Today’s telcos built their empires on stability of towers and transmission with hardware at the heart of operations. Tomorrow’s winners in the sector will be built on fluidity of code and choices. Think of it as software and suggestion.
As Agentic AI makes its way into the workforce to augment digital and human labor, telcos will have new ways to optimize existing operations and find new sources of revenue as they use intelligent software to uncover unmet consumer and enterprise needs, develop novel products, and address a technology talent shortage.
Intelligent choice architectures (ICAs) are emerging as the strategic backbone of this shift. These human-centric AI systems are redefining how telcos create customer experiences, streamline legacy processes, and build trust.
The world’s largest telecom companies have historically been good at building capital-intensive, large-scale, fixed assets. Management took a decades-long view on the investment return. To succeed in the future, they need to blend traditional long-term focus with the ability to build software-enabled services that can adapt on a week-by-week basis to keep up with customer demand. Finding that balance is the Holy Grail of digital transformation in the sector. It’s a tough equation.
A technology skills shortage amplifies the strategic challenge. Telcos need to bridge that gap with investments in talent as well as technology.
ICAs combine human intelligence with agentic, predictive, and generative AI to help telcos move beyond automation. Blending behavioral economics, experiential intelligence, and real-time personalization, ICAs let telcos transform into organizations that learn, evolve, and respond with precision and empathy.
Here are some of the ways leading telcos are integrating new technologies:
BT, the UK’s flag carrier, is well into the journey of integrating ICAs into its operations. As well as streamlining operations, it aims to reduce churn, increase retention and improve customer lifetime value.
In 2023 the company launched an AI assistant built on a natural language programming (NLP) foundation. Aimee handles around 60,000 customer conversations each week. Half of these can be resolved without human intervention. The balance are managed in collaboration with human decision-makers. What began as an automation tactic has evolved into an augmentation strategy.
TCS’s report, produced in collaboration with MIT Sloan Management Review, shows how Aimee’s success required the reallocation of decision rights. Aimee’s direct interactions with customers boost retention and revenues when it’s given decision rights over what recommendations to make and how to provide customer service.
The markets are rewarding this ‘cost down, satisfaction up’ approach. BT’s push for digital transformation has seen a doubling of its share price in the past 18 months.
Telcos such as BT are starting to use using newly available technology to orchestrate intelligence across the value chain and to shield themselves from the talent shortage plaguing all technology businesses.
Optimization is one short-term benefit. But cost savings, by nature, deliver diminishing returns. Looking to the future, telcos know they need to develop new value creators by reaping the rewards to their intimate relationships with customers whether consumer or enterprise.
By investing in systems that give them a decision-making advantage and seeing that as a core strategic capability, rather than just developing products, they can find new avenues for growth, resilience, and deeper customer connections.
Intelligent choice architectures are not just tools; they are the blueprint for a future where human judgment and machine intelligence converge.