• AI is at the heart of almost every discussion at the DTW Ignite event in Copenhagen
• It was the core theme for a keynote discussion with the CTOs of BT and Vodafone
• Telcos are adapting and in some ways able to move faster than before, but there are plenty of challenges too

COPENHAGEN – DTW Ignite 2025 – Telcos are often accused of being too slow to react and adapt to change and new opportunities, so how are they coping in the breakneck speed environment of the ‘AI era’? Howard Watson, chief security and networks officer at BT group, and Scott Petty, CTO at Vodafone Group, took to the stage here in Copenhagen to argue that, in many ways, their companies have adapted to the pace of change that comes with the widespread adoption of generative AI (GenAI) but also noted that it brings new challenges and many reasons to remain cautious too. 

Like their telco peers, both BT and Vodafone have adopted GenAI internally. Watson noted that BT has 48,000 staff using GenAI on a day-to-day basis, 90 AI partners and has developed 50 AI applications that are being put to good use. 

At Vodafone, Petty noted, 70,000 employees are using Microsoft’s Copilot, and that helps accelerate processes and improve efficiencies, but only to a certain extent. For example, with code generation it can deliver maybe 30% of what’s needed, “and maybe at some point we’ll get to 70% or 80%,” noted the CTO, but there will always need to be that human in the loop. 

And a change in the way operators approach the market is also required. Petty noted that the old way of telcos developing products – base it on tech and then see if it gains traction with customers – “doesn’t work now… You have to rewire your business with AI” and have a horizontal platform approach. 

But while processes need to be accelerated, they also need to be done carefully. “We have an AI platform developed with guardrails and frameworks to unlock value… without these you end up with ‘shadow AI’ that is a security risk” as well as being unproductive. 

To keep up with the pace of change in AI you need to quickly develop key partnerships that enable speedier development, added Petty. “If you issue an RFP [request for proposal] every time you come up with an AI use case” you’ll never get anything done, he noted.  

Telcos also need a unified data platform, which is something that both BT and Vodafone have for their group operations – and both, as it happens, have teamed up with Google Cloud Platform (GCP) for that unified data approach. “If you get the platform layer right, you can [develop] at speed,” stated the Vodafone exec.

But Petty noted that the speed of change in AI also has challenges. One thing the industry doesn’t talk about enough is the “speed of lifecycle management in the AI platform – this is an issue. LLMs update to new versions very quickly and everyone always wants to work with the latest versions.”

Other controls are needed too, with Watson identifying “FinOps processes to keep costs under control” and strict security measures too.

Security has always been a major focus and concern for telcos, but this is intensifying as the ‘bad actors’ have AI at their disposal too. 

“The threat we now face is unprecedented,” noted the BT exec, who has talked before about how the UK telco’s systems identify more than 2,000 threats per second. “The number of security events this year is up by about 160% to 170% and the [cybercriminals] are getting smarter. The Salt Typhoon [hacks in the US] has had a real impact… those were attacks at the edge, at the security tools themselves,” he noted. “The advantage we have is that we have the network… it gives us a view on what is happening and the chance to deal with these threats.” 

And the attackers are “skillful and well resourced,” noted Petty. “They use the same tools that we have” and very often mimic employees, but “AI can help us identify the attackers” by identifying and tracking trends, added the Vodafone CTO. 

So telcos are adapting and making use of AI to gain efficiencies and ‘move faster’  – but the big question is whether this will be enough to move the needle financially. Petty, for one, believes the industry will soon see “telco CEOs talking about the impact that GenAI is having on their P&L [profit and loss] and then we’ll know if AI is having a real business impact.”

- Ray Le Maistre, Editorial Director, TelecomTV