STL Partners sees 40% rise in generative AI implementations by telcos in three months
3 min read- Generative AI continues its momentum across telcos’ activities
- STL Partners has recorded nearly 300 announcements of GenAI technology implementations by telcos
- 47% of the activity is across telecom operators productising GenAI for their enterprise clients
- Solution providers for the telco industry are rushing to support it, as developments of GenAI solutions specifically designed for telcos proliferate
LONDON – 19 November 2024 – STL Partners has seen a significant increase in the adoption of generative AI (GenAI) by telecom operators worldwide between August and November 2024, marking the swift prevalence of the technology far and wide.
In its latest Telco generative AI adoption tracker, the research and consulting firm has found that 69 telecom operators have made a total of 282 GenAI implementations by the start of November, up 40% from August 2024 and recording a staggering fivefold growth over the last six months.
‘Telcos are quick on their feet when it comes to using GenAI in their operations and products, surprising some sceptics in the industry,’ notes Marina Koytcheva, research director at STL Partners. Insights from the tracker show that 51% of all announcements are in full deployment, while 8% are in trials and 41% are at a stage of exploration.
Based on the proliferation of early-stage activity and the expanding number of telecom operators engaging with GenAI, the analyst powerhouse expects the rapid adoption of GenAI by telcos to continue as they find new ways to derive value from the technology for themselves and, importantly, for their customers.
‘Work on GenAI propositions for enterprise clients continues at a pace’, comments Koytcheva, citing figures which show that 47% of the GenAI projects relate to offering services such as chatbots and even infrastructure to business customers who don’t have the time, skills or interest in cracking GenAI on their own.
Two other trends that STL Partners notes are sustained interest by telcos in owning their large language models (LLMs) in-house and efforts towards creating multi-model platforms. ‘Both point towards the desire to avoid lock-in with a single AI giant such as OpenAI or Google,’ remarks Koytcheva.
Another significant development over the last months is the explosion of GenAI solutions designed to help the telco industry adopt the technology: STL Partners has identified 50 such propositions already. Three quarters of those have been specifically developed for the telco industry, while the rest are optimised for telecom among other industries.
‘Clearly, the industry has noticed telcos’ ambition to adopt GenAI quickly – and solution providers are now rushing to compete for telcos’ attention and partnership,’ the analyst adds. ‘The good news is that while the growth of GenAI adoption in the telecom industry is steep, these are still early days: we are yet to hear from hundreds more operators around the world about what they are doing with GenAI.’
Find out more insights from the tracker by downloading a summary here.
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