Microsoft and TM Forum Redefine Telecom with Agentic AI
The telecom industry is in the early stages of something significant, combining Microsoft’s expertise in AI with TM Forum’s Open Digital Architecture (ODA): a new era of transformation—similar to the transformation from 3G to 5G—by using intelligent, agentic AI to create intelligence and make networks respond to the intelligence.
In the last year, Microsoft has worked with telecom operators, technicians, and developers in various capacity across the globe to explore the root of the challenges they are all facing. The feedback was simple: “We want to eliminate silos, extract and use our data better, improve productivity, innovate—and do this with trust!” Microsoft’s work in ODA is driven directly from that. They provide a modular, standards based approach to build telecom systems that can be deployed and integrated quickly while still enhancing operator productivity.
Microsoft has been involved with TM Forum for decades, collaborating to develop Open APIs and also providing production level code that allows standards to be delivered as real products. By bridging Azure’s cloud-native capabilities with ODA’s framework, Microsoft can offer telecom providers the ability to build composable systems without worrying about vendor lock-in.
One of Microsoft’s notable contributions is the ODA Observability Operator that is now in Open Source on GitHub. The ODA Observability Operator standardizes logging practices and allows for smooth integration into Azure Monitor. The ODA Observability Operator has already helped carriers reduce the time and tasks associated with finding issues such as billing mistakes. Another cutting-edge offering is the ODA Landing Zone for Azure, which provides operators with the ability to build compliant environments with security, policy and monitoring built inside the package.
Microsoft is innovating in B2B telecom through projects around flexible quoting and product customization using generative AI. Working with collaboration partners, such as Vodafone, they are guiding mid-tier enterprises to discover and configure the services they want using intelligent search and AI-based personalized experiences.
On the monetizing side, Microsoft is in the process of working with global initiatives such as CAMARA and GSMA Open Gateway to have standardized network APIs included in the Azure Marketplace. This enables operators to offer real time services like SIM swap detection or device location while extending their revenue models.
Additionally, Microsoft is spearheading AI tools, such as ChatGOC and HekaBot, to enable operators like MEO to evolve the complex process of network troubleshooting into a smarter and more proactive management operation. With AI copilots in-flight to support operations, telecoms can transition from being in a damage control framework and position their operations toward continuous enhancements.
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