Claude's proficiency at intelligently selecting and using the right tool – whether searching documentation, accessing Jira, or analyzing code in GitHub – has been transformative for TELUS.

"The Claude family of models on Vertex AI is really exceptional when it comes to tool calling. Whether we add a hundred new tools or a thousand, it excels at picking the right one at the right time. This has been particularly powerful for parallel and multi-tool calling compound queries – that's where the magic happens."

For instance, after enabling Claude to search the internet, Fuel iX was able to provide much more accurate information about things like weather, current events, and enterprise documentation overnight. "The quality of our results just went through the roof because we gave Claude a tool and Claude was able to recognize when that tool would be useful," explains Watts.

Claude also helps developers produce more effective code. "We initially thought generative AI would have the biggest impact on marketers and creatives, but it's been instrumental in increasing productivity and reducing toil for our engineering, development, and coding teams as well," says Watts. Today, TELUS' engineering teams are now shipping code 30% faster, removing bottlenecks such as development, planning, and resource allocation. This process creates a feedback loop where Fuel iX creates the code and developers, designers, and product managers refine it through conversation.

This, Watts explained, has shifted the definition of a "builder" from someone who knows how to code to someone who knows "what good looks like." This has empowered designers, product managers, and others to work far more efficiently and write code based on what they want to do without worrying about the underlying programming language, contributing to product development in entirely new ways.

Watts also praises Gemini for its latency. Gemini Flash provides TELUS with fast, slick experiences that make it especially popular for external use cases. Many users at TELUS also take advantage of Gemini Deep Research to deliver comprehensive reports on topics with citable sources. "By connecting it to Google Drive, email, and the internet, Gemini is uniquely positioned to complete complex research tasks," says Watts. "The load it takes off of our team members is tremendous."

Fuel iX's dynamic, user-friendly environment, powered by the flexibility of Vertex AI and the capabilities of models like Claude and Gemini, has created limitless innovation potential. 

For Watts, the open-source foundation of Fuel iX is key to its success. "I love open source and community building. We want people to explore the best models and take what they need to deliver the best results for their use case."

Looking ahead, TELUS envisions Fuel iX enabling seamless collaboration across the global organization, empowering team members to solve complex challenges and deliver exceptional customer experiences. With over 13,000 custom AI solutions already deployed and growing, TELUS is proving that large organizations can embrace transformative technology while maintaining their commitment to privacy, security, and responsible innovation.