Worldwide growth in spending on telecom services and pay TV services is slowing this year and will finish with a gain of just 1.4% over 2023, when growth was 2.1%, according to International Data Corporation’s Worldwide Semiannual Telecom Services Tracker.
A saving grace in the comparatively disappointing results is that artificial intelligence (AI) could help operators modernize their operations, improve efficiencies, enhance the customer experience and stay competitive, IDC says.
The deceleration in telecom and pay TV services growth, according to the report, was largely due to results in the Americas, which experienced what IDC refers to as “slower-than-anticipated progress.” This was caused by sluggish economic growth, relatively high inflation, and saturated markets.
AI and Telecom
The good news is that artificial intelligence and advanced analytics are gaining traction, IDC said.
There are numerous use cases for the powerful technology. Kresimir Alic, IDC’s research director, worldwide, for telecom services listed some and added that others have not yet been invented.
“Our research has already identified a huge number of use cases including customer service chatbots, virtual assistants, and field technicians, as well as the usage of AI for network modernization and predictive maintenance, network traffic management, personalized marketing, fraud detection and prevention, churn predictions, and revenue assurance,” Alic said in a prepared statement.
The firm found that that revenue in the Americas in 2022 was $571 billion. It increased last year to $574 billion, for overall growth of 0.5% over the two year period.
The path ahead is unsettled. IDC says that central banks in the U.S. have “repeatedly postponed decisions to decrease reference interest rates,” which forestalls a more robust recovery. Ongoing inflation—which is causing the banks to keep interest rates high—will impact consumer purchasing power.