AI-Driven Marketing: How Calix Builds the Right Stack for the Broadband Industry

My first thirty days at Calix have been both intense and exhilarating. At Calix, the will of the people here and the need to drive a differentiated experience separate us from the rest, and this is a hallmark of Calix culture. In this same spirit, we are using our investments in AI to create unique experiences for our customers. 
 

When we talk about AI at Calix, we’re not talking about bolt-on tools—or speeding up yesterday’s processes. With all the AI‑washing out there, too many teams are simply automating the same workflow to do it faster. The real opportunity is to rethink the workflow entirely. Let’s use a simple example: marketing.
 

Traditionally, broadband service providers (BSPs) send one generic message to all subscribers: “Buy outdoor Wi‑Fi.” But people don’t buy that way. They respond to messages tailored to their lifestyle, delivered on the right channel at the right moment. Doing this the old way would require hundreds of micro‑campaigns for segments—well beyond the reach of small teams.

Rethink the Stack Before You Add Agents

Marketers should think about AI in a stack. At the foundation is data strategy: having the right data and the right context so personalization actually drives value. Above that sits the workflow—how work gets done, end‑to‑end. Then come the apps. Only after these layers are sound do you add agentic AI. 
 

Think of agents like a new hire: You still have to train and enable them, give them guardrails, and provide context—or it can be pretty disastrous. For example, I asked AI to merge a photo of me with a photo of my kids. From the first prompt, it forgot me altogether and invented two new adults to put with my kids. For the second prompt, I doubled down on adding me specifically, and it invented two new kids! Not exactly the happy family I was hoping to see. 
 

The bottom line is this: To hurry up, you sometimes must slow down. Do the diligence on data and re‑design the workflow—so agents can deliver quality at speed.

How Calix Agents Get to Micro-Segmentation Flows That Supercharge Marketing

On our next-generation platform, we’ve already built this stack. We provide the data strategy, the context, and the workflow design—then layer AI agents on top. These agents handle specific tasks: identifying segments, analyzing behavior, selecting messages, choosing channels, timing delivery, launching campaigns, and pushing messages out. Suddenly, our BSPs are not doing the work alone. They’re managing the agents doing the work. Their campaigns become precise, scalable, and effective, all the way down to one single subscriber.

Built-In AI That Scales With BSPs of Any Size

We’re model‑agnostic—using the best available “brains” (Gemma, Claude, Grok) without preference—while keeping BSP data secure so agents learn what matters in a controlled environment. This is unlike other offerings: designed for, built on, and trained by securely housed BSP data. And our Calix Success team will coach BSP teams to use it confidently.
 

This is the future of work—built right into the Calix platform. No BSP has to build or integrate it. They simply have to activate it.