Based on our analysis of the operator in part I of this report, we have come up with a list of innovation and growth opportunities for AIS. These innovation and growth opportunities are aligned to our five point framework for service providers.
Below is a list of various innovation and growth opportunities for AIS
#1 Shareholder value
AIS Enterprise business holds a vast potential to elevate shareholder value
Revenue
- AIS has a relatively weaker share in the enterprise segment since it accounts for only 6% of the total revenue.
- There is considerable focus on Enterprise business in AIS, given the long-term growth opportunity with 5G.
- Overall, Enterprise business has grown by 10 percent in Q1 2021, driven by growth in non-mobile business. AIS has an aspiration that 20 percent of the revenues will come from the Enterprise business by 2025.
- It can be observed from their reporting that there is a lot of emphasis on the Cloud, Cybersecurity, ICT and IoT Business, multiplying by 100 percent every year.
- AIS has a strong foothold as a reseller of cloud services, and it can continue to expand through partnerships with hyperscalers like Microsoft, AWS, IBM and ZTE.
- There is a growth opportunity in expanding its broadband customers by leveraging FWA (Fixed wireless access) using 5G technology. FWA use case benefits the operator by lowering its costs, as no physical optical fibres are necessary for the last-mile connectivity.
Cost optimisation
- In the longer run, AIS has the opportunity to optimise its OPEX and CAPEX by adopting open-source standards of the network. Additionally, many studies cite that the cost benefits are yet to be explored by the operators. Thus, the effects on ROI (Return on Investment) and TCO (Total cost of ownership) would remain blurred in the short run. It cannot be visible as early as other benefits like scalability and efficiency.
- The use of RPA and people analytics would also help optimise employee expenses and thus the overall profitability.
- The use of analytics to review a portfolio of capital investments and their respective returns enables decision-making for the CAPEX planning to go beyond the idea of allocating capital on an annual basis.
#2 Customer Experience
Improve CX through AI and an omnichannel strategy
A. There are multiple use cases of how AI and ML are being leveraged by the telecoms industry and helping companies reimagine digital transformation for different stakeholders. As reported, AIS currently relies on a traditional IVR system for resolving customer complaints.
- AIS can tap into the opportunity to shift from IVR based Chatbots to AI/ML-enabled chatbots. This would enable AIS to work towards bringing hyper-personalisation and agility in customer service operations.
- Moreover, IVR lacks the ability to give a human touch experience to the customers, and most of them end up looking for a customer service representative.
- On the other hand, AI-enabled chatbots have a better understanding of human cognition. One of the complementary advantages of deploying AI-enabled chatbots is to gather consumer insights that can be applicable in developing other business strategies, such as cross-selling products.
B. Fully adopt omnichannel strategy – AIS practices omnichannel through O2O integration activities, like buying online and in-store pickups. It can further make the conversation and interaction between all touch points, including contact centers, unified and seamless.
#3 Employee experience
Align EX with industry transformations and best EX practices
- AIS needs to understand the employees’ perspective and their willingness to adopt the upcoming hybrid work culture. This would further aid the operator to strategise technology and innovation requirements, since factors like communication, cybersecurity, and the overall IT infrastructure is very critical for the effective implementation of work from home set-ups. Software as a Service has a role to play.
- Use people analytics and leverage the unutilised heaps of employee-related data to take fair decisions towards recruitment for new hires, remuneration, rewards, promotion, and overall career planning.
- Telcos struggle to cope up with work-life balance in their culture. Therefore, we recommend that AIS look upon this area to improve the employee experience by bringing in more flexible working hours.
- AIS needs to innovate its digital learning platforms beyond the basic functionalities by aggregating content from third–party websites and experts to make it an open-source learning platform.
- It could also expand the employee wellness plan by collaborating with health consultation platforms.
- Organisation structure shifts in the telecoms induced by the digital transformation bring about the need for cross–departmental training.
For some of the best employee experience practices across the global telcos, read our report top 10 telcos acing employee experience.
#4 Digital transformation
Digital transformation is the most significant opportunity no telco can afford to escape
Opportunities for AIS:
- AIS can participate in the development of the upcoming open-source ecosystem for its internal digitisation. It can gradually move towards the adoption of open and disaggregated network technologies. This fundamental transformation in how networks get deployed come with multiple benefits for different stakeholders across the telecom value chain.
- For operators, it would help them build faster and scalable networks and simultaneously foster the ability of telcos to launch new services.
- The competition among the diversified vendor base would generate cost-effectiveness and innovation.
- Lastly, customers would benefit from the passing on of cost-effective benefits through lowered prices for data consumption.
From the overall network stack, there is a lot of buzz around Open RAN. A typical telco spends 60-80% of its CAPEX on building the radio part. Hence, the larger share of benefits from open-source technologies would come from Open RAN deployment.
2. Thailand broadband penetration is about 17% – AIS can tap into Satellite-based connectivity to reach remote and rural areas.
3. Deploying wide–coverage video devices such as drones, coupled with AI, can effectively automate network optimisation, thereby improving CX and ROI simultaneously.
4. Digitalisation for customers- Leverage AI, a powerful tool that aids in developing advanced self-service capabilities, like the installation of devices by customers on their own.
#5 Society and planet impact
Focus on increasing the share of renewable energy
The total energy consumption of AIS increased by 13% in 2020 as compared to the previous year. Additionally, we also noted that the share of energy consumption from renewable sources is relatively low at 0.49%. Moreover, the renewable energy used at the data center is a mere 1.02%. These numbers are evidence that AIS needs to gear up for putting effort towards sustainability.
European and American operators aim to achieve zero carbon emissions between 2030-2050. They are already ramping up their actions to achieve this goal by increasing the share of renewable energy in their overall consumption. Indian player Bharti Airtel aims to meet 50% of its data centres’ energy consumption through renewable energy by 2022. Contrary to this, AIS currently utilises only 1.2% of renewable energy at its data centres. AIS should consider taking the following steps:
- Accelerate the usage of renewable energy by collaborating with renewable energy producers in different countries and take advantage of the price difference
- Deploy systems to ensure auto shutdown during non-peak hours
- Equipment optimisation and utilisation by ensuring timely replacement
- Real-time energy monitoring
- A separate plan for reducing CO2 emissions from data centers by taking steps towards cooling optimisation and hotspot rectification
- An initiative towards co-financing research studies around the effects of electromagnetic waves would be a CSR initiative aligned with the operator’s safety goals for its stakeholders