A Recent study by Transparency Market Research (TMR) shows the global market for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT) to jump an impressive 36.1% CAGR to post a staggering valuation of USD 3061 Billion by the end of 2024. The world as we know it transforming through the widespread use of AI and IoT. Almost every industry is on the brink of complete transformation and digital disruption to survive and thrive and is adopting the latest technologies like AI, IoT, analytics, cloud, and mobility. The telecom industry, which is one of the fastest growing industries in the world, is no different. It has heavily invested and has already started leveraging the power of AI, IoT, machine learning based technologies to enhance customer service, improve network efficiency, and introduce new revenue models.
Let us take a look at some such use cases where AI and IoT technologies have a potential to play a big role in the telecom industry –
- Using Artificial Intelligence, the telecom operators can effectively connect the users to the best possible antenna based on traffic load and thereby offer better connection and data
- Through quick traffic analysis using machine learning, the operators can predict the traffic load over a period and prepare their networks accordingly to offer optimal experience to all their users
- Spanish telecom company Telefonica uses the power of machine learning and artificial intelligence to improve the self-management of its network in Spain through self-configuration, self-monitoring, and self-diagnosis. With this, the networks configure themselves automatically, scale up the efficiency when needed, and improve the overall efficiency of service – while reducing the overall costs
- Artificial Intelligence is helping telecom operators in traffic classification, anomaly detection, ideal network utilization, and network optimization
- Based on the customer data, which is collected anonymously, telecom operators are using machine learning algorithms to derive key insights into people’s behavior, their needs and wants. This helps them in optimizing their offering and providing targeted solutions to their consumers
- AI and ML can play a phenomenal role in handling customer service requests. Chatbots and virtual assistants that are capable of natural language processing, speech recognition, and pattern recognition can help telecom companies in providing stellar customer service without adding to the overall support costs. TOBi, an AI-based assistant launched by Vodafone, helps the company in handling thousands of customer queries and providing a faster response time
- Telecom companies incur huge costs in remote infrastructure management. With the use of IoT sensors, they can implement remote asset monitoring and management to improve their operational efficiency while reducing the costs
- AI is helping telecom operators detect signals that usually lead to failure. The early detection is helping them in predictive maintenance. They can fix problems with their cell towers, power lines, etc. before they happen, thereby improving the network reliability. It can also help in network behavior optimization based on weather data and real-time usage data.
- AI-powered systems are helping operators in enhancing their customer interactions. For example, the voice remote by Comcast allows its customers with disabilities to interact with their system through natural speech. Using this system, the users speak commands for key navigation such as searching of shows, channel surfing or even to favorite their content
- AI-powered network management and operations systems can enable operators in granular network planning and network optimization
- Machine learning algorithms can help companies analyze their individual user’s behavioral patterns and preferences and make personalized recommendations. They can then sell more relevant services at the right time thereby increasing the sales success rate. They can also use the subscribers’ data to sell additional services and bring in new revenue streams
- AI, with its ability to capture and analyze the humongous amount of data in real-time, can help telecom companies in ensuring network security. By scanning systems and networks for vulnerabilities, AI-powered systems can detect anomalies, identify suspicious behavior patterns in real time and send appropriate alerts
Telecom companies can no more ignore the AI and IoT transformations. They need to quickly identify the new business opportunities and implement systems to capture and analyze the right data and derive actionable insights to improve their operations and maximize the revenues. Especially with the introduction of 5G, the nature of telecom networks is going to change fundamentally. A large number of new patterns will emerge which cannot be manually managed or analyzed. However, with AI and its self-learning abilities, telecom operators can create a solid value proposition.