By 2026, the telecoms industry will fall into two categories: those powered by AI, and those losing customers to them.
This isn't hyperbole. The numbers tell a stark story.
While 90% of telecom companies now use AI, and the sector is growing at 41% annually, a dangerous gap is emerging. According to recent industry research, 76% of consumers expect personalised experiences, yet only 37% of telcos can generate actionable insights from their data.
The result? A growing divide between those who can turn AI capability into competitive advantage, and those left behind.
The numbers that matter:
90% of telcos now utilise AI capabilities
£42.66 billion projected AI telecoms market by 2033 (Markets and Markets, 2024)
41% compound annual growth rate
47% of operators are falling behind in the AI drive
Despite widespread AI adoption, nearly half of operators are failing to translate that technology into meaningful business advantage.
The messy middle has moved inside AI
The chaotic space between awareness and purchase has now moved inside AI systems
What's fundamentally changed? The customer journey has collapsed. Research and product selection no longer happen in separate stages; instead, they now unfold within a single AI-powered conversation. Before a customer even searches, AI is already telling your story, or someone else's.
Awareness is no longer built through campaigns; it's accumulated through hundreds of AI-mediated micro-moments that happen invisibly, in real time, across multiple platforms.
A new study by Profound analysed 30 million citations across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, and Perplexity between August 2024 and June 2025. The findings reveal a fractured ecosystem:
ChatGPT trusts Wikipedia. Perplexity trusts Reddit. Google AI trusts everyone.
The implication is clear: each AI platform draws from fundamentally different sources when forming recommendations. A single, centralised content strategy will no longer work. To appear in these emerging discovery channels, brands must diversify their content footprint and engage authentically across each ecosystem.
How discovery itself is changing
As consumers interact with AI agents, discovery itself is changing:
Queries are longer and richer: customers share more context and intent
Responses are more opinionated: AIs synthesise competing messages into a single "best" answer
Searches are broader: AIs fan out across multiple data sources to build nuanced responses
This means that how customers ask questions, and how AIs answer them, is rewriting the logic of visibility.
AI isn't just another channel—it's the new gatekeeper.
Four critical challenges ahead
Over this series, we'll explore the four interconnected challenges that telecommunications operators face as AI becomes the new front door to customer discovery. These are not simply technical issues; they are visibility, credibility, and content challenges that now play out in public:
01. The Sentiment Problem
You're being defined by data you don't control
02. The Connection Problem
Your website might be invisible to AI
03. The Visibility Problem
If you're not in the AI's answer, you don't exist
04. The Accuracy Problem
Outdated information erodes trust
Most operators are not yet ready to address these challenges. The ones that do will define the standards everyone else follows.
The window for competitive advantage through AI is closing rapidly.
By the time the AI ecosystem has made up its mind about you, it'll be too late to change it.
The window is closing. Find out if you're on the right side of the telco AI divide.
