Vocus names chief AI officer

Vocus has named Ben Chan as its chief AI officer, with a remit to lead the telco's "company-wide AI strategy" as well as centre of excellence operations.

Ben Chan, Vocus
Vocus

Chan comes to Vocus from Quantium, a firm that takes consumer data from the likes of banks and telcos and converts it into intelligence and insights for policy and business decision-making, or to inform activities such as marketing.

He has been Quantium's chief AI officer for about a year, and was its chief operating officer before that.

Chan has previously held executive roles such as chief product and data officer at Sportsbet, and chief operating officer at Envato.

Vocus confirmed the appointment on its corporate LinkedIn account.

In addition to being chief AI officer, Chan will also hold the role of managing director of consumer.

Vocus revealed earlier this year that it ran an “AI developer tool pilot” project with Amazon Q Developer, reporting productivity improvements and faster validation of ideas for new product features among its results.

It has also previously discussed an advanced Vocus assistant called AVA that is designed to "answer questions that our team has about Vocus policies, procedures, and best practices, saving valuable time searching various knowledge sources and documents."

AVA was trained on Vocus' HR and security policies, its support centre working instructions and on a glossary of terms and definitions."

The aim, though, was to produce an assistant capable of handling "complex and diverse requests relating to project management, data analysis, and more," it said at the time.

Vocus' move to appoint an AI executive mirrors that of other telcos.

In June this year, Telstra elevated Dayle Stevens to a new company-wide AI role, having earlier led the telco's data and AI function.

At Optus, AI responsibilities fall to Jesse Arundell after a mid-2025 restructure.

Meanwhile at NBN Co, AI leadership comes under Sonia Boije's chief data role.

Additional reporting by Ry Crozier