By: Scott St. John - Pipeline

Nearly 55 years ago, the Apollo 13 mission experienced a near-catastrophic failure on its way to the moon as an explosion in the oxygen tanks damaged the engines and left remaining oxygen levels critically low. This led to the now infamous saying, “Houston, we have a problem.” The “problem” was wildly complex, and neither NASA nor the astronauts knew for certain exactly what had happened. To complicate matters more, it encapsulated a life-or-death crisis involving equipment, people, and systems — which were now located over two thousand miles away from Earth. To bring the astronauts safely home, NASA relied on what is now being deemed the world’s first digital twin.

NASA had developed 15 training simulators for Apollo 11 and 13 missions that incorporated physical elements such as the crew, cockpit, mission-control console, with “make believe” situations created by computers, formulas, and technicians to replicate various issues that might occur. What made the Apollo 13 case unique, however, was that NASA mission controllers were able to adapt these simulations to replicate the exact scenario that was occurring in real life to identify a viable solution. This was arguably the world’s first digital twin, which NASA now defines as “a digital replica of a living or non-living physical entity…to gain insight into present and future operational states of each physical twin.”

The concept of simulations and digital twins wasn’t entirely new at the time and has been gaining ground ever since. First getting traction in Computer Aided Design and Manufacturing (CAD/CAM) in the early ‘80s, then the concept being minted by Dr. Michael Grieves at the Society of Manufacturing Engineers conference in 2022, rapidly accelerating with the advent of the Internet of Things (IoT) and Industry 4.0, and eventually finding its way into the everyday life in the consumer market as well. But if there were any doubt of the significance of digital twins, you can still ask astronauts Fred Haise and Jim Lovell, who are alive today and in their 90s, as a direct result. Today, digital twins are becoming a mainstay across many industries, and that includes helping telecom service providers improve their customer experience (CX).

Boosting CX with AI & Digital Twins

Customers are both unique and complex. Like the Apollo 13 mission, they involve equipment, people, and a distance that can span thousands of miles — with the life or death of a business being held in the balance. This is a scenario perfectly suited for AI and digital twins.

Software providers like Etiya are now using AI and digital twins to solve customer pain points for Communication Service Providers (CSPs), and to take customer experience to the next level. Pipeline recently interviewed key stakeholders at Etiya to get their take on how their AI-driven Digital BSS and integrated digital twin models are being used to improve customer satisfaction by providing hyper-personalized offers and stellar customer care.

Etiya’s Digital Business Platforms includes a comprehensive set of products and tools, including acquisition and retention in CRM, advanced bundling capabilities in product catalog management, accurate quoting and fulfillment with CPQ and order management, and a smart, automated customer service management system to support omnichannel digital experiences. With integrated AI capabilities, these products work together on harmonizing CX operations across the whole organization so that CSPs can better understand and communicate with their customers and personalize their experience to build valuable long-term relationships.

CX-focused Telco Operation

The heart of any business is the customers that pump the lifeblood of revenue throughout the organization. And like the heart, customers and their requirements are complex and understanding them can be challenging. Each customer encompasses a unique set of cultural considerations, devices, financial factors, personal habits, preferences, services, and more. This complexity increases exponentially as companies scale to serve more business and residential customers.

In today’s competitive and constantly evolving market, telecom operators need to focus on protecting revenues and profits, but even in a challenging market environment customer experience cannot fall victim to cost-cutting efforts. While communication services are becoming increasingly commoditized, customer experience has become the primary competitive differentiator between service providers. Ultimately, customer experience and satisfaction determine whether customers stay with the brand or switch providers.

Customers increasingly depend on mobile services such as voice, data, internet, and entertainment services in their daily lives. For an optimal experience, their customer journey should be smooth and free from any technical issues or errors that can occur during the set-up or billing processes, the adoption of new devices, over-the-top applications and bundles, and those that can be caused by network connectivity problems. Etiya refers to the “hygiene factor” where all services must work flawlessly and seamlessly all the time through real-time monitoring of the network, services, usage, and automated proactive remediation of issues before they impact customers.

Leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) for network and billing anomaly detection and complaint prediction allows CSPs to monitor, identify, and remedy potential service interruptions or invoicing errors before they impact customers. This approach proactively prevents the costs of service outages, customer complaint management, and the cost of customer acquisition as a result of customers who churn due to a poor