The AI Revolution: Unlocking £1 Billion in Value at BT Group

Harmeen Mehta, chief digital and innovation officer at BT Group, emphasized that the telecom industry is at a pivotal moment in the AI revolution. She spoke about the company’s goal of unlocking more than £1 billion in value from AI technology.

Mehta, a former computer science student with a background in neural networks and AI, expressed her excitement for this decade, as she had been waiting for this moment for over two and a half decades. She described it as a crucial moment for the industry that shouldn’t be missed.

One of BT Group’s significant decisions was the partnership with Google, initiated less than two years ago, to move all of the company’s data to the public cloud. This process is now 75% complete and has proven to be one of the most valuable decisions in shaping the next decade of the company.

By consolidating fragmented data across 2,500 systems into one place, BT Group has identified a monetization opportunity. Mehta’s team has already committed to creating around half a billion pounds of value from data and AI within the organization, but they see the potential for another billion.

To achieve these ambitious goals, Mehta provided a few use cases. This includes using AI-powered applications to lay fiber more intelligently and leveraging AI to improve customer care pairing the most appropriate agents to address specific queries and reduce customer churn.

Mehta emphasized the need for a cultural shift to fully realize the potential of AI. She stated that technology is now speaking the human language, making it easier to understand. Furthermore, she highlighted that technology is now disrupting technology.

This push towards unlocking the value of AI is a significant step for BT Group as it embraces the transformative power of artificial intelligence in the telecom industry.

Sources:
– TM Forum Digital Transformation World event in Copenhagen.