Commitments to transformation have regularly been made by telecom executives, keen to make their businesses more attractive to investors and customers. Despite some structural developments in telecom over the past ten years – mergers, acquisitions, rebranding and selloffs – telcos continue to battle high costs, low growth and declining margin. However, there are signs that operators are beginning to make progress on their transformational ambitions – with cloud and AI central to their success.
From the “AI winters” of the 1970s and 80s, AI is now experiencing generational shifts every 12 months, with Agentic AI (just the latest example) making the transition from lab to boardroom in just two years. What was once long-term, speculative, niche R&D has become urgent, integral and with the express goal of delivering game changing outcomes.
For OSS and BSS, the direction of travel is clear – a transformation based on cloud, automation, intent, AI; with agility and speed – and each individual operator must plan their own journey. The good news is that early pioneers are becoming trusted guides in this new cloud-native, AI-first world.
This whitepaper, sponsored by Ericsson and AWS, explores how AI, Gen-AI and Data are supporting the transformation of OSS/BSS – and ultimately, the business of being a telco.