Telecom operators have been using automation and analytics for many years to enhance network performance and customer experience. But now, we are witnessing the beginning of a new era in the telecommunications industry, in which artificial intelligence will not just analyze data but also make smart decisions, adapt, and take action on its own.
In this episode of the Analytics Insight Podcast, host Priya Diyalani speaks with Samit Banerjee, Division President, Customer Business Services at Amdocs, about how agentic AI is reshaping telecom operations. The discussion covers issues such as autonomous networks, India’s AI benefits, enterprise prospects, and human oversight in AI-based decisions. Here are the excerpts of the interview:
In my opinion, the main distinction between these two types is that the automation system was primarily rule-based. This means that it could follow certain instructions and could not do much within predefined limits. However, agentic AI brings intelligence to decision-making. This allows humans to make decisions independently. In other words, the AI agent can monitor the network, recognize anomalies, and make decisions automatically. For instance, telecom providers can use dynamic resource allocation, provide specialized virtual network slices for enterprise clients, and ensure quality of service without human intervention.
I think India has several structural advantages that very few countries can match. Digital Public Infrastructure in our country has laid a very robust foundation for identity verification and fraud prevention services, along with other digital services. Meanwhile, we have one of the highest volumes of mobile data in the world coming from India. It means we have access to a tremendous amount of data to train our AI models. We have a fiber network, a vibrant engineering community, and also a multilingual population that makes our NLP technologies better. Government initiatives such as the IndiaAI Mission are uniting government agencies and private organizations to develop AI technologies.
There are significant prospects beyond conventional connectivity. Telecommunication firms can become strategic technology partners by providing AI-based services to enterprises. By leveraging edge computing, telecommunication firms can run AI services in proximity to end users. This will reduce latency in the banking, manufacturing, healthcare, and smart city sectors. Telecommunication firms may offer an environment in which enterprises can train their AI models without sending data to remote locations. AI solutions will improve cybersecurity by detecting threats before they access enterprise networks. Intelligent networks can be used to run applications such as drones, surveillance, logistics management, and industrial robotics.
This is among the most significant questions that every organization adopting AI should ask itself. Not every decision needs to be wholly autonomous. Operational decisions such as traffic balancing, resource allocation, and optimization can be handled by AI, as they are repetitive and easily reversed. Nevertheless, any decision related to major financial investment, public safety, emergencies, and so forth requires human intervention. In essence, the role of AI should be to provide suggestions and undertake automated operations, while human beings make critical decisions.
The emergence of telecom networks will lead to autonomous digital ecosystems. Rather than being mere carriers of bandwidth and connectivity, network providers will offer intelligent infrastructure that can configure, heal, and optimize itself in real time. Telecom companies will leverage AI to speed up their processes, do predictive maintenance, provide personalized experiences for their customers, and develop innovative enterprise offerings through edge intelligence. The more these capabilities develop, the more telecom providers will serve as facilitators of AI across other industries, such as healthcare, finance, manufacturing, logistics, and smart cities. The key issue is not about making AI replace humans.
Listen to the full discussion on the Analytics Insight Podcast.