: Zain Group, a leading digital lifestyle provider in eight markets across the Middle East and Africa, recently held an innovative workshop at the company’s HQ in Kuwait under the theme, ‘AI in Action: Smarter Network Operations.’ Zain Group Chief Technology Officer, Mohammed Al Murshed and other ICT management from across operations, were present at the event, where Zain’s artificial intelligence (AI)-related plans and ambitions were showcased through presentations and live demonstrations.
A key aspect of Zain’s ‘4WARD-Progress with Purpose’ corporate strategy to further accelerate the company into a leading technology conglomerate (TechCo), Zain has been an early adopter of AI innovation in its operations, and the workshop highlighted the progress that has been achieved in AI for network and digital transformation. The company continues to demonstrate how it is turning AI insights into real business impact, improving customer experience and increasing commercial efficiency. Building on these successes, Zain intends to utilize AI to scale Idea-to-Cash capabilities across the Group, reinforcing its commitment to practical, value-driven innovation.
Mohammed Al Murshed, Zain Group CTO, commented, "Machine learning, deep learning, and large language models are increasingly driving transformation across the telecommunications industry. The three foundational pillars of AI - infrastructure, algorithms, and data - are now widely accepted and systematically embedded across key business functions. Zain Group’s technical leadership, in close coordination with teams across operating companies, is accelerating the adoption of AI insights to have real business impact by driving efficiencies and improving customer experience.”
Al Murshed added, "We have already defined a clear commercialization roadmap for AI and will spare no efforts in expanding the AI agenda even further in 2026 accelerating business outcomes. As part of the journey to achieve Autonomous Network Level 4 (AN L4), Kuwait has launched a comprehensive level assessment to identify the required solutions and close capability gaps. The assessment covers critical domains, including wireless, core, and IP networks.”
As part of Zain’s long-term strategic vision, the company has introduced an ambitious goal to achieve Autonomous Network Level 4 (AN L4) through a structured, two-phase transformation spanning 2025 - 2030. Guided by TM Forum and industry-recommended high-value use cases, this progressive roadmap is designed to deliver predictive, self-managing, energy-aware, and highly efficient network operations, further strengthening Zain’s position among the world’s leading telecom innovators.
During ‘AI in Action: Smarter Network Operations,’ Zain took the opportunity to demonstrate practical, real-world outcomes that showcase how AI-driven innovations can deliver measurable value across both network operations and customer-facing processes. The impact of deployment includes improved operational efficiency, optimized resource and cost planning/scheduling, and enhanced customer experience through faster issue resolution and higher service reliability.
Several compelling AI-driven use cases were showcased at the workshop including:
Kuwait: Intelligent Agents for Wireless Operations & Maintenance (O&M) – An initiative in which Zain Kuwait and Huawei have introduced intelligent agents in wireless O&M for the first time, to accelerate fault isolation and resolution.
This program is expected to reduce outage duration by 2,268 hours annually, strengthening network reliability and service continuity. The deployment of a RAN FMEMate solution also reinforces Zain’s commitment to adopting advanced technologies across its technical infrastructure to increase efficiency and accelerate digital transformation - an important milestone toward building a smarter, more resilient, and more reliable network.
Zain Jordan: Large Language Model (LLM)-Powered Intelligent Agents Transforming Network O&M - Zain Jordan has deployed CompSpirit, AssurSpirit, and FMEMate to modernize the network O&M model by leveraging LLM capabilities. These intelligent agents analyze live network customer complaints, quantify the distribution of fault types, and classify issues into 14 sub-categories across eight main categories, enabling more accurate tracking, faster diagnosis, and more structured resolution workflows.
Zain Iraq: AI-Driven Churn Prediction for Proactive Customer Retention - In Iraq, Zain has introduced AI-based customer churn prediction to proactively identify users at risk of leaving the network. By analyzing customer behavior and usage patterns, the solution enables earlier and more targeted retention actions, helping protect recurring revenue and strengthen customer relationships. In parallel, Zain Iraq is advancing an AI-driven Idea-to-Cash initiative as part of its BSS transformation. The AI-powered platform supports the full business lifecycle, from idea creation to revenue realization by using LLMs and domain-specific models to accelerate Time-to-Revenue (TTR), improve cash flow, and enhance operational efficiency.
Looking ahead, Zain Group and its operations are set to accelerate large-scale rollout of high-value Autonomous Network use cases as well as AI-driven digital and commercial innovations to further unlock the business potential of AI technologies across its regional footprint and beyond.