Next ’25 recap: Telecommunications

The pulse of innovation for the telecommunications industry was strong at Google Cloud Next '25, held April 9-11 in Las Vegas. Inside the Mandalay Bay Convention Center, it was evident that AI — especially generative AI (gen AI) — is fundamentally reshaping how Communication Service Providers (CSPs) operate and engage with customers. The sessions and demos showcased how we’re empowering CSPs to harness AI to establish a scalable data foundation, optimize network operations, enhance customer experiences, boost employee productivity, and increase monetization capabilities.

Here is an overview of how the telecommunications industry showed up at Cloud Next, providing a window into the future of how AI is transforming how CSPs operate. 

Laying the foundation for AI readiness

To take advantage of AI, CSPs must first establish a strong data strategy, beginning with critical processes like data migration to break down traditional silos. Google Cloud's unified data platform, built on solutions like BigQuery, provides the tools to manage data efficiently, reduce complexity, and accelerate value creation.

• The session “Virgin Media O2 partners with TCS for cloud-first data strategy,” highlighted how Virgin Media O2, alongside TCS, is reimagining its business with a cloud-first data strategy on Google Cloud. The session shed light on how CSPs are mastering their data strategies, focusing on enhancing agility, speed, scalability, automating operations, optimizing costs, and driving AI-readiness.

The age of agentic AI and operational transformation

A key takeaway from the event was the potential of AI agents across all business functions, from network and operational modernization to enhanced customer engagement. Here are some of our favorite highlights: 

• Verizon, along with partner HCLTech, shared strategies for becoming AI-applied companies in “Bold AI decisions: Transforming telecommunications in the digital age." The session discussed the transformation journey in detail, including integrating gen AI, machine learning, and DataOps to optimize and improve operations while exploring enhancements in serverless tech, automation, and security enabled by Google Cloud.

• The session "Conversational agents: Build and deploy no-code/low-code AI agents" showcased Customer Engagement Suite (CES) and its focus on conversational agents. Speakers from Bouygues Telecom shared the practical applications of AI agents within a low-to no-code environment for building and deploying integrated solutions. Key announcements included a unified console, new voices, pre-built agents, and connectors, alongside performance analysis insights.

• BT Group, joined "Google's Al-powered next-gen global network: Built for the Gemini era" along with Bikash Koley, Google’s global networking & infrastructure VP, and Subhasree Mandal, a distinguished engineer from Google Cloud. A key focus was the partnership between BT and Google Cloud to unify Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) and cloud capabilities. BT Group’s CTO, Colin Bannon, shared how this collaboration leverages BT's Global Fabric and Google Cloud's hyperscale network to provide managed NaaS, enhanced connectivity with increased edge capacity, and improved network performance for customers. The partnership aims to deliver benefits such as lower latency, improved reliability, and simplified Google workload deployment.

• The breakout session "The age of agentic AI in telecom," featured leaders from Verizon and Vodafone, alongside Google Cloud partner Ericsson, which explored how CSPs are using AI agents — across their workforce, customer experience, field operations, network operations, and more — and discussed critical considerations like security, data governance, and scaling.

Enhancing customer experiences and field operations with gen AI

CSPs are using AI to enhance customer engagement with personalized recommendations and accelerate efficiency by equipping employees with relevant tools and information.

• The session "Gen AI-Powered Conversational Bots for Telcos" demonstrated how Customer Engagement Suite can be used to develop advanced conversational bots to enable more fluid engagements with customers. The session explained how AI helps solve customer problems quicker,  making support smarter, more personal, and more effective across calls and chats.

• The demo “AI-Powered Field Agents for Better Customer Service” highlighted how Vodafone is using multimodal gen AI to empower field agents with enhanced knowledge, leading to faster, higher-quality service and increased customer satisfaction through quicker issue resolution and more effective first-time fixes.

The road ahead

Google Cloud Next '25 underscored that the telecommunications industry is moving from AI experimentation to production. Leaders like Verizon, Vodafone, and Virgin Media O2 are transforming their operations, customer engagement, and data foundations with Google Cloud's AI, data analytics, and cloud infrastructure. 

We’re committed to providing the tools and partnerships needed for CSPs to navigate the AI era and unlock new value from their networks and customer relationships — whether it's deploying sophisticated AI agents, building intelligent conversational bots, modernizing data platforms, or optimizing field operations.