FICO Survey: European Telecommunications Providers Lag in Use of Advanced Analytics and AI

Global survey from TM Forum and FICO shows need to catch up in customer management, fraud

A new global survey from TM Forum and advanced analytics software firm FICO shows that telecommunications providers are lagging in their use of predictive models, machine learning and artificial intelligence  — and European CSPs (communications service providers) are behind the rest of the world. In critical areas such as fraud detection, collections and personalization, fewer European respondents are using advanced analytics to improve results than in other regions. The results were shared at the 2^nd Annual Telecoms Credit Risk meeting, hosted by FICO in London.

“Mobile operators are under pressure to become data-driven to improve their decision-making and profitability,” said Mark Newman, chief analyst at TM Forum. “As they start to explore artificial intelligence and machine learning, CSPs need to take a holistic approach and find opportunities and use cases across the customer lifecycle. This is how the battle for customer loyalty will be waged.”

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These sample results show the disparity between CSPs in Europe and the entire survey group:

“This survey confirms that CSPs worldwide need to play catch up in their use of prescriptive analytics, machine learning and data driven approach,” said Anat Hoida, who oversees FICO’s telecommunications practice in EMEA. “FICO works with financial services providers worldwide, and the contrast is stark, particularly in Europe. It’s quite surprising to see that only one in five European CSPs is using the advanced fraud detection analytics that are nearly ubiquitous in the payment cards industry.”

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The survey also found that:

• The biggest driver of advanced analytics investments for European CSPs in the next two years will be optimizing the customer experience (74 percent), followed by improving profitability (68 percent). The results were roughly the same for global CSPs.
• Nearly all CSPs in Europe and around the world use text messaging and call centers to communicate with customers, however fewer are doing so in a data-driven and predictive way. Only about 42 percent of European CSPs use web chat, and just 26 percent use chatbots

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