AI in Telecoms - high demands, great innovation
In light of the increasing demands for higher quality services and better customer experience, telecom operators are utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. AI in telecoms is a growing market and used in key areas such as network optimization, preventive maintenance, virtual assistants, robotic process automation (RPA) and chatbots.
South Korea is an advancing digital economy with very high mobile and mobile broadband penetration, as well as ranking 2nd out of 34 with an Asian Telecoms Maturity Index score of 93 (BuddeComm’s Asian Telecoms Maturity Index). In the recent news, an AI-powered phone calling application has been launched by SK Telecom Co., South Korea’s largest mobile carrier, seeking to strengthen its presence in the AI technology market.
The application criteria
So how does the new application work? An NUGU AI platform, used in smart home devices, is integrated with its T Phone app, according to the South Korean telco, which allows voice commands for tasks such as searching for contacts and checking phone and messaging records.
More tasks are aligned and productivity optimized with the AI-assistant features such as weather information and schedule management. Moreover, it is able to recommend personalized content like music, based on usage patterns.
Adopting AI in telecoms to enhance services will increase the number of users; T Phone registered 12 million monthly active users as of September, according to SK telecom. To further broaden their scope, the South Korean telco plans to launch the NUGU Buds, AI-powered wireless earphones, next month, allowing users to better access its phone app.
In addition, SK wants to add AI recommendation-based shopping features by the first half of 2022, facilitating the process of making reservations, ordering and making payments on the phone app.
New products/apps powered by AI
Meanwhile, the world is witnessing an abundance of innovative AI solutions for the telecoms industry. For example, Vodafone introduced its chatbot TOBi, resulting in a 68 percent improvement in customer satisfaction. The cutting-edge chatbot is able to offer speech and voice service functionalities through artificial intelligence and machine learning.
The way it works is that it analyses the requests, learns to route and escalate customer queries if necessary, identify sales opportunities and give notifications to the customer about other products and services that might be of interest to them – all without human involvement.
Benefits of AI services
The benefits and advantages for the AI-powered voice remote services, include, helping individuals with disabilities, as it provides customers with an option to navigate “search” through their voice command rather than hitting buttons on a device. This process also cuts down the costs by automating workflows, attend more customers in less time and free up resources; with limited errors and limitless opportunities.
One of the most famous and popular AI apps and virtual assistant from Apple is Siri which uses voice queries and a natural language user interface (UI) to function. Its main functions are to make calls, send text messages, answer questions, and offer recommendations.
Another similar example is the AI-powered virtual assistant from Amazon, Alexa. Its features include using voice queries, natural language processing, etc. to offer many services, as well as creating to-do lists, set up alarms, stream podcasts, play audiobooks and much more.