Is the telecommunications industry behind the AI curve? Of course, the industry says no, but why?
Is the telecommunications industry behind the AI curve? At a session at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona last week that was about to answer this question, KT director Soonmin Bae and Rakuten Symphony Chief Marketing Officer Geoff Hollingworth both said no. Of course they did, right? While carriers are not known to be leaders in adopting new technologies, speakers have provided the following reasons for why AI is different:
Telco has unique data
In the case of BAE, which I said slowly, carriers have access to “very unique” and “special” data, such as user preferences and locations that are not accessible outside of the telecommunications industry. This data is usually very personalized and very sensitive.
Furthermore, she continues, the rise in agent AI means that AI is moving to devices, resulting in an increasing number of transactions for this unique data. “An rise in agent AI, it moves to devices and embodies AI or physical AI, [and] At the heart of this transition is practical AI. Transactions are required as digital or physical activity data must be collected and transferred.[s] [are]… increase[ing]. ” And, critically, she continued. Telephone companies have a “major impact” on these transactions due to privileged access to the type of data in question.
Telco has a lot of data
Hollingworth also started with data for simple reasons. “If you want to transform the world with AI, start with data. This is 90-95% of what comes out of AI at the end of the day,” he said. “Telecom is actually one of the most data-rich industries on the planet. We've always been doing data,” he continued.
However, he acknowledged that telephone company data was not previously industrialized in terms of end-to-end management, governance or simplification. “Because we were never needed,” he added.
But telephone companies are now caught up in the fact that they have to industrialize their data to benefit from it – and according to Hollingworth, many have discovered that when they do this, the speed at which they can realize the power of AI is important.
Rakuten, for example, has millions of cell sites in Japan. “Every day, the antennas in these cells are automatically adjusted based on the climate, weather, not just the angle, but also the power, transforming the actual quality of service in the network, and act as a single machine because it allows you to centralize that data,” says Hollingworth. He added that this, combined with the company's leading language model (LLM), revealed late last year, allows customers to speak to customers in “normal natural language methods,” ultimately leading to better networking and quality of service.
AI itself solves the Telco AI talent problem
At this point, it's basically old news that Telecom has skills issues, especially when it comes to AI experts and software engineers. Bae said, “The biggest hard colco we face in the age of AI is hiring talent and maintaining talent. We've confirmed that future success lies in this talent.”
However, in Hollingworth, AI itself solves the issue of AI talent in telecom business. “Telecom is lagging behind in technology innovation,” he admitted, but added that this was really just one reason. “Technology innovation is the software business. It's the software domain. It couldn't attract, maintain and develop software engineers that technology leaders did outside of them.”
He explained that as a software developer himself, he has firsthand experience of how transformative AI is when it comes to coding. “This is the most transformative experience I've ever had. The speed at which I can develop software and normalize what I want is life-changing. The first industry to be confused by AI is the software industry, 1000%,” he said. “Our biggest opportunity is to use AI to become the next wave of software. Here, everyone is empowered due to domain knowledge and is now unlimited due to lack of coding skills.”
Telephone companies are comfortable, focusing on regulations
Finally, BAE explained that telcos are used to working within strict regulatory frameworks and are uniquely positioned to address ongoing challenges regarding AI governance, responsibility and security.
“Telephone companies need to play[n] An important role in maximizing data usage or verifying data [is] It is stored and used in a secure way… Governance is certainly very important in this age of AI. AI can be powerful, but people need to feel safe. ” she explained. Essentially, more people use AI services when they can only trust that data is protected and used in a responsible way. [they] You need to play [lead] With this AI governance, I believe that the future of AI is now really dependent on the hands of telecommunications businesses. ”
