Zira seeks to woo telcos with AI platformZira seeks to woo telcos with AI platform

Specifically, the Bosnia and Herzegovina-based company says its platform will enable telcos to make the most of their BSS data to generate business insights, streamline operations, optimise pricing and adapt to market trends.

The platform uses predictive AI for forecasting as well as generative AI to deliver actionable insights. Wholesale operators – the firm's core customer base – can use it to optimise routes, pricing and traffic volumes in real time, Zira explains; that has a beneficial effect on margins as well as preventing service disruption and boosting customer experience, it says.

It all makes a lot of sense, and this type of telco AI usage has been a hot topic of discussion in this industry for a number of years.

The telcos themselves appear to be all for it.

Last summer Arthur D. Little published the results of a survey of 70 CxOs from what it termed "world class" telecoms operators that identified a raft of benefits it is possible for telcos to derive from the daily use of AI.

A sizeable 71% pointed to improved customer experience, both from a sales perspective and in terms of customer support. Meanwhile, 63% talked about using AI to enable intelligent network optimisation and predictive maintenance, leading to improved service quality and reduced downtime. Improving employee efficiency, improving decision-making, lowering opex and enhancing existing products and services also featured pretty highly.

The use of AI can boost customer engagement by over 15%, and reduce operational costs by up to 30%, the consultancy claimed.

"As telcos embrace AI-driven tools, the potential to accelerate growth and gain a competitive advantage becomes increasingly evident," it said.

All of which is a rather long-winded way of pointing out that Zira's AI telco platform hits the brief in terms of what telcos are – or should be – looking for. But to date we haven't heard a lot directly from the telcos about the ways in which they are using AI, aside from some talk of AI-driven customer agents and so forth. As far as internal processes go, it's all about plans and theoretical benefits, rather than actual deployment stories, although admittedly the last is perhaps sensitive information.

But Zira, which insists that its telco AI platform is filling a gap in the market, says it is starting to see some traction.

"We're beginning to see the adoption of AI and machine learning tools across telecoms networks and infrastructures, but until now there hasn't been a viable solution for the BSS layer," said Zira's chief product officer Amir Turalić.

"The Zira AI Telco Platform's forecasting capabilities help CSPs to manage capacity, pricing and traffic fluctuations, removing risk and uncertainty. Likewise, it analyzes huge volumes of complex network and billing data to better inform decision making and help CSPs to identify new opportunities," he said. "The platform is constantly evolving and we're already working with our CSP customers on live projects to support new use cases."

It would be interesting to hear from some CSPs to gauge the extent to which the reality matches up to the ideals of the AI-driven network processes.