Indosat and Huawei develop AI-based autonomous network

PT Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison Tbk (Indosat or IOH) and Huawei are strengthening their collaboration in developing an autonomous network based on artificial intelligence (AI) to improve service quality and customer experience.

Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison, Desmond Cheung, said the development of an autonomous network is part of Indosat’s transformation towards a telecommunications company that utilises AI in its business operations.

“Our autonomous journey did not happen suddenly. It is a journey that began two years ago,” Desmond said at the Indosat and Huawei collaboration event in Jakarta on Wednesday.

According to Desmond, the journey has now brought Indosat to Level 3 on the autonomous network maturity scale. At this stage, the company is beginning to implement AI agent-based operations.

“This transformation requires a great deal of effort. We are currently at Level 3, which means performing on the autonomous network maturity scale. We have built the foundation and are now implementing initial agentic operations,” he said.

Desmond said the implementation of the technology has delivered results for network operations and customer service over the past two years.

Lost network working hours decreased by 56 percent. Meanwhile, consumer or business-to-consumer (B2C) customer complaints fell by 50 percent and business or business-to-business (B2B) customer complaints decreased by 32 percent.

He explained that the need for increasingly autonomous networks is growing along with the expansion of 5G networks, the use of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, and multi-cloud environments.

On the other hand, customers are also demanding increasingly stable and personalised services, including lower network downtime and faster service responses.

“Our AI Agent will strengthen our ability to provide the best network quality for customers,” Desmond said.

In the collaboration, Indosat and Huawei also demonstrated AI capabilities for communication services and data storage through AI New Calling and AI Cloud Drive.

AI Cloud Drive utilises AI to help users manage digital content, including documents and photos.

Desmond said the development of AI-based technology is part of Indosat’s efforts to build Connected Intelligence and expand the use of AI in telecommunications services.

He said Indosat has a vision to become a globally recognised AI-based technology company or AI TechCo through AI development in its core business, AI-based business lines, and the development of an AI ecosystem in Indonesia.

“The future is Agentic with AI, and the future is partnership,” Desmond said.