How is intelligence transforming telecom? Five benefits that reveal the full value of AI

Artificial intelligence (AI) is beyond disruptive. Arguably the second biggest leap in the technological revolution since the widespread adoption of computers, it is already transforming industries worldwide – and even creating new ones. It seems every day our human minds are blown away by the increasingly impressive progress of this omnipotent genius, with its poetry skills, intelligent and polite customer service capabilities and astonishing artwork. Let’s face it – love it or hate it, AI has arrived, and it’s here to stay. So, what does that mean for networks?

Increasing demands hold a world of possibilities

As networks are expanding in both scope and areas of usage, recent and emerging services are requiring always-on performance, ultra-reliability and low latency, high levels of security plus a network with the capability to support many diverse use cases. Networks are facing ever-increasing demands and requirements and rising expectations – from improving performance and capacity to lowering energy consumption.

Beyond this, the network must also deliver a great experience for each service and user. The demands being placed on service assurance, experience measurement and insights into customer expectations are enormous - and the communication service provider (CSP) will need every part of their business working together towards this goal to succeed.

At the same time, the evolution to 5G, IoT and edge computing means the mobile ecosystem and networks are becoming ever more complex. We’re at a point where our networks simply must deliver value beyond just connectivity.

Fortunately, with the power of data and intelligence enabling advanced automation services, this is now possible. AI and machine learning are already proving their worth, delivering significant benefits to telecom operators in several areas.

The five key benefits of AI for telecom networks

1. Effectiveness

The niche in which AI truly thrives is in automating repetitive tasks, acting quickly and efficiently, and freeing up staff or resources to be used in other areas. By taking over routine tasks and enhancing network efficiency, AI-driven automation can optimize network operations and reduce costs.

With decades of experience managing network systems and data, learning from trends or outages, and detecting anomalies, Ericsson has the in-depth knowledge to build and train AI models to analyze network data and traffic patterns. These algorithms can drastically improve the capacity planning and optimization of the full network. In operations, AI can more accurately pinpoint the root cause of issues, reducing the time to resolution, as well as predict and prevent degradation or outages, reducing or avoiding costly downtime. They can even enable self-healing networks, reducing (and eventually removing) the need for human intervention.

2. Performance boosting

As networks grow increasingly complex, it can be a challenge to maintain the high network performance that customers expect. By leveraging AI, communication service providers (CSPs) can manage increased complexity, improving the customer experience while maintaining high network performance.

By analyzing network traffic patterns and optimizing resource allocation, AI can boost throughput and reliability. Through the allocation of dynamic network and computational resources to areas experiencing high service demand, and by optimizing the routing of data to reduce congestion, they can improve bandwidth and latency.

3. Energy and sustainability

With energy costs rising, the implementation of net-zero targets, plus the capacity demands on networks increasing, energy usage has become of crucial importance when it comes to sustainable operations. While we may look forward to a 6G future with zero-energy devices, AI can help combat this issue today, maximizing network utilization without impacting the performance of energy-saving features. AI can also act autonomously on real-time – or even predicted – traffic, helping CSPs reduce their energy consumption and lower their carbon footprint, contributing to sustainability goals and lowering operating costs.

4. Trustworthiness and security

We always approach intelligent technology with the awareness that trust and ethics in AI are central to its success. Therefore, explainability and transparency must be built into the systems, ensuring sufficient information is always on hand to explain, improve or fix issues, as well as assurances to check that the data coming into the system is safe, not skewed towards a particular outcome that will cause AI bias, and to protect against any attacks.

Security and compliance can often be areas of concern when it comes to AI. But trustworthy AI algorithms can actually reduce security and compliance issues. By detecting and preventing security threats, such as cyberattacks and fraud, AI can help CSPs to protect their networks and their customers' data, as well as demonstrate their commitment to responsible business practices. AI algorithms can also be used for fraud detection and prevention in areas like billing and subscriber management, helping CSPs reduce losses and improve their financial performance.

5. New business opportunities

By using AI in their networks to gain insights from the data and behavioral patterns at play, CSPs have a unique opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of their customers and their needs. It enables them to identify new business opportunities and offer targeted, personalized services to their customers, as well as to act proactively to meet their consumers’ demand based on their intent. When employed effectively, these services can increase revenue and provide a competitive edge in the market.

The real-world value of AI

So how are these benefits being realized? Where are we already seeing the value of AI being proven? What are the key ingredients to crack the code of AI acceleration? And what new opportunities can we expect to emerge in the future? These questions, and more, will be addressed in more detail as this blog series progresses.

The upcoming posts will explore each of the five key benefits in depth – with real-world examples where AI is being used to add tangible and significant business value, plus expert insights on what we can expect as we progress on the path toward AI-driven zero-touch operations. Be sure to sign up now so you don’t miss out!

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Intelligence to get you ahead of the curve

AI offers a compelling case for early adoption, with distinct advantages that can help provide CSPs a competitive edge, including:

• Improved operational knowledge and decision-making.
• Increased efficiency through automation.
• Deeper business insights and more accurate predictions about future trends or new monetization opportunities.
• Increased customer satisfaction and personalization.
• Reduced costs for a better bottom line.
• Greater productivity and employee satisfaction – free up personnel from repetitive tasks, allowing them to focus on higher-value work.

Not working with AI yet? Don’t worry – there’s still time. But you’ll certainly want to get started. Read on for some insightful tips on what to consider when getting started on your first AI project.

Six must-haves for AI success

So, what do you need to do now, to ensure you don’t get left behind? Start from where you are. We know that everyone’s AI journey looks different. Regardless of your priorities or goals, here are six elements to success, to ensure you’re ready to get started or accelerate your AI journey.

1. Data and quality

Ensure you have data architecture and governance in place that enables efficient access to data for model training and test and deployment of new AI capabilities. You’ll need clean, quality data to train the AI models as well as access to the data required to test and deploy them.

2. Strategy and value

Have a clear understanding of the problem to be solved and the business benefits you expect to see as a result – create a roadmap where your AI initiatives are linked to a business value.

3. Technology and Infrastructure

You’ll need a scalable AI platform and processes in place to train, experiment and deploy AI models and solutions into production. This includes the technology infrastructure required to support AI-based solutions, including cloud computing, data storage and machine learning operations (MLOps) platforms.

4. People and skills

Leadership-driven AI has the best chance of success, with identified internal champions for each initiative, enabled by empowered skilled staff and partners. Ensure you have the necessary data science and data engineering skills to operate and maintain the project, or the resources to build or upskill the relevant teams. Leadership inclusion will help ensure you have the necessary support for investment in infrastructure and resources.  

5. Metrics and measurement

As in any good project, it’s vital to establish metrics to measure and continually improve all AI/ML initiatives across every business area.

6. Processes and operations

Plan your operations well in advance. Approach the full lifecycle of developing and deploying AI models and manage them once in production.

Bonus tips: be sure to do your due diligence early and confirm that any AI initiatives align with ethical, legal and security guidelines, and don’t underestimate the value of good partners. Seek out partnerships with vendors who provide domain-specific AI solutions, academic institutions, or other organizations that can provide expertise and resources.

Unleashing the business potential of AI

Discover how CSPs can maximize business potential with AI and automation, in our recent AI business report. 

Read the report

Value that grows over time

AI can bring impressive benefits and outcomes, but it can also introduce other complexities into how you manage, maintain, and extract that value. MLOps environments will be key to scale AI from innovation to industrialized operation, increasing productivity and reducing time to value. It’s important to remember that AI is not a ‘one-and-done’ project – as the saying goes, you’ll only get out as much as you put in.

But the value AI brings is not just immediate. If you maintain it properly, you'll see value growing with the system. The model will continue to learn and gain more data as it goes. With proper feedback, systems that are built to self-train and continuously improve will continue to deliver better results, and greater business value, over time.

Before you get overwhelmed, remember – no two AI journeys are ever the same. An AI solution should fit your needs and be scalable to grow with you. The investment you make in each of these elements will entirely depend on if you decide to build, buy, partner or subscribe to managed services powered by AI.

If you’re not sure where to start, or what option suits your needs, reach out to an experienced partner like Ericsson who can work with you to find – or build – your perfect AI match.

Learn more

Find out more about our upcoming ‘Benefits of AI in Networks’ blog series.

Learn more about the challenges and opportunities of teaching machines human values in our AI ethics IndustryLab report.

Read further on how we are leveraging AI and machine learning for more energy-efficient networks in this Ericsson Technology Review Article.

Hear leading experts from telecom, enterprise and academia talk about the opportunities and challenges of AI in network operations with Ericsson’s AI Operations podcast.

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