Generative AI: Transforming TELUS’ Productivity, Creativity and Strategy

In an exclusive interview with Telecom Review Americas, Hesham Fahmy, Chief Information Officer at TELUS, went into details about Canada’s first GenAI-powered customer support tool, how AI and data-driven decision making are critical to advancing TELUS' sustainability goals, and his perspective on the co-existence of AI and humans.

Congratulations on the newly unveiled GenAI-powered customer support tool. How will this take TELUS’ customer experience to a whole new level?

Thanks! We’re very excited with how the new GenAI tool is revolutionizing the way our customers interact with us and receive support, making it faster and easier for them than ever before. This is one of the first GenAI-powered customer support tools from a Canadian organization, as well as the first in the world to achieve a Privacy by Design Certification (ISO 31700-1), ensuring top-notch privacy and security standards.

The tool helps our customers get quicker, more intuitive responses to their questions - without the hassle of long wait times, navigating through complex menus or sifting through thousands of pages of information. Whether they need help setting up a new device or want to learn about the latest promotions available, the tool provides intelligent, round-the-clock answers, making the support experience faster, smoother and more convenient than ever before.

Customers can simply type in their queries and get intuitive, intelligent and quick responses that are much more friendly, conversational and interactive. The AI tool uses its advanced natural language processing capabilities and reviews more than 1,000 customer support articles to provide quick and accurate answers to customer questions; it also links back to the source materials for additional details. And since the AI has contextual awareness, you can keep asking follow-up questions and it’ll respond with your prior questions in mind.

Since rollout, it has already answered over 143,000 queries and helped customers find information faster than traditional site search. Customers with more complex, personalized service requests or those who need account-specific information can always call in to our contact centers where our TELUS agents are available to support.

What are the other key projects within TELUS that utilize AI? How will this shape a digital-powered future and transform human productivity?

That’s a great question. We have so many exciting projects on the go, I don’t know where to start. TELUS has been at the forefront of AI innovation since 2008, believing AI will benefit our business, enhance global competitiveness, and create unlimited opportunities for our team members, customers, and communities. All our work in this space is underscored by our Customers First commitment and our social purpose, with responsible and ethical principles at the foundation.

We’re embedding AI into our organizational DNA by empowering team members with a sandbox of safe and secure internal AI tools to safely explore and experiment with AI. Today, over 35,000 team members are using these tools to analyze complex reports, generate stunning images, and find new ways to improve our business. Seeing our team use AI in innovative new ways is a constant source of inspiration and consistently increasing adoption. Our team members are automating repetitive tasks to be more efficient in their work - no matter what their roles - and freeing up time to drive creativity, strategic thinking and solve complex problems in ways we had never thought possible.

We are also exploring AI-powered applications in our health, agriculture and smart-home businesses, and will share some exciting updates in the coming months. We believe this technology is here to stay and will have a profound impact on shaping the future of human productivity. We are also partnering with organizations like the Vector Institute to develop techniques to monitor forest ecosystems, showcasing the potential for AI to support and accelerate nature-based solutions.

As a tech leader, how would AI, and other technologies, impact TELUS’ commitment to sustainability and eco-friendly innovation?

AI and data-driven decision making, combined with other technologies, are critical to advancing TELUS' sustainability goals in numerous ways, including optimizing energy usage, reducing waste, carbon emissions and water usage, and enhancing eco-friendly practices.

We use machine learning and AI to optimize the use of cooling systems within our computing spaces and monitor and control the air conditioning and heating in our office buildings, enhancing our energy efficiency to reduce our carbon footprint.

We’re also investing in state-of-the-art data centers and continuously looking for ways to improve our energy consumption and reduce our carbon footprint. With partnerships and pilot programs, like the one with the Vector Institute to reduce climate impact from data centers, we are working with leaders in the field to continue to do better for the environment and to make our learnings and tools available to other organizations to pursue their own sustainability goals.

From your perspective, how will the ICT industry, particularly telcos, achieve a balance between humans and machines? What should the boundaries be?

While AI can automate certain tasks, we believe it augments human capabilities rather than replace humans entirely. There’s a common misconception that AI will replace human jobs based on the premise that there is a fixed amount of work or jobs in the economy and that automation or technology will replace human workers. This is simply not true.

Evidence actually suggests that technology tends to create more jobs than it displaces. AI can create new opportunities, enabling us to automate repetitive tasks and be more productive, innovative and efficient in our work so we can focus on higher-value work. The World Economic Forum’s 2023 Future of Jobs report suggests that twice as many companies believe AI will create job growth versus losses. According to the OECD, AI is associated with employment growth when upskilling occurs for workers. To that end, we have invested in organization-wide data and AI literacy programs.

While AI will change how we work, it’s important to remember and realize that generative AI is here to stay and is radically and rapidly transforming our productivity, creativity and strategy - in ways we understand today and in others we’ve yet to conceive. At TELUS, our approach to AI is built on responsible foundations: we strive for a humanized AI experience, considering the impact on people and ensuring we are intentional, and always keeping a human in the loop.

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