Business
Liberty Global and EY report outlines path for telco sector to realise major AI-driven sustainability gains
LONDON, United Kingdom--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- A new report from Liberty Global and EY suggests that the strategic adoption of AI in the telco sector has the
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[{"type":"text","content":" LONDON, United Kingdom--(BUSINESS WIRE)--\nA new report from Liberty Global and EY suggests that the strategic adoption of AI in the telco sector has the potential to drive major sustainability gains over the next decade.\n\n\nThe report – ‘Smarter networks, greener planet’ – takes an in-depth look at how the telecommunications industry can harness artificial intelligence (AI) in the coming years to help meet important sustainability goals in the sector.\n\n\nWhilst acknowledging the energy intensity of AI – through practices such as the widespread integration of GenAI features into mobile applications - the report also highlights the technology’s potential for driving operational efficiencies within the telco sector. These include applications such as optimizing energy use in mobile and fixed networks and using AI-enhanced video technology to improve efficiency in network builds.\n\n\nThe scale of the challenge created by AI-driven applications is illustrated by research cited in the report that shows that in just two years’ time the AI sector could consume between 85 and 134 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity annually – approximately 0.5% of total global consumption and roughly equivalent to the current electricity usage of the Netherlands.\n\n\nSustainability gains through AI would leverage the sector’s long-standing reputation for innovation, illustrated by research in the report which states that telco operators now carry as much as 10 times more data compared with five years ago, whilst maintaining similar levels of energy consumption.\n\n\nOverall, the report strikes an optimistic tone. Outlining four hypothetical outcomes for AI and sustainability in the next ten years, it predicts that the most likely is a scenario whereby AI helps minimize the extra energy required to support a huge growth in volume of data carried over telecommunications networks, while also yielding a number of other benefits. This would be achieved by the telco industry utilizing advanced AI to optimize the allocation of resources, predict maintenance needs in advance and manage network traffic in real-time.\n\n\nIn this scenario – labelled ‘Growth’ in the report - telecommunications networks would handle 50 times more data traffic than now, while increasing energy consumption by only 10%. This would see the elimination of Scope 1 and 2 emissions,...