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Executive Briefing

THE VALUE OF ANALYTICS,

AUTOMATION AND AI FOR
TELCOS – PART 1: THE
TELCO A3 AUTOMATION MAP
This report maps the application of analytics, automation and AI (A3)
across the telco organization, identifying where each technology is most
effective, and providing a foundation for understanding and planning the
use of A3 to improve core business performance.

Amy Cameron, Senior Analyst | Charlotte Patrick, Associate Analyst | March 2021
 THE VALUE OF ANALYTICS, AUTOMATION AND AI FOR TELCOS – PART 1: THE TELCO A3 AUTOMATION MAP | MARCH 2021

Executive Summary
A3 technologies will impact every part of the telco
Almost every telco is at some stage of trying to apply analytics, artificial intelligence (AI) and
automation (A3) across its organization and extended value network to improve business results,
efficiency and organizational agility.

In most telcos:

 Work has started: typically, simpler implementations are in place but more sophisticated
automations and uses of nascent AI technologies are coming up against multiple challenges
relating to data integrity/availability and broken processes.

 It’s often somewhat ad-hoc/scattergun: there is often no clear organization-wide strategy, with
implementations being conceived and managed by individual teams or business units. This may
be a feasible strategy for certain, more isolated, analytics or AI deployments – but the push
toward automation will require new, more coordinated teams.

 So, telcos now need to:

 Have a C-Level plan to manage deployments – including measurement of progress against

high-level goals like customer experience improvement and skills deployment across the
business.

 Empower organizations supporting A3 – such as IT – to understand where future resources

are going to be most needed and enable the development of clear technology roadmaps. In
particular, this should include a cloud migration roadmap, as shifting to cloud-based
operations provides easier access to pre-trained AI models, and is key to scaling use cases
across the organization more quickly and cost-efficiently.

 Create new cross-functional views to enable a clear understanding of how automations fit
together across teams and processes.

 Implement skills and culture change programs with strong support from all levels of
management to support employees in understanding the value of A3 in their roles, how to use
new technologies, and adopt a more data-centric mindset. Developing a strategy for AI
extends beyond the business issues and must include the leadership, culture and skills
required to establish an AI-ready culture across the organization. In many telcos, there
remains a gap between what people want to do and what the organization is actually doing.1

 Establish policies on data governance and responsible AI, to ensure operators remain
compliant with local regulations as well as trusted by their customers. Clear data and model

1 Resources such as Microsoft’s AI Business School helps business leaders to navigate these organisational, cultural and skills challenges.

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governance policies are also crucial to enabling operators to scale adoption of AI, as it can
reduce due diligence barriers when deploying new applications that leverage existing data
sets or pre-trained models.

A map of A3 usage across telco applications

To help enable this, Figure 1 below breaks apart a typical telco into its major functions and processes
with a view to identifying the type of A3 which could be deployed in each area.

When looking at potential applications of A3 across a telco, we noted some key patterns. There were
similar types of problems to be solved in very different places in the organization – and these problems
had solutions with similar characteristics. For example, in the first row of the diagram are a group of
problems with particularly large, but highly structured, data sets. In these areas, rules-based analytics
may be suitable, but Machine Learning (ML) increasingly is needed as data sets get bigger over time
– to either enable the increased volume of computations or small routine automations.

It is important to highlight that this map is focused purely on the applications of A3 to telcos’ internal
operations. There are myriad AI-supported applications that telcos are exploring as part of their
enterprise services portfolio, for example in IoT, edge computing, external data analytics, and vertical
solutions, which are not explicitly included here. Of course, applying A3 to improve network operations
and customer interactions is fundamental to delivering IoT and edge solutions, but these “AI-as-a-
service” solutions are typically developed and owned by different units than the ones covered here (i.e.
enterprise units, rather than network operations or marketing), and contribute to separately measured
revenue lines, rather than providing incremental efficiencies or revenue uplift in core functions.

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Figure 1: The telco A3 applications map

Operations Channels Marketing and sales Other functions

Network Revenue Customer Customer / Brand / media

1. Making Issue resolution
management management experience market management
sense of management understanding
complex data Fraud and
Assurance
security

Order Case Contract

Trouble ticketing Supply chain Finance
management management management
2. Automating
processes Incident
IT Human resources
management

Marketing & Content /

3. Personalizing Assisted care Unassisted care
product mgmt knowledge mgmt
customer
interactions Contact center Campaign Sales & care
Digital commerce
infrastructure management training/coaching

Marketing Lead Supply chain Corporate

4. Supporting Network planning Service design Merchandising Retail operations
operations management planning strategy
business
processes Contact center Retail workforce Sales Management
Field services
Sales process
workforce mgmt workforce mgmt management management accounting

5. Augmenting
Employee Customer Real-time Virtual sales Personal
human Guided selling
chatbots chatbots guidance assistants assistants
capabilities

Perceptual
classification for ML design for ML design for
6. Frontier AI Immersive tech Immersive tech
Drones In-store AI understanding marketing and financial docs and
solutions for field services for training customers / sales collateral job descriptions
employees

Source: STL Partners, Charlotte Patrick Consult

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1. Making sense of complex data – Analytics and ML should be used to understand large, mostly
structured data sets, look for patterns, and diagnose problems and predict/prescribe resolutions.
This occurs both on the network operations side, where there is a need for broad visibility across
multi-vendor equipment and network topologies, as well as in customer-facing and marketing
channels, where the goal is to have a data platform with a 360 degree view of the customer.

2. Automating processes – where intelligent automation and robotic process automation (RPA)
enable decision making, orchestration and task completion within telco processes. Many
processes in this row have “swivel chair” activities, where end-to-end processes are broken down
into specific activities distributed across multiple teams within a large department.

3. Personalizing customer interactions – where analytics and ML can be used to understand

customer data, create segmentation, identify triggers and prescribe actions to be taken.

4. Supporting business planning – where, for example, analytics and ML can be used in
forecasting and optimization exercises.

5. Augmenting human capabilities – this is where AI solutions such as natural language

processing and text analytics are used to ‘understand’ and act on human intent or sentiment.
These are used within interactions between customers or employees and telco systems.

6. Frontier AI solutions – We’ve placed the few individual AI solutions which have specialist uses
within a telco in this box. We expect this range of point-solutions to increase over time.

Why devote resources to this type of mapping?

It is important for a telco to be able to articulate a view of existing and planned usage of A3 in their
organization because:

 It allows better planning of resources, partnerships, technology roadmaps and metrics

 Organizations can spot problems before they arise. RPA is a good example of a technology
which sprung up across the organization leaving a trail of management, security, vendor
management and other governance issues. Plotting, thinking through and managing its potential
use cases via a map would have allowed IT to get an earlier handle on the situation.

 When the map is overlaid with metrics such as the financial benefit of customer satisfaction, it
enables management to understand, across the organization, where A3 is delivering financial
benefits, or to track top-level goals such as customer experience improvement

Next steps
Our next report in this program will cover:

Part 2: The financial value of A3 to a telco (across the map outlined here)

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Table of Contents
Executive Summary ............................................................................................................................................... 2

Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................. 8

The A3 problem/solution types .......................................................................................................................... 10

Type 1: Complex data uses A3 to conquer size and speed ...................................................................... 10
Type 2: Automation to replace or augment human resources ................................................................ 12
Type 3: Personalization uses algorithms to reveal what’s next............................................................... 13
Type 4: Bringing optimization and forecasting into planning .................................................................. 14
Type 5: Augmenting human capabilities focuses on chatbots ............................................................... 15
Type 6: Frontier AI solutions are the leading edge of the A3 future ........................................................ 16

Cross-type applications of A3............................................................................................................................. 17

Concept 1: Sharing data between boxes using a data lake...................................................................... 17
Concept 2: The flow of data across different A3 application areas ........................................................ 19

Appendix 1: Further definition of applications by type .................................................................................. 21

Type 1: Making sense of complex data ....................................................................................................... 21
Type 2: Automating processes ...................................................................................................................... 22
Type 3: Personalizing customer interactions.............................................................................................. 22
Type 4: Supporting business planning ......................................................................................................... 23
Type 5: Augmenting human capabilities...................................................................................................... 24
Type 6: Frontier AI solutions........................................................................................................................... 24

Appendix 2 ............................................................................................................................................................. 26

Index ....................................................................................................................................................................... 29

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Table of Figures
Figure 1: The telco A3 applications map ............................................................................................................ 4

Figure 2: A3 to map complex structured data sets ........................................................................................ 10

Figure 3: Automation is key to more efficient processes ............................................................................. 12

Figure 4: Personalization using machine learning ......................................................................................... 13

Figure 5: Use of algorithms for optimization and forecasting ..................................................................... 14

Figure 6: Human-machine interactions............................................................................................................ 15

Figure 7: AI point solutions ................................................................................................................................. 16

Figure 8: The use of assurance data across the telco .................................................................................. 17

Figure 9: Movement of data in two network automations ........................................................................... 19

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Introduction
Getting to grips with A3
Almost every telco is at some stage of trying to apply analytics, artificial intelligence (AI) and
automation (A3) across its organization and extended value network to improve business results,
efficiency and organizational agility.

However, most telcos have taken a fairly scatter-gun approach to deploying these three interrelating
technologies, with limited alignment or collaboration across different parts of the business. To
become more sophisticated in their adoption of A3, telcos need to develop a C-level plan to manage
deployments, empower business units supporting A3 to efficiently deploy resources, and create cross-
functional implementations of these technologies.

The first report in this two-part report series supports telcos in this aim through a high-level mapping
of the application areas which can be developed by a telco. It illustrates the opportunities and forms
the foundation of our ongoing research in A3.

In the second part of the series, we will estimate the potential financial value of each of the A3
application areas for telcos.

Introducing the telco A3 application map

The first section of this report goes further into the use of different types of A3 in the Telco A3
applications map shown in Figure 1 above. Our analysis focuses in turn on the six types of problems
that are being addressed and how automation, analytics and/or AI can provide solutions – and for
which types of problems and in which parts of a telco’s business each of these three technologies can
have the greatest impact.

Summarizing the six types of problems A3 can help with:

1. Making sense of complex data – using analytics and ML to identify patterns, diagnose problems
and predict/prescribe resolutions

2. Automating processes – where intelligent automation and RPA helps with decision making,
orchestration and completing tasks within telco processes

3. Personalizing customer interactions – where analytics and ML can be used to understand

customer data, create segmentation, identify triggers and prescribe actions

4. Supporting business planning – where analytics and ML can be used in forecasting demand
and optimizing use of existing assets and future investments

5. Augmenting human capabilities – this is where AI solutions such as natural language

processing and text analytics are used to ‘understand’ and act on human intent or sentiment, or
surface information to customers and employees more quickly

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6. Frontier AI solutions – cutting edge AI solutions which have specialist uses within a telco, but
are not widely adopted yet

Following our analysis of the key application areas, we look at how A3 is used not only for the individual
parts of the business illustrated in the map, but how more sophisticated implementations require
significant integration and interdependencies between A3 solutions across multiple areas of a telco’s
operations.

It should be noted that this two-part series only considers the application of A3 to telcos’ internal
operations and not the external monetization of such services and their use in telco products.

How telcos should use the A3 map

 Innovation teams within the telco should consider plotting their existing and planned A3 activities
on a map such as that shown below.

 This map should be presented to the board and also socialized within IT and support teams such
as customer care. It can be used to describe current top-level focus areas and those which are
more nascent but considered key in the short and medium-term.

 The map can also be shared with vendor partners and other interested external parties to ensure
that they are aware of the company’s priorities.

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The A3 problem/solution types

Considering each of the problem/solution types in turn:

Type 1: Complex data uses A3 to conquer size and speed

In this type of problem/solution, corresponding to the first row in Figure 1, A3 capabilities address
various needs for analysis of large and very large datasets of mainly structured data. (See Appendix
1: Further definition of applications by type for full definitions and details of each sub-category,
including examples of how automation, analytics and/or AI are being deployed in each area.) Some
datasets change rapidly or require quick retrieval to create insight. Problems to be solved in this area
can be divided into three conceptual types:

 real-time management of complexities (e.g. on network)

 provision of customer understanding from high volume data

 pattern/anomaly detection.

Figure 2: A3 to map complex structured data sets

Operations Channels Marketing and sales Other functions

Network Revenue Issue Customer Customer / Brand /

1. Making management management resolution experience market media
sense of management understanding management
complex Fraud and
Assurance
data security

NB The applications in the above figure are described in more detail in Appendix 1: Further definition of applications by type from page 21.
Source: STL Partners

Machine learning (ML)2, although not useful in all situations, offers new solutions where rule-based
analytics3 provide either an inferior solution or no solution at all:

 It allows for the increasing complexity of new higher-volume data sources (for example, with the
addition of 5G networks)

 ML has been used in traditional areas such as monitoring and capacity management for the last
few years, providing new ways to identify root causes that would have remained hidden from a
rule-based solution and identifying, previously, “unknown unknowns”

2 As defined on Wikipedia, ML is a sub-set of artificial intelligence where “algorithms build a mathematical model based on sample data,
known as “training data”, in order to make predictions or decisions without being explicitly programmed to perform the task.”
3 See STL Report, Network AI: The state of the art for full definitions

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 ML is used to manage these data sets using techniques such as augmented analytics4

 Over time ML will be a key underpinning technology in closed-loop activities such as self-
configuration, self-optimization and self-healing networks

 Outside of network use cases, ML helps with customer understanding by analyzing and
segmenting the large amount of customer data generated. For example, Saudi Arabian operator
Mobily has worked with Spinklr to break down data silos between business units, in order to
deliver improved customer care across digital channels, ultimately reducing response rates from
days to minutes and helping to achieve a leading CSAT (Customer Satisfaction) score in its
market.

 Lastly, fraud and security use cases require anomaly and pattern detection on large data sets to
find potentially harmful activity.

Other forms of AI technology are less relevant for these tasks. Perceptual techniques such as speech
and text analytics or emotion detection are useful to uncover new types of insight within more
unstructured data.

Automations are sometimes applied alongside ML, particularly in the network and OSS. But these are
typically simpler and more nascent than in the second row of the diagram – for example, routine
management of virtual network functions as part of NFV implementations. A good industry example
of this is SES’s partnership with Amdocs to deploy an open, standards-based NFV platform to manage
its virtual network services over multiple clouds and network resources. To ensure scalability and
agility, SES deployed the platform on Azure’s public cloud infrastructure.5

The main barrier to more complex automations in these areas is the deployment of the orchestration
layer of SDN/NFV (by all but the most advanced telcos) and the criticality of network automations,
which means more risk-averse teams such as network operations are taking a cautious approach to
closed-loop automations. One way the industry is tackling this challenge is through the development
of cloud-native network functions (CNFs), which are designed from the ground up for operation in the
cloud, with key characteristics such as automated orchestration and lifecycle management, managed
through an API framework, all of which can accelerate adoption of ML in network operations.

4 “enabling technologies such as ML and AI to assist with data preparation, insight generation and insight explanation to augment how
people explore and analyse data in analytics and BI platforms” Definition from Gartner https://www.gartner.com/en/information-
technology/glossary/augmented-analytics
5 https://customers.microsoft.com/en-us/story/777361-ses-amdocs-azure

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Type 2: Automation to replace or augment human resources

Type 2 includes any area of the telco where automation is the predominant use case for A3. Today,
these automations are at their most sophisticated within large teams with many “swivel chair”
activities – i.e. where end-to-end processes are comprised of repetitive actions spread across multiple
smaller teams, each performing one part of the process.

Figure 3: Automation is key to more efficient processes

Operations Channels Marketing and sales Other functions
Trouble Order Case Contract
Supply chain Finance
2. Automating ticketing management management management
processes Incident Human
IT
management resources

NB The applications in the above figure are described in more detail in Appendix 1: Further definition of applications by type, from page 21.
Source: STL Partners

Robotic Process Automation (RPA), a tool rising in popularity with telcos in the last few years, was
often first seen in functions to the right of the diagram because of its history of early deployment by
BPO vendors automating HR and finance functions. It has since increasingly sprung up across
processes on the left of the diagram to replace small repetitive human actions – for example,
underpinning a contact center agent engaged with a customer by providing one-click automation to
check the status of the network.

“Intelligent” automation adds rules-based analytics and/or ML to more basic RPA and scripting. One
of the interesting questions – in the context of the current hype around AI – is to what extent the
addition of intelligence to automation is important. For example, we are seeing market-leading telcos
such as Telefónica reporting significant savings from implementing a combination of RPA, big data
and AI to optimize marketing, sales and network operations. In 2019, Telefónica deployed 40 AI
products for mobile network planning and personalized offers, handled 14% of customers’ calls fully
automatedly through its chatbot AURA, and deployed 1,500 robots to improve service efficiency.
These efforts resulted in €420mn in operational savings over 2019.

The real value for telcos will be in successfully distinguishing the areas that will benefit from more
advanced ML versus those that can do just as well with simpler automation.

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Type 3: Personalization uses algorithms to reveal what’s next

Personalization refers to the use of ML to find patterns and anomalies in medium-to-large customer
data sets and make deductions about the wants and needs of these customers, in order to offer them
highly tailored services and information. Predictive or prescriptive algorithms are used across a variety
of customer-focused areas such as channels and marketing to provide either:

 Next best offers – suggestions for new products, cross-sell or up-sell, either for within marketing
“campaign management” (e.g. SMS campaigns) or for inbound contact with customer care. This
is one of the easier places to demonstrate value from A3 and usage is therefore relatively
widespread amongst telcos

 Next best actions – recommendations to a customer and/or an employee on the best course of
action after triggers are spotted. They can also prescribe actions to create some type of
proactive resolution or automation without the need for human intervention. However, this is
more difficult – as it can require integration with one or more processes. It also often requires
sophisticated algorithms and customer understanding to ensure that customer experience is
improved and not degraded by the provision of sub-optimal responses or actions.

Figure 4: Personalization using machine learning

Operations Channels Marketing and sales Other functions
Marketing & Content /
Unassisted
Assisted care product knowledge
3. Personalizing care
mgmt mgmt
customer
interactions Contact Sales & care
Digital Campaign
center training/
commerce management
infrastructure coaching

NB The applications in the above figure are described in more detail in Appendix 1: Further definition of applications by type, from page 21.
Source: STL Partners

Vodafone’s chatbot TOBi is a good example of integrating personalization into increasingly automated
processes. Following the initial rollout of TOBi, Vodafone leveraged Microsoft’s Cognitive Services and
available data to predict customer intent, starting conversations by identifying the issue it thinks the
customer wants to discuss, rather than asking them what’s wrong. Vodafone states that this
predictive capability helped to drive adoption of its chatbot, while also enabling it to respond quickly
to changing customer needs during the COVID pandemic, with TOBi recommending add-ons or
upgrades to customers where relevant.6

6 https://customers.microsoft.com/en-us/story/838350-vodafone-telecom-azure-cognitive-services

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Type 4: Bringing optimization and forecasting into planning

Planning use cases often include the sort of capabilities found in the first row of Figure 1 focused on
analyzing complex data sets with ML – as they need to understand and run diagnostics on large data
sets before using more complex, predictive algorithms for specific business processes.

One of the key challenges in leveraging data from core network and customer systems in the
processes shown in Figure 5 is making data accessible across the organization and providing access
to the skills and resources to develop algorithms to support a business process. This is driving telcos’
shift towards cloud-based systems, in particular where there is a compelling business case related to
access to external resources, such as access to existing models that can relatively quickly be re-
trained for an individual operator.

Figure 5: Use of algorithms for optimization and forecasting

Operations Channels Marketing and sales Other functions

Network Service Retail Marketing Lead Supply chain Corporate

Merchandising
planning design operations operations management planning strategy
4. Supporting
business Field services Contact center Retail
Sales Sales Management
processes workforce workforce workforce
process management accounting
mgmt mgmt management

NB The applications in the above figure are described in more detail in Appendix 1: Further definition of applications by type, from page 21.
Source: STL Partners

Two classic algorithms in this area are:

 Optimization (which of these options would be the best course of action?); and

 Forecasting (what is the likely outcome of taking this option?)

Examples of such applications include:

 Workforce management tasks, such as the optimization of people on shifts or hiring the correct
mix of skill sets.

 Forecasting outcomes (e.g. management of sales team yearly out-turn).

 General optimization problems, such as inventory management (e.g. what merchandise to stock
in a retail store, how much inventory to hold in the supply chain).

Telcos vary in the uptake of new technologies in this row – dependent on their needs versus other
verticals. For example, specialist vendors are providing reasonably complex network planning
algorithms which hold the promise of reducing Capex and Opex spend. However, the smaller and
simpler retail store of a telco versus a large FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) retailer means that
there is less potential financial reward from implementing cutting-edge store or supply chain
capabilities.

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There are also a set of more nascent areas – for example, ML to underpin decision making in corporate
strategy. In such cases, the problem to be solved is very complex and used by a small, specialist team
– limiting the financial benefit due to its significant development needs. That said, strategy teams may
be making very high value decisions where the wrong call could be more costly than elsewhere.

Type 5: Augmenting human capabilities focuses on chatbots

This row brings together technologies that improve or generate new types of interaction between
humans and other humans; or humans and machines.

Figure 6: Human-machine interactions

Operations Channels Marketing and sales Other functions

5. Augmenting Employee Customer Real-time Virtual sales Guided Personal

human capabilities chatbots chatbots guidance assistants selling assistants

NB The applications in the above figure are described in more detail in Appendix 1: Further definition of applications by type, from page 21.
Source: STL Partners

Customer chatbots start by offering help when a customer asks a simple question. They then become
more transactional, as background processes are integrated, allowing customers to request action
and to automatically enable that action. Most telcos are implementing or experimenting with chatbots
in a variety of digital channels but such initiatives will likely only reach their full potential when part of
a wider digital engagement strategy. This is because they require automation of background
processes and will be just one part of a broader range of care options which a customer can access.

Vodafone’s chatbot TOBi, first deployed in 2017 and now available in 15 languages across multiple
markets, is a leading industry example. Across Vodafone’s European markets, by March 2020 TOBi
handled 29% of customer contacts, contributing to reported savings of €800 million since 2017 (this
also includes savings from digital sales, usage of MyVodafone app and other marketing initiatives).

Employee chatbots provide a simple interface between a system and the telco’s employees. Their
development in a larger-team environment, such as a contact center, is the start of a move toward
deploying more sophisticated real-time guidance tools (i.e. expert systems). Case studies are just
becoming visible for real-time guidance tools – offering simple next-best-action guidance to customer
advisors in the contact center.

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Type 6: Frontier AI solutions are the leading edge of the A3

future
The last row on the diagram describes a diverse set of AI technologies which provide very specific
capabilities to a telco.

Figure 7: AI point solutions

Operations Channels Marketing and sales Other functions
Perceptual
Immersive Immersive ML design
6. Frontier Drones classification for ML design for
tech for field In-store AI for marketing
tech for understanding financial docs and
AI solutions services and sales
training customers / job descriptions
collateral
employees

NB The applications in the above figure are described in more detail in Appendix 1: Further definition of applications by type, from page 21.
Source: STL Partners

Examples include:

 The use of immersive technologies such as mixed reality to capture video/pictures of remote cell
sites and equipment for maintenance, compliance or quality checks. These reduce the number
of tower climbs needed and can create efficiencies by enabling highly qualified staff to provide
help remotely. Looking into the long term, ML and algorithmic decision-making capabilities will
then enable field service drones to make corrections/alterations autonomously

 In the retail store, robots can entertain and provide simple help to customers in larger stores

 ML Design refers to the way in which ML will create content for a range of uses. This includes
automatic creation of marketing or sales collateral, the development of routine financial
documents (such as reports and accounts) and the automatic generation of job descriptions.

Use of these technologies has been sporadic to date. Several telcos use drones for tower inspection,
and technologies such as SoftBank’s Pepper in-store robot have been around for several years. 7
Operators are also exploring new revenue opportunities combining robotics and networking services,
for example Canadian operator Rogers worked with robotics company Attabotics to develop a private
LTE network, edge computing and IoT solution that is optimized to support its robotic shuttle for
collecting items in warehouses.8 However, in many cases the expense of some solutions versus their
limited current functionality is holding back deployment.

7 https://www.softbankrobotics.com/emea/en/industries/retail
8 https://www.lightreading.com/private-networks/how-attabotics-and-microsoft-use-private-lte-to-monitor-robots/d/d-id/761359

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Cross-type applications of A3
What the diagram fails to show is the interdependencies between different types of A3 both across
the various problems and application types, and different parts of operators’ businesses. As telcos’
usage of A3 becomes more sophisticated, it will become necessary to enable point solutions deployed
to solve relatively narrow problems to link into other ones in different parts of the organization.

This last section demonstrates two concepts around this interdependency.

Concept 1: Sharing data between boxes using a data lake

The diagram below digs down into the use of data from network equipment, CRM and billing in service
and network assurance, i.e. solutions to reduce the instance of network faults and length of service
disruption, in order to ensure networks meet service level agreements (illustrated in dark red in Figure
8 below). This assurance data is some of the most useful and versatile in the telco and, as shown
across the columns of Figure 8, it can be used in a variety of different parts of the telco – highlighted
in light red.

Figure 8: The use of assurance data across the telco

Operations Channels Marketing and sales Other functions

Network Revenue Customer Customer / Brand / media

1. Making Issue resolution
management management experience market management
sense of management understanding
complex data Fraud and
Assurance
security

Order Case Contract

Trouble ticketing Supply chain Finance
management management management
2. Automating
processes Incident
IT Human resources
management

Marketing & Content /

3. Personalizing Assisted care Unassisted care
product mgmt knowledge mgmt
customer
interactions Contact center Campaign Sales & care
Digital commerce
infrastructure management training/coaching

Marketing Lead Supply chain Corporate

4. Supporting Network planning Service design Merchandising Retail operations
operations management planning strategy
business
processes Contact center Retail workforce Sales Management
Field services
Sales process
workforce mgmt workforce mgmt management management accounting

5. Augmenting
Employee Customer Real-time Virtual sales Personal
human Guided selling
chatbots chatbots guidance assistants assistants
capabilities

Perceptual
classification for ML design for ML design for
6. Frontier AI Immersive tech Immersive tech
Drones In-store AI understanding marketing and financial docs and
solutions for field services for training customers / sales collateral job descriptions
employees

NB The applications highlighted in the above figure are described in more detail in Appendix 2, from page 26.

Source: STL Partners, Charlotte Patrick Consult

A good example of this in practice is European MVNO Tesco Mobile, which in 2020 embarked on an
effort to revamp its customer facing portal to support a rapidly growing subscriber base. The newly

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re-vamped cloud-based customer portal pulls data from across a large number of customer and billing
systems into a single platform, in order to increase self-service and control for customers, while also
giving care teams greater insight into customer experience. While this initiative is focused on telecoms
specific applications, it is running in parallel to its parent company Tesco’s broader focus on improving
the digital customer experience.9

For more detail, Appendix 2 provides a summary of the use cases for assurance data in each of the
boxes. The NOC/SOC (“Network Management” on the diagram above) will typically use near-real-time
data straight from the equipment to track issues on the network or undertake root-cause analysis.
However, the data is also collected in a data lake for use in care channels, marketing and sales; as well
as other operational teams such as trouble ticketing or field services.

In recent research, we spoke with vendors about the rollout of these functionalities across the
columns of the diagram, they reported that:

 Many deployments in the NOC/SOC are still around descriptive feeds of data and root-cause
analysis, with some simple additional automations

 There is an increased interest from marketing teams for new insight into customer usage and
behaviors

 Use of the data in the contact center or to create digital care products, which has been an area of
high interest in previous years, was much less in evidence – due to the complexities of baking it
into contact center systems.

However, overcoming these challenges is essential to scaling and accelerating adoption of A3 across
telco organizations. In our research, we have found that operators that are the furthest ahead in
making network operation data available and usable across multiple business units have made
significant investments in developing these capabilities internally or through deep partnerships with
specialized vendors. More advanced telcos are also likely to have a clear roadmap for implementing
telco cloud – shifting both their core networks operators and customer facing teams towards a hybrid
cloud environment in order to claim benefits around flexibility, openness, resource efficiency and
innovation.

9 https://www.i-cio.com/strategy/big-data/item/tesco-cio-sharpens-focus-on-the-digital-customer-experience

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Concept 2: The flow of data across different A3 application

areas
Figure 9 below divides out a simplified view of network and OSS functionality in a hybrid network into
the associated A3 application types of Figure 1. As the diagram illustrates, there are multiple functional
areas inside of the first box of Figure 1 labelled Network Management, each of which can be improved
or optimized through adoption of some form of A3.

To illustrate how data can be used differently by different applications across the application sets, two
sets of arrows are overlaid:

 The solid yellow arrows show the flow of data as part of the automation of service provisioning.

 The dotted red arrows show the flow of data in a self-healing network.

In addition, there are two colorings used on some of the boxes.

 The orange boxes show the use of simpler automations not requiring much additional ML

 The red boxes are areas of the network with more aspirational, intelligent automations (for most
telcos).

Figure 9: Movement of data in two network automations

NB The applications outlined in this diagram are defined in greater detail in Appendix 2, from page 26.
Source: STL Partners

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It is important to note that the level of intelligence we attribute to different activities is not set in stone,
because depending on an operator’s approach it may choose to integrate the intelligence element into
different systems. For example, in the diagram we deem Trouble Ticketing to require only simple
automations because we expect upstream systems such as assurance or network monitoring to
make decisions requiring more advanced analytics, such as whether a ticket should be raised or not.

 In the automation of service provisioning, an order is passed from the BSS and technical work
orders created, as shown by the movement of the red arrows at the top of the diagram. The
service then goes through an automated provisioning process (enabled by a dynamic network
inventory, where available). Configuration then happens as part of the automated provisioning
process and instructions are sent to the software-defined network (SDN). It should be noted that
the yellow arrows mostly pass through orange boxes. This demonstrates that this process
mainly requires more simple scripts and RPA to achieve as there is limited intelligence needed
compared with the self-healing network described next.

 In a self-healing network, triggers based on adaptive thresholds are created when issues occur,
and upcoming potential issues are flagged to the SDN Controller. Remediation
recommendations then flow into the incident management systems to trigger alarms, tickets
can be generated, services and equipment can be automatically restarted or network functions
provisioned/re-provisioned. Insight into the efficacy of actions taken will then flow back to the
assurance systems to close the loop and help improve the “intelligence in use”.

Much of the above descriptions of self-healing is still aspirational for most telcos – either needing
work on processes or additional network elements such as SDN Controllers to be installed.

Another prerequisite to sharing data more fluidly across the organization is the development of clear
company principles on the responsible use of data and AI, to ensure the security and privacy of
sensitive data, as well as fairness in any decision-making processes relying on AI. Any company using
AI at scale should have clear policies outlining how they are ensuring the algorithms they use treat all
people fairly, are transparent in how they use and secure sensitive customer data, explainable in how
they have come to a decision or recommendation, and with clear chains of accountability to real
people. As an example, see Telefónica’s AI Principles published in 2018.

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Appendix 1: Further definition of applications

by type
Each of the boxes in Figure 1 are defined below; with a brief overview of the problems to be solved
within the box and the main type of A3 which can be deployed as solutions.

Type 1: Making sense of complex data

Network management: ML manipulates large data sets, to diagnose issues, predict and prescript
actions. This application type includes all service and resource management activities (with the
exception of assurance which is in a separate box below). It, therefore, includes a mixture of more
traditional activities such as network monitoring and capacity management for both physical and
virtual networks, plus newer, more automated, concepts such as the self-optimizing of the network.

Revenue management: ML is useful in revenue assurance exercises, the prediction of issues in bill
payment processing and collections, and customer debt collection.

Assurance: ML can manage large data sets, diagnose issues, predict future issues and prescribe
solutions to reduce the instance of network faults and length of service disruption, and ensure
networks meet service level agreements.

Fraud/Security: ML will undertake pattern and anomaly detection in both fraud and security use
cases.

Issue resolution: This application type includes all processes related to the identification of
customer issues which enable an agent to understand the problem and provide a resolution. Data
can come from multiple sources including the network.

Customer experience management: ML will find patterns, anomalies and segmentations in data
that relates to customer experience, including text, speech analysis and other perceptual
classification techniques. Used in various ways including voice of the customer and customer
journey mapping.

Customer and market understanding: ML used in data relating to customer and market
understanding, including text, speech analysis and other perceptual classification techniques. Used
in various ways within marketing – including segmentation, background understanding for
marketing team and reacting to trends.

Brand and media management: ML will find insight in structured and unstructured data from across
the internet for tasks such as monitoring brand reputation.

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Type 2: Automating processes

Trouble ticketing: Intelligent automation used to automatically raise tickets, improve the routing of
each ticket and find areas for process improvement.

Order management and fulfilment: RPA and more intelligent automations to create, check and
provision orders. ML can prescribe resolutions to orders that are flagged with issues.

Incident management: Categorization of the high volume of alarms generated by the telco network
to identify those which are critical; also predictive capabilities to identify best resolution to each
alarm.

Case management: Automation of process flows generated in the contact center or cross-channel.
Processes reach across to other departments such as the creation of tickets for field services.

Supply chain: Inclusion of automation within the procure-to-pay and sourcing processes.

Contract management: ML, optical character recognition and RPA used to create a single repository
of searchable documents, to extract or index data, create searches and analyze across the
repository.

Finance: Addition of ML, optical character recognition and RPA in a range of routine activities – for
example, accounts receivable or expense management.

HR: Use of RPA in processes such as onboarding, ML for creation of job descriptions and ML in
planning and optimization tools.

IT: Use of RPA and employee chatbots in processes such as user support and services. ML used in
orchestration and problem management.

Type 3: Personalizing customer interactions

Assisted care: Some limited use of ML when agents are assisting customers. For example, optical
character recognition and text analysis in managing email communications, or sentiment analysis to
automatically tag posts on social media with predicted intent. Also, use of RPA.

Contact center infra: includes all IT infrastructure in the contact center. Particular use of ML seen in
IVR containment where speech analytics understands intent and then predicts/prescribes routing and
messages.

Unassisted care: All care channels where there is no human intervention. ML to personalize content
on websites and other digital channels – also provision of next best action for the customer.

Troubleshooting: Tools for customer or agent (assisting the customer). May be installed on the
customer device or in the OSS. Offer diagnostics, guided and proactive fixes. Mostly using rules-based
analytics today but some ML will understand potential future customer issues and prescriptive,
proactive resolution.

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Marketing programs: ML to manage data, create segmentation and prescribe next actions in
programs such as churn management, loyalty and social marketing.

Campaign management: Marketing campaigns that target customers across channels owned by the
telco are placed in their own box on the diagram due to the high value generated by A3. ML is used to
segment and target customers.

Content and knowledge management: ML used in a variety of customer-facing systems (e.g. care,
marketing, retail and sales teams). It manages the customer data in order to understand need and can
also be used recommend the best content for an interaction. AI needed to manage unstructured data;
for example, assembling the best permutations of imagery and text for a sales interaction.

Sales and care training and coaching: ML can suggest learning topics and material, to design new
content and understand emotion/sentiment of those being trained and coached.

Type 4: Supporting business planning

Network planning: ML to manage data and simulate and optimize possible network designs. Also
uses third party data, e.g. mapping, location, urban planning, to assess most cost effective deployment
of new infrastructure.

Service design: ML to manage list of available network elements for the service build in real time –
and undertake optimization and prescriptive next actions.

Field service WEM: ML can improve scheduling and dispatch of field technicians. Also, a set of non-
personnel related use cases such as fuel optimization and predictive maintenance of field vehicles.

Contact center WEM: Some use of ML in the forecasting and planning of headcount; also, in making
real-time scheduling adjustments.

Merchandising: Analytics to plan/budget merchandise and assortment in store or on e-commerce

site, also to manage inventory.

Retail ops: Some options for adding ML predictive and prescriptive capabilities into store functionality
such as store performance dashboards.

Retail WEM: Some use of ML in the forecasting and planning of headcount; also in making real-time
scheduling adjustments and auto assignment when coaching new store staff.

Marketing operations: ML will manage data, find patterns and anomalies and forecast/optimize
plans. Used in competitive planning, device and other portfolio management tasks, pricing analysis
and marketing resource management.

Lead management: Predictive models using ML to identify leads based on fit and intent. ML manages
data, segment and predictive scoring. Can also be used in account-based marketing to identify best
leads to target within a single account.

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Sales process: Planning for prospecting and sales contact. Includes predicting likelihood to convert
and creation of prescriptive next best offer/action. Configure, price quote (CPQ) software may also
use optimization algorithms and expert systems to improve process.

Sales management: ML can optimize planning and forecasting cycle.

Supply chain planning: ML used in demand forecasting, to optimization the supply chain and in
performance/risk management.

Management accounting: Use of ML in business cases and forecasts.

Corporate strategy: Possible use of ML in planning models for strategic teams.

Type 5: Augmenting human capabilities

Employee chatbots: Today, these are simple messaging services between an employee and a telco
system. Providing answers to requests for information or diagnostic insight – for example, a field
service engineer requesting explanation of a red light on equipment while on-site.

Customer chatbots: Chatbots that interact with customers in a variety of digital channels. They use
natural language processing for text and speech, plus potential perceptive techniques such as
sentiment analysis to better understand the customer’s requirements.

Real-time guidance: Guidance tools for agents using natural language processing and text analytics
to offer next-best actions such as the next step in the process or the best resolution to an issue.

Virtual sales assistants: Chatbots reaching out to warm sales leads to try and set up appointments
that will enable a salesperson to close the deal.

Guided selling: ML can prescribe a next best action which will provide an optimal answer to the
question “What do I do next with this deal?”

Personal assistants: A variety of future uses for employee chatbots, real-time guidance and
background automation. For example, management of meetings – where the chatbot creates meeting
minutes, organizes future meetings and chases actions. These will also apply in consumer settings,
for example to help configure and manage smart home solutions.

Type 6: Frontier AI solutions

Drones: Use of airborne cameras to inspect equipment on cell-towers, both for routine maintenance
and in emergency scenarios where vehicular access to remote towers may be suddenly limited.

Immersive tech for field services: Provision of AR solutions to enable field service technicians to see
instructions and enabling remote experts to give instructions by seeing what the technician can see.
Also, prescriptive suggestions to field staff while on site.

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Immersive tech for training: Use of AR to provide real-time simulations and information for the routine
training of customer facing staff.

In-store AI: Robotic and VR solutions for the entertainment of customers coming in store. Solutions
may also provide help or information to customers.

Perceptual classification for understanding customers and employees: Use of a range of AI

techniques include speech, text, emotion and sentiment analysis throughout the telco, but particularly
in customer-facing channels where information about customers and employees can be used to
improve experience.

ML design for marketing/sales collateral: Use of ML to automatically create collateral which is

personalized based on understanding of the customer.

ML design for financial documents and job descriptions: Creation of standard documents such as
financial reports and accounts using data from one or more systems.

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Appendix 2
The table below describes the functionalities developed using assurance data in Figure 9:

Application type Operational area Activity Detailed Description

1. Complex Data Network Tracking customer Reporting and alarming when issues are seen. This can be about network (3G,4G,5G, roaming), services
management experience (video, content, VoLTE, voice, data), device (mobile, STB, peripherals) or OTT services (apps, websites).
Also, virtual drive testing (recreating an accurate representation of the network conditions in a controlled
environment). Reporting often segments customers to better understand those with needs or those that
are most important to the telco (i.e. highest value).
1. Complex Data Network Root cause analysis Analytics to understand common problems, e.g. by correlating data sources and looking for
management commonalities across systems in order to diagnose more difficult issues. The insights are then used to
understand issues and how they affect customers and improve the prioritization of issue resolution.

1. Complex Data Network Prediction of issues Use of ML to understand issues and predict future issues with network, services, apps and devices.
management
1. Complex Data Network Predictive Use of ML to understand issues with network equipment and alert operational staff or raise a ticket.
management maintenance
1. Complex Data Network Automated root Automated incident detection, decision on importance of issue (filtering of less important ones) and
management cause analysis sending guidance or recommended actions to the network or other systems.
1. Complex Data Network Self-healing General term for full solution of automated capabilities – fault detection and resolution across the
management networks network, maintenance of equipment etc.
1. Complex Data Issue resolution Insight for agents Insight from network and other data to improve troubleshooting capabilities of Level 1, 2 and 3 agents.
Answers questions such as “what is responsible for the customer’s issue?” and provides details of the
issue, including root cause.
1. Complex Data Issue resolution Prediction of issues The prediction of issues from assurance and CRM data (e.g. there is a network fault and the last time it
occurred it created a significant volume of traffic to the contact center). Prescriptive actions are sent to
humans or machines.
1. Complex Data Issue resolution Proactive care The creation of more personalized and/or prescriptive customer engagements. Care history, products
purchased, and other insight used to provide better interactions with agents; or predict issues and create
workflows and tickets to field services, operations teams etc. Assurance data is one feed which can be
used.
1. Complex Data Marketing Customer View of customer’s experience and achievement against targets. May use mapping to show geographic
programs experience KQIs issues and bring in data from other sources such as customer value from billing data. Customers may be
segmented based on needs (e.g. gaming customers).

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Application type Operational area Activity Detailed Description

2. Processes Trouble ticketing Details of issues to Information and triggers related to issues arising on the network, devices, apps and services sent to
other systems trouble ticketing, field services and other operational units.
2. Processes Trouble ticketing Root cause data to Data about root causes sent to trouble ticketing, field services and other operational units to provide
other systems insight and triggers or to help prioritize issues.
2. Processes Incident Tracking for issues/ Tracking specific topics in order to report or initiate alarms. Including illegal or excessive network usage,
Management events off-network issues (e.g. CPU problems of MNC customers), customers moving between countries.
Tracking of customer experience against peers.
3. Personalization Contact center IVR deflections Creation of messages or routing in the IVR dependent on the status of the network and services.
infra
3. Personalization Unassisted Care Proactive Provision of a message pushed to a customer when an issue affecting customer experience occurs, such
messaging as a network outage in their area. This can be integrally linked with more prescriptive actions below.

3. Personalization Unassisted care Information on Information about network or service affecting issues provided on customer portals (e.g. web, mobile or
customer portals as part of chatbot roll outs).
3. Personalization Unassisted care Push remedies to Proactively sending emails to customers likely to be affected by a specific issue with steps to fix problem
customers or optimize set up so that future problem won’t occur.
3. Personalization Troubleshooting Diagnostic tools Tools on customer portals and mobile apps that allow customers to run checks – enabling possible
causes of problems to be understood. This can include providing analysis to interfaces such as chatbots
or social media.
3. Personalization Troubleshooting Proactive Automated maintenance for set top boxes and other home equipment – most likely triggering action in
maintenance on the contact center but could be prescribed directly on the equipment.
customer premise
equipment
3. Personalization Marketing User insight Assurance data provided to marketing to improve their understanding of customer usage of digital
programs services

3. Personalization Marketing Tracking of Specific tracking for marketers – including CX of devices for the device team or particular services for
programs customer product managers involved in launching new products. OTT services also tracked for
experience for discussions/negotiations with OTT players.
marketers
3. Personalization Marketing Tracking customer Data sets for looking at customer journeys on the network or with devices, apps or services.
programs journeys
3. Personalization Marketing Monetization Monetizing customer insight by using predicative algorithms to understand what the customer might do
programs next and offering a product.

4. Planning Field services Details of issues to Information and triggers related to issues arising on the network, devices, apps and services sent to
other systems trouble ticketing, field services and other operational units.

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Application type Operational area Activity Detailed Description

4. Planning Network planning Individual customer A single score per customer created by combining service assurance measurements – can be used for
experience scoring network planning and management, marketing and in the contact center. May focus on particular
services of importance to the telco.
4. Planning Network planning Network planning Inclusion of network data on customer experience into planning tools to provide additional granularity.
tools Other data such as customer value from billing data may also be added. May include “individual customer
experience scores” going forward.
4. Planning Sales process VIP reporting and Provision of customer insight for, particularly, large companies to account management teams to give
SLA monitoring them insight into service affecting issues. Also data to better monitor SLAs and manage issues arising.

4. Planning Sales process Company Creation of assurance tools for large corporates to understand issues arising and perform other
Dashboards assurance functions.

5. Human-machine Customer chatbot Customer chatbot The creation of more personalized and/or prescriptive customer engagements via chatbots.
interaction

Source: STL Partners, Charlotte Patrick Consult

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Index

anomaly detection, 10, 21 network assurance, 17

AR, 24, 25 Next best actions, 13
assurance, 17, 18, 20, 21, 26, 28 next best offer, 24
BSS, 20 NFV, 11
chatbot, 24, 27, 28 Optimization, 14
Contact centre, 22, 23, 27 Personalization, 13, 27
customer experience, 2, 5, 13, 21, 26, 27, 28 real-time guidance, 15, 24
data lake, 17, 18 RPA, 5, 8, 12, 20, 22
digital channels, 15, 22, 24 SDN, 11, 20
field services, 18, 22, 24, 26, 27 self-healing, 11, 19, 20
Incident Management, 27 SLA, 28
marketing, 13, 16, 18, 21, 23, 25, 27, 28 Trouble ticketing, 22, 27
natural language processing, 5, 8, 24

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