We are living in an age of digital transformation that is being felt across many industries, but none more so than in telecoms where the convergence of 5G connectivity, artificial intelligence (AI), and the cloud are powering a new digital economy geared to consumers and enterprises.
A record number 101,000 attendees, including many from the world’s largest mobile operators and tech companies gathered at Mobile World Congress (MWC) to discuss the opportunities and challenges posed by this rapid digital acceleration.
To help demystify these complex topics and provide actionable insights, Think with Google spoke to leaders at Google, Nokia, MWC owner’s GSMA, Vodafone, and Zain Group about how these technologies are impacting their business.
2024 will be the year AI is monetised
If 2023 was a year of experimentation, 2024 is the year for new AI enhanced products to be launched. Take our contact centre AI, by infusing AI, agents can now quickly and accurately synthesise network issues, locate past records, and respond back to customer requests in real time.
Our work with Orange is a great example of this kind of collaboration between AI and agents. They are testing Generative AI (GenAI) to transcribe calls, summarise exchanges between customer and agents, and suggest possible follow up actions to the agent based on the discussion. This has the potential to dramatically improve both the efficiency and quality of customer interactions
For businesses — like manufacturers or retailers — to thrive in every corner of the globe they need ubiquitous, high bandwidth, low latency connectivity.
We’re not there yet, which is why many small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are removing connectivity constraints - whilst taking advantage of local real-time insights - by deploying Google Distributed Cloud on their premises to support “always-on” connectivity. This is why you find many retailers installing point of sale machines that are powered by servers deployed within their store.
The sky’s the limit with cloud-based software
Nokia used to be known for phones. Now we are all about networks, software, and B2B technology. We partner with service providers — like Verizon, Vodafone and Telefonica — as well as with enterprises and our expertise is entirely focused on connecting the digital ecosystem to enable them to leverage the cloud securely and reliably to improve their networking capabilities.
As a business, we’re increasingly moving towards selling Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), which allows customers to connect to and use cloud-based apps over the Internet. And by incorporating AI — for example in analytics or detecting network anomalies — our customers can implement at scale with newfound agility and make savings quicker.
One such AI-powered solution we have is AVA Energy Efficiency, which uses machine learning to analyse networks to make dynamic decisions about switching off or ramping up resources during unscheduled quiet or busy periods. This is currently saving customers — like Telefonica in Germany — up to 30% on their power consumption.
A lot of service providers are only partially 5G (radio base stations only). It’s only when networks switch over all the way to 5G — otherwise known as “standalone” — that you begin to see the truly transformative benefits. For example, in manufacturing, full 5G can enable digitised, connected factories that support autonomous mobile robots to deliver materials with precision.
Monetising 5G networks is the number one issue for service providers. At Nokia we’re partnering on an activity called Network is Code. This is where we connect the whole digital ecosystem to allow networks to expose their 5G capabilities to developers that can then build applications — without telecom expertise — for consumers or enterprises. For example, one client is a port using real-time video and analytics to remote pilot ships.
Telecoms must avoid a GenAI skills adoption gap
MWC Barcelona 2024 saw four days of discussion, thought leadership and networking with attendees from across the mobile ecosystem. AI was on everyone’s mind: the opportunities and challenges.
As our Director General, Mats Granryd, said in his keynote at MWC, organisations around the world are using AI to optimise operations and customer interactions.
By 2030, it’s estimated that AI could contribute over $15 trillion to the global economy and a recent survey from GSMA Intelligence found that 18% of operators have already deployed generative AI solutions, while 56% are currently testing them.
That’s why we have announced a collaboration with IBM to foster the adoption and development of GenAI skills in the telecoms sector. We want to ensure this transformative technology is inclusive and prevent an “adoption gap” that would see service providers with smaller research and development and investment funds fall behind.
Looking ahead, the next evolution of 5G, 5G-Advanced will further bolster enterprise deployment — improving speed, maximising coverage, and enhancing mobility and power efficiency. For example, 5G-Advanced will support the development of augmented reality applications by lowering uplink latencies and enable automation in manufacturing by improving cellular-based positioning accuracy.
The rise of the cloud has had a profound impact on the telecoms sector with hyper-scalers and startups who adopted a cloud-native approach early on disrupting the industry, through new revenue models — such as SaaS — that can enable products to be launched fast and at scale by removing the need for new physical infrastructure.
Another route to new revenue for operators beyond selling traditional connectivity services is offering exposure to network APIs. We’ve launched GSMA Open Gateway, a framework of APIs that provide developers with universal access to operator networks, and is designed to help speed up and enhance the deployment of digital services.
Future-proof business with enterprise sales
Zain Kuwait is the flagship operation of Zain Group, the leading provider of digital communications operating in eight markets across the Middle East and Africa. Since our founding in 1983, we’ve continually succeeded in being the first in the region to launch new technologies, including 5G and now AI-powered services.
Last year, if you had asked me about AI, I would have said it's a requirement for our back office to support procurement or finance processes, but today with the rapid advancements happening in the industry, we’re exploring how we can use it to bring new experiences to our customers. For example, we think there is an opportunity with the SME market to invest on their behalf with AI-enabled call centres
The telecom industry faces challenges when it comes to monetizing 5G. That is why we are focusing on enterprise, such as offering private 5G networks in the energy sector to equip refineries with sensors that provide meaningful data, or in retail with special cloud applications that offer intelligence to learn more about customer behaviour in stores.
We’re also expanding our capabilities beyond telecoms and have created a new company called ZainTech — based in Dubai — that focuses on four verticals: cloud, cybersecurity, data, and digital services. We’ve already had several successes, such as deploying drones to monitor project progress for large residential areas and inspect 900 kilometres of built roads.
5G: Lightning speeds, near-zero latency, and vast capacity is within reach
At Vodafone we're harnessing the power of AI to build smarter networks and improve customer care through personalised, real-time experiences. For example, Speech Analytics, our GenAI solution — in production in Italy — currently analyses 60,000 customer transcripts a day from our contact centres to identify what we call “deep detractors” and assign dedicated support actions.
The evolution of our 5G network to lightning speeds, near-zero latency, and vast capacity is not a far-off future — it’s within reach — and when it arrives it will unlock transformative applications like augmented and virtual reality, Internet of Things (IoT), and connected cars. For IoT, Vodafone already connects over 150 million devices globally.
Our business is intertwined with a growing sustainable, digital society and our vision as a next generation connectivity and digital services provider relies on our ability to innovate at the speed new technologies emerge. This can be seen by our expanding portfolio in unified communication, cloud security, and IoT or in building our digital financial services, such as the VodaPay super-app and M-Pesa payments platform in Africa.
*All information is correct at time of publication.
