Iwan Stella, VP and Head of Strategy and Commercial Management for EMEA, Ericsson, has penned an op-ed, in which he explains in detail how AI is transforming commercial models for a smarter future.
AI is transforming industries across the globe, unlocking unprecedented opportunities, and acting as a catalyst for innovation. In today’s rapidly evolving tech landscape, organizations face a defining choice: embrace AI or risk being left behind.
The true power of AI lies in automating repetitive tasks and freeing human talent to focus on higher-value work. By shifting operations from manual and reactive to proactive and data-driven, AI creates tangible business value — improving performance, boosting efficiency, enhancing customer experience, and enabling new business models. In doing so, it helps enterprises drive sustainable growth in an increasingly competitive market.
AI-powered, intent-based operations provide an end-to-end framework that translates business goals into real-time actions. These systems recommend and execute decisions with the speed and precision required to deliver new, differentiated services.
AI also acts as a powerful safeguard. It can dramatically reduce security and compliance risks, detect and deflect cyber-attacks or fraud, and strengthen data protection, leading in a new era of intelligent, adaptive security.
At Ericsson, we are leading the industry in AI technology. Leveraging our extensive domain knowledge and one of the largest data sets in the industry, we are using AI to help organizations cut through complexity, address the requirements of modern technologies, lower operating costs and enable automation – all with a focus on achieving concrete business goals. We have made architectural decisions that make AI easy to deploy and use. We support enterprise AI use cases across diverse sectors, such as mining, utilities, transportation and public safety.
Generative AI – the next frontier
Generative AI (Gen-AI) has opened new dimensions of innovation. At Ericsson, we use Gen-AI agents to accelerate the creation and deployment of AI applications for operations and business support systems (OSS/BSS) through Telco Agentic AI Studio, turning them from operational enablers into revenue engines.
We envision foundational “worker agents”: domain-trained Gen-AI systems that orchestrate multiple specialized agents across telecom use cases. Our Gen-AI-powered development environment enables rapid design and rollout of multi-agent network applications with “talk-to-network” capabilities. Combined with our portfolio of cloud-native AI tools, this delivers measurable efficiency gains, cost reduction, and streamlined workflows.
For instance, in the UAE, Ericsson partnered with e& to deploy a Gen-AI-powered automation system across its 5G network. The system enables real-time anomaly detection and autonomous optimization, improving network uptime by 20% and accelerating service delivery.
Building trust in AI
To fully realize AI’s potential, organizations must embed trust at every step: from design to deployment. Balancing innovation with ethics and governance is essential.
At Ericsson, we invest in AI with purpose. Our pilot programs, such as ethical governance initiatives, align AI applications with customer needs and our broader vision. Guided by our Ethics Guideline for Trustworthy AI, we ensure that every implementation is both impactful and responsible.
In Saudi Arabia, our collaboration with stc integrated an AI ethics framework into its AI-driven customer experience platform. In Spain, our partnership with Iberdrola introduced an AI-based predictive maintenance system for energy grids, using transparent, auditable models that maximize reliability while managing data privacy and fairness risks.
People at the heart of AI
Technology alone cannot drive AI success – people can. Building AI readiness starts with a data-first mindset and a strong focus on skills. Upskilling, reskilling, and attracting AI talent are key, as is nurturing a culture of responsible innovation. Diverse teams, continuous learning, and meaningful human oversight ensure ethics remain embedded in every AI journey.
In a world where access to tools, models, and data is becoming universal, true differentiation will not come from scale or speed alone. It will come from human imagination, from the ability to ask better questions, create new ideas, and turn insight into action.
Because in an age where machines predict, humans must still imagine.
