Acxiom recently interviewed 100 senior leaders at telecommunications companies, alongside their counterparts at automotive, healthcare, insurance, banking, and travel brands. We found that telcos, more than businesses in other industries, are already feeling the impact of AI-managed customer experience (CX).
The telecommunications edition of our 2027 CX trends report explores the thinking of these senior leaders across five areas of AI-driven innovation. It also compares and contrasts their beliefs and attitudes with those of 4,000 consumers to build a more complete picture of CX in the industry, as AI begins to autonomously support and orchestrate interactions and journeys.
Let’s explore how, compared to other companies, telcos are already living in the AI-managed future.
The forces driving CX strategy for telcos
To understand just how profoundly advances in AI are being felt in the telecom industry, you only need to look at the top five forces now driving CX strategy for telco leaders:
- Growing reliance on third-party AI interfaces like assistants, operating systems, and answer engines
- People’s concerns about trust‚ privacy, and AI use
- Complexity of managing converged services such as mobile, broadband, TV, and cloud
- Pressure to turn 5G, fiber, or smart home investments into profitable customer experiences
- Demand to personalize across household users, devices, or profiles
As you can see, some significant industry-specific forces make the list. There’s the challenge of managing converged services and the pressure to drive more value from infrastructure investments. But today, these factors are eclipsed by responding to the rise of AI interfaces and managing customer concerns around AI use.
Telcos are ready to balance effortlessness with other CX must-haves
How do you maintain customer trust and brand identity, even as AI makes customer interactions increasingly effortless? The telecoms industry is well ahead of others when it comes to answering this question. In fact, 1 in 2 telcos say they’re fully prepared to balance effortless experiences with maintaining distinctiveness and trust.
A sizable majority of both telco leaders and consumers believe this balance is a hallmark of first-rate customer experiences. As such, both still see the value in people expending a little effort – whether that takes the form of human interactions or additional checks – when there’s a need to verify identity or review important commitments.
For telcos, contextually aware AI is already transforming CX
We also asked telcos and consumers about the use of AI that understands context, emotion, and intent. Telcos are more likely than other companies to say AI is already transforming CX in their industry and to consider themselves ready for this change. Many see clear value in specific use cases — for example, 59% believe emotionally intelligent AI can be useful when explaining complex products or services.
To deliver contextual, empathetic experiences, AI needs the right customer data. And this is one area in which our study suggests telcos should proceed with care.
An overwhelming 92% of telco leaders believe customers will become comfortable with AI inferring information about them, if it offers genuine value and reassurance. That’s still a leap too far for many people. Only 47% say they’re comfortable with AI inferring new information about them, even if the value it delivers is real.
More generally, telcos are happier letting AI use data of all kinds — support histories, emotional cues, customer locations – than people are themselves. This makes practicing responsible, ethical data stewardship, and being seen to do so, a must for companies that let AI adapt and personalize experiences.
Autonomous AI is already transforming telco CX, too
From shortlisting products and services to resolving simple customer issues — the majority of telcos have already delegated some customer-facing activities to autonomous AI.
These activities will be the first of many. More than 9 in 10 telcos expect to be comfortable letting AI independently select plans and renew contracts or subscriptions for customers within the next two to three years. Consumers are largely on the same page. The majority are already comfortable with AI shortlisting options (65%) or choosing the best plan or offer (59%) on their behalf.
Looking further into the future, most U.S. telcos believe their customers will be happy for AI to independently optimize services, identify money-saving opportunities, and even manage upgrades or plan changes within the next five years. Over the same timeframe, most U.K. telcos expect people to accept the use of autonomous AI to manage the routine administration of their accounts.
Telcos believe AI is becoming a key gateway to their brand
When it’s time to find a new mobile, broadband, or TV plan, most people still turn to a search engine or head straight to a trusted marketplace or comparison site. But telcos believe that’s about to change.
More than 9 in 10 say AI assistants will become the primary starting point for many customer journeys and that influencing them is becoming as important as influencing customers directly. What’s more, they believe the stakes are incredibly high. A huge majority (89%) say AI assistants are replacing traditional search engines, and brands that don’t adapt risk becoming invisible.
How telcos can take AI-managed CX to the next level
Whether they’re busy working to influence AI assistants or using autonomous AI to handle simple, customer-facing tasks, most telcos are already operating firmly in the age of AI-managed CX.
But to successfully balance effortlessness and trust – while fast-tracking customer acceptance of contextual, empathetic experiences – they’ll need to develop the right data and identity capabilities.
One of the most fundamental is the power to consistently recognize customers across channels and touchpoints. This is what helps telcos build an accurate picture of customers and their journeys, and implement more advanced AI use cases safely and intentionally — maximizing ROI, while keeping useful friction in place. It’s also the key to respecting customers’ AI preferences and personalizing their experiences, whenever and however they engage with services and support.
Want to explore our research in greater depth? You’ll find many more insights in From influence to action: Why telcos must apply AI intentionally as it takes a more autonomous role in CX.
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