AI on the Smartphone: What telcos should do

Artificial intelligence (AI) is more powerful and affordable than ever, and the leading consumer-facing AI platforms – Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon – are in an arms race to bring the technology to smartphones. AI will radically change the way people use smartphones, but what are the implications for data traffic and consumer expectations, and what role should telcos play in this evolution?

Introduction

Following huge advances in machine learning and the falling cost of cloud storage over the last several years, artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are now affordable and accessible to almost any company. The next stage of the AI race is bringing neural networks to mobile devices. This will radically change the way people use smartphones, as voice assistants morph into proactive virtual assistants and augmented reality is integrated into everyday activities, in turn changing the way smartphones use telecoms networks.

Besides implications for data traffic, easy access to machine learning through APIs and software development kits gives telcos an opportunity to improve their smartphone apps, communications services, entertainment and financial services, by customising offers to individual customer preferences.

The leading consumer-facing AI developers – Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon – are in an arms race to attract developers and partners to their platforms, in order to further refine their algorithms with more data on user behaviours. There may be opportunities for telcos to share their data with one of these players to develop better AI models, but any partnership must be carefully weighed, as all four AI players are eyeing up communications as a valuable addition to their arsenal.

In this report we explore how Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon are adapting their AI models for smartphones, how this will change usage patterns and consumer expectations, and what this means for telcos. It is the first in a series of reports exploring what AI means for telcos and how they can leverage it to improve their services, network operations and customer experience.

Contents:

• Executive Summary
• Smartphones are the key to more personalised services
• Implications for telcos
• Introduction
• Defining artificial intelligence
• Moving AI from the cloud to smartphones
• Why move AI to the smartphone?
• How to move AI to the smartphone?
• How much machine learning can smartphones really handle?
• Our smartphones ‘know’ a lot about us
• Smartphone sensors and the data they mine
• What services will all this data power?
• The privacy question – balancing on-device and the cloud
• SWOT Analysis: Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon
• Implications for telcos

Figures:

• Figure 1: How smartphones can use and improve AI models
• Figure 2: Explaining artificial intelligence terminology
• Figure 3: How machine learning algorithms see images
• Figure 4: How smartphones can use and improve AI models
• Figure 5: Google Translate works in real-time through smartphone cameras
• Figure 6: Google Lens in action
• Figure 7: AR applications of Facebook’s image segmentation technology
• Figure 8: Comparison of the leading voice assistants
• Figure 9: Explanation of Federated Learning