How telcos can monetize AI beyond connectivity

Telecom operators have long made their money by selling connectivity. As artificial intelligence spreads through enterprise IT, many operators are looking beyond that narrow role and asking how to sell AI-driven services instead of just bandwidth.

The emerging playbook leans on assets telcos already control: network data, distributed infrastructure and existing enterprise relationships. Operators can package AI for tasks like network planning, fraud detection, customer service automation and real-time analytics over their infrastructure. Some are exploring managed AI platforms, where they host models at the edge for industries such as manufacturing, retail or logistics, charging for capacity, performance and integration support rather than only for data transport. The shift is slow and experimental, but the direction is clear: use AI to turn the network from a utility into a set of paid, higher-margin services that sit on top of basic connectivity.