IBM Consulting reposted this
Trust in the operation and outcome of AI systems is of critical importance not just for our Telco industry but across every business. Specifically for CSPs, trust is the basis on which the industry works. CSPs have earned the trust of their customers over decades, connecting them with the rest of the world and protecting their data. As our industry embeds AI into end-to-end workflows, the hard-earned trust can quickly evaporate if the outcomes provided by the use of AI are not trustworthy. For AI to Scale within organizations and drive significant business value and outcomes, it is imperative to have strong governance, transparent processes, robust security, responsible data practices, human oversight, and the ability to demonstrate that AI systems are acting as intended, repeatedly. The recent report (see below) released by TM Forum in collaboration with IBM Institute for Business Value explores the gap that exists within our industry when it comes to assuring that the deployed AI is working as intended, and is controllable, explainable and trustworthy. This is a key pre-requisite for driving AI implementation and adoption at scale. Great work from our partners at TM Forum - Guy Lupo Mark Newman Nik Willetts and my IBM colleagues Rakhee A. Chachra Eoin Coughlan Madalina Fainisi Giovanny Moreano
Confidence is not the same as trust. That is one of the clearest reflections I took away from our IBM Institute for Business Value research with TM Forum on AI trust and assurance in telecommunications. As CSPs move AI deeper into networks, operations, customer engagement and decision-making, the question is no longer only whether AI can create value. It is whether that value can be trusted, governed and demonstrated at scale. The data shows the gap clearly: 72% of CSPs are confident their AI is trustworthy. Only 18% hold externally reviewable evidence. And just 14% can do both — feel confident and prove it. For me, that is the shift the industry now needs to make: from belief to evidence. Governance frameworks matter. Policies matter. Reviews matter. But as AI becomes more autonomous, trust cannot depend only on periodic checks or internal confidence. CSPs will need assurance that is continuous, operational and built into how AI systems behave in live environments. That means being able to show where AI is operating, what boundaries it is acting within, how decisions are monitored, and what evidence can be produced for boards, regulators, customers and partners. This is especially important for telecom because CSPs operate critical digital infrastructure. When AI touches the network, security, service assurance, customer operations or billing, trust is not an abstract principle. It becomes an operational requirement. It was a pleasure working with Guy Lupo and Mark Newman on this research and narrative. Nik Willetts’ framing of trust as central to telco brand value at DTW Ignite also helped sharpen why this topic matters now for the industry. Thanks also to my IBM colleagues Rahul Kumar, Eoin Coughlan, Madalina Fainisi and Giovanny Moreano for helping bring this collaboration together. Read the new TM Forum x IBM Institute for Business Value report, Trust and assurance: the key to scaling AI deployments: https://ibm.biz/~N1Bfjy9rq #TrustworthyAI #AIAssurance #AIGovernance #AgenticAI #AutonomousNetworks #Telecommunications #IBMIBV #TMForum