AI is revolutionizing the telecom industry by enhancing customer experiences and optimizing network operations. Guided by The Network Media Group’s Abe Nejad, industry leaders discussed how AI applications – from predictive maintenance to intelligent customer support – are transforming telecom providers’ ability to deliver more resilient, efficient services. This shift is elevating the customer lifecycle, positioning AI as a vital tool for boosting service quality and minimizing disruptions.
The session featured Romit Ghose, Head of Product – Telecom & Media, ServiceNow, and Ashish Madan, VP – Automation COE, Rakuten Symphony. They highlighted how generative AI moves beyond traditional automation to address complex customer inquiries with greater precision. Unlike automated responses, generative AI dives deep into network and customer data, analyzing performance, coverage, and usage patterns, to deliver fast, accurate resolutions tailored to each customer’s needs.
The discussion also highlighted AI’s role in predictive maintenance and proactive problem-solving. AI-driven tools at ServiceNow help telecom providers anticipate and address customer needs across the lifecycle, from planning to issue resolution. Generative AI can gauge customer sentiment, identify churn risks, and even detect upsell opportunities based on a customer’s unique interactions and history.
Rakuten Symphony’s advancements in infrastructure monitoring include using AI to correlate application and infrastructure data and optimize server states to balance energy consumption with traffic demand. This capability not only improves network resilience but also reduces energy use, aligning with sustainability goals while enhancing customer satisfaction.
Rakuten Symphony has embedded AI into its product development processes, achieving more than 60% efficiency improvements in areas such as demand forecasting and infrastructure monitoring. AI solutions can leverage policy-driven frameworks to intelligently scale network functions based on demand, minimizing service disruptions and ensuring a seamless customer experience.
“Generative AI understands context and intent like never before, and therefore is able to understand tonality and respond with the right tonality as well... There is a more nuanced handling of customer issues now.”
“With the help of AI, we are actually building foolproof networks, which actually heal and reconfigure themselves... so that the end-user and the end-customer experience are not impacted.”
The session underscored that AI in telecom is more than automation; it’s an enabler of intelligent, adaptable systems that optimize customer experience across the entire lifecycle. With its ability to provide nuanced, context-aware solutions, AI is empowering telcos to deliver services that are not only reliable but also responsive to individual needs. Clearly, the future of telecom lies in building smarter, self-healing networks powered by AI, ready to meet the demands of an increasingly connected world.
Watch the full interview here.
