Majority of Rural Broadband Operators Lack Artificial Intelligence Strategy

According to a newly conducted study, an overwhelming majority of rural broadband operators do not have a clear strategy regarding artificial intelligence, and a significant portion of industry representatives feel they are falling behind in the evolving process.

Survey Results and Perception

A survey conducted with 132 rural operators shows that 82% of participants do not have a clear or defined artificial intelligence strategy. In addition, 49% of participants state that they have adopted the technology only in a limited or informal manner.

Fifty-six percent of survey participants, and 66% of smaller providers with fewer than 10,000 subscribers, feel left behind due to the speed of artificial intelligence adoption.

Current Reality and Existing Use Cases

Glenn Paul, sales director at Innovative Systems—the company that commissioned the report—pointed out in a webinar that this perception does not align with reality. Only 1% of operators nationwide have actively integrated artificial intelligence into their workflows.

Among rural operators, current common use cases include internal knowledge-based search at 43%, targeted marketing at 39%, threat detection at 27%, and network monitoring at 24%, while customer service applications such as chatbots lag behind at 14%.

Adaptation Barriers

Among the primary obstacles companies face in artificial intelligence processes are internal skill or confidence deficiency at 68%, vendor and tool uncertainty at 53%, security and regulatory concerns at 38%, lack of process documentation at 37%, and resistance to change at 37%. Meanwhile, those expressing budget concerns remain surprisingly low at 29%.

Strategic Recommendations

Venu Amar, Chief Operating Officer at Actifai, advises that when organizations build an artificial intelligence strategy, instead of starting directly with the technology, they should address core business problems and work backward.