AI is “here to stay” and the industry must embrace the hundreds or thousands of use cases it could enable, says Deutsche Telekom’s Group CEO, Tim Höttges
In his keynote last week, Deutsche Telekom’s CEO Tim Höttges portrayed AI as the most consequential technology that has “affected everything on this planet”. He said it is the biggest thing that the telecom industry has to embrace.
AI was by far the biggest theme of MWC24 and DT was at the heart of some of notable developments at the show. “AI is here and has come to stay. We will see hundreds, thousands of new use cases that will make our industry better,” Höttges said.
“Who the hell needs apps?”
One of the most interesting developments with potentially far-reaching implications is an AI-enabled phone that is free of apps announced ahead of MWC. DT demonstrated the concept on its own-branded T Phone at the show. An AI-based assistant replaces all the apps on smartphones so that people can access what they need through a “generative interface” via voice or text. DT is working with Brain.ai and Qualcomm to develop the technology in Europe and the US.
“This is the end of the app… We will make the phone entirely app-free. Who the hell needs apps? I don’t want to have an app,” he said.
He ranted about how apps are “doing something in the background of my phone with my data,” and need multiple passwords and some are not even used that often. “Why can’t I talk to my phone and say, ‘I want to buy something’ and AI is looking for the service and giving me the results immediately, and there is no intermediary anymore?”
“In five or ten years from now, nobody will use apps anymore. We will use the interface of speech, or an easy way of asking the system, and be automatically connected to the functionalities of the apps,” he said.
While a tantalising idea, there are many issues to be resolved to get to this juncture and the app platforms themselves, and others are working on the same basis. For example, OpenAI, which created ChatGPT, is planning a GPT store and Apple itself has had a sudden change of heart. It will now allow progressive web apps to run on the iPhone.
Telco AI Alliance
At MWC, the CEOs of the five telcos in the Global Telco AI Alliance met for the first time and announced plans to create a joint venture company. The Alliance comprises DT, e& Group, Singtel, SoftBank and SK Telecom. Established in July 2023 by four of the operators, SoftBank’s participation was announced this week.
The JV plans to develop Large Language Models (LLMs) for telcos’ needs. They will be focused on customer service interactions via digital assistants and chatbots.
For Höttges, the rationale for the Alliance is that telcos are best placed to know what they need for their own use cases. Also, they don’t want to be reliant on others.
“We do not want to become dependent on the hyperscalers alone. We want to build our own system. We want to refine it in our way…We understand our world better and therefore we have to train the model ourselves,” he said.
He also left the door open for other telcos to join the Alliance “maybe at a later stage.”
DT marshals AI efforts from central unit
DT has established an AI Competence Centre (AICC) with a team of 500 AI experts who develop products using the tech as well as manage and coordinate projects across the organisation. They are in charge of “defining the rules,” buying licenses, organising development, and dispatching IT experts to help various teams create AI tools.
The operator has myriad AI use cases currently in practice, almost too many to keep track of. Höttges said, “we stopped counting after 400 use cases.”
“What we are striving for is not about cost savings alone,” he said. While productivity is one of the elements, he said there are “endless gains” from AI in the way telcos can serve their customers better.
Top of mind for Höttges is being more energy efficient, ensuring higher quality, increasing network stability, automated networks, predictive manintenance, anomaly detection, and individualized offerings for customers, just to name a few.
For example, DT has developed an AI-based tool that automates some of the network planning for rolling out fibre-to-the-home. The tech has improved the productivity of the FTTH buildout by 75%, he said.
In the radio access network, DT uses AI to automatically switch off equipment during the day or night when sites are not in use to save energy. He said the operator has seen savings of €50 million in the first year of using “AI-automated steering” of mobile sites in its European and German network footprints.
AI at the top
Höttges said AI is “a CEO topic” and that telco leaders need to define the company’s strategy, “show the organisational importance” of AI, and “take away the interest in the organisation about losing their jobs.”
DT has trained 75,000 people in AI so far, and they are not only “IT people,” he said.
“Everybody should have a feeling about AI, otherwise they will be against it. Teach the people about the benefits of AI throughout the entire organisation,” he advised.