The News: Netcracker announced that it has expanded its partnership with Microsoft to support Netcracker’s recently launched GenAI Telco Solution, which is designed to unlock the potential of generative AI technology to deliver greater business value to the telecom industry. Read the full Press Release on the Netcracker website.
DTW23: Netcracker and Microsoft Put ChatGPT in GenAI Telco Use Cases
Analyst Take: Netcracker is aligning its GenAI Telco Solution to fully leverage the power of OpenAI’s ChatGPT through Azure OpenAI Service. The prime objective is to develop high-value use cases by swiftly cultivating valuable telecom data and knowledge. Using its vast expertise in telecom IT, Netcracker’s solution is well-suited to augment ChatGPT with real-time telecom data, context, and knowledge from the operators’ business support system/operations support system (BSS/OSS) solutions and data analytics platforms to improve productivity and uplift the customer experience across all domains of the telecom business.
From my perspective, the expanded alliance with Microsoft positions both companies to take advantage of OpenAI’s new strategic commitment to adapt its business model to meet business demands. OpenAI was launched as a research-focused startup and was not purpose-built as a business to deliver enterprise-grade and telco-grade products. Today, the pressure is on OpenAI to evolve its business model, and the recent launch of ChatGPT Enterprise is clearly part of that evolution. Specifically, ChatGPT Enterprise is developed to deliver enterprise-grade security and privacy, unlimited higher speed GPT-4 access, longer context windows, and advanced data analysis capabilities.
In enterprise settings, ChatGPT has been handled delicately to mitigate the intrinsic challenges of a large language model (LLM) trained on enormous amounts of public data (inaccuracy, bias, hallucinations, explainability, etc.) Microsoft added layers of enterprise security and customization for ChatGPT, pointing models at curated private domains thereby sidestepping data quality concerns. Now Netcracker and Microsoft are providing the equivalent OpenAI ChatGPT foundation to fulfill telco-specific use case requirements.
Netcracker needed to further strengthen its GenAI Telco Solution through the expanded Microsoft alliance to counter rival offerings such as the Amdocs amAIz framework that is designed to empower operators to deploy generative AI use cases, including improving agent interaction with CX systems, improving employee interaction with network management/provisioning tasks, and enabling customers to easily handle self-service tasks. Plus, earlier in 2023, Amdocs and Microsoft expanded their partnership that leverages Amdocs’ cloud-native Commerce and Care Suite and Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Power Platform with the aim of combining cloud, AI, and telco technologies to augment consumer and enterprise experiences.
From my understanding, Amdocs amAIz is designed to improve an operator’s ability to explore, assist, generate, and recommend activities across the entire customer and operations lifecycle, and deliver increased efficiencies and productivity. In the June 2023 unveiling of Amdocs amAIz, the company indicated use cases likely would include a ChatGPT-like self-service experience, telco-verticalized Dynamics 365 Sales/Service/ Marketing Assistants, and B2B Solution Sales Assistants. In some cases, there will be a human in the loop to review generative AI content, and ultimately approve whether it will be sent to end customers.
Key Takeaway: Netcracker and Microsoft Gear Up Generative AI for Telcos
In my view, Netcracker and Microsoft are addressing the topmost telco business value requirements by infusing Netcracker GenAI Telco Solution with Azure OpenAI capabilities, using OpenAI ChatGPT technology to improve customer experiences and business outcomes. By selecting Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service, Netcracker boosts its GenAI Telco Solution to fulfill top-priority telco use case demands such as improved productivity, increased operational efficiency, and enhanced personalized interactions with customers.
Disclosure: The Futurum Group is a research and advisory firm that engages or has engaged in research, analysis, and advisory services with many technology companies, including those mentioned in this article. The author does not hold any equity positions with any company mentioned in this article.
Analysis and opinions expressed herein are specific to the analyst individually and data and other information that might have been provided for validation, not those of The Futurum Group as a whole.
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Author Information
Ron is an experienced, customer-focused research expert and analyst, with over 20 years of experience in the digital and IT transformation markets, working with businesses to drive consistent revenue and sales growth.
Ron holds a Master of Arts in Public Policy from University of Nevada — Las Vegas and a Bachelor of Arts in political science/government from William and Mary.
