Last week, we attended Telecoms World Middle East as sponsors in Dubai. This event brings together the brightest and most innovative minds in the regional telecommunications industry. During May 30 and 31, The Madinat Jumeirah conference centre was packed with almost 1,500 attendees, more than 50 exhibiting companies and around 120 speakers. We had the opportunity to be present with a booth and to participate in a panel and a keynote.

Our Chief Strategy Officer, Patricia Peiró, discussed the impact of AI, ML, data and the cloud on the user experience. She shared her thoughts with other professionals from different companies and backgrounds.

“It was an absolute honour to participate in the prestigious Telecom World Middle East conference. The conference concentrated on using cognitive technology, such as AI tools and systems, and its power to redefine Customer Experience. Different industrial sectors, along with Governments, compete to utilize AI to serve their customers and citizens to show the best level of competitiveness. Therefore, the focus now is on AI implementation effectiveness to achieve a return on investment.”

Jassim Al Awadhi – Teleco & Digital Transformation, Independent Expert

“We’ve been investing heavily in industry-leading AI to evolve our business tools to help advertisers respond to a digital ads ecosystem with more limited access to data. More recently, we’ve developed Meta Advantage suite of automated advertising tools that rely mostly on AI to help advertisers get smarter about every minute and dollar they spend with Meta.“

Elie Antoun – Head of Telecom & Media MENA

Artificial intelligence and Generation Z were the main protagonists of the global conversation. In this sense, Telecoming’s CSO explained the relevance of betting on the new generations, mainly the Z generation, as a lever for growth in the telco industry.

Telecos have three generations of users coexisting in their portfolio. Each has a different relationship with the carrier and the mobile device. Boomers use mobile primarily for communication, and they understand the value that the operator brings to their lives. They are loyal and not very price sensitive; their primary concern is being able to communicate. Millennials embraced the smartphone as a work tool and are interested in the technical features of the network and the device. They understand the operator’s role well but may value a change if they improve in technology. The Zs, however, were born connected, their primary use of the cell phone is for leisure, and they are not interested in the network provider, but in the valuable services they offer.

Zs represent 40% of the world’s population and will be the main growth driver in any industry. This group shares many characteristics with sports fans: they like technology and are creative and committed. Telcos have understood they must adapt their sports offer to this new generation of short-form experiences.

Telecommunications operators have a historical relationship with sports. From the beginning, they have been sponsors, distributors and digitizers of the sports world. They know the fans, their interests and their consumption habits. That passion and emotional connection come naturally to the younger generations. Operators now face the challenge of integrating these new users with different behaviours into their sports offers. The match is simple, because they have done it before: technology, entertainment and connectivity.

Thank you very much for sharing all these fascinating insights, and we hope to meet you again in Dubai next year!