How telcos generate AI revenue

Analysis of the Telco generative AI adoption tracker data shows that more than half (54%) of all new announcements related to AI are linked to creating new products, services and solutions for enterprises or consumers.

Enterprise solutions – including infrastructure, platforms and applications – dominate telcos’ efforts, as this is where there is a clear short-term expectation of monetisation (this customer group includes also the public sector).

Consumer applications are still the minority. This likely reflects the difficulty of monetising AI in the consumer space, as well as some telcos’ expectations that other players will dominate the consumer AI market.

There is a small sliver of activity that targets both consumers and enterprise. This typically refers to more foundational efforts to build localised large language models, which can be used in various applications for different customer groups in future.

While we wished to include more financial analysis in this report, most telcos remain tight-lipped about the revenue they derive from AI-related services. We have included the quarterly numbers of SK Telecom and a high-level disclosure from Orange.

We will aim to update this report regularly when telcos start reporting more AI-related numbers.

The long-term vision of telcos’ place in the AI era is covered in our recent report  The telecom industry in the AI era: How telcos can follow the money