Artificial Intelligence (AI) Rules MWC 2024

Author: Martina Kurth (CEO)

The main focus of GSMA's Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2024 was artificial intelligence (AI), with generative AI (genAI) as a subtheme. Almost every communications service provider (CSP) or vendor highlighted the transformational impact of this technology, although many CSPs admitted that they are still in the early stages of the hype.

A closer look at the numerous product announcements, alliances and partnerships reveals a pattern that suggests AI is more akin to yesterday’s big data hype than a revolutionary change for the communications industry.

Some industry insiders suggest that CSPs could benefit greatly from AI due to their ownership of vast amounts of network and customer data. According to these claims, genAI relies heavily on access to large amounts of data. CSPs could potentially monetize this opportunity by selling their data to other companies to train their LLMs. Alternatively, CSPs could leverage AI to train their own genAI models for internal use.

The hype around big data promised lucrative data monetization opportunities, but they failed to materialize. There is little evidence to suggest that the current situation will be any different.

Telco Republic believes that the hype surrounding AI will subside and the industry will return to business as usual for the following reasons:

AI Is Mostly About Internal Efficiency, Productivity and Cost Improvements Rather Than Market Expansion.
AI will not help CSPs tackle their biggest challenge: A shrinking market for consumer services.
AI Is About Use Cases Rather Than Transforming CSPs' Business Strategy.
For CSPs, AI is a supporting technology, not a revenue-generating product.
AI Will Be Embedded In Vendor Solutions or Attached to Solutions as Chatbots and Copilots.
AI will soon be a standard feature in all vendor solutions and will no longer be a competitive differentiator.
Ongoing CSP Initiatives Will Continue.
AI will not replace current initiatives aimed at creating internal efficiency, mange costs and boost productivity.

Telco Republic takes a closer look at a number of key AI-related alliance and product announcements during MWC 2024, including the following suppliers: