Ericsson: Agentic AI & Business Outcomes for CSPs

Ericsson is reframing how communications service providers, or CSPs, modernize their operations. The company is now focusing on what it calls Business Value Pathways. These pathways aim to achieve specific business outcomes, like faster monetization, improved customer experience, and greater efficiency. This approach starts with business priorities and then identifies the necessary technology and data. Here's the thing: The industry faces challenges with fragmented data and ensuring AI delivers measurable value. Robert Curran, a consulting analyst, highlights that the impact of AI and understanding where it can truly make a difference is a central challenge. Jason Keane from Ericsson emphasizes that good data is crucial for good AI outcomes. He notes a growing fatigue with AI investments that don't show clear returns. What's interesting is Ericsson's new pathways include specific areas like faster data transformation and agentic AI for service experience and intelligent IT operations. This shift prioritizes impactful use cases over just focusing on the technology itself. The bottom line: This new focus aims to ensure that technology investments directly translate into tangible business results for CSPs.