In the aftermath of DTW23 - Ignite, Ariana Lynn, Principal Analyst at The Fast Mode spoke to Rohit Maheshwari, Head of Strategy and Products at Subex. Rohit explores the company's participation at the event, his predictions for the next year and his thoughts on generative AI.
Ariana: What products / solutions did Subex showcase at DTW23? Were there any new launches?
Rohit: The use cases Subex showcased include Margin Management and Product Performance Optimisation, Handset Fraud, Billing Anomaly, Contract Assurance, and Network Asset Management.
We recently launched Generative AI (GenAI) solutions for telcos. It’s a fusion of GCPs cutting-edge cloud stack combined with Subex’s profound domain expertise. These solutions provide practical applications of GenAI, demonstrating its impact on telecom operators and covers areas such as Customer Experience Co-Pilot, Fraud Co-Pilot, and Business Assurance Co-Pilot.
Ariana: What are some of the emerging trends and technologies that you expect will power digital transformation in the telco space in the next year?
Rohit: To realise future value, telecom operators are undergoing a profound metamorphosis, ushering in an era of unprecedented digital transformation and connectivity. However, disruptions are underscoring the massive transformation telcos are undertaking. For example, delivery disruptions are already underway, impacting network architecture decisions – standalone vs. non-standalone; fuelled by the advent of 5G and 6G, alongside content, commerce, and cash disruption, telcos are onboarding numerous partners; and finally driven by the continuous evolution of 5G, 6G, AI, cloud, private networks, fixed wireless access, and satellite internet providers, internal assessments need to take place for telcos to seamlessly integrate innovations into their existing systems.
While connectivity will remain the bedrock of diverse experiences, today’s automated but static workflows will give way to agents autonomously discovering and conducting workflows. Orchestrating large language models (LLMs) will be used to seamlessly manage user interfaces, workflows, and interconnected components, leading to innovations such as agile co-pilots. Additionally, we expect the convergence of AI, cloud, and network as a service (NaaS) will be the driving force behind a telco’s ability to provided unprecedented customer experiences.
Tara: What are your thoughts on artificial intelligence (AI), specifically generative AI? Where is it heading?
Rohit: GenAI is poised to have a transformative impact on our everyday work environment and based on the number of use cases demonstrated at DTW, the hype around GenAI is solid. I believe the adoption rate of this technology will be among the fastest new techs to have disrupted our industry in its 150+ years of existence. I foresee GenAI being used as a co-pilot in everyday work activities for a diverse set of telco use cases, including customer engagement, knowledge management, and fraud management.
From a vendor perspective, the market will be divided between AI Infra providers, companies innovating on LLMs and foundational models, and organisations like ours that are combing our access to clean data and domain knowledge on top of these LLMs to bring to life orbit shifting and substantial impact use cases. Subex’s role will also be to manage effective context embedding, manage costs associated with leveraging LLM, and most importantly controlling trust worthiness, accuracy, and bias in outputs from these applications.
Rohit is responsible for delivering business growth through innovation and product strategy. He leverages his expertise in Artificial Intelligence (AI), analytics and digital services to contribute to Subex’s solutions. Prior to this, Rohit was the Head of Subex’s Business and Solutions Consulting Group (BSCG) and has over 20 years of rich experience in delivering solutions and consulting to telecom operators across the world. Before joining Subex, Rohit worked with companies like Crompton Greaves and Kirloskar Electric Company. He is a graduate in electrical and electronics engineering from University of Mysore.
