Generative AI is attracting strong interest across the telecommunications industry, with 97 percent of surveyed companies reporting that the technology is now on their boardroom agenda.
This figure comes from Capgemini, which surveyed 1,000 organisations — including 10 percent from the telecom sector — to examine potential use cases and the wider impact of generative AI.
Franck Greverie, Chief Portfolio Officer and Group Executive Board Member at Capgemini, said:
“Generative AI is a transformational force for innovation in organisations, accelerating industry-specific use cases to create value, and it’s no surprise that it’s already at the top of the agenda of virtually every large organisation.
While generative AI can enable numerous benefits for businesses and employees alike, adopting a human-centric approach while scaling the technology and implementing necessary guidelines will be key to fostering trust in the workplace.”
Although 69 percent of telecom executives believe the benefits of generative AI outweigh the risks, just 12 percent expect substantial disruption in their industry. By contrast, sectors such as high-tech and industrial manufacturing report much higher expectations of disruption, at 53 percent and 48 percent respectively.
Telecom firms are actively investigating how generative AI can be applied within their operations. Among telecom respondents, 36 percent have established dedicated teams and budgets for generative AI initiatives, 47 percent are in early exploratory stages, and 49 percent have launched pilot projects. However, only 4 percent have enabled generative AI capabilities in specific functions or locations.
One prominent pilot use case in the telecom sector is call centre analytics. For example, Orange is working with Google Cloud to evaluate generative AI for call transcription, automatic summarisation of customer interactions, and suggested follow-up actions to improve customer service efficiency.
The IT function is also a key area for generative AI adoption. Approximately 71 percent of surveyed telecom companies plan to use, or are already using, generative AI for IT tasks. Common applications include generating synthetic data for testing and training, optimising IT service delivery, and automating the creation and completion of data tables.
Telecom leaders are particularly optimistic about generative AI’s impact on software development. The technology can help developers produce higher-quality code more quickly by generating code from natural-language prompts, completing partially written code, and translating code between programming languages.
Across industries, many respondents believe generative AI can relieve employees of repetitive tasks, allowing them to focus on more strategic work. Both consumers and executives—70 percent in each group—think generative AI has the potential to boost work efficiency.
“As businesses accelerate their generative AI journeys, they must prioritise implementing it sustainably across the organisation,” Greverie added.
(Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash)
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