Explore the list of telecom companies capitalizing on AI for seamless communication services.

Artificial intelligence has a considerable impact on the telecommunication industry. As the demand for voice and data communications has ascended to unprecedented levels, telecom companies have been forced to respond that with advanced technologies. The largest telecom services providers collect up to 6 billion call detail records (CDRs) per day, which is continue to increase. Thus, integrating AI and machine learning systems will enable them to immediately construe through tens of millions of CDRs, identify patterns that may detect issues, and create scalable data visualizations. The technologies will also let them use predictive maintenance techniques to lessen dropped calls, poor sound quality, and the myriad of other issues that could cause customers to switch to a new provider.

Currently, the telecommunications industry is on the verge of digitization. In the time of the COVID-19 crisis, telecom services providers have proved to be the linchpin to the global economic growth, relentlessly providing seamless communication services. According to analysis from Tractica, AI software revenue in telecom is forecast to reach from US$419 million in 2018 to over US$11.2 billion in 2025.

Let’s have a look at the top AI-powered telecom solution providers in 2020.

Verizon Communications

Verizon is one of the largest telecommunications companies headquartered in New York, United States. The company is betting big on AI and machine learning solutions to help improve performance and deliver improved customer service. In July 2020, Verizon joined hands with Cellwize, a mobile network operator, on a new platform that uses AI and Machine Learning to stimulate the deployment of Verizon 5G sites and simplify how apps are developed for the Verizon network. In the same month, search engine Google signed up Verizon as the newest customer of its Google Cloud Contact Center AI service. The agreement aims to bring natural language recognition to the often inscrutable phone menus that many companies still use today. Verizon also has an alliance with IBM on 5G and AI.

AT&T

AT&T, an American multinational conglomerate, is increasingly using AI applications to transform customer experiences. AI is the key ingredient for implementing numerous projects and platforms for AT&T. The company is using this tech to build its 5G infrastructure to map its cell towers, fiber lines, and other transmitters that exist today, as well as to pinpoint the best location for 5G build outs in the future. In 2019, the company tested drones in New Jersey to inspect cell sites, and research the use of AI to define network policies. AT&T has been among the first carriers to embrace a number of cutting-edge technologies.

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone

Nippon Telegraph & Telephone (NTT) is one of the leading telecom companies in Japan with a market value of US$96 billion in 2019. Last year, the company has built a secure computation technology that enables model training with a deep neural network while training data is kept secret. The technique trains a model with encrypted data of data holders by using a typical training algorithm, including the softmax function and the adaptive moment estimation (Adam). In recent years, NTT has developed various services using AI for corporate clients.

Deutsche Telekom

Deutsche Telekom is a Germany-based telecommunications company that offers a range of fixed-network services, such as voice and data communication services based on fixed-network and broadband technology. The company capitalizes on AI in various areas, from customer service to the planning for expansion of the fiber-optic network and expansion planning to services for key accounts. It has developed a chatbot, named Tinka, which chats with about 60,000 callers, answering nearly 120,000 questions in the process. To date, Tinks has learned over 1,500 answers and continually being updated.

Vodafone

Headquartered in London, Vodafone is one of the largest telecom companies in the UK, will providing telecommunications and IT services in over 150 countries across the regions of Asia, Africa, Europe, and Oceania. As AI has become a core part of the digital societies, the company is using this tech to help improve its products and services and run its business as effectively as possible. The company has a machine learning chatbot, TOBi, which has launched in 11 markets and has quite popular. Vodafone has implemented AI in some of its radio access networks in the Asian and European markets. 

Telefónica

The use of AI with privacy, security, ethics and responsibly is part of Telefonica’s business principles, aiming to safeguard trust from clients, employees, suppliers, shareholders and society in general. In October 2019, the company presented new Big Data and AI-based products and services for the corporate segment at its third edition of the LUCA Innovation Day, its data and AI unit for the corporate sector. Telefónica is one of the first companies in the world to have ethical AI guidelines to guarantee a positive impact on society. The company owns several renewed telecommunications brands including Movistar, O2 and Vivo.

Globe Telecom

Globe Telecom is a provider of mobile telephony and broadband services in the Philippines. The company accounts for over 50 percent of the Philippines’ mobile revenues while generating one-third of the country’s fixed broadband revenues and enterprise data connections. In 2017, Globe Telecom taps Cloudera, an enterprise data cloud platform, to use its machine learning to enrich customer experiences across channels and deliver targeted and optimized products and services, while maintaining compliance with the latest industry data regulations. A year later in 2018, Global Telecom signed a multi-year services contract for continuous enhancement of its operations. 

Airtel

Indian global telecommunications services company, Bharti Airtel is investing heavily in AI to deliver enhanced customer experience and engagement. Recently, the telecom giant acquired conversation AI startup Voicezen to strengthen its AI portfolios. This acquisition will enable Airtel to use Voicezen’s technologies to make customer interaction more engaging and frictionless by implementing real-time analytics and insights to make its interactions with customers. In 2018, Airtel acquired AuthMe ID Services, a Bengaluru based start-up focused on AI-enable solutions, to add to its initiatives to serve customers with innovative digital products.

America Movil

America Movil is a Mexico-based telecommunications company that offers wireless voice, wireless data, fixed voice, fixed broadband, fixed data, pay television and information technology services. In 2018, the company deployed Flytxt AI-based customer engagement solution in six countries. Flytxt is a customer-engagement technology firm that leverages machine learning software to create improved marketing opportunities for telcos.

COLT

COLT is a multinational telecommunications company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is a recognized innovator in Software Defined Networks (SDN) and Network Function Virtualisation (NFV). The company has developed an On-Demand AI platform leveraging SDN and NFV technologies. The platform is composed of three internally developed standards-based building blocks: Novitas a home-grown business orchestrator; Stratus, a platform that provides the shared NFV telco cloud infrastructure; Sentio, a set of software capabilities to provide automated service optimization and network restoration based on AI.