IBM Global AI Adoption Index finds three biggest barriers to AI success are limited skills/expertise, data complexity and ethical concerns
Enterprise adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) is on a major ramp and communications service providers (CSPs) are no exception. In fact the IBM Global AI Adoption Index 2023, published on Jan. 10, found that “37% of IT professionals within the telecommunications industry state that their company is…deploying AI.” But challenges persist with the same survey identifying the primary impediment to “successful AI adoption” being “limited AI skills and expertise.”
IBM is partnering with the GSMA to help tackle this skills gap. The two groups on Jan. 30 announced a “collaboration to support the adoption and skills of generative artificial intelligence in the telecom industry,” according to a press release. The push is anchored by an AI training program run by GSMA Advance and the GSMA Foundry Generative AI challenge and program.
The GSMA Advance AI Training program will train telecom industry stakeholders on IBM’s watsonX AI and data platform and include both broad and telecom-specific instruction. These sessions will be held both virtually and in-person at locations in Dubai, London, Mexico, New York and Seoul.
As part of RCR Wireless News’ ongoing Telco AI Deep Dive video series, we talked to IBM’s Stephen Rose, general manager of global industries, about how operators are approaching AI. He hit on two big issues that AI could help address: “One is maximizing capex…to return on investor capital. The other one is operating at the lowest [total cost of ownership], but it is also operating with the lowest environmental impact. We must solve for those problems.”
Rose’s advice on telco AI initiatives was around data quality and provenance, and participation in open ecosystems. As for what AI means for the workforce, “You have to ensure that every time you touch network data…you know that inherently you’re going to be touching organizational and people strategies because skillsets have to change, modes of operation have to change,” Rose said.
More information on this partnership is being teased for release at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
