Networks understanding natural language could transform time-to-market

As networks look beyond the consumer to the potential of B2B and B2B2X for 5G monetization, eliminating the barriers to launching new services and application updates for enterprise users becomes essential. Can new technologies make networks more sentient and responsive for a wider range of users?

The TM Forum Open Innovation Catalyst program isn’t just about developing new technologies: it’s about creating a collaborative environment where companies can come together to drive forward the digital transformation agenda. Recently, Amdocs teamed up with Verizon, du and Infosys to collaborate on “Intent-driven slice management in autonomous network – Phase IV”, an exciting proof of concept designed to bridge the gap between business intent and network capabilities.

Traditionally, translating business-level intent into a real-world service experience has been slow, requiring extensive manual intervention from various stakeholders. But what if an enterprise user could simply type a request into a GenAI-powered chat portal and launch a new service with allocated network resources in minutes? Awarded as a finalist at the DTW24 Ignite event in Copenhagen, our Catalyst aimed to achieve just that, by streamlining the entire process, and making it more efficient and responsive.

Bringing together emerging technologies

Let’s dig a little deeper to better understand our approach.

Advancing technologies such as GenAI, API exposure and network slicing are developing largely in isolation – with varying levels of success. Yet the business case for how to best monetize them doesn’t seem to be immediately apparent to many CSPs. This leaves the question of where the value actually lies.

While individually, each technology represents a significant leap forward in the accessibility of networks, their applications remain limited. Our Catalyst set out to prove that the answer lies in combining each technology’s capabilities to work in concert, thereby supercharging efficiencies in the rollout of new innovative services. Essentially, we proposed that when these technologies are integrated to work towards a shared business objective, their potential is unlocked.

Empowering business users to touch the network

In B2B and B2B2X, the top-of-mind concern has always been how to make networks more “usable” for business users. To date however, this has not moved beyond more intuitive GUIs with rudimentary reach to back-end systems. This means that to get a service update actioned, these business functions need to engage with a multitude of stakeholders and processes. Inevitably though, by the time this is achieved, the market has often moved on to the next shiny thing. Removing as much of the time-consuming overhead of network intermediaries as possible is therefore essential to enabling these customers to make the impact they want on their respective markets.

To achieve this, networks need to be capable of understanding natural language requests from customers. This is where GenAI offers a new way of processing business requests and mediating the communication between the network and the user – all in human language. Combined with an autonomous business-to-service orchestration capability that can resource, launch and maintain the business intent, we believe that this approach, as demonstrated in our Catalyst, could transform the way networks deliver value.