Answering the call of gen AI: More than a dozen reasons telecommunications is already seeing ROI

Over the last two years, the telecommunications industry has approached gen AI with both enthusiasm and skepticism over its ability to deliver results at an efficient speed. However, over the last year, we have seen many more defined use cases with direct and tangible returns.

Telecommunications companies are moving beyond experimentation and realizing ROI using gen AI to enhance customer experience, improve productivity, and bolster security.

We’ve uncovered all this and a dozen findings in our new report, The ROI of Gen AI in Telecommunications. We surveyed 282 senior telecommunications leaders to get an in depth look into the impact of gen AI on business and financial performance.

We’ve outlined the five top findings for you here, along with perspectives from leaders like Deepika Adusumilli, chief data and AI officer at BT Group, Hesham Fahmy, chief information officer of TELUS, Simon Norton, head of Digital Networks at Vodafone, and Vikram Sinha, President Director and Chief Executive Officer at Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison. Overall, the insights paint a picture of an industry rapidly embracing gen AI and reaping its benefits.

1. 68% have already moved gen AI into production

The telecommunications industry is not only embracing gen AI, but as our survey shows, it’s having a strong impact on business outcomes — more than two-thirds¹ of the industry moves from AI experimentation to real-world applications. In fact, telecommunications companies are outpacing the global average for gen AI adoption (62%).²

For those enterprises lagging behind, this statistic highlights the sense of urgency for many in the industry to implement gen AI. To fully harness the potential of gen AI, telecommunications organizations need to strategically invest in the areas that could lead to the greatest impact, like improving customer experience, strengthening field and network operations, and optimizing productivity.

As Deepika Adusumilli, Chief Data and AI Officer, BT Group points out, "The key to taking the leap from testing to production successfully is having solid foundations in place to ensure that all gen AI use cases are effective from start to finish.”

2. 74% with gen AI in production are seeing ROI from at least one use case

We have seen how far gen AI has come in the last year as companies quickly transitioned from experimentation to production, and now nearly three-quarters are seeing meaningful ROI on their gen AI investments.³

Internal operations are seeing increased efficiency through the use of gen AI in areas such as network optimization and predictive maintenance while customer service is being enhanced with the deployment of virtual call center agents that not only improve customer service but also deliver clear, measurable KPIs.

“Everything from how we plan our network investments—targeting them for customer experience, revenue growth, and churn reduction—all the way to how we optimize the network, excites me about the potential of gen AI. ” - said Simon Norton, Head of Digital Networks, Vodafone.

3. 48% reporting productivity improvements indicated employee productivity at least doubled

One area where telecommunications companies have swiftly reaped benefits is productivity, as employees enhance their efficiency by leveraging gen AI to manage routine tasks and then focus on more strategic functions. Almost half seeing productivity gains have seen them double or better.⁴

For instance, gen AI is powering responses to field techs creating a network agent that has been trained with thousands of manuals and technical documents. When a field tech has issues, they can use their mobile device to video, voice or type a prompt and have the answer appear in near real time with step by step instructions on how to resolve the issue. Other companies are using gen AI in their workspace to help sort, summarize, and respond to the bevy of emails.

“Results from an internal employee survey showed that team members are saving more than 40 minutes on average per interaction with gen AI,“ said Hesham Fahmy, Chief Information Officer of TELUS. “As adoption has ramped up over the past year, you can imagine the time and resource efficiencies we’re already seeing.”

4. Operational efficiency and customer experience are top priorities

We found that telecommunications organizations are achieving consistent returns on their gen AI investments by focusing on two key areas: internal operations and customer service. Indeed, 46% of respondents said they were prioritizing improvements to operations while 45% wanted better experiences for customers.¹

In the next two or three years, as telecommunications companies embark on the seemingly competing priorities of operational efficiency and customer experience they may end up supporting each other. For example, they can understand their customers better and resolve inquiries more efficiently through gen AI agents.

One area of transformation is focused on providing the customer with hyper personalized offers. Using gen AI, telecommunications companies can look across their large data lake or data ocean which contains, analyze data such as customers rate plan, how many times has the customer called in, what kind of network outages have affected the use, and many other data points to create a”next best offer” for the customer. Additionally, initiatives like this spur on new innovation and new product development that could help elevate the customer experience.

“Gen AI solutions can equip call center staff with gen AI tools to enhance their productivity and effectiveness. Specifically, these tools can provide live call transcription; recommended responses derived from knowledge bases; real-time conversation analysis; and post-call sentiment analysis, leading to faster, more accurate, and more effective resolution of customer queries.” - Vikram Sinha, President Director and Chief Executive Officer, Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison

The eagerness around gen AI is palpable. Not only is the industry embracing it, but the positive impact on business outcomes continues to grow.

Driving value with gen AI

To fully harness the potential of gen AI, telecommunications companies need to strategically invest in the areas that could lead to the greatest impact. Building gen AI agents to improve the customer experience, strengthen field operations, evolve autonomous network operations, and optimize IT transformation will be paramount. As the industry evolves, the message is clear: The time to innovate with gen AI is now.

To get even more insights like this, download our report, The ROI of Gen AI in Telecommunications.

¹Total market - telecommunications (global): n=282
²Total (global): n=2843
³Telecommunications organizations currently leveraging gen AI in production: n=193
⁴Telecommunications organizations currently leveraging gen AI in production and reporting productivity improvements: n=123