By Monty Hamilton, Chief Product and Marketing Officer at TELUS Digital
Functioning as the nexus of global communication, the telecom industry faces unique challenges. Rapid evolution in customer expectations and a new era in digital transformation and regulation means telecoms are continuously trying to hit a moving target; difficult though it may be, hitting that mark is increasingly critical for success. Telecoms that seize the opportunities that exist within these challenges will do so by implementing creative, forward-thinking solutions and strategies that deftly anticipate and reflexively respond to developing consumer, legislative, and market trends.
This is where artificial intelligence (AI) is making a massive difference today—and holds unmatched promise for the future.
Globally valued at USD 2.4 billion in 2023, the market for AI in telecom is projected to reach USD 58.7 billion by 2032 according to Fortune Business Insights. From back-office automation to asynchronous messaging, there is an ever-multiplying array of applications for AI.
TELUS Digital has spearheaded a range of AI solutions into action for several leading telecoms—including TELUS Communications, our parent company, and a major Canadian telecom with nearly 20 million customer connections. This unique relationship, coupled with our experience in implementing, testing, and innovating custom AI-fueled solutions at-scale that are compliant and address industry imperatives, establishes our position as leading industry insider.
Significant Opportunities in the Telecom Industry
The inimitable relationship between TELUS Digital and TELUS Communications affords us the privilege of a deep understanding about current industry challenges and how they can be turned into significant opportunities.
- Cost to Serve
Rising costs, shifting regulatory constraints, and evolving customer expectations are all making it harder-than-ever for industry brands to thrive. It’s something that I’ve spoken about with Jason Macdonnell, acting CEO and COO of TELUS Digital, and President, TELUS Digital Customer Experience. Macdonnell shared with me, “As the media and communications industry grapples with intense competition and margin erosion, firms that create a fusion of customer experience and digital technology are positioning themselves to outpace the competition.”
The total cost to serve customers is increasing every day, and yet, telecoms’ margins are getting thinner. On top of that, many countries are imposing pricing limits to ensure all citizens can access phone and internet services. Some countries also have digital inclusivity mandates that create requirements for serving remote and underserved regions.
Together, these elements conspire to create a mounting cost to serve—one that stresses telecoms’ abilities to continually improve customer satisfaction scores (CSAT) and average handle times (AHT). Improving these customer experience (CX) metrics, while respecting budgetary and regulatory constraints, requires strategic and thoughtful investments in technology that enable personalized CX at scale.
- Balancing Tech and Human Support
Consumers have said time and time again that they want personalized customer service. More specifically, they want personalization delivered, at least in part, by humans. A survey by one of TELUS Digital’s technology partners, Five9, found that 75% of consumers still prefer connecting with a live agent. On top of that, whether a customer is interacting with a self-service tool or an agent, the quality of the delivered support matters. In a recent survey, more than half (54%) of respondents told TELUS Digital they’d rather get stuck in traffic than put up with bad customer experience (CX).
Building customer loyalty through stellar CX is a revenue generator and engine for sustainable growth. However, providing high-quality personalization and access to human support on-demand and at-scale is far more complex than it sounds. Recruiting, hiring, training, and equipping new agents is financially and logistically difficult. Blending human-led support with AI-based technologies to deliver flexible, scalable service can be an enormous project, requiring continuous refinement to strike the most effective, optimized balance.
- Building Trust in AI
More and more brands are finding ways to augment their customer experience with artificial intelligence, but not all consumers are sold on this shift. As the 2024 Edelman Trust Barometer report astutely points out, “While AI’s benefits are many, people are losing trust in the technology and the companies that produce it. This creates a paradox of progress, where AI's vast potential is shadowed by diminishing trust.”
Trust is critical to building customer loyalty. All too often, AI technologies introduce friction to the customer experience. This occurs when customers are given no choice but to interact with a chatbot, even if it becomes clear that it does not understand their needs. When the customer interacts with such a bot, they might also worry about the accuracy of their answers, as well as their data security and privacy.
Brands should work to build and maintain customer trust by being transparent about their use of AI and securing their data. In 2024, TELUS Communications became the first company to have a generative AI (GenAI) customer support tool internationally certified in Privacy by Design (ISO 31700-1), which was powered by our enterprise-grade AI engine, Fuel iX™.
Seizing Telecom Opportunities with AI
For telecom brands, addressing the trust gap and improving customer outcomes are two endeavors that rely on the same solution: crafting enduring customer experiences in the moments that matter, weaving data and technology, and the promise of humanity.
“The truth is, tech and humanity are not in opposition to each other,” noted Mona Kadouh, Vice President, Business Development, Middle East at WillowTree, a TELUS Digital Company. “People and artificial intelligence can, and do, work together. TELUS Digital has made it happen for our clients many times, with resounding success—and we can help make it happen for you.”
While this is a fast-moving space with new use cases emerging every day, there are two key applications that we’re seeing help brands rise to current industry challenges.
AI-Fueled Asynchronous Messaging
Giving both agents and customers the ability to begin, pause, and resume conversations, asynchronous messaging mimics the way people communicate in other areas of their lives, notably through texting and social media chats. Moreover, the technology enables generative AI chatbots to continue conversations when a live agent is not available, saving customers from lengthy delays in support.
TELUS Digital rolled out asynchronous messaging for TELUS Communications earlier this year. Branded for its customers as TELUS Expert Messaging, this new application lets TELUS Communications’ customers access human support whenever it is most convenient for them, 24x7, by sending a message in the My TELUS app and receiving a notification when an expert has responded, often resolving their inquiry in a single message.
With TELUS Expert Messaging, TELUS Communications has noticed a marked improvement in time-to-resolution and the AI-powered tool has already resulted in USD 1.1 million estimated cost savings as a result of call containment.
“Generative AI-fueled solutions are key to making this possible by enhancing first contact resolution, reducing handling times, driving operational efficiencies, and adding or improving customer channels,” said Tobias Dengel, President of TELUS Digital Solutions & WillowTree, a TELUS Digital Company in a press release about TELUS Expert Messaging. “Asynchronous messaging, with its always-on, self-serve functionality and the high-quality, personalized resolutions it engenders from agents, drives customer satisfaction while lowering cost to serve.”
Developing New Ways of Working with AI Copilots
At an organizational level, AI is improving productivity across all business units. In the contact center, AI copilots help agents deliver customer care by equipping them with helpful customer insights, possible troubleshooting solutions, and streamlined workflows. In human resources, internal AI copilots are being used to deliver pertinent policy information, employee training, and continuous learning and development. In IT, a support copilot we built for a client yielded a 35% IT support call reduction. And across organizations, copilots are helping speed up productivity without sacrificing quality.
Fuel iX EX provides employees with a single entry point to a rich ecosystem of large language models (LLMs) and generative AI tools that can streamline everyday tasks such as information searches, summarization, copywriting, image generation, and code writing. Fuel iX EX is currently operating at-scale at TELUS Communications, with more than 35,000 employees actively using the tool.
There are countless examples of custom AI solutions we’ve built for specific clients and use cases, including a retail AI copilot that taps into inventory and product descriptions, as well as a one-stop-shop app for field technicians to manage work assignments, routing, and customer interactions.
See How a Partner Can Help
The challenges facing the telecom industry may be pressing, but they are not insurmountable. By partnering with TELUS Digital, telecoms gain access to an industry insider that has worked to address the sector’s specific imperatives and boasts a broad array of expertise. TELUS Digital has earned the trust of over 650 global clients by implementing CX and AI solutions that get results.
Working with a partner like TELUS Digital shifts the risk, responsibility, and continual expense of replacing legacy systems away from your brand. It also ensures current and future interoperability between discrete solutions, and compatibility with your own systems. With the customer service IT side of operations handled, you can focus on delivering the kinds of high-quality, trustworthy connections your customers demand.
Get in touch today at https://www.telusdigital.com/contact/sales
