Interview
The telecommunications trade has lengthy been characterised by cyclical waves of technological innovation that promise disruption however finally ship restricted industrial change. For many years, operators have confronted a well-known set of challenges, together with declining margins, rising operational complexity, and restricted differentiation.
This stagnation, says Calix CEO Michael Weening, has been evidenced within the little affect from every new technology of wi-fi know-how.
“The trade appears to be talking about the identical issues for 30 years,” he stated in an interview with Complete Telecom. “Each time we go from 3G to 4G or 4G to 5G, the trade says that is going to be that holy second that modifications every thing. And it modifications completely nothing. We’re quickly whinging again to the identical issues.”
With the arrival of agentic AI, nonetheless, this might all be about to vary, permitting for not solely larger community effectivity however a completely new method to delivering personalised companies to prospects.
“I believe we’re at a pivotal second […] The whole lot’s coming to a head and there’s an actual alternative to vary,” stated Weening. “AI utterly modifications the way you perceive the subscriber and the experiences that you may ship to them.”
“That entire concept of those brokers and the way you construct them into workflows might be a profound shift,” he added.
A hyper-personalised service mannequin
It’s well-known that operators are a few of the most buyer data-rich organisations on the planet, however making use of that information stays a big problem. Regardless of a wealth of knowledge, the complexity of telco operations has usually seen suppliers defaulting to simplistic choices based mostly on value and velocity. Clients are understood in a generalised means, with mass campaigns focusing on demographics and geographies relatively than people.
Now, nonetheless, the event of specialized AI brokers, which may automate decision-making throughout a number of workflows, is making personalisation potential at a person stage and at scale. Moderately than broad, undifferentiated campaigns, operators can goal people based mostly on real-time context, behaviour, and inferred wants.
Weening calls this the journey in direction of an ‘the expertise of 1’.
“Most communications service suppliers can take some demographic information and a few exterior information about prospects that can present that they, for instance, personal a pool. They may use that information to run a focused advertising and marketing marketing campaign providing an out of doors Wi-Fi package deal,” Weening defined. “The issue is that doesn’t essentially imply something, proper? The client could be a grandparent who solely makes use of the pool when their grandchildren come over.”
With refined AI brokers constructed into every a part of a suppliers’ workflow, buyer understanding may be way more granular.
“Let’s say you make money working from home. The community agent can discover that your service recurrently degrades at a sure time of day – maybe when your youngsters come house – and it might inform you change places. It is aware of you latterly bought a pergola, so it might infer you recurrently transfer into the yard to proceed working,” Weening stated. “It will possibly then move this data to a advertising and marketing agent, which is able to construct a personalised plan together with improved outside connectivity. Then, an promoting agent that is aware of your social media preferences will arrange a focused advert that you will note on Instagram – and if you happen to don’t click on by means of, it might hand off all this particular information to a name centre agent and arrange a name robotically.”
A shift in direction of these experience-based choices presents a serious alternative for income technology, with Weening noting instances of progress “as excessive as 25%.”
“The perfect factor is that these income good points are wildly sticky,” he stated. “When you ship this improved expertise to the client, it turns into troublesome for different suppliers to compete. We’ve seen NPS (Internet Promoter Scores) of 94 – that’s insane!”
Constructing a many-layered platform
After all, orchestrating this AI agent ecosystem is not any straightforward activity—and, in accordance with Weening, it requires a platform mannequin to succeed.
The structure essential for this transformation, Weening defined, is basically constructed on 5 layers:
- The info layer, which kinds the inspiration.
- The information and context layer, which mixes Retrieval Augmented Technology (RAG), Massive Language Fashions (LLMs), and the Mannequin Context Protocol (MCP) to construct context from the information.
- The orchestration layer, which ensures the varied AI brokers work collectively precisely and effectivity.
- The belief layer, which ensures each AI agent has applicable guardrails and may solely entry particular information.
- The safety layer, guaranteeing that each one this exercise retains client information secure.
Calix has been engaged on the “AI-native third technology” of its platform for the previous two-and-a-half years and went reside with it in February 2026. As of March 2026, all the corporate’s 1,200+ prospects globally have been migrated to this newest model of the Calix One platform.
“What we’ve constructed is one thing that abstracts worth from context,” he defined. “This stage of personalisation is one thing we’ve all the time aspired to. With AI, we are able to lastly do it at scale.”
AI wants tradition change
With AI’s technical capabilities now not unsure, remaining obstacles to adoption are largely cultural and organisational. Operators are sometimes seen as labyrinthine and bureaucratic, strangled by legacy know-how and an lack of ability to maneuver shortly. For Weening, solely these organisations that eliminate these dated stereotypes and embrace change will see success.
“Individuals are already AI like it’s magic fairy mud – one thing you’ll be able to simply plug in and see outcomes. It’s not. It’s a cultural and enterprise transformation,” he argued. “Management should embrace it and use it to empower workers.”
Agentic AI might lastly present telecoms operators with a reputable path to differentiation, however realising this chance will rely much less on the know-how itself and extra on operators’ capability to execute the required organisational and cultural transformation at scale.
Be taught extra concerning the AI-native Calix One platform: https://www.calix.com/merchandise/platform.html
Michael Weening – President and CEO of Calix Inc.
Michael has served as president and CEO of Calix since September 2022, bringing greater than 20 years of expertise main progress, technique, and transformation. Beforehand he served as Calix President and Chief Working Officer. Michael joined Calix from Salesforce the place he served because the senior vp of International Buyer Success and senior vp, Japan and Asia-Pacific Buyer Success, Companies and Alliances.
Over the span of his profession, Michael has held govt positions in North America, Europe and Asia. Beforehand, Michael held management roles at Bell Mobility in Canada, the place he was vp of enterprise and client gross sales. Michael additionally held gross sales management roles at Microsoft, in Canada and the UK.
Michael holds a Bachelor of Arts in Enterprise Administration, from Brock College supported by ongoing govt schooling at Queens, Wharton, and USC.
