AI EXPOSES LEGACY IT CHALLENGE FOR TELECOM CIOS
AI is exposing the limitations of legacy IT and traditional operating models as CIOs face growing pressure to deploy new capabilities safely, economically and at enterprise scale, says Willie Stegmann, EVP, Composable IT and Ecosystems, TM Forum.
Artificial Intelligence is forcing telecom CIOs to confront a problem that years of Digital Transformation have failed to resolve: how to modernise complex legacy IT estates while simultaneously delivering new capabilities at speed, controlling costs and maintaining operational stability.
For communications service providers( CSPs), AI promises improvements in customer experience, efficiency and growth. Yet the ability to realise those benefits depends on foundations that many operators still lack.
Legacy systems, fragmented architectures, inconsistent data and operating models designed for a slower era of technology change are becoming obstacles to AI Native execution. According to Willie Stegmann, EVP, Composable IT and Ecosystems at TM Forum, the central challenge is no longer gaining access to AI technology. It is deploying AI safely, economically and at enterprise scale.
AI is exposing constraints that were manageable when transformation could be sequenced over several years. Today, those same constraints can become immediate blockers as organisations attempt to modernise infrastructure, reduce costs and introduce AI capabilities simultaneously.
Telecom operators have already moved quickly to exploit Autonomous Networks, but adding AI to fragmented legacy environments does not automatically create autonomy. Instead, it can introduce additional fragility.
This is pushing CIOs towards composable IT, not simply as an architectural ambition but as a practical response to continuous change. Composability shifts attention away from designing a distant end-state architecture and www. intelligentcio. com
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