Telecom Review Asia hosted a webinar titled ‘Artificial Intelligence: Asia’s Engine for Growth’ on March 26, 2025, bringing together industry leaders to explore artificial intelligence’s (AI) transformative influence on the telecom sector. The session spotlighted AI’s role in reshaping business models, featuring insights into AI-driven innovations, business opportunities, regulatory challenges, and real-world applications.
The event opened with a welcome address by Toni Eid, Founder of Telecom Review Group and CEO of Trace Media International. Moderated by Lim May-Ann, Director of Multilateral Relations at Access Partnership, the panel featured distinguished speakers, including Dr. Atsuko Okuda, Regional Director at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU); Marko Cetkovic, Chief Digital Officer at M1; Blums Pineda, COO at Kayana and Partner Strategist for PLDT Global Data Management and AI Program; and Massimiliano Baravelli, Head of the AI Department at QuantAzimuth.
The Promise of AI in the Telecom Industry
As AI takes on a more prominent role in the telecom industry, the discussion opened with insights into AI adoption and its promise across Asia.
According to Okuda, progress is already underway. More than 200 standardized recommendations to kickstart AI development have been established, laying the groundwork for a structured and scalable approach to AI integration. These recommendations aim to create a common foundation, ensuring interoperability across networks and fostering a more efficient AI ecosystem within telecom.
For Cetkovic, the key to AI’s sustainable impact lies in data utilization. Without a strong data strategy, AI’s potential to optimize networks, enhance customer experiences, and drive automation remains limited. Beyond external advancements, Cetkovic explained that internal company transformation is key, highlighting the need for telecom providers to revamp their organizational structures, workflows, and AI adoption strategies. Cetkovic noted that M1’s successful digital transformation in recent years, involving migrating its assets to the cloud and consolidating data into a unified lake, has helped established a strong foundation for scaling AI-driven initiatives. Apart from infrastructure and data, people play a critical role in M1’s AI-centric strategy. Last year, M1 invested approximately 14 weeks into a comprehensive AI training program for all its digital office employees.
The Biggest Opportunities for AI in Asia
The biggest opportunity for AI in Asia lies in telcos evolving beyond connectivity by leveraging AI to scale new capabilities, enhance data analytics, and accelerate automation.
According to Pineda, AI has already improved network operations and back-office functions, but the next phase involves leveraging real-time data mining and generative AI (GenAI) to achieve voice- and text-based outbound offers that feel more human. While AI has been embedded in telco operations for years, the challenge now is addressing process inefficiencies and human adaptation to fully capitalize on its potential, ultimately shifting AI-driven innovations to customer-facing services.
When discussing the opportunities AI presents for the telecom industry in Asia and its role in raising global competitiveness, Pineda noted that, “It's not so much about competing against world leaders, but about being relevant in the markets in which we serve.”
AI has rapidly transformed the telecom industry, evolving from a once-magical concept to a necessity, pointed out Baravelli. This shift has heightened awareness and built upon networks established in the 1990s. The industry is now striving to balance performance/efficiency and business transformation, while collaboration between telcos and tech companies is expected.
How AI is Driving the Development of New Business Models
AI is driving the development of new business models by transforming customer interactions, marketing strategies, and enterprise automation. At the operational level, Cetkovic explained that GenAI, particularly agentic AI models, can enhance customer support by acting as an extension of the team. However, this shift requires operational changes, including redefining roles and responsibilities. He also explored AI’s impact on marketing productivity, citing proof-of-concept (POC) projects in electronic direct mail (EDM).
Hyper-personalization and micro-segmentation have always been part of telco operations, but now we need to be more efficient.
“With GenAI-powered video generation and prompt-based content tools, our marketers can be empowered and significantly reduce time-to-market (TTM) for campaigns,” said Cetkovic.
In terms of enterprise services, AI is advancing automation beyond traditional robotic process automation (RPA), improving efficiency. May-Ann added that regulatory sandboxes will play a crucial role in fostering innovation while enabling better customization of AI-driven solutions.
Pineda emphasized that AI's potential can be unlocked through strong partnerships that bring its possibilities to life. However, many companies face a domino effect as a result of underinvestment in data and cloud infrastructure, making it difficult to fully leverage AI. This has led to a revival in addressing data and analytics backlogs to support AI applications, particularly agentic AI, at customer touchpoints. He likened AI adoption to Formula 1 racing, where achieving top speed at the edge requires a steady and strategic build-up—something many companies are learning the hard way.
A wealth of ready-to-use AI remains untapped, offering businesses the chance to reinvent customer interactions and enhance engagement.
With enterprises and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the Philippines seeking more than just connectivity from telcos, Pineda shared that PLDT has been leveraging its investments in data and big data to drive AI adoption. He pointed out the effectiveness of AI in enabling real-time offers for upselling and cross-selling, and reinventing how telcos interact with customers. Additionally, AI supports engineers, allowing them to focus on innovation rather than manual data processing.
Baravelli highlighted the misconception that AI is a simple “plug-and-play solution,” emphasizing that effective AI deployment requires targeted use cases and specialized agents for specific tasks. He added that large language models (LLMs) serve as interfaces, while AI has the potential to enhance parental controls by restricting minors from gambling sites and enables subscriber personalization. In telecom, AI plays a crucial role in Security-as-a-Service (SecaaS) and Network-as-a-Service (NaaS), particularly in terms of 5G, as it allows telcos to offer customized cloud network slices. Additionally, AI improves predictive maintenance by monitoring failures in real time and optimizes network performance by dynamically adjusting traffic paths for maximum coverage. Baravelli cited national emergency management as an important use case where operators can play a vital role in improving emergency response, assessing the best path for emergency vehicles, and locating missing people during disasters.
May-Ann added that while AI can assist with project governance, it requires domain-specific expertise, as complex applications demand precise understanding and guidance.
Approaches to AI Governance
When asked about the evolution of AI policies and the progress of regulation and implementation in the telecom industry, Dr. Okuda highlighted the rapid advancements in AI and the pivotal role of the ITU in implementing policies or regulations that are “inclusive and meaningful.” While the ITU has developed many recommendations and guidelines to support AI adoption in the region, she noted that many underserved communities in the region remain unconnected, and therefore excluded from the benefits of AI advancements.
I hope that AI-driven demand for telecom services will create a win-win scenario, benefiting both businesses and underserved communities.
Okuda explained that APAC takes a more inclusive, communal approach to AI. Citing an example, Okuda highlighted that, in Kiribati, experts spoke to the community regarding AI, many of whom were unaware of the potential benefits of the technology. Okuda described the situation in Kiribati as a "beautiful symbiosis," where technology is integrated cautiously but with potential for meaningful impact.
Okuda added that, in Asia, AI companies are progressing swiftly, but policies must ensure meaningful representation, particularly for underrepresented groups like women, ethnic minorities, and understaffed communities. The ITU, supported by Australia, is analyzing ASEAN’s AI policy frameworks and working to develop holistic regulations across 39 countries. Okuda stressed the importance of involving academia, industry, and civil society in shaping AI governance. She mentioned that real-world applications, such as AI-powered traffic monitoring in Bangkok, raise questions about accountability. Who should citizens turn to when AI systems go rogue? Moreover, with 2.6 billion people still unconnected, AI models often exclude niche experiences, making solutions less inclusive.
Pineda echoed the importance of establishing clear governance and privacy frameworks, while also providing value.
If we're the custodian of their data, it's our responsibility to ensure it is used to inform, hyper-personalize, and enhance their experience with products and services that are appropriately priced to deliver value.
Challenges to AI Adoption in Telcos
According to a poll posed to attendees, the majority believe that Asia will be the region to exhibit the most growth in AI development. However, according to live responses, the greatest challenges to AI adoption include cost optimization, integrating AI with existing infrastructure, and a shortage of skilled AI talent.
Pineda emphasized the importance of not rushing into agreements and ensuring telcos remain relevant as enablers of AI. Pineda pointed out that many telecom operators are hesitant, waiting for the perfect conditions instead of taking the first step. He noted that true progress begins when companies start experimenting, engaging with industry peers, and sharing case studies.
It’s important to get started as this is where you start to flywheel and see what’s possible.
Baravelli spotlighted AI talent shortage as an area of concern. He pointed out that investing in AI skills is essential for both telecom and tech companies, as there remains a gap in expertise. While AI has become more accessible due to LLMs, the complexity of AI evaluation remains high. He noted that while setting up a basic AI model is relatively simple, ensuring its effectiveness requires deep expertise.
Okuda reiterated that AI solutions are crucial for improving connectivity in unconnected communities, which will drive demand for telecom services.
Finally, Cetkovic stated that there is always resistance and hesitation when it comes to new technologies. However, the key challenge lies in changing expectations and behavior to readily adapt to AI.
We should embrace GenAI as much as possible because it offers specialized solutions through extensive libraries that can address different problems. The more we explore and integrate AI, the more we can acclimatize to its use in daily operations. However, it’s also crucial to ensure safe, secure, and sustainable scaling of these technologies.
Future Outlook
May-Ann concluded that AI-driven digitization is reshaping industries. She highlighted that stakeholders must focus on the right value-based use cases to unlock AI’s full potential, akin to the shift from horse-drawn carts to cars.
This transformation requires creating an environment conducive to new ideas and drafting a long-term vision for progress. However, as the industry moves forward, the panelists demonstrated that it’s essential to ensure inclusivity in AI policies, address the shifting regulatory landscape, bridge the gaps in universal connectivity, and close the skills divide to ensure that AI benefits are accessible to all.
More on AI in Asia:
The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Driving Digital Economies in Asia
The Time is Now: Artificial Intelligence Spending Projected to Rise in Asia Pacific
Scaling Infrastructure to Support AI Growth in Japan, Indonesia, and Singapore