AI to Revolutionize Telecoms, But Human Touch Remains Vital, Says Optus CEO

AI’s Growing Role in Telecoms

Stephen Rue, the new CEO of Optus, believes artificial intelligence (AI) will significantly shape the future of telecommunications, particularly in enhancing customer experiences. However, he emphasized that AI will augment, not replace, human roles within the company.

Key Takeaways

• AI will be instrumental in improving customer service and identifying technical faults.
• It will enable more granular customer segmentation for targeted offers and products.
• Humans will remain crucial for decision-making, field operations, and customer-facing roles.

Enhancing Customer Experience with AI

Rue highlighted AI’s potential to streamline IT operations, data management, and process redesign. "It will help us with customer experience. It will help us with identifying faults, for example, by identifying customers’ issues so that they [can be] dealt with, enabling them to simply solve their own problems, enabling us to look at customer segmentation in a more granular way, so that we can actually deliver offers, deliver products to customers," he stated.

The Indispensable Human Element

Despite the advancements in AI, Rue stressed the continued necessity of human involvement. "On top of AI, there’s clearly decisions that would need to be taken by humans," he explained. "AI can help bring a lot of data analytics quickly to humans so they can make better decisions." He further elaborated that roles such as field technicians, builders, creative decision-makers, and call center staff will always require human expertise, with AI serving as a supplementary tool.

Rebuilding Trust and Future Focus

Since taking the helm, Rue has focused on strengthening Optus’s governance, risk management, and rebuilding community trust, especially after a significant data breach and a national network outage. The company has seen a recovery in customer numbers, adding 238,000 mobile subscribers in the financial year ending March 2025.

Network Development and Government Collaboration

Rue also discussed Optus’s long-term network plans, emphasizing resilience and competitiveness. He expressed support for government initiatives like the universal outdoor mobile coverage plan, which aims to use satellite networks to improve connectivity in underserved areas. "I think that clearly will be a discussion of policy and how that can be implemented," he said, noting that such collaborations can provide cost-effective service delivery for operators like Optus.

Optus reported a 5.7% increase in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization, reaching $2.2 billion for the financial year.