Client testimonial
“The speed at which AI is evolving makes it truly disruptive”
Capgemini has worked with Orange for 50 years, supporting its transformation and technological evolution. Christel Heydemann, CEO of the telecom giant, shares how AI is reshaping the industry yet again.
What emerging tech trends excite you most and where do you see AI’s biggest impact?
Christel Heydemann - Quantum technologies are extremely exciting, especially when it comes to cybersecurity. But the technology that excites me most is AI. The speed at which it’s evolving makes it truly disruptive. I’m particularly excited about how AI could accelerate progress in other fields of science. At Orange, it’s also changing how we work by bringing a lot of efficiency in-house.
What is the biggest hurdle to scaling AI effectively?
C. H. - Anyone can play with ChatGPT and get it to draft an email or summarize a document. But if you want AI to fundamentally reinvent processes, that’s a bigger challenge. You need well-organized, accessible data. You might have to re-engineer processes to integrate AI effectively. Often, you even have to change the culture of the organization, so that people trust the AI enough to use it. Scaling AI isn’t just a matter of installing software. It means rethinking entire workflows. That kind of change doesn’t happen overnight.
How do you use AI in your day-to-day role and what about its impact on telecom networks?
C. H. - The biggest boost I get from AI is in managing information flow, summarizing complex documents fast. This has been a game-changer in terms of saving time. For telecom networks, AI will have a massive impact in how they’re used and how they’re run. AI applications are going to generate huge amounts of data traffic, while AI is going to be indispensable for managing and securing complex networks.
Real business value
50-year partnership between Orange and Capgemini, supporting transformation and technological evolution.