwork for this shift by unifying data. But a strong data foundation isn’t enough. ADT needs partners who are experts not only in the technology but also know how to strategically apply it to customer care.

“Sierra stood out in many ways,” Wayne shares. “We spoke to several companies, but Sierra brought unmatched strategic insight and relevant expertise. Sierra didn’t just offer a technical solution—they helped us rethink our approach to the customer experience.”

Nadou elaborates, “A lot of providers will give you a generic solution and say, ‘Here, plug this in.’ But with Sierra, it’s different. They helped us to integrate our brand and customer requirements to deploy an AI agent that can adapt and support multiple areas of our business over time. This is a key differentiation between a provider/vendor and a strategic partner, which is how we see Sierra – we have a mutual commitment to innovating and scaling, in the ways that are right for ADT’ customers, agents, and business.”

Accelerating beyond customer support

As part of their transformation, ADT has launched a Sierra AI agent to handle a variety of customer Help Center questions—from troubleshooting inquiries like “Why is my system beeping?” to account and billing questions like “How do I sign up for EasyPay?” or “How do I change my password?” Soon, their AI agent will have expanded capabilities, offering customers the ability to make a payment, reschedule a service visit, order yard signs or batteries, and more.

This is just the start for ADT. Customer care was chosen as the place to start the company’s AI journey. Given the scale of impact possible, however, ADT intends to evaluate and find new ways to evolve many parts of the business, leveraging AI and technology. Early partners, like Sierra, are key to setting the right vision, pace, and proof points for what can be achieved. “Sierra has been a true game-changer for us,” Wayne says. “Sierra is not only helping us improve today’s customer experience but inspiring where we want to go tomorrow.”