On this episode of the Six Five Podcast – The 5G Factor, host Ron Westfall dives deep into how the collaboration between Amdocs and NVIDIA is setting new standards for CSPs to boost business incomes through the innovative use of GenAI. Ron takes us through the impressive strides the alliance is making, positioning CSPs at the forefront of the GenAI revolution.
The discussion covers:
- The strategic Amdocs and NVIDIA partnership and its impact on CSPs’ ability to leverage GenAI for enhanced business outcomes.
- The launch of Ericsson’s Cradlepoint R980 5G Router and S400 IoT appliance aimed at empowering AI-driven applications, along with the introduction of the new Ericsson Wireless Solutions unit.
- AT&T’s demonstration of GenAI capabilities with its AskData GenAI tool, currently leading the GenAI BIRD leaderboard, showcasing its innovative approach to data analysis and decision-making processes.
Learn more about the Six Five Podcast – The 5G Factor at The Futurum Group.
Watch the video below, and be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel, so you never miss an episode.
Or listen to the audio here:
Disclaimer: Six Five Podcast is for information and entertainment purposes only. Over the course of this webcast, we may talk about companies that are publicly traded, but please do not take anything that we say as a recommendation about what you should do with your investment dollars. We are not investment advisors, and we ask that you do not treat us as such.
Transcript:
Ron Westfall: Hello and welcome everyone to The 5G Factor. I’m Ron Westfall, Research Director here at The Futurum Group. And today, I am focusing on the major 5G ecosystem developments that have caught my eye, including Amdocs and NVIDIA working together on, you guessed it, AI capabilities, in particular Gen AI. Also, Ericsson has launched a new WWAN, I guess that’s one way of describing it, products. And also, I think it’s important for us to touch on what AT&T is also doing with AI. So with that, let’s jump right in.
This week at TM Forums Innovate Americas 2024 event, I believe that Amdocs and NVIDIA showcased how strong their partnership is in potentially unlocking Gen AI for communication service providers. And that, of course, impacts their 5G networks. What they’re looking to do is optimize large language models to speed adoption of Gen AI apps and services. And what that means is that the delivery of real world apps of AI that are designed specifically for the unique needs of the telecom industry, and this is really where Amdocs’ DNA is. It certainly has proven very adept at meeting the needs of telcos throughout the world. They count up to 400 CSPs as customers as of this last quarter. And also, NVIDIA, as we know, is definitely interested in expanding its presence and influence throughout the telecom realm, as we saw with the recent AI-RAN launch, that also included a partnership with T-Mobile, Ericsson, and Nokia to basically use T-Mobile’s Gen AI Innovation labs to really test, or I should say, the AI-RAN Innovation labs to test the emerging capabilities of AI in terms of enabling much better RAN outcomes.
Now with that in mind, to achieve this, Amdocs and NVIDIA are customizing enterprise grade LLMs running on NVIDIA accelerated computing as part of the Amdocs amAIz framework. And this is important because what it’s doing is it’s aiming to empower CSPs to efficiently deploy Gen AI use cases across their business from customer experience to networking provisioning. And I think we’re seeing a real progress. Basically, the entire Amdocs portfolio is using Gen AI capabilities. And this is something that I think the company has made strides in terms of its positioning and demonstrating, and I’ll touch on this, how this can positively impact these outcomes for CSPs. Now, what is going on is that Amdocs is using NVIDIA DGX Cloud AI supercomputing and NVIDIA AI enterprise software to support flexible adoption strategies and help ensure that CSPs can simply use Gen AI applications in a safe manner naturally. Now, notably the collaboration with NVIDIA builds on the Amdocs-Microsoft partnership. And I think this is something that’s important because, basically, Amdocs is betting that its relationship with Microsoft can help them win more business, particularly when it comes to what can be traditionally described as customer relation management applications. But we’re seeing that’s expanding into really a wider range of requirements and capabilities. And so, this is enabling Amdocs fundamentally to compete more directly against rivals such as Salesforce as well as ServiceNow, which is up and coming, I believe, within the telco realm. And so, this is something that I think is going to create new competitive dynamics.
But also, the fact that Amdocs is aligned with NVIDIA and Microsoft definitely will help its channel relations, and also its overall credibility in terms of why Amdocs when it comes to the question of using AI capabilities, including particularly Gen AI. Now, I find that CSPs are beginning to benefit from enhanced performance, optimized resource utilization, and the flexible scaling to support their emerging capabilities, but also meeting future needs. And that is both on the customer-facing side as well as on the back office side. Now, to back up the vision, Amdocs spotlighted how this telco-specific know-how has already led to significant results. And what they cited is that when it came to using Gen AI, a leading North American service provider, and we’ll keep it anon naturally, but still it’s demonstrating the point very effectively, saw a 60% reduction in token consumed in data processing, a 30% increase in response accuracy due to the use of telco-specific knowledge and a nearly 80% reduction in query latency. Now, I find that such Gen AI metrics are going to become increasingly important and understanding who’s providing the best solutions for their needs, but also a better understanding 5G customer and workforce experience outcomes. And also, just better understanding how an operator, a CSP, can definitely deliver a better 5G service quite simply. And so, this is going to impact everything from price optimization, value packaging, you name it. And this is, I think, going to be good news for CSPs as they figure out, okay, how are we going to energize our revenue streams, diversify them more effectively, and so forth.
Basically, the overall industry is kind of going through a lull right now. But we’ve been here before, and I’m anticipating that AI, just through partnerships such as NVIDIA and Amdocs, will play an integral role in stimulating new CSP activity, including, particularly on the 5G side. Now, when it came to real world business value brought to customer care. The same provider sought an incredible 63% reduction in average handling time, a 50% improvement in solving problems on the first try, and a 49% increase in Net Promoter Score, which is certainly very important to any CSP out there. And this, again, is reinforcing that Gen AI is improving business outcomes across the telecom industry. And these are, I think, very impressive figures. I mean, we’re seeing them in many parts. For example, improved efficiency and customer support, but also in terms of naturally customer call support environments, and so forth. So stay tuned. I think we’re going to see more of these results coming to the forefront, and quite simply improving the efficiency of operators in the back office, which I touched on. But also, just making things better for their customers across the board on the consumer side. But also on the business side, because as we know, the telcos are looking to expand their ability to meet business enterprise requirements, including in particular B2B capabilities. And so, AI will be a valuable tool in meeting that particular objective.
Now, let’s turn, and this is still related to AI, you can be rest assured, to Ericsson announcing the launch of two new routers, the Ericsson Cradlepoint R980 and S400, which are designed to provide enterprises with secure and scalable connectivity for enabling AI. See, I touched on it again. Computer vision, data analysis, other advanced applications across IoT environments and vehicle networks. Now, with the integration with Ericsson’s NetCloud platform, including NetCloud’s SASE Secure Connect. These routers can offer smooth deployment, management, and robust zero=trust security across large scale IoT and vehicle endpoints. Now, the announcement is important, not just because of these new products, because it also ushered in a new branding approach for Ericsson with the formation of the Ericsson Wireless Solutions unit combining Ericsson’s CSP-focused 5G infrastructure DNA with Cradlepoint’s enterprise-focused portfolio assets and channel prowess. And certainly, the launch of these two new products are aimed primarily at enterprises, but it’s showing that Ericsson brand name is out in front, and it’s leveraging really the trust that Cradlepoint has established throughout the enterprise channels. Now, specifically the Ericsson Cradlepoint R980 is a ruggedized 5G router that is designed to deliver high performance connectivity to vehicles enabling the deployment of applications such as AI driven video recognition and real-time data analysis With the increased use of these technologies in public safety and smart cities, 5G, especially 5G standalone, is providing what I believe is more reliable and agile connectivity. And why is this so important? Well, I think we all probably have friends or colleagues who are dealing with Hurricane Helene and its wrath throughout the Southeast US. And so, this is connected.
This product is designed for first responders, near-shore vessels, and as well as other important vehicles such as school buses. And what is going on is that the compact R980 delivers secure and persistent 5G connectivity even in the most demanding conditions. So while it’s certainly Hurricane Helene is generating headlines right now, but this is going to be true for any public safety challenge that arises. And as a result, it can also be used in IoT deployments where video and mission-critical applications may require higher performance and lower latency. So this is really good news for certainly public safety, but also for just making enterprises smarter about what’s going on at their facility or improving their overall security profile. Now with its third gen 5G architecture, the R980 is 3GPP Release 16 compatible, and that is aligning with the readiness for standalone networks. I touched on that, and network slicing including public safety slices and low latency network slices for IoT. And now, we’ve been hearing about slices for a while and they have actually been coming on board. But I think this is going to be important for CSPs and their ability to, again, generate those new revenue streams and differentiated offerings. Now the router’s new embedded eSIM can enable over-the-air carrier switching and future NetCloud releases, adding deployment flexibility, and operational efficiency. I think carriers are now very adept to being able to use the cloud in order to take advantage of capabilities such as this.
Now, it’s also, I think, important to note that emerging AI applications also rely on gathering data from distributed widespread IoT devices, really across the edge. Now as one of the first zero-trust IoT appliances, at least it is from my view, Ericsson’s other offering, the Cradlepoint S400 enables secure connectivity for other diverse IoT use cases including light industrial digital signage and building controls. As a semi-ruggedized compact IoT device, its design can offer field expandable interface options such as additional Ethernet ports, a serial port, and a general-purpose input-output switch. Now, this adaptability can allow IT specialists to tailor the devices to specific deployment needs, and to ensure that even small vulnerable IoT devices which cannot support traditional security methods remain secure. The S400 includes NetCloud’s SASE SecureConnect as part of its subscription license. And I think we’ll be seeing more of this. Quite simply, the SASE approach or architecture will be fundamental in terms of being able to meet these types of use cases, that is combining the cloud with physical product in order to meet the specific needs of the customer.
Now, SecureConnect enables the deployment of a zero-trust network instantly providing easy-to-deploy, as well as comprehensive security for large-scale deployments. And that certainly applies to IoT devices and fleet vehicles or vehicle networks in general. Now, overall, I find that the launch aligns with the edge representing the next best opportunity for CSPs. Telco PoPs are brick-and-mortar prime real estate assets can also play a role in this as AI capabilities are being increasingly distributed across the IoT environments, as we saw with this launch. But also further out, I anticipate that the operators will need to look at ways to offer AI-inferencing services using its vast edge resources that hyperscalers even cannot emulate today. So today, the new Ericsson devices are well-suited to advancing AI capabilities of the CSPs. Today, it would be across IoT environments and certainly public safety environments. But also, I think it can serve as a linchpin for the carriers to being smarter about how they support AI and deploy AI, including ultimately them being able to offer their own native AI-inferencing services as a service, but also partner with hyperscalers in a more flexible fashion rather than just leasing these assets outright to the hyperscalers, and letting them in effect get the lion’s share of these revenues.
Now, speaking of AI and operators, let’s turn to what AT&T is doing. And AT&T, I thought that this is very interesting, reports that Ask AT&T is driving business value by making employees data experts. And I think we understand that AI has the potential to really democratize knowledge across organizations. And this, I think, is being demonstrated by AT&T. Now, there’s always going to be room for some expertise. However, what this is, I think, going to be a difference maker is enabling, say, low to no coding capabilities, streamlining really workflows across the organization, and these are just some examples. But I think there are some numbers here that have been impressive. Now, AT&T is generating a billion tokens per day right now and review a token in Gen AI whether powered by an LLM or increasingly popular small language models. It’s essentially equivalent to a generated word. So fundamentally, Gen AI is cranking out the equivalent of about a billion words per day at AT&T. Now, these are everything from automated summaries of inbound customer calls, which saves between 30 seconds to several minutes per call. We’ve already touched on that in terms of the Amdocs- NVIDIA alliance. But also, suggestions on relevant products and services for customers to lines of computer code. Again, the low code, no code paradigm. Well, stay tuned for more.
Now, that’s a level of information and automation that simply wasn’t possible before. And I think we all understand that. Now, AT&T’s data tool currently ranks number one in the world on the Gen AI BIRD leaderboard. And this is constantly updating scoreboard tracks, which Gen AI platforms around the world are the best at translating, playing text queries into SQL programming language. And SQL is within the telco realm. But other industries, the standard for querying in managing large databases. So this is really good news. Certainly AT&T is reporting that this is making a difference for them today, and it’s really laying the foundation for even, I believe, more impressive results. Now, what that ranking means is that Ask AT&T is exceptionally good at taking standard plain English questions and turning them into computer code to find insights and data. And I’m finding that AT&T has put a lot of work into refining its Ask AT&T capability. Off the shelf, Gen AI platforms can be useful, but what AT&T is pointing to here is that they’ve shown that accuracy and value increase substantially when you fine tune models on your own data, and also use approaches such as retrieval augmented generation or RAG along with vector databases.
Now from my understanding, I think these capabilities are going to be important, not just today, but for, say, the next year or two. But ultimately the LLMs could, in essence, take on the vector database and RAG capabilities natively, so that those capabilities won’t have to be add-ons, if you will. But it’s kind of a new point because right now it’s making all that difference in terms of enabling the CSPs to become better in terms of operational efficiency, in terms of proving customer experience, et cetera. You heard all the data, all the results, and this is all something I think we can believe will make a difference in stimulating CSP innovation and investments over the next, well, 12 months, but also further out. And kind of as a coda here, AT&T is striving now to move from ask data to explain data, automatically building models to explain what is going on with sales, with churn rates, with fraud detection, you name it. It’s just going to get better and better, at least that is the trend line here. And then, act on data. So this is really, I think, taking it to the next level. They’re just learning more. The training is paying off, and now the inferencing is going to be able to allow employees, the workforce, to really run with it.
So folks, stay tuned through your Gen AI prompts on what’s going on with Gen AI throughout the CSP world, let alone the overall digital ecosystem. And with that, everyone, have a great Gen AI and 5G day. And also, before I sign off completely, don’t forget to bookmark 5G Factor. It’s available on The Futurum Group website, but also available at Techstrong TV. And certainly, I appreciate those folks who take the time to tune in and listen. And looking forward to our next 5G Factor. Again, great 5G day everyone.
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.
He is a recognized authority at tracking the evolution of and identifying the key disruptive trends within the service enablement ecosystem, including a wide range of topics across software and services, infrastructure, 5G communications, Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), analytics, security, cloud computing, revenue management, and regulatory issues.
Prior to his work with The Futurum Group, Ron worked with GlobalData Technology creating syndicated and custom research across a wide variety of technical fields. His work with Current Analysis focused on the broadband and service provider infrastructure markets.
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.