More and more businesses are exploring Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to drive digital transformation. CSPs, cable companies, and the entire industry must find a path to value creation or be left behind. The telecom industry can benefit significantly from AI across the entire telco value chain: customer interaction, cost reduction, cybersecurity, and more.
The Race to Adopt AI
From telecom operators to cable companies, the telecommunications industry is expecting huge success from AI technologies. According to a recent Nvidia report, 90% of telecom professionals are
currently engaged with AI and 43% are investing in Generative AI (GenAI). GenAI refers to the various AI techniques, tools, and models designed to generate entirely new content based on an input. Businesses are embracing the technology to improve a wide variety of business needs: customer service and support (57%), employee productivity (57%), network operations and management (48%), network planning and design (40%), and marketing content generation (32%). Market projections for the global AI telecom indicate a CAGR of 28.3% by 2032. Telecom companies will make AI the fulcrum of their growth strategy with earmarked investments. But like any other technological advancement, adopting AI comes with its own share of challenges such as skill gaps, data privacy and security, integration complexity, cost/investment uncertainty, and regional regulatory compliance standards. At Orion, we’ve developed and tested numerous industry use cases to address various financial considerations and reduce the complexity of adoption for CFOs and CTOs.
Improving the Customer Experience
One of the biggest opportunities telcos are seeing in Generative AI technologies is enhancing the customer experience (CX). The industry is fiercely competitive. Providing outstanding customer experience can be a significant differentiator.
AI is expected to boost customer satisfaction across the entire telco value chain. Integrating AI with billing systems can minimize errors and improve processes by providing accurate, real-time billing information. Not only does this minimize disputes, but it also enables transparency and trust with customers.
Through AI, telcos can deliver intelligent, efficient, and highly personalized interactions that delight customers. For example, AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants offer round-the-clock assistance and quickly address customer issues. Their ability to provide natural, human-like conversations can greatly improve CX.
AI can also take customer support a step further with proactive recommendations and self-service diagnostics. AI assistants empower customers to resolve issues on their own without having to rely on agents and technical support all the time. By analyzing usage patterns, AI can proactively recommend or move customers to more cost-effective billing plans. This approach personalizes customer interactions, increases customer loyalty, and reduces churn while driving significant operational savings for providers.
New Monetization Methods
This is another area where AI can drive value for the industry. Telcos can optimize capital expenditure resulting from AI-driven operations and invest in new monetization areas and trials. Services such as Product Envisioning, Prototyping, Development Applications, and more are riding on AI technologies for next-generation innovation and newer monetization themes.
Product innovation and ideation are crucial for creating unique offerings that drive monetization opportunities in the telecom space. Generative AI can help ensure that new products meet customer needs and reduce risks by accelerating brainstorming, virtual user testing, dynamic go-to-market campaigns, and more.
For example, telcos can leverage GenAI to rapidly create and simulate diverse and realistic personas and scenarios for user group testing. This accelerates testing and provides quick insights into how different user groups interact with a new product, including edge cases and niche segments. This approach not only accelerates time-to-market but also maximizes revenue potential and market impact.
AI services can also be tailored to individual customer needs, ensuring unique experiences and continuous learning and adaptability. AI-driven customized campaigns resonate with individual customers, thereby increasing engagement and conversion rates. By analyzing user data and Authored Article preferences, telcos can tailor promotions to individual needs and improve upselling and crossselling opportunities.
Strengthening Security for IoT Devices
In the last few years, the industry has been using the most common wireless communication technologies for Industrial IoT such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NB-IoT, and LoRa.
For the mass coverage and usage of IoT services, 5G has been touted as a key enabler. It enables various use cases in digital twins, customer experience, and operations—a few areas that can reap rich dividends across sectors.
However, one major challenge of adoption is ensuring security for IoT solutions. Each connected device can potentially be exploited, and the complexity of 5G networks can create security blind spots. This is where AI technologies come in. It will revolutionize network security for telcos by providing advanced capabilities such as:
• Threat detection: AI can identify patterns that indicate fraudulent activities or security breaches. This involves continuous learning and improvement in refining the Large Language Model (LLM) algorithms to enhance the detection of malware and rouge IoT sensors.
• Simulating cyber-attacks: AI can help identify vulnerabilities before they can be exploited by leveraging machine learning techniques to mimic the behavior of bad actors.
• Monitoring: AI can continuously identify potential threats in network traffic and user behavior, automating the detection and response process. Examples of threats include sim card/sensor cloning, unauthorized access, and hacking attempts.
At Orion, we’ve implemented AI-enabled anomaly detection applications and statistical forecasting algorithms for advanced operations in telecommunications. Additionally, for a leading global telecom OEM, we developed a Self-Organized Network (SON) solution to automatically configure, provision, and optimize next-generation (xG) RAN.
Conclusion
AI is transforming the telecom industry by enhancing customer experience, optimizing operations, enabling new monetization methods, and strengthening security. As the industry continues to adopt AI, overcoming challenges such as skill gaps, data privacy, and integration complexity will be crucial to fully realizing it’s potential.
