The ubiquity of telecommunications brands uniquely positions them to influence technology trends, and how brands and consumers connect.
It’s no surprise many telecommunications brands are experimenting with the latest AI technologies to understand how to best incorporate them into their strategies. Generative AI (GenAI) is at the forefront of the AI revolution and, as it continues to evolve, telecom brands can unlock new ways to optimize their existing services and pioneer advancements that shape connectivity and digital communication.
How telecom brands can leverage Generative AI
Still, an overreliance or lack of oversight on AI can create trust barriers between brands and their consumers that are difficult to overcome. And in a high-churn industry like telecom, protecting brand trust is extremely important. So while telecom brands can leverage AI in several ways, a brand’s efforts must focus on using it to support authentic connections with or experiences for its audience.
Infuse data into AI tools
To win with AI, telecommunications brands must create a truly differentiated use case for it in their business. This means infusing their proprietary brand messaging, customer behavioral, and usage data into internal AI models. Injecting uniqueness into the tool, while maintaining data security, leads to stronger, brand-specific outputs and greater efficiency.
Personalization at scale
Telecom consumers are carving their own paths to purchase and seeking out answers online. In fact, consumers research over 7,000 questions related to the industry every month. The brands that can answer these unique questions at scale will position themselves as trustworthy companies.
Telecommunications companies can use GenAI as a tool to support the creation of efficient business and marketing content that answers these questions. When fed with individual customer interests, brand ethos and guidelines — and overseen by human content writers — generative AI can help create targeted marketing materials that support consumer journeys.
It’s important to note, however, that human oversight is a critical element in maintaining consumer trust and connection.
We recently produced a study that found content creation should still be human-led and managed, as human writers excel at understanding the importance of context and nuance in tailoring content to specific audiences. However, a focused, forward-thinking team can utilize GenAI to help accelerate the completion of key project tasks, such as outline development, research, citation sourcing, and fact-checking. The more relevant and accurate the information gathered is, the better the output will be.
Product development and innovation
In an industry pushed to remain competitive by building new products at breakneck speed, telecommunications brands can use GenAI to develop conceptual designs and prototypes for new products and services. AI technology can support tasks such as brainstorming, ideation, and design exploration, accelerating the innovation process. The result is the ability to produce more ideas faster in streamlined workflows, freeing employees to focus more on creative problem-solving.
The more that brands innovate with AI technology in-house, using brand guidelines and customer feedback to build upon their own systems, the better and more specific the outcomes will be for their audience.
Generative search visibility
With the recent advancements announced at Google I/O, the likelihood that AI will deliver more precise answers to consumer questions has grown. While it’s unlikely that users in a competitive market like telecommunications will stop scrolling after reading one AI search result, GenAI’s search capabilities certainly reduce some of the time and effort required for users to sift through typical Google search results in early research phases.
Therefore, telecom brands should be creating high-quality content that’s optimized for GenAI searches. By simplifying complex problems in unique, user-focused content, brands provide generative AI the information it needs to compose responses. This means that, with the right content, brands may be able to influence results which not only provides more control over brand narrative but also helps deliver a more informed user who is more prepared to purchase.
Telecom brands should also account for the education that generative search offers users before they come to their page. With generative search advancements, users are more likely to be informed and further along their journey when they arrive at your website, thanks to the introductory information AI has provided. This, and resulting consumer behavioral changes over the coming months, should influence the way telecom brands approach educating their users.
AI’s ethical challenges
GenAI is an exciting tool for telecom brands. But every new piece of technology has its potential pitfalls. These are some of the risks brands should account for as they adopt AI.
Data security
Telecommunications brands, by their very nature, store substantial amounts of personal customer data, which increases the need for data security and ethical data handling.
Utilizing AI tools in the telecom context comes with the risk of data mishandling — and worse. For example, a lawsuit filed in late 2022 claimed that T-Mobile trained its AI programs on non-secure customer data.
Consumer trust is easily broken. Brands must avoid misusing consumer data to avoid the risks of massive legal and financial issues, as well as long-term damage to their brand-consumer relationships.
Bias and discrimination
In the generative AI context, it’s also possible that flawed or biased input data (the backbone of generative output) can result in flawed results. In some cases, it’s possible to perpetuate bias or discriminatory practices through generative AI content.
Biases in your AI system can be opaque and difficult to detect, adding to the risk. To reduce the potential for AI output to unintentionally promote inequities, telecom brands can implement mitigation strategies such as these:
- Diverse and representative training data
- Bias detection algorithms
- Ongoing monitoring and evaluation of AI-generated outputs for fairness and inclusivity
An AI approach for telecom brands
AI and the algorithms that allow the technology to work are complex and obscure to the average consumer. Consumers may be reluctant to engage with AI, feel anxious about their data privacy, or simply be frustrated by their experience with AI. In a highly competitive industry, telecom brands must cover all these aspects as they look to connect with consumers.
Be transparent
Brands that are open about their AI use and the ways they handle customer data create a sense of security and trust. Perceived dishonesty can devastate consumer trust, hinder future consumer connections, and destroy your brand. Being transparent reduces these risks and should be a top priority.
Be accountable
Being accountable means taking responsibility and doing what’s right when things go wrong. Leveraging AI can result in errors or unintended consequences, especially when using it to support decision-making. Telecommunications brands must establish processes for accountability, including clear lines of responsibility and communication in the event of AI-related issues.
Be proactive
Proactive brands don’t wait to adopt AI governance strategies and develop ethical AI approaches. These frameworks and guidelines help telecom brands avoid the damage of AI misuse. Governance helps brands set AI policies and best practices that standardize AI use.
Telecommunications brands stand to gain substantial value by leveraging the power of generative AI tools. AI’s potential to crunch data and create insights, generate content, and support day-to-day tasks is vital in today’s competitive telecom marketplace. But brands must ensure that they feed generative AI tools the right kind of data and training. Perhaps most importantly, they must develop and implement AI governance to ensure their internal practices align with consumer expectations and ethical standards.
The best results will come from brands that foster an AI-friendly ethos within their organization. When harnessed carefully to support brand operations and content creation, generative AI can create more efficiency and help you make deeper, more authentic connections.
