Roz Roseboro, principal analyst for Omdia, a sister company to Light Reading, revealed how Omdia has put a value on AI's role in telecom IT software in her most recent appearance on the Light Reading podcast. She also shared Omdia's forecast for this market segment over the next five years.
"No one buys AI; they buy outcomes," said Roseboro. That reality made it all the more challenging to answer the question of how much of the value of a given type of software is attributable to AI in the Telecoms IT AI Software Market Forecast Report: 2024‒29 (subscription required).
Value of AI across IT categories
Omdia's Roseboro examined the value AI is bringing to several telecom IT software categories, such as monetization, orchestration and assurance. Roseboro said the value of AI can come from "automation, correlation or prediction. " For example, AI can automate tasks to help service providers move more quickly or provide brand new insights from data analysis.
Roseboro also joined the podcast in June to explain the differences between predictive AI and GenAI and discuss how AI has historically been used for telecom operations, such as OSS/BSS.
Show me the money
Omdia estimates that the value of AI in telecom IT software was $1.8 billion in 2023 and forecasts that it will be $2.3 billion by the end of 2024. "From 2024 to 2029, the overall value will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17% to reach $5 billion," the forecast stated.
Related:Omdia on the infiltration of AI into telecom services and infrastructure
"That's big," said Roseboro. "If we could have revenue growth of 17%, the industry would be doing a big happy dance."
Use cases for AI in IT software
Telcos will also likely do a happy dance if they can use AI to better understand how the network impacts customer experience and churn, said Roseboro. For enterprises, if AI can help ensure network performance and security, that will be a boon when an important demo or investor meeting is on the line.