PTCL harnesses the power of Artificial Intelligence: The journey from the agricultural to the industrial revolution is seen as an epoch-making event in human history. However, the rise of information and telecommunication technology, particularly in the last two decades, has outstripped the rest of the man-made wonders the history has witnessed. The 21st century, for this reason, stands out as the communication century, a golden era, bringing forth all-inclusive socio-economic growth and technological development that have revolutionised the today’s life.
On May 17 every year, the World Telecommunication and Information Society Day (WTISD) is celebrated internationally under the auspices of the United Nation (UN). Being observed since 1969, the WTISD carries a great significance in the history of communication technology, because the day marks the signing anniversary of the first International Telegraph Convention in 1865. In addition to that, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the erstwhile International Telegraph Union, was also formed on the same day on May 17, 1968. The ITU tends to be a specialized UN agency that is primarily responsible for issues and policy matters related to information and communication technology.
Held every year under a pre-defined theme, the prime objective of the annual World Telecommunication and Information Society Day (WTISD) is to enhance public awareness about the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in everyday life and to find out how it can bridge the digital divide and bring in more convenience and ease in carrying out rather complex and time-consuming day-to-day tasks in almost all fields of modern life.
On the World Telecommunication Day, the UN member countries organise awareness sessions, hold seminars and conduct special workshops and conferences to explore future possibilities and stimulate reflection and exchange of ideas about the various aspects of the theme of the year. This year the theme for the WTISD is ‘Artificial Intelligence for All’ with a view to enabling the positive use of artificial intelligence by mapping out its potential to expedite and accelerate the pace of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations by 2030.
AI technology has seen phenomenal growth and advancement in recent years and has emerged as the driving force behind such ICT fields as the Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data, ambient or mobile computing, machine learning, cloud computing, storage capacity, computing power and many others.
The leading telecom and ICT service provider in the country, the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) is a forwarding-looking organisation. Since its inception in 1947, PTCL has evolved in many ways and now offers latest digital and telecommunication technologies. PTCL is communication backbone in the country with the largest fibre cable network and submarine cables connecting Pakistan to the rest of the world.
Last year Pakistan Telecommunications Company Limited (PTCL) signed a partnership agreement with Afiniti, the US-based applied artificial intelligence company that transforms the way humans interact. PTCL is the first company to “Go-Live” at such a large scale, not only in Pakistan, but also in Asia. It has brought new innovations to the customer services and contact center operations within Pakistan. Afiniti’s Enterprise Behavioral Pairing™ algorithm analyzes and predicts the behavior of incoming customers and then pairs them with best suited agents in order to improve their overall experience. In the near future, this will help PTCL to continue to be the country’s most innovative ICT service provider and will facilitate it to offer the most modern, technology-based solutions to millions of customers and to other telecom service providers and ICT-related companies in the country.