Article 2 from the Series: Data, AI, Velocity and Value
Topics covered:
- The Intelligence-Execution Paradox
- Beware of Pilot Purgatory!
- The Danger of the IT Backlog
- Probabilistic Guesswork vs Deterministic Certainty
- The Velocity Dividend: Turning Certainty into P&L Performance
- Certainty in a Volatile World
- Conclusion
Introduction
In the first part of this series, we talked about the ‘inertia tax’ – that hidden cost of moving slower than the market. But if we are being honest, most telco and MVNO executives aren’t slow because they want to be. They are slow because their business is full of friction.
It is like trying to run a marathon in waist-deep water. You have the data, you have the talent, and you definitely have the ambition, yet everything takes longer to happen. If you want to fix your decision-making velocity, you have to find the sand in the gears.
The Intelligence-Execution Paradox
We are currently seeing a strange phenomenon: brands have more Business Intelligence (BI) tools and more marketing execution capability than ever before, yet they are getting less smart. This is the ‘Intelligence-Execution Paradox’.
The friction usually lives in the gap between these two worlds. This friction is where great ideas go to die.
Beware of Pilot Purgatory!
Many organisations have tried to AI their way out of this problem by rushing into Agentic AI. They automate old, mundane tasks and while that might feel like progress, it often leads to ‘Pilot Purgatory’.
Pilot Purgatory is a result of dragging pilots, unclear outcomes, no ownerships and an unclear progression into production resulting in orphaned AI investments.
The Danger of the IT Backlog
If your marketing team has to wait for IT to clear a backlog before to launch ongoing product, pricing or promotional changes your software is officially the problem.
On top of that, traditional AI often gives you a score but no explanation. This creates friction because we don’t trust what they don’t understand. When you can’t see the why, the decision-making process slows down for manual decision points, analytical deep dives and endless meetings.
Probabilistic guesswork vs Deterministic Certainty
Finally, there is a massive friction point emerging from the use of Large Language Models (LLMs) for high-stakes decisions. While LLMs are great for generating copy, images and ideas they are they can be inconsistent, hard to explain and even hallucinate.
For high-value decisions that need precision when you cannot afford a guess you need deterministic models and explainability. The friction occurs when teams try to use the wrong tool for the job. High-stakes decisioning needs deterministic models that provide consistent, auditable results every single time.
The Velocity Dividend: Turning certainty into P&L Performance
So, what happens when you actually get it right? These days speed isn’t an option – it is a weapon for defending margins and growing ARPU.
When you move from reactive reporting to predictive certainty, you stop paying the inertia tax and start collecting the Velocity Dividend.
Imagine the difference in your bottom line if you could stop looking in rear-view mirror. Instead of finding out a cohort of customers have already stopped using your service, you see a signal that this is about to happen.
When you remove the friction, that signal automatically triggers intervention or additional analysis. You aren’t just sending a generic ‘please, please stay’ email; you are sending something that is timed appropriately, is relevant and is personalised right down to the offer. This is the difference between losing a customer and securing their loyalty; and when multiplied is the LTV growth that shows up in your P&L.
The real value of decision-making velocity is that it changes the culture of your commercial team. The team at Eight (https://www.eight.com.sg/) have this down to a fine art – they monitor the market, they decide quickly and they have removed the friction from their execution platforms. That’s the nirvana!
They can pivot pricing, packaging, or retention strategies in hours and a small number of days – not months. Their brand respond sto a competitor’s move or a market shift while the opportunity is still fresh.
Certainty in a Volatile World
The 2026 market is marked by geopolitical shakes and rapid consumer shifts. In this environment, gut feel can be a liability. The brands that win are those that replace guesswork with the certainty of predictive decisioning.
Creating a central intelligence (or decisioning) hub that sits above your execution tools that is backed by high-fidelity data science means that you get the speed of AI with accurate predictions.
In conclusion
Whilst the era of cheap growth might be gone, the era of intelligent growth is just beginning. The question for telco leaders is no longer whether you have a platform to reach your customers – everyone has that.
The real competitive advantage is having the intelligence to know exactly which customers are worth reaching, what they need to hear, and what they are worth to your bottom line in that exact moment.
By closing the intelligence gap and increasing your velocity, you protect your P&L from the inside out. You stop chasing the market and start leading it. It is time to stop looking in the rear-view mirror and start driving with total certainty.
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