Building a slide deck, pitch, or presentation? Here are the big takeaways:

  • Ericsson is taking a company-wide approach to address network complexity using machine intelligence and AI.
  • Technologies like 5G and IoT will increase network complexity, which could lead to a poor user experience.

Emerging technologies like 5G and IoT are making enterprise networks more complex every day, but Ericsson has a secret weapon to combat that complexity: Artificial intelligence (AI).

On Tuesday, at the 2018 Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Ericsson unveiled a new company-wide approach to networking, with machine intelligence (the company’s catch-all term for machine learning and AI) at the forefront. This strategy will extend from the back office all the way to customer operations, according to a press release.

The introduction of AI “will enable networks to self-optimize, improve efficiency, and deliver optimal user experiences,” the release noted. This could lead to more stable network connections for individual consumers and for businesses, leading to a more efficient roll out of 5G.

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In terms of concrete benefits, the press release noted that handover time between network cells will lessen by roughly half. This means users will have fewer dropped calls, and service providers will have an easier time with configuration and maintenance. It can also make the cells more efficient, decreasing energy use by 10%.

Machine intelligence can better understand issues and predict problems using data. This leads to better recommendations for the operations center, and a 30% decrease in service technician dispatches, the release noted.

Additionally autoscaling with help improve performance by 25%, and expert analytics on pattern recognition will cut customer service calls by 20%, the release noted.

“With automation and domain specific AI, the intelligence built into the network platform provides superior performance while optimizing use of scarce radio network resources,” Ericsson CTO Erik Ekudden said in the release. “We are developing Machine Intelligence solutions across our product portfolio and services to provide the highest performance and most intuitive and easy to use network operations for our customers.”