An Exploratory Study on AI Adoption Challenges in A Telecom Organization

This is an empirical study conducted in two large organizations within the ‎telecommunication sector. One of the organizations is providing telecom ‎wireless services, and the other is in the manufacture of various devices such as ‎handphones, set-top-boxes, telecommunication tower cores, routers, and the like. ‎The study has used a qualitative research method, namely the grounded theory ‎method by Corbin and Strauss. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with ‎the leadership team members who decided to adopt AI technologies, and a focus ‎group discussion (FGD) with the middle management team who were responsible ‎for implementation. The respondents in the FGD included data engineers, data ‎scientists, software developers, and end users. The organisations have ‎implemented more than 150 AI applications. The key finding is that ‎organisations need to be focused on data readiness, leadership drive, digital ‎literacy across the workforce, technology infrastructure, overcoming resistance ‎to change, and regulatory norms compliance. The study provides insight into ‎how the barriers were overcome, and the outcome was growth in customer base ‎and average revenue per user. The study can be expanded to include ‎organisations within the domain of manufacturing and the service sector.