Interview
The telecommunications business has lengthy been characterised by cyclical waves of technological innovation that promise disruption however finally ship restricted business 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 influence from every new era of wi-fi know-how.
“The business appears to be talking about the identical issues for 30 years,” he stated in an interview with Whole Telecom. “Each time we go from 3G to 4G or 4G to 5G, the business says that is going to be that holy second that adjustments all the pieces. And it adjustments completely nothing. We’re quickly whinging again to the identical issues.”
With the arrival of agentic AI, nonetheless, this might all be about to alter, permitting for not solely higher community effectivity however a completely new method to delivering personalised companies to clients.
“I feel we’re at a pivotal second […] All the things’s coming to a head and there’s an actual alternative to alter,” stated Weening. “AI fully adjustments the way you perceive the subscriber and the experiences that you would be able to ship to them.”
“That complete 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 number of the most buyer data-rich organisations on the planet, however making use of that knowledge stays a major problem. Regardless of a wealth of knowledge, the complexity of telco operations has sometimes seen suppliers defaulting to simplistic choices based mostly on value and pace. Prospects are understood in a generalised method, with mass campaigns concentrating on demographics and geographies moderately 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 degree and at scale. Reasonably than broad, undifferentiated campaigns, operators can goal people based mostly on real-time context, behaviour, and inferred wants.
Weening calls this the journey in the direction of an ‘the expertise of 1’.
“Most communications service suppliers can take some demographic knowledge and a few exterior knowledge about clients that can present that they, for instance, personal a pool. They might use that knowledge to run a focused advertising and marketing marketing campaign providing an outside Wi-Fi package deal,” Weening defined. “The issue is that doesn’t essentially imply something, proper? The client is likely to 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 much more granular.
“Let’s say you work at home. The community agent can discover that your service commonly degrades at a sure time of day – maybe when your children come house – and it will probably let you know change places. It is aware of you latterly bought a pergola, so it will probably infer you commonly transfer into the yard to proceed working,” Weening stated. “It will possibly then go this info to a advertising and marketing agent, which can 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 when you don’t click on by way of, it will probably hand off all this particular knowledge to a name centre agent and arrange a name mechanically.”
A shift in the direction of these experience-based choices presents a serious alternative for income era, with Weening noting circumstances of development “as excessive as 25%.”
“The most effective factor is that these income positive aspects 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 (Web Promoter Scores) of 94 – that’s insane!”
Constructing a many-layered platform
In fact, orchestrating this AI agent ecosystem is not any straightforward process—and, in response to Weening, it requires a platform mannequin to succeed.
The structure needed for this transformation, Weening defined, is basically constructed on 5 layers:
- The info layer, which kinds the muse.
- 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 assorted AI brokers work collectively precisely and effectivity.
- The belief layer, which ensures each AI agent has applicable guardrails and might solely entry particular knowledge.
- The safety layer, making certain that every one this exercise retains shopper knowledge protected.
Calix has been engaged on the “AI-native third era” of its platform for the previous two-and-a-half years and went stay with it in February 2026. As of March 2026, all the corporate’s 1,200+ clients 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 degree 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 doubtful, remaining boundaries 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 cast off these dated stereotypes and embrace change will see success.
“Persons are already taking a look at AI like it’s magic fairy mud – one thing you possibly can 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’ capacity to execute the mandatory 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 development, 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 vice chairman of International Buyer Success and senior vice chairman, 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 vice chairman of enterprise and shopper 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.