How Asian telcos are becoming AI-native

This video features Naman Gupta, Regional Industry Leader for Telco at SAS, in conversation with Mark Newman, Chief Analyst at TM Forum, exploring how AI is becoming foundational for telcos across Asia. With most operators now having an AI strategy in place, the discussion moves beyond vision to execution—focusing on trust, governance and scalability as the key challenges ahead.

Gupta explains why data quality, security and model governance are critical to delivering reliable AI outcomes, from customer experience and fraud management to automation and autonomous networks. The conversation also examines how telcos’ priorities evolve over time, from early productivity gains to long-term automation and autonomy. Together, SAS and TM Forum’s work on the Data and AI Blueprint highlights the practical steps telcos must take to build AI-native operations at scale.