A newly-launched Global Telco AI Alliance (GTAA), backed by Deutsche Telekom, e& Group, Singtel, SoftBank Corp. and SK Telecom, plans to develop Large Language Models (LLMs) specifically tailored to the needs of telecommunications companies. The initiative will lead to the establishment of a Joint Venture Company within this year.
The goal is to develop multilingual LLMs optimized for languages including Korean, English, German, Arabic and Japanese, with plans for additional languages to be agreed among the founding members. These will be used by digital assistants and chatbots to improve customer service.
The joint venture plans to focus on deploying innovative AI applications tailored to the needs of the Global AI Telco Alliance members in their respective markets, enabling them to reach a global customer base of approximately 1.3 billion across 50 countries. Deutsche Telekom boasts about 250 million subscribers across 12 countries, including Germany and the U.S. The e& Group has 169 million subscribers in 16 countries across the Middle East, Asia, and Africa, while the Singtel Group has 770 million subscribers in 21 countries, including Australia, India, and Indonesia.
"We want our customers to experience the best possible service. AI helps us do that. Already today, more than 100,000 customer service dialogs a month in Germany are handled by Generative AI. By integrating telco-specific large language models, our 'Frag Magenta' chatbot becomes even more human-centric: AI personalizes conversations between customers and chatbots. And our joint venture brings Europe and Asia closer together,” says Claudia Nemat, Member of the Board of Management for Technology and Innovation at Deutsche Telekom.
