ericsson.

com/en/
ai-and-automation

Supercharging
customer
experience
through AI and
automation:
The inside view
2 Supercharging customer experience through AI and automation

Letter from the publisher

This report shares insights gathered from interviews with

Ericsson Managed Services customers, as well as wider
research into industry trends and future networks.

Contents With the introduction of new technologies, In the face of these challenges, we wanted
the telecommunications industry is facing to hear our customers’ perceptions of the
04 On a journey to become big changes – making these exciting times future of operations.
business critical for industry and operations. Disruptive This was an interesting exercise and I
05 Dare to move – or risk falling behind technologies, like automation and artificial would like to thank everyone involved for
06 AI and automation will intelligence (AI), offer service providers new their engagement, which has made this
help get the job done opportunities. However, they also place report possible.
07 Putting operations at the heart new demands on overall strategies.
of customer experience
08 The first steps to initiate the journey Sincerely,
09 Connecting the dots between network Peter Laurin
performance and customer perception SVP & Head of Managed Services, Ericsson
11 How advanced AI and automation
enable next-level customer experience
12  How a service provider in Southeast
Asia improved network NPS
14 Challenges to overcome
15  The AI and automation
journey has only just begun
16 Technology alone is not enough
17  Rewriting the rules of network
and IT operations
18  Demonstrated capabilities to
support cost efficiency and the
customer experience agenda
19  Benefits of the Ericsson
Operations Engine

AI and automation will supercharge the customer experience, but challenges lie ahead
Supercharging customer experience through AI and automation 3

Methodology

Geographical distribution of Ericsson commissioned Ernst & Young (EY),

researched service providers
Thirty communications service providers
were included in this report, which covers the
following geographical regions:
North America, Europe and Latin America,
Middle East and Africa, Northeast Asia and
Southeast Asia, Oceania and India.
Interviewees are mainly CTOs, CTIOs
and VPs with insight into the operations
function of service providers. All information
presented in the report, if not otherwise
stated, is derived from this research.
a global leader in advisory services, to
conduct the research and help carry out the
report. We thank all participants and EY for
their valuable input and time.
Key findings
1. The ambition among service
providers to improve customer
experience is clear, and operations
play a fundamental role
2. AI and automation are key enablers
in achieving improved customer
experience and balancing costs
3. Technology alone is not enough
– new skills and ways of working
are required for service providers to
become more digital
4. The Ericsson Operations Engine
enables service providers to leapfrog
the transformation

Figure 1: Geographical locations of service providers surveyed

3
North America
11 3
Europe and
Northeast Asia
Latin America

9 4
Middle East Southeast Asia,
and Africa Oceania and India
4 Supercharging customer experience through AI and automation

On a journey to become business critical

There are multiple reasons why

operations need to aim high.

Complexity and expectations are faced with the challenge of having

create new demands to manage more coexisting technologies
The introduction of game-changing and use cases, new service requirements,
technology; the explosion of connected virtualization and network slicing.
devices; the battle to stay relevant to With this in mind, the complexity of
customers… this set of conditions continues managing next-generation networks
to have a profound impact on the ways will surely grow. New and diverse consumer
in which networks and IT need to be expectations will follow, so service
operated. As 5G is introduced in various providers that do not step up will be at
markets around the globe, service providers risk of lagging behind.
Figure 2: Service providers‘ business strategies are reflected in operations‘ priorities
Most common Operations‘ most common
business strategies strategic priorities
“Our Chief Customer Experience
Officer spends 60–70 percent of
her time with operations.”
Khalid Shehzad
CTO, Jazz
Clear focus on capturing opportunities
Of the service providers surveyed, 9 in 10
place customer experience and growing
revenues high on their agendas, illustrating
the focus on capturing opportunities that
new technologies bring. These focus areas
are inherently connected to protecting
and growing revenues and are key in the
increasingly competitive marketplace.

Customer experience #1 #2 Operations as a key driver of

business strategy
Revenue growth #2 #4 Linking operations’ strategic priorities with a
business’s overall strategies reveals a shift in
priorities. Not surprisingly, operations view
Cost efficiency #3 #1 themselves as heavily involved in the cost
efficiency agenda; however, they are also
Network excellence #4 #3 central to delivering customer experience.
Meanwhile, service providers emphasize
an increased customer experience focus in
Organizational development #5 #5 operations and are aware of the role they
play in realizing this strategic priority of the
wider business. Our breakdown reveals
that user experience (UX) and customer
Figure 3: What customer experience means to service providers
experience (CX) with technology are service
and how operations is involved in delivering on the agenda
providers‘ top strategic priorities, making
operations key to realizing future visions.
Breakdown of service providers‘ most frequent strategic The role of operations in Service providers reported the
priorities within customer experience delivering on strategic priorities introduction of sophisticated, customer-
centric KPIs in operations, further cementing
this as a priority. By contrast, operations do
1. User experience, including personalization,
service offering and customer centricity not see themselves as a direct contributor to
Key function
2. Customer experience with technology, such as Direct contributor the revenue agenda, but instead emphasize
customer digitalization, AI, automation and 5G the importance of delivering an effortless
network experience as an enabler for growth.
Improving both customer experience
3. Brand loyalty and trust Support function and cost efficiency combined is a key
4. Improved customer service Indirect contributor challenge for operations, but this presents
an opportunity for them to increase their
contributions to corporate outcomes.
Supercharging customer experience through AI and automation
Dare to move – or risk falling behind
It’s important to act now and not lose sight
of the bigger picture – here’s why.
In 5 years, it is anticipated that 20 percent
of mobile subscriptions globally will be
on 5G networks and that the Internet of
Things (IoT) will flourish, with more than
22 billion IoT connections. Industry 4.0
and network slicing are also expected to
be in full force. As increasingly advanced
use cases powered by 5G and IoT become
commonplace, operations need to be ready
to meet future demands.
New business models to support growth
There is no doubt as to 5G’s ability
to enable new use cases. Therefore,
service providers need to explore new
business models and carefully consider
their value chain positioning in order to
maximize opportunities. This, in turn,
requires operating models to cater better
for diversifying services and increased
complexity. Regardless of 5G maturity,
service providers need to plan for future
revenue opportunities now and ensure that
operations are ready to catalyze new use
cases, as and when opportunities arise.
Balance cost pressure and
increasing expectations
With both customer experience and
cost efficiency high on the agenda for
operations, function and associated
activities are under pressure to deliver
services in increasingly effective ways.
Consistently striving to improve efficiency
against a tide of increasing complexity
will need to be adequately managed
in order to keep costs low.
Using network insights
to drive performance
Telecom are scoring at the bottom
of industry Network Promoter Score
comparisons.1 This reflects unfulfilled
customer demands upon service providers.
Those that deliver better experiences will
be at an advantage.
1
2018 NPS & CX Benchmarks Report, CustomerGauge, 2018
2
Ericsson ConsumerLab, Towards a 5G consumer future: www.ericsson.com/en/trends-and-insights/consumerlab/consumer-insights/reports/six-calls-to-action
8 in 10
An increase in cost and added
complexity as a result of adding new
technology is expected by 8 in 10
service providers.
The performance of the network is central
to the overall customer experience, as
described by Joe Meyer, VP Network
Operations at Sprint: “Network
performance is a huge driver of NPS –
at least one-third of the total NPS score
is derived from network performance.”
In addition, previous Ericsson research
shows that almost 50 percent of consumer
network perception is based on personal
experiences of the network, indicating the
huge importance of network quality as the
key to customer satisfaction.2
Increasing customer expectations and
more complex service requirements put
even higher demands on service providers
in terms of retrieving insights from the
network and delivering outstanding
performance. Not addressing these issues
today will hamper the ability to achieve
better network quality in the future.
Getting ready now
To fully harness the value of 5G and IoT,
service providers at the global forefront
have been preparing by consolidating
and virtualizing their assets. As the move
to 5G has profound implications across
technology and organizations, a holistic
perspective is paramount in preparations.
5
“Whether customers give you
USD 2 or USD 20 ARPU, if you do
not provide the quality they expect,
they will churn. Therefore, it is very
important that we invest the right
amount in the right services and
technology to drive efficiency
while maintaining and improving
customer experience.”
Vicente Cotino
Director of Network Operation
Maintenance, Orange Spain
“One of the challenges we all face
is to continually and consistently
push performance boundaries
to deliver a brilliant customer
experience for our shareholders and,
at the same time, achieve this in a
cost-constrained world. A flexible,
partnership-based approach to
resolving this conundrum is crucial.”
Pat Coxen
Managing Director, MBNL
6 Supercharging customer experience through AI and automation
AI and automation will
help get the job done
Operations need to address a number of key challenges going forward.
There are clearly a number of challenges
that operations need to address going
forward. Rather than treating these
individually, a holistic approach is needed
to drive business performance and avoid
sub-optimization.
Consistently, AI and automation are
seen as key enablers in terms of how to
respond to the new challenges. All service
providers in our research emphasize the
role of automation in supporting business
outcomes and the overall strategic agenda.
Eighty percent state that automation is
key for the cost and customer experience
agenda, respectively. Furthermore,
90 percent of operations functions
describe AI as important in supporting
the customer experience agenda.
This highlights AI and automation as
groundbreaking technologies that will
fuel the future of operations. These will
not only be more cost efficient, but also
improve customer experience and drive
revenue growth.
Figure 4: 5G on the move – costs expected to escalate if action is not taken
Opex
IoT
Incident-driven
2G
“Our number one job is to deliver
network availability and make
sure our customers have a great
experience on the network. In doing
so, we also try to achieve the lowest
cost possible through automation
and prediction.”
Joe Meyer
Vice President Network Operations,
Sprint
Moving into the era of 5G and IoT
presents great opportunities but also
requires new capabilities, as well as
more effective management of costs
and complexity. Failing to address the
increasing demands on operations may
adversely affect the customer experience
and increase overall costs. Utilizing AI
and automation correctly can help
operations achieve this.
5G CEM SDN/NFV
3G 4G
“With 5G and new services in the
future, operations’ role will be
even more critical. Today, we can
effectively manage our network
without much AI and automation,
but in the future, these will both
become absolutely essential. Coping
with increased complexity manually
will simply not be possible.”
Khalid Shehzad
CTO, Jazz
“Investing in automation not only
reduces opex as it did in the past,
but also dramatically increases
quality in the network, platform
and IT environment.”
Pascal Jaggi
Executive Vice President of
Operations and Engineering,
Swisscom
New verticals
Operations to
address the
complexity and
reduce costs by AI
and automation
Data-driven
5G
Time
Supercharging customer experience through AI and automation
Putting operations at the
heart of customer experience
Operations need to use AI and automation to
supercharge the customer experience in efficient ways.
The maturity journey to
deliver on business outcomes
Service providers are turning towards AI and
automation to improve customer experience
without compromising on efficiency.
The maturity journey developed as part
of this research (Figure 5) highlights typical
activities each cluster of service providers
is undertaking to improve customer
experiences using new technologies.
The journey should be viewed as a set of
individual activities that are performed
based on maturity within AI and automation,
rather than a generic blueprint. While
each service provider will have their own
agenda and goals, the journey presented
in this report outlines some of the key
steps service providers can take in terms of
improving customer experience through
AI and automation.
Figure 5: Service providers’ step-by-step maturity journey towards adopting AI and automation to better deliver on business outcomes
Awareness about the importance of customer
experience in operations
Typical activities
Customer experience KPIs
in operations
Digitalization of
customer experience
Enablers
Partial automation of some
simple repetitive tasks and elements
of customer service
Although AI and automation can create
clear efficiency gains, improving the
network is most often cited as important
by service providers, regardless of where
they are on their journey. A desire for
better network quality and an ambition to
better target specific user groups through
improved segmentation are overarching
themes in most maturity journeys.
Our research shows that most service
providers are working on initiatives across
the first two stages of the journey; 35 percent
of service providers are working on the first
step and 50 percent on the second. Only
15 percent of service providers are currently
exploring AI and automation opportunities,
as outlined in the third stage of the journey.
Maturity journey
Connect and correlate individual
experience with network KPIs
Assisted problem resolution
and network optimization
Error
reduction
Significant automation for reducing
manual tasks and data processing
for insight generation
Increasing segmentation
7
Scattered understanding of benefits
Whilst service providers are all at various
maturity stages, there is a common
understanding of the benefits that
automation can deliver. However, the
understanding is more scattered when
it comes to AI. Service providers that are
further from applying AI capabilities view
AI as a broad solution that will help solve
many issues. However, those already
working with AI-related capabilities, such
as machine learning, have a much more
nuanced picture of the potential benefits
and use cases for AI.
Preventative problem
resolution
Intelligent closed-loop
problem resolution
AI-led personalization
and customer service
Extensive automation and growing
use of AI for proactive optimization
and deep insights
8 Supercharging customer experience through AI and automation
The first steps to initiate the journey
Service providers have different journeys to follow –
but the key steps remain the same.
A shared customer experience vision
It is common practice for service providers
to use customer experience KPIs to
measure and incentivize operations.
Of the service providers surveyed,
80 percent use NPS as a key metric in
operations. In addition, several service
providers indicate that 40–60 percent of
KPIs in operations are business-related.
Many service providers measure all
departments using customer-centric KPIs,
helping to cement improved customer
experience as a common goal. This helps
highlight the importance of operations’
contribution to overall performance.
However, the connection between
customer-centric KPIs and network
performance is anything but clear.
To bridge the gap, service providers
are collaborating cross-functionally.
Operations are working with engineers
and developers to improve efficiency and
quality of services. It is also common for
operations to work closely with marketing,
Figure 6: The customer experience maturity journey for operations
Awareness about the importance of
customer experience in operations
Customer experience KPIs
in operations
Digitalization of
customer experience
sales and other customer-facing functions
to share a common view on priorities and “Network KPIs do not reflect whether
enable operations to identify the most or not customers are happy, and we
important ways of improving NPS. are here for exactly that purpose –
not to optimize technical indicators.”
Digitalization of customer-facing
Vicente Cotino
processes – a common first step
Director of Network Operation
Introducing automation in digitalization
Maintenance, Orange Spain
efforts relating to customer-facing
processes is an early, yet important,
step of the automation journey.
92%
Customer experiences can be improved
by simplifying the interaction with the
service provider using AI and automation.
This can also translate into new revenue
streams and reduced costs, through Customer experience KPIs have been
improved reach and reduced need for refined significantly by 92 percent of
human interaction in the sales process. service providers during the last year.
Another advantage of digitalization is
newfound data collection opportunities
enabled by improved processes. Being able
to automatically track purchasing patterns, “We are extensively collaborating
complaints and customer behaviors forms an with customer service, marketing,
important foundation for further automation. network and IT teams to make more
informed decisions on new products
and services, as well improving
existing ones.”
Hoang Minh Hai
CTO, Vietnamobile
Understanding how all functions in a service provider
contribute to customer experience
Measure and incentivize operations to be involved
in delivering customer experience
Becoming more digital in customer-facing processes, such as
self-service kiosks and digitalizing the purchasing process
Supercharging customer experience through AI and automation 9

Connecting the dots between network

performance and customer perception

AI and automation can have a huge impact

on managing customer perceptions.

Gain actionable insights

Service providers stress the importance of Figure 7: The network performance, optimization
network experience for overall customer and error reduction maturity journey for operations
experience. This makes it a priority for
operations to strengthen the understanding
of which network KPIs affect network Network
experience, and in what way.

“The old network KPIs will not

drive customer perception. Instead, Relative impact on
we need new ways to measure overall NPS
network quality and attach customer
experience parameters to this.”
Customer service,
Kleber de Lima Filho offer, marketing
Network Construction and
Deployment Director, Vivo

The increased adoption of automation
improves service providers’ ability to collect
data, which can be leveraged to enable
more effective correlation of individual user
experiences with network KPIs. Advanced
analytics digests the large amounts of
data collected to determine which network
events and conditions affect the network
NPS. By identifying the specific events for
different users, operations can direct efforts
to maximize effectiveness.
The level of detail and relevance of
insights gained from analytics differ among
service providers. One important part of
being able to leverage these opportunities,
aside from implementing automation, is
Understanding NPS
At least one-third of the overall NPS
score is determined by customers’
network experience. While the main
driver of network NPS can vary between
coverage, data speeds and voice by
geographical region, it is the customers’
own experiences that matter the most.
having good data infrastructure in place.
This is stressed by many service providers
as an improvement area.
At this stage in the journey, some service
providers use automation, together with
analytics and machine learning, to assist
Recent Ericsson research states that
almost half of the network NPS is
determined by the customers’ own
experiences of the network, with factors
such as expert advice, speed tests and
recommendations from family or friends
contributing to a much lesser extent.3
in problem resolution and advise on how
to more dynamically optimize networks
and manage traffic. More effective traffic
management decreases the risk of negative
customer experiences related to faults and
other technical issues.

Figure 8: The impact of network, customer service and marketing on NPS scores

Connect and correlate individual Understanding how the network performance affects individual experiences
experience with network KPIs to target the critical aspects for improved experience

Assisted problem resolution and network Utilizing automation and AI to optimize the network and effective
optimization problem resolution for improved user experience

Error reduction Automating tasks to reduce human errors and thereby increase quality

3
Ericsson ConsumerLab, Towards a 5G consumer future: www.ericsson.com/en/trends-and-insights/consumerlab/consumer-insights/reports/six-calls-to-action
10 Supercharging customer experience through AI and automation

Connecting the dots between network

performance and customer perception

Closed-loop action could be key in reducing churn.

Optimization and problem

resolution assisted by technology
Machines can support operations in
problem resolution by recognizing faults
and risks from previous incidents and using
these as reference points as to how those
issues were solved. Optimizing traffic with
automation will ensure that congestion
and low throughput are avoided, which can
provide greater benefits when virtualization
is implemented.
In addition to the cost savings associated
with introducing more automation, many
service providers see the potential benefits
of being able to improve the customer
experience, and new ways of supporting
revenue growth by improving insights and
minimizing faults.

Automation to increase quality

and boost efficiency
Several service providers report
AI and automation can help to maximize efficiency and reduce churn
efficiency improvements of between
20 and 30 percent in areas where processes
have been automated. Additionally, one
provider has managed to free up thousands
of hours each month in operations, enabling
them to repurpose existing activities and
focus more attention on new technologies.
Moreover, service providers emphasize
that a major factor for growing their
automation efforts is to reduce the risk of
human error. Removing the human element
enables greater customer experience
and quality. It also improves efficiency as
resources can be devoted to the tasks that
matter most, where the need for human
intervention creates maximum value.
Reducing the failure rate by removing
human error is cited as a key development
by service providers.
How Bharti Airtel managed to reduce
churn and improve their customer
experience index by removing human
interaction from executing network
change requests
Introducing increased automation has
enabled Bharti Airtel, a global service
provider based in India, to eliminate
errors when handling change requests.
By removing the risk of human error
from the process, it has been able to
eliminate errors entirely and can now
process a much larger amount of data.
This data provides insights and enables
predictions, which in turn allows for
faster processing of change requests.
Additional customer experience benefits
seen by the company include an
improved customer experience index
and a reduction in the number of
complaints registered by its customer
call centers. Based on previous research,
Bharti Airtel also knows that in India
there is a strong correlation between
the number of complaints and the churn
level, which means that the automation
efforts have also reduced, and they will
continue to reduce customer churn as the
number of complaints fall.
Supercharging customer experience through AI and automation 11

How advanced AI and automation

enable next-level customer experience

A data-driven approach is vital.

Service providers that are well-versed in
data-driven customer experience work are
more likely to be proactive in terms of taking
charge of the customer experience at an
early stage. There is much potential still to
be discovered in this area, but for service
providers at the forefront, data-driven
operations are regularly being applied
through the prevention and resolution of
customer problems, as well as tailoring
customers’ experiences of the network.
Eliminating network failures
Disruptive technologies enable operations to
better process large amounts of data. Such
data is processed using advanced analytics
and machine learning and, more specifically,
through pattern recognition capabilities.
By learning from historical patterns, the
machine can identify potential anomalies,
performance degradations and failures.
If a pattern is discovered, alarms can be
triggered to alert maintenance in advance
of a failure, and prevent the failure from
occurring. The accuracy of these predictions
improves over time, as the machine collects
more data and better refines its patterns.
In addition to improving customer
experience through greater resilience, the
reduced downtime in the network acts as
a way for operations to support revenue
growth. This is achieved when predictive
capabilities enable advanced analytics
capabilities for improved NPS. Knowledge
of the segments where downtime is most
costly, combined with accurate predictions
regarding when and where failures are likely
to occur, make operations more efficient.
As networks become more software-
driven, many of the actions to prevent
failures and performance degradations
are also becoming software-enabled.
The combination of this and the increase
in the number of networks monitored by
machines ultimately means that detecting
problem patterns and resolving issues can
increasingly be achieved without human
interaction. Closed-loop processes prove
both cost-effective for service providers
and more stable for customers in terms of
user experience.
Delivering what really
matters to customers
Improving customer experience isn‘t
simply a case of reducing failures. In fact,
improving existing services – especially
those that already flow smoothly in their
own right – is where predictive capabilities
have the most potential to transform the
customer experience.
Advanced analytics achieves this by
enabling a granular segmentation of users.
By adding machine learning (including
pattern recognition), operations can
understand individual user priorities.
These insights can then be used to
automatically optimize the network and
cater to specific needs. For example,
analytics relating to the use of streaming
services may uncover a market segment
that needs increased throughput during
commuting hours. Automation enables
capacity to be directed to the identified
segment during specific hours, improving
those customers’ experiences. At the same
time, enterprise customers might be more
dependent on minimal latency during
a process, which can be catered for by
automated network control.
There are other ways that better
segmentation and customer insights can
tangibly improve the customer experience.
By using the same tools, operations can
ensure that customer service excels.
By the time a customer service agent
answers an incoming call, analytics
powered by machine learning will have
already identified the potential issue,
based on all available data and historic
patterns. In the most advanced cases,
machine reasoning – evaluating different
actions and suggesting the appropriate
response for the agent – can increase
first call resolution rates, reduce costs
and improve efficiency.
Empowering operations with predictive
insights for network performance puts
operations in the driver’s seat, enabling
them to work proactively with the
business to ensure a better experience for
customers. By prioritizing these efforts,
operations can maximize the experience
for the user segments that matter most,
in order to drive NPS and revenue.

Figure 9: The problem resolution and personalization maturity journey for operations

Machine learning and pattern recognition to identify

Preventative problem resolution
and solve issues before problems occur

Intelligent closed-loop Utilizing automation and AI to optimize the network and provide
problem resolution effective problem resolution for improved user experience

AI-led personalization and Knowing more about the customer to personalize

customer service the experience and improve first-call resolution rates
12 Supercharging customer experience through AI and automation

How a service provider in Southeast Asia

improved network NPS

Customer-centric service providers will come out on top.

Background Network to customer-centric By updating the performance settings in

The service provider in this case study
positions itself as a customer-centric
provider. To support this strategy, it
sought to gain deeper insights into
what drives a good network experience,
knowing that this is key for the overall
experience with the company, and for
improving KPIs.
Overall results
By applying new methods to profile
and predict the network experience,
the provider managed to improve
its NPS score by 25 percent in just
12 months.
NPS model
Working with Ericsson, the provider
developed an advanced NPS profiling
model that enabled it to understand
which customers experienced issues
affecting the network’s NPS scores.
Using multidimensional analytics to
correlate feedback from customers,
as well as data from the network and
the business, actionable insights could
be developed.
The model uncovered that post-paid
subscribers with a particular device and
plan ranked amongst those customers
with the poorest network experience.
the network to ensure a better experience
for these high average revenue per
user (ARPU) subscribers, the provider
improved the network NPS in sample
clusters. Through this optimization
of network performance, the service
provider was able to reduce churn,
improve important network parameters,
such as throughput and load, and
increase data usage.

Figure 10: The key components of NPS score

NPS advanced Network OOKLA

analytics availability analytics

NPS score

OSS KPIs CEM analytics Customer Port out

complaints insights

NPS prediction with machine learning
The service provider set out to improve
further by predicting NPS, allowing it to
proactively manage the network experience.
The NPS prediction model relies on input
from NPS surveys, network KPIs and
business intelligence with applied machine
learning algorithms. It also identifies
clusters in the network that will have
the best and worst NPS scores.
Supercharging customer experience through AI and automation 13

NPS is complex and affected by multiple influencing factors

Figure 11: Advanced NPS profiling model predicting best and worst NPS clusters

Machine learning
NPS inputs

Network topology
Unsupervised Grouping Best NPS
of objects clusters
OSS stats

Supervised Feature Machine learning Predictive

Business intelligence (BI) information
extraction algorithm model

Geographical location inputs

Worst NPS
New data Annotated
CEM inputs clusters
data

The model predicts poor NPS clusters
on the first day of each month, enabling
improvement actions to be taken
immediately, rather than waiting for
results to be available. The problematic
network KPIs in each cluster are efficiently
identified and actioned.
These prediction capabilities have
resulted in further NPS improvements of
up to 14 points in sample clusters and
helped to ensure that operations are
always in the driver’s seat when it comes
to improving network experience for
customers going forward.

Figure 12: NPS score influencing factors

PRB utilization 0.8

Main factors impacting
Downlink user throughput: network NPS score:
0.7
average max
– High Physical Resource
Downlink user throughput: Block (PRB)
0.6
average min
– Low throughput
Success rate 0.2
14
Challenges to overcome
Every journey has its hurdles.
To progress along the customer experience
journey, become more data-driven and reap
customer experience and efficiency benefits,
service providers need to face and combat
challenges on numerous levels.
Culture and skills
A major challenge for service providers at
all stages of maturity is dealing with the
people aspect of AI and automation. Part
of this is finding, retaining and developing
the right competencies to drive the maturity
journey. It’s evident from our research that
the required competencies are not readily
available. This is due to high demand for
skilled AI resources, coupled with the limited
number of competent AI resources on offer.
Additionally, operations need to face
the early challenge of initiating a change in
their general mindset and culture by putting
the customer at the center of operations.
This need intensifies as the service provider
embarks on the AI and automation journey,
as increased use of technological capabilities
puts more requirements on customer focus
and agile ways of working.
Managing the restructuring of staff,
repurposing activities in line with new
processes and pinpointing cross-domain
skills are all challenges. This is mainly due
to employee fears of losing their jobs to AI
and automated processes. Furthermore, for
the most technologically advanced service
providers, the people aspect can result in
further challenges – such as how to manage
the individual aspects of operations that are
no longer run by humans.
Supercharging customer experience through AI and automation
Return on perceived
uncertain investments
Service providers understand the value
in automating routine tasks. Yet many
hesitate to take bigger leaps by redesigning
processes from the ground up in order to
better suit a foundation of automation. One
challenge is building a strong business case
for long-term investments, since the road
to realizing such investments is generally
perceived to be long and uncertain.
Additionally, the lack of a strong
business case and a clear roadmap
with quantified benefits can sometimes
stifle required investments and support
for implementation.
Legacy applications and platforms
The multiple legacy systems in place
sometimes keep service providers from
advancing in their maturity journeys. The
sheer number of systems, their complex
interdependencies and the fact that many
systems are too old to cater for today’s
needs are the main issues service providers
point out. The challenge of dealing with
legacy systems already in existence from
the beginning of the AI and automation
journey intensifies as providers progress,
and the demand for an efficient data
infrastructure increases.
Another common issue that arises when
moving toward more advanced technologies
is that technology lifecycles become shorter.
This puts substantial pressure on providers
in terms of being able to migrate customers
between systems and technologies quickly,
since it is not always possible to keep up with
the pace of change.
“Both today and tomorrow, we
will always need people with new
competencies. Specifically, there is
a requirement for people that have
technical knowledge about our
current processes and can transfer this
knowledge to automated processes.”
Vicente Cotino
Director of Network Operation
Maintenance, Orange Spain
“We realize that we have to invest
heavily in business continuity
management and resilience in
automation platforms. If the
automation platforms were to fail,
aspects of operations could come
to a standstill.”
Pascal Jaggi
Executive Vice President of
Operations & Engineering, Swisscom
“We have started working in an agile
way on a smaller scale. Due to the
legacy we carry, we are not able to
shift the whole company at once.”
Khalid Shehzad
CTO, Jazz
Supercharging customer experience through AI and automation 15

The AI and automation

journey has only just begun

What‘s next for AI and automation?

Enterprise and industry are next in line
Service providers agree that full-scale 5G
and IoT will bring unprecedented change
to operations. In the past, customer
experience has mainly been centered
around mobile services customers. With
the emergence of IoT and the many
applications relating to Industry 4.0, this
mindset is likely to undergo a fundamental
change. Some aspects might be similar, but
with increased importance; mission-critical
IoT is an example of where the “always on”
and zero-latency aspects are absolutely
necessary. For blue light services operating
drones or autonomous objects in disaster
scenarios, the ability of service providers to
guarantee coverage and network quality
will be necessary to minimize the damage
to both humans and property.
Other aspects might be completely
new; for example, how network slicing will
affect service providers’ capacity planning
in order to accommodate the impending
explosion of IoT devices. By being able to
segment the network for specific services,
service providers can ensure unharmed
performance in traditional services while
rolling out new ones.
What does the future have in store?
Understanding and identifying what
constitutes good customer experience will
remain a challenge for service providers.
To meet the diverse requirements of
high quality and zero latency coverage,
many providers are looking toward
self-optimizing networks. Furthermore,
to secure resilience and uninterrupted
networks (the linchpin of network
experience), many are striving toward
a future with self-healing networks.
Utilizing AI and automation has
enormous potential and is crucial in
managing the networks of the future and
delivering a great customer experience.
Significant effort is required, but those who
stay on course and adjust their goals as
they advance can reap the benefits 5G
and IoT have to offer.
Four key success factors for service
providers to ignite an enhanced
customer experience
1. Outline a clear path for AI
and automation, but be
open to contingencies
2. Manage the required
shift in competence
3. Understand and prioritize
the importance of
organizational change
4. Incorporate continuity
planning early on
“More and more possibilities of what
you can automate, predict and fix
proactively keep popping up. I think
it is a journey and you should always
feel that you haven’t done enough.”
Randeep Singh Sekhon
CTO, Bharti Airtel

Service providers face a number of challenges as part of their unique journeys

16
Technology alone is not enough
What must service providers do to rise above the challenges?
Service providers realize that
operations must become more
proactive, customer-oriented and
outcome-focused. They also need to
become more data-driven – and the
vehicle to drive this change is a
technological transformation.
While automation and AI are key
components, the technology itself
cannot solve the challenges faced.
Such technologies are overshadowed
by the need to also transform processes,
gain new competencies and change the
mindset of staff. The expected traffic
growth, sheer number of services and
diversifying requirements mean service
providers have a lot of work to do.
Figure 13: Key areas that service providers need to re-examine
Access
to data
Processes
Supercharging customer experience through AI and automation
Service providers consider operational
transformation to be one of their main “The main challenge to in-house
challenges moving forward, in terms network optimization is being able
of technology modernization, culture, to keep internal resources trained
competencies and new ways of working. and educated.”
All service providers have different journeys
to become more data-driven and there Khalid Shehzad
is no one-size-fits-all when it comes CTO, Jazz
to successful transformation. Rather,
operations need to carefully craft a plan
in line with their business strategy, unique
7 in 10
to their circumstances, to create the right
experiences for their customers.
Based on years of research, customer
insight and expertise on these issues,
Ericsson has built the Ericsson Operations Technological transformation is a key
Engine. The purpose of the Engine is to challenge for 7 in 10 service providers.
support service providers on their journey
to becoming digital service providers.
Algorithms
10% e.g. for AI and automation
Applications
and platforms Technology platforms
30% e.g. applications, access to data
Change management
People, e.g. new processes, ways of working,
60% cross-functional collaboration, skills
competences
and culture and competencies
Effort
Supercharging customer experience through AI and automation 17

Rewriting the rules of

network and IT operations

A framework built specifically for AI and

automation could have huge benefits.

Redesigning operations to It will not be possible to scale up staff
meet future demands and resources to meet the demands of
The Ericsson Operations Engine has been increasing complexity and volume of
developed to help service providers become devices. The Ericsson Operations Engine
more data-driven. It is a completely new brings together capabilities across network
way of delivering managed services. and IT operations, as well as network
design and optimization, to enable
Figure 14: How the Ericsson Operations Engine can
assist with the AI and automation journey
Technology
transformation
operations to drive business outcomes. It is
built to excel in the shift to service-centric
rather than network-centric KPIs.
Underpinned by key components, such
as AI, automation and person expertise,
the Ericsson Operations Engine has a set
of capabilities which enables operations
to transition from reactive to predictive
and proactive.
~6,000 automations have
been implemented*
77% are reused in multiple contracts*

Collaborative *Ericsson Managed Services, November 2018

Trusted and innovation Smart design
Optimize costs
secure business
Predict and proactively manage the
customer experience
– Applications and Dynamic Our research concludes that customer
Agile application
management infrastructure deployment experience is seen as a key differentiator in
– People expertise today’s market. Nevertheless, most service
– Data
providers experience challenges in terms
– Automation
– End-to-end processes of consistently delivering the experiences
– AI customers demand. The Ericsson Operations
Seamless Data-driven Engine has capabilities that will enable
security operations service providers to address these challenges:
– Smart design: an experience-centric
Accelerate
service creation
Intelligent Grow revenue model to evolve networks intelligently,
optimization using targeted capex investments
with superior performance while
simultaneously limiting costs
– Data-driven operations: enables
Improved customer
the shift from reactive to proactive IT
experience and network management fueled by
AI and automation
– Intelligent optimization: equipped with
Business outcomes deep insights into performance and
The business benefits that the Ericsson Operations Engine will drive for our customers
reliability, service providers can pivot
and adapt networks to meet growing
customer demands
Capabilities
What the Ericsson Operations Engine can do to transform operations for our customers These capabilities are key for service
providers to plan, predict and proactively
manage the customer experience in
Components their networks.
Core elements that are used across all capabilities and offerings
18
Demonstrated capabilities to support
cost efficiency and the customer
experience agenda
The Ericsson Operations Engine has a proven track record in
helping service providers enhance operations by optimizing
costs and improving customer experience.
Network design boosted by AI
– Advanced Elastic RAN design method
to improve end-user performance
– Improvement of 94 percent in cell
throughput gain (Mbps)
compared to traditional method
– Forty percent design lead
time improvement
Smart design
Service operations made
automated and intelligent
– The Ericsson Operations Engine
correlates and automates incoming
issues, while looking into the network,
predicting potential upcoming situations
and resolving them even before they
become real issues
– A reduction of 35 percent in mean time
to resolution (MTTR) using end-to-end
automation and predictive insights
– P1 incidents reduced by 63 percent
– Twenty percent improvement in customer
experience for data services, time to
content and throughput
Smart design
Data-driven operations
The Ericsson Operations Engine can help service providers leapfrog their transformation
Supercharging customer experience through AI and automation
Network enhanced with
predictive insights
– The Ericsson Operations Engine uses
machine learning and automation
from across the network to predict
and prevent the risk of failures and
performance degradation across different
services and technologies. Confidence
in our prediction accuracy makes AI
operationalize even faster
– Accuracy of 83 percent in predicting
performance degradation in throughput
and latency with automated resolution
in networks
–D  etection accuracy of 99 percent for
unseen anomalies and recommendations
which can be resolved automatically
– Accuracy of 85 percent in predicting
potential site power failures
24 hours in advance
Smart design
Data-driven operations
Intelligent operations
Revenue growth through
service performance
– With constant changes in the network
and exponential data growth,
maintaining good network quality
becomes a massive challenge. The
Ericsson Operations Engine uses AI to
analyze complex data sets and improve
network performance in real-time –
driving revenues and reducing churn
– I ncrease of 30 percent in download
throughput after optimization
– I ncrease of 15 percent in end-user
likelihood to stay (from 46–61 percent)
– I ncrease of 34 percent in customer
total value (CTV) in targeted platinum
customer cluster
Smart design
Intelligent operations
Supercharging customer experience through AI and automation 19

Benefits of the Ericsson Operations Engine

Service providers can gain immensely from this solution.

By partnering with Ericsson Managed model and is continually evolving in step

Services and utilizing the Ericsson
Operations Engine, service providers can
accelerate their transformations into digital
service providers. The Ericsson Operations
Engine is built as an end-to-end delivery
with technology and customer demands. The Ericsson Operations Engine
It has built-in data, user and network enables service providers to:
security to be fully compliant with global – Get there faster and
standards and regional regulations. with less expense
– Set up flexibly and with
mutual benefit
– Enjoy one network with
the benefits of many
– Gain access to the limited
pool of skills

Figure 15: How service providers will benefit from the Ericsson Operations Engine over time

TCO
~25% TCO savings 12 months earlier
than internal transformation alternative

1. Service provider’s current WOW

2. S
 ervice provider invests in network
operations digital transformation
3. Ericsson Operations Engine

1 year Time

Conclusion
Service providers face a number of
complex challenges today, tomorrow
and going into the future, as this
research has revealed. The journey
towards AI and automation, and
implementing and maintaining
innovative technologies, offers
great potential for service providers.
However, there are a number of
hurdles on the horizon.
Operations will need to play a key The Ericsson Operations Engine
role in shaping the future of customer is the perfect solution for service
experience and network enhancements providers that wish to supercharge
through AI and automation – and this transformation and get ahead
service providers themselves may even of the game today.
need to reinvent themselves from the
ground up to lay a better foundation
for the development of disruptive
technologies going forward.

Ericsson
SE-164 80 Stockholm, Sweden
Telephone +46 10 719 0000
www.ericsson.com
Ericsson enables communications service providers
to capture the full value of connectivity. The company’s
portfolio spans Networks, Digital Services, Managed
Services, and Emerging Business and is designed to
help our customers go digital, increase efficiency and
find new revenue streams. Ericsson’s investments in
innovation have delivered the benefits of telephony
and mobile broadband to billions of people around
the world. The Ericsson stock is listed on Nasdaq
Stockholm and on Nasdaq New York.
www.ericsson.com
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revision without notice due to continued © Ericsson 2019
progress in methodology, design and
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