Huawei, a leading global technology provider, has unveiled insights into the adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) by telecom operators, shedding light on the challenges they face and showcasing successful examples of AI implementation in the telecommunications industry.
Historically, the telecommunications sector has been a pioneer in adopting new technologies and integrating them into innovative services and applications. The emergence of AI has not escaped the attention of telcos, with many exploring diverse use cases to leverage the vast potential offered by AI technologies.
AI-Assisted Use Cases with Maximum Impact for Telcos:
Network Optimization: Telcos are leveraging AI tools to proactively analyze and track their networks and other data parameters. This enables them to identify potential issues before they occur, plan preventive measures, predict network congestion, and reroute traffic to avoid network outages.
Personalized Customer Services: AI-powered customer service chatbots have become commonplace, offering personalized experiences to users. These bots enhance efficiency, reduce costs, and, according to an IBM study, can save companies $1 million annually for every second they shorten the average call center handling time.
Sales & Marketing Enhancement: AI-driven tools enable telcos to better understand and analyze customer data, unlocking upsell opportunities through personalized messaging and precise marketing. This helps streamline sales and marketing operations, improve customer care, reduce churn, and enhance operational performance.
Fraud Detection and Security: AI tools analyze real-time data patterns to detect abnormal behaviors, flag potential fraud, and respond proactively to threats. This enhances overall security management, safeguarding the operator’s network, critical infrastructure, and customer data.
Examples of Telcos Successfully Implementing AI:
SK Telecom (South Korea): Announced its ‘AI Pyramid Strategy’ in September 2023, aiming to transform into an AI company by 2028. The strategy involves AI infrastructure, AI transformation (AIX), and AI services, including the world’s first Korean Large Language Model (LLM) service called ‘A.’
Elisa (Finland): Launched an AI-powered chatbot named Annika, automating around 70 percent of inbound contacts with a 42 percent First Call Resolution (FCR) level and increasing Net Promoter Score (NPS) from 30 to 50.
Telenor (Norway): Introduced the AI-powered virtual agent Telmi, handling over 1 million customer inquiries from launch to October 2023, achieving business and ROI goals within the first year.
Zain (Kuwait): Launched the fully automated AI-bot zBot for smart customer service, addressing various customer queries without human intervention.
Airtel (India): Developed an AI-based solution to proactively detect, prevent, and eliminate phishing spam through messaging, blocking up to two million messages a day.
Vodafone (European footprint): Utilizing AI tools for network planning, achieving a 70 percent reduction in major network and IT incidents.
Verizon (USA): Proactively using AI tools to track changes in traffic flows across mobile networks, optimizing network investments and maintaining reliability.
AT&T (USA): Democratized AI across their organization, reporting an 80 percent reduction in fraud with their H2O AI Cloud.
These examples represent a snapshot of global telcos successfully integrating AI into their operations, with the expectation that the list will continue to expand rapidly in both breadth and scope.
Abhinav Purohit, Chief Expert at Huawei Technologies, in a recent blog post, said: “The era of AI has truly begun, and only telcos that harness the full potential of AI will be able to thrive in the future.”
