DTW Ignite 2025

Themes we’ll explore at Telco Next 2026

 

Translating AI investments to business outcomes

Explore how AI is shaping the future of telcos—driving revenue, efficiency, and profitability through network optimization, customer experience, and new services. Learn the strategies for scaling AI, and cross-leveraging the global telco ecosystem for growth.

Reinventing GCCs as innovation engines

GCCs’ evolution as AI innovation powerhouse, shaping value for parent organizations while enhancing their own operations. How GCC’s can foster an AI mindset, drive partnership-led innovation with academia, startups, and IT partners, and strengthen infrastructure and capabilities to scale AI impact.

Scaling AI in telcos beyond pilots

Scaling AI beyond pilots requires a shift from experimentation to execution. Learn how by focusing on repeatability, autonomy and impact—not isolated use cases—AI is becoming a scalable driver of growth, efficiency and customer value for telcos.

Enablers for AI-Native Telcos

Explore the imperatives for building AI-native telcos powered by cloud-native platforms, AI/ML Ops, data lakes, digital twins, and autonomous networks. Experts will focus on AI’s role in sustainability, future-ready capabilities like agentic AI, LAMs, and quantum computing, and managing cybersecurity risks.

 

Agenda

09:00 a.m. – 09:45 a.m.

Registrations

SESSION 1

10:05 a.m. – 10:20 a.m.

Welcome note and Telco Next overview
Speakers: Rakesh Aerath, President, CGI APAC GDCoE
Jyoti Shailendra, Senior Vice-President & BU Leader, CGI APAC GDCoE

10:25 a.m. – 10:50 a.m.

Keynote address: Translating AI investments to business outcomes
Speaker: Dror Ergaz, Assistant Vice President, Technology at AT&T

10:55 a.m. – 11:10 a.m.

CGI in AI
Speaker: Dave Henderson, Chief Technology Officer, CGI

SESSION 2

11:50 a.m. – 12:05 p.m.

CGI solution showcase: CGI DevAccel

12:10 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Panel Discussion: Enablers for AI-Native Telcos
Moderator: Venkatesha Ramaiyer, Vice-President Consulting Delivery, APAC GDCoE
Panelists: Soumitra Saha, Managing Director and Country Head of Lumen Technologies
Kameshwara Rao, GCC India IT Head, Proximus Group
Neel Mehta, President, BCE Global Tech
Deepa Ramachandran, Director, Product Management, Nokia

SESSION 3

02:50 p.m. – 03:15 p.m.

CGI technology partner showcase: ServiceNow
Speaker: Aps Chikhalikar, Head of Telecom, Media, Technology (APJ), ServiceNow

03:20 p.m. – 03:35 p.m.

CGI solution showcase: CGI SmartNetra

SESSION 4

04:25 p.m. – 05:10 p.m.

Customer Co-Innovation Fireside Chat: AI-Enabled Growth
Moderator: Sarah Cox, Vice-President Consulting Services, UK&A
Speakers: David Cullen, Product Delivery & Provisioning Director, Operations and Technology, PXC
Paul Emmett, Operations Director, Operations and Technology, PXC

05:15 p.m. – 05:30 p.m.

Closing remarks and next steps
Speakers: Swetha Singh Shamsundar, Head of Software Engineering, TalkTalk
Jyoti Shailendra, Senior Vice-President & BU Leader, CGI APAC GDCoE

In partnership with

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