The GenAI-powered search for growth at Digital Transformation World
The GenAI-powered search for growth at Digital Transformation World
Digital Transformation World Copenhagen got off to a rather alarming start with TM Forum CEO Nik Willetts issuing a “code red” alert for the industry.
Pointing out that the telecoms industry has spent more than $1 trillion in the last five years for less than a 1 per cent return, the TM Forum leader stressed this was not sustainable and that the industry had a three-year window to get “fit for growth”.
So how does the industry do this?
Well, the good news is that there is room for optimism: the value of the core product created in reliable connectivity is “only growing every year”, Nik Willetts noted, and he pointed to the potential of security, cloud and IoT to offset declines in traditional business offerings.
TM Forum chair Steffen Roehn picked up on this, saying he saw the business-to-business (B2B) sector and new cooperation with hyperscalers as further engines for growth.
The stress on core connectivity as a key revenue stream was amplified by a number of service provider CEOs, including Singtel’s Anna Yip, who said “generating growth from core business is key, while seeking new growth areas,” while Telia’s Alison Kirkby added “we went back to core because that’s how we felt we could get back to growth – for years Telia had acquired businesses that we had no right to be in.”
The other area, of course, which generated (pun intended) much discussion around growth, was of course generative AI. In his keynote address, Amdocs CMO Gil Rosen declared that, sitting on the fence and watching what others are doing with GenAI is not an option for communications service providers, they must get involved.
Gil pointed out that “GenAI is not generic. It needs to be specific and niche in order to make it effective for the telco industry.” He and his fellow panelists agreed that a crucial element for GenAI success depended on the accurate curation of data and the installation of clear guardrails to set boundaries. Fellow panelist and Microsoft CTO Rick Lievano added that telcos who have been “dragging their feet for years in terms of the public cloud are demanding GenAI now – it’s a big flip.”
“GenAI is not generic. It needs to be specific and niche in order to make it effective for the telco industry.”
“What gets me very excited,” the Microsoft CTO continued “is how you can use GenAI to generate new revenues from new services, for example, use AI to prevent fraud of elderly relatives in live phone conversations, monitor children’s voice calls/chats to protect them.”
Partnering for growth was an element of Amdocs general manager Sarit Assaf’s appearance on the conference’s main stage, alongside Microsoft vice president telecommunications, Silvia Candiani, in conversation with TM Forum chief analyst Mark Newman.
The two women – “we believe in women power” joked Sarit Assaf – discussed the strategic Microsoft-Amdocs collaboration and the launch of the Customer Engagement Platform, which will be available at the end of the month.
“Our strategy is to bring the best is of the assets and expertise of our two companies, Amdocs and Microsoft,” said the Microsoft executive. Combining Microsoft’s Dynamics 365 and Amdocs’ cloud-native Commerce and Care Suite, this new fully integrated platform provides service providers with an all-encompassing marketing, sales, commerce, and service platform, serving consumer and enterprise customers on a single, open, telco and cloud-native platform.
“It simplifies the experience for both the service provider’s employees and their customers,” said Silvia Candiani, adding that she believed Microsoft and Amdocs were creating something that is truly unique.
We're also very proud that Amdocs won TWO prestigious TM Forum Catalyst awards at #DTW23 #ignite.
One award was in the Best Moonshot Catalyst: The Energy Challenge category, for our Digital Carbon Footprint Optimization project.
This solution will provide consumers with recommendations for reduced carbon offers/options during their digital journey powered by Amdocs Catalog.
It was a pleasure to work with colleagues from Vodafone, Carbon Footprint Ltd, AWS, and Snowflake on this catalyst, which began as an idea generated in a sustainability hackathon and has now become an industry-transformative idea.
The second award, for Outstanding Catalyst Business Growth, aims to standardize how network services will be exposed in the hyperscaler marketplace.
The Simple Hyperscaler Integrated Network Experience (SHINE) catalyst is the fruit of a collaboration with AT&T, Orange, Telefonica, Microsoft, Prodapt, Infosys and ServiceNow. We’re working together working to establish an industry standard for exposing a product catalog in hyperscaler portals as native services, using the TM Forum’s Open Digital Architecture framework.
