Telecom chief executives have urged the industry to truly embrace artificial intelligence in order to seize the opportunities it presents, or risk being left behind in the race for progress.
Speaking at Digital Transformation World in Copenhagen, Vikram Sinha (pictured, right), CEO and president of Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison (IOH), warned operators they must not miss the sector’s “iPhone moment” - a reference to Apple’s 2007 release of its first smartphone, which fundamentally reshaped mobile technology.
“AI is a buzzword people will be bored of hearing again and again,” quipped Sinha. “But AI is not another Metaverse - it is real,” he added, emphasising the transformative potential of the technology.
Sinha highlighted one key AI use case for IOH: protecting first-time internet users in Indonesia from scammers. By doing so, he said, operators like IOH can build trust and reputation, which will ultimately translate into profits as more AI-driven services come to market.
While AI-driven use cases are being widely championed at DTW, Sinha cautioned they must be inclusive and accessible. IOH, he said, is working closely with the Indonesian government to help develop the country’s digital economy and support its ambition to become a leading digital nation by 2045.
“We need to give people products and services that truly touch their lives - AI has to be for everyone. It cannot just be for high-end customers,” said Sinha.
“We’ve been working on creating an SMS-based product - it can bring back SMS and reach everyone. Similarly, every child could have a personal tutor, a personal nurse, and even farmers. If our customers start seeing AI-powered products that solve their everyday problems, the respect for operators will rise.”
To implement AI effectively, Sinha urged the telecoms sector to collaborate with the right partners - hinting at the need for fair relationships with hyperscalers that respect both operators and the countries they operate in.
As part of IOH’s AI strategy, Sinha revealed the company is actively hiring AI engineers and creating the new role of chief product officer to spearhead product innovation. “AI is 70% about people,” he said.
Meanwhile, Christian Thrane (pictured, left), CEO of Danish quad-player Nuuday, reflected on the launch of ChatGPT in 2022 as a game-changing moment for telecoms. “This was going to be different. This was going to be faster,” he said, referring to the wave of operators exploring cloud partnerships and building their own large language models (LLMs). He predicted that AI will “drive a fundamental change in how we operate our networks.”
Today, operators are already using LLMs to speed up call centre operations, improve chatbot interactions and enhance network security, Thrane noted. But he argued there is still untapped potential that could be unlocked through greater collaboration and standardisation across the industry.
Trust, he added, is a key differentiator for telecoms in an AI landscape that is often associated with both innovation and risk. “If we deliver that trust, we can monetise it - not just traffic and the network. But to do that, we need to truly get behind the network API,” Thrane said.
