Ofcom examines how AI could change the telecoms customer experience

Ofcom is consulting on how artificial intelligence in the telecoms sector could affect the experience of broadband and mobile customers.

The regulator is looking at where AI is already being used - particularly in customer interactions - as well as the potential benefits and risks for consumers.

The findings could inform whether existing telecoms rules remain sufficient as providers adopt AI more widely.

Source: Ofcom

AI consultation

Published on 27 January 2026, Ofcom's consultation is titled "Understanding how people and businesses can benefit from AI in telecoms markets", and is open to responses until 10 March 2026.

The consultation will focus on three key questions:

• How AI tools are being used across telecoms, and how they affect the experience of business and residential customers at different stages of their journey, now and in the future.
• What opportunities and risks AI presents for customers, as these tools become more capable and more widely used.
• Whether existing rules still work, or need to change, to support innovation while protecting consumers.

Ofcom says the review covers customer-facing uses of AI across areas such as sales, customer support, account management and complaints handling, rather than backend applications like network optimisation or security.

The scope includes both residential and business customers, including small and micro-businesses.

Regulatory protection

Artificial intelligence has the potential to change how customers interact with broadband and mobile providers at multiple stages, from choosing a service to getting support or resolving problems, according to the regulator.

Ofcom points to potential benefits such as faster customer service, improved fault diagnosis, greater accessibility and more personalised assistance as AI becomes more widely used.

At the same time, the regulator has flagged risks where AI systems influence or make decisions that affect customers.

These include reduced transparency when people interact with automated systems, difficulty understanding how decisions are made, and challenges in disputing outcomes or escalating complaints - issues that sit within a wider set of questions Ofcom has been exploring around AI oversight across the sectors it regulates.

The telecoms consultation also draws on Ofcom's published strategic approach to artificial intelligence, which sets out how the regulator intends to apply that oversight in practice while supporting innovation and managing consumer risk.

Within that approach, the regulator says it wants to understand whether existing protections continue to work as AI is adopted more widely in customer-facing services.

AI accountability

A central question in the consultation is how the cost and efficiency gains promised by AI are being balanced against the responsibilities telecoms providers have to customers, and how those responsibilities should be defined as automation increases.

Ofcom points to uses such as automating routine documentation, deploying chatbots in customer service, and analysing consumer feedback and demand patterns as areas where AI could drive productivity across communications markets, alongside wider questions about workforce change as these tools become more embedded.

Those efficiency gains are already visible in telecoms. BT Group has deployed AI-enhanced customer support tools, while EE says its virtual assistant handles tens of thousands of customer conversations each week.

Virgin Media O2 has rolled out tools including Lumi AI to support agents with personalised assistance and call summarisation, and has linked those systems to reductions in customer complaints.

Vodafone, working with Microsoft, has developed its TOBi digital assistant as part of wider efforts to automate customer interactions.

Alongside this, providers have continued to invest in specialist human support for customers with complex or vulnerable needs, including dedicated teams and additional training.

Rather than replacing human support outright, this combination suggests AI is being used to absorb volume and routine demand, while more complex decisions, explanations and escalation continue to rely on people.

However, the consultation highlights that the boundaries of what AI systems should and should not be responsible for are not yet clearly set out in telecoms rules.

The focus of the review is therefore whether existing protections remain effective as AI takes on a greater role in customer-facing services, and how accountability should be defined when outcomes are shaped by automated systems rather than individual agents.