Artificial intelligence: A good idea for telcos?

Bjørn Taale Sandberg Bjørn Taale Sandberg, Telenor’s head of research

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and deep learning are already impacting the network operator community. Apart from driving efficiencies internally and customer interaction, AI is also allowing operators to extend their reach into their customer’s homes.

Telenor’s head of research, Bjørn Taale Sandberg says the technologies are the ‘magic’ that is bringing us driverless cars and facial recognition and have been sitting solidly atop the hype curve over the last few years. He adds, “We believe 2018 will be the year when deep learning moves beyond the hype, and will find new markets outside of the Internet giants.”

So in which areas are telcos currently deploying AI? In some ways the findings of a recent report by AI market intelligence research firm TechEmergence are surprising. With innovations such as SDN and NFV (not to mention IoT) occupying the minds of most major and quite a few minor telcos, one could be forgiven for thinking that intelligent network infrastructure would be their main focus for deployment. Not so, however. Taking soundings from the six leading telecom companies in the U.S. based on total annual revenues, TechEmergence found that the most popular AI applications appeared to be more focussed on the customer than the network or business processes.

It found that customer service chatbots for automating customer service inquiries, routing customers to the proper agent, and routing prospects, along with voice activated customer services were most widespread with predictive maintenance lagging behind. The report says, “While the largest firms (AT&T and Verizon) seem to be farthest along in their predictive maintenance applications, chatbots and voice interfaces seem to be nearly ubiquitous as major initiatives across the firms analysed.”

Thomas Rockmann, DT: Voice-operated interfaces for the home also gaining traction among operators.

Voice-operated interfaces for the home are also gaining traction among operators according to Thomas Rockmann, vice president connected home Deutsche Telekom and joint-CEO of the company’s Smart Home Project. He says, “The smart home market is key for telcos, and offering an AI solution has many attractions for all players. Striking partnerships with established AI brands or large consumer electronic vendors may offer the most effective onramp strategies. This would benefit a telco entering the smart home space with speed to market, plus a mature technology solution. For existing players, AI assistants provide an opportunity to revamp offerings, with one key caveat – customers must be convinced of the improved experience, rather than another channel to sell additional products and services. “

Indeed, Deutsche Telekom’s Connected Home in Germany, dubbed ‘Magenta SmartHome’ already has a simple Alexa Skill device that lets its customers use voice control to activate pre-programmed situations or switch to the “Absent” status on their smart home devices. The company recently announced plans to speed up the transition to AI during 2018 with the launch of an own-brand assistant and AI-enabled consumer speaker product to control smart home devices and DT’s services such as EntertainTV. Other operators also have plans to develop proprietary AI assistants including France’s Orange, which has partnered with Deutsche Telecom on the project. It is also known that Telefónica is developing a proprietary AI assistant, as is US-based Verizon.

Rockmann says that although currently limited to personal computing devices, smartphones and a few in-home devices, AI assistants are set to be far more widely integrated with the launch of wireless headphones incorporating Google Assistant being a case in point . He adds, “Ubiquity is imminent. From AI being an abstract concept, hidden elsewhere in the machine, the technology will soon be embedded into billions of devices, from cars to buildings, smart home devices to clothing.”

Of course, AI won’t just impact the telecoms industry, but as Telenor’s Sandberg warns, there are potential pitfalls for any company adopting it. He says, “The technology will take on a wide range of industries, including health, energy, transport [as well as] telco. Those [companies] that succeed will do it through hard work, well understood use cases, ample training data and skills and knowledge to train models. Business failures will come from misunderstood use, mismanaged expectations on deep learning’s capabilities, immature data handling, and not the least – from those that think deep learning is a magical tool that can be bought off the shelf and not grown from within.”

By Peter Dykes, freelance telecoms writer

 

 

 

 

By Peter Dykes, freelance telecoms writer

 

 

RECENT ARTICLES

Phoenix Tower International gains investment from Grain and BlackRock

Posted on: March 29, 2024

Phoenix Tower International (PTI) has announced that Grain Management (Grain), through its flagship funds, and BlackRock, through a fund managed by its Diversified Infrastructure business (BlackRock) have made an investment

Read more

Connectbase expands baltic connectivity with Bitė partnership

Posted on: March 28, 2024

Connectbase has announced the addition of Bitė to its ecosystem. This partnership marks a step forward in enhancing connectivity options within the Baltic region, providing a link between local and

Read more