Agentic workflows opening the door to an ‘experience of one’

Interview The telecommunications industry has long been characterised by cyclical waves of technological innovation that promise disruption but ultimately deliver limited commercial change. For decades, operators have faced a familiar set of challenges, including declining margins, rising operational complexity, and limited differentiation. This stagnation, says Calix CEO Michael Weening, has been evidenced in the little impact from each new generation of wireless technology. “The industry seems to be speaking about the same things for 30 years,” he said in an interview with Total Telecom. “Every time we go from 3G to 4G or 4G to 5G, the industry says this is going to be that holy moment that changes everything. And it changes absolutely nothing. We’re soon whinging back to the same problems.” With the advent of agentic AI, however, this could all be about to change, allowing for not only greater network efficiency but a totally new approach to delivering personalised services to customers. “I think we’re at a pivotal moment […] Everything’s coming to a head and there’s a real opportunity to change,” said Weening. “AI completely changes how you understand the subscriber and the experiences that you can deliver to them.” “That whole idea of these agents and how you build them into workflows will be a profound shift,” he added. A hyper-personalised service model It is well known that operators are some of the most customer data-rich organisations in the world, but making use of that data remains a significant challenge. Despite a wealth of data, the complexity of telco operations has typically seen providers defaulting to simplistic offerings based on price and speed. Customers are understood in a generalised way, with mass campaigns targeting demographics and geographies rather than individuals. Now, however, the development of specialised AI agents, which can automate decision-making across multiple workflows, is making personalisation possible at an individual level and at scale. Rather than broad, undifferentiated campaigns, operators can target individuals based on real-time context, behaviour, and inferred needs. Weening calls this the journey towards an ‘the experience of one’. “Most communications service providers can take some demographic data and some external data about customers that will show that they, for example, own a pool. They could use that data to run a targeted marketing campaign offering an outdoor Wi-Fi package,” We