More than 50 demonstrations, 20 mini-conferences, an opening plenary session with Etienne Klein, eight theses presented in three minutes, the cream of the research community, etc. The first Orange Open Tech Days combined the fields of reflection, technology and market pragmatism to serve Orange customers, both B2C and B2B.
It was hard to know where to turn in the face of such effervescence and a wealth of use cases! I was ecstatic. But I still had to make choices. And to do that, I focused on the uses that "create value" (that make sense and meet a real need) for the Brand's corporate customers. Here’s a guided tour.
AI for humans
Of course, AI was omnipresent during the event. But without concrete, coherent applications, it remains nothing more than a useless tool. The challenge is, above all, to help humans do their jobs, even in fields where it's not expected. For example: arboriculture in Tunisia, where spectral image analysis via satellite of olive tree fields enables sick trees to be spotted and environmental monitoring to be carried out via a dedicated app. The aim? To provide financiers, insurers and public managers with precise knowledge of the condition of the trees and the resulting savings. This is clever and useful for small producers, who are finding a very real use for data to boost their income.
An active listening approach similar to that used to identify customer issues in Orange Luxembourg call centers is another example. Call center agents team up with an in-house chatGPT to help them find the right information more quickly. AI then analyzes exchanges to improve fluidity, detect potential problems and identify recurring issues that can be escalated to after-sales service. It’s ideal, too, if you're launching a new product: by pinpointing specific keywords, you'll be able to get feedback almost in real time if any problems arise. Increasing customer knowledge and helping employees to progress is an approach that I feel is both responsible and productive – a far cry from the anxiety-inducing rhetoric currently associated with these tools.
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Content that immerses and submerges
AI has other virtues, too: it enables us to offer unique experiences that arouse curiosity and emotions. The most spectacular demonstration of this is volumetric video, which literally immerses you in the images by "calculating" their depth. You're IN the film, the show, the match. I might as well tell you that I want this at home as soon as possible. It's exceptional to be able to move around a scene as close as possible to its protagonists. And it's an opportunity for event producers to forge a strong bond with audiences who are experiencing the moment from a distance.
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Just as decisive is finding the right content to satisfy your current craving, so we don't have to wander for hours through the multitude of content on our favorite SVOD service. This tailor-made suggestion – of a film, a series, a show – is made possible by machine learning, which will learn from us and our habits and suggest the unexpected and the satisfying. It's a solution that could enable broadcasters to build even greater loyalty among content consumers and perhaps even stumble across some unexpected nuggets!
Transparent security: a prerequisite for trust
But great power can only be exercised if there is great responsibility. To offer even more audacious content, or to reassure users and professionals in the face of cyber-maliciousness, we need to create the conditions for trust. This is the premise of the LLM generative AI video solution, whose role it is to protect well-known audiovisual works and their copyright holders from deep-fake counterfeiting. Yes, some people are starting to produce copies of well-known films and cartoons using AI. We're living in "formidable" times.
This is also the ambition of Trust System, which offers e-commerce web-platform protection against cyberattacks via a self-learning, scalable visitor profile qualification system. It's totally invisible to the user, it's secure for websites and it's everything I love about technology that's a human ally. And behind the magic of AI, there's also the magic of the Orange France SoC and the skills of Orange Cyberdefense.
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Softwarization: a barbaric word for a business ally
Let me tell you, I learned a new word at the Orange Open Tech Days: "Softwarizer." It means being able to do things more efficiently, virtually, that used to require physical hardware and time, and thus to move from hardware to software. Put like that, it sounds simple...but it's not. It calls on a lot of technologies (especially the cloud) and network skills.
And this unlocks inestimable value for customers. For example, with the private cloud network, it is now possible for an audiovisual broadcaster to virtualize an audiovisual control room with only a private, low-latency 5G network to duplex to the four corners of France and produce a program with a light crew. Believe me, it's going to revolutionize production!
Add augmented reality, and you've got the possibility for a manufacturer to remotely control digital twins on a production line: the machine tool can be remotely accessed in augmented reality to solve any operating problems, with full respect for data confidentiality.
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The latest example of the benefits of softwarization is the monetization of the Orange network via APIs. APIs are standardized connectors that enable access to the operator's services (such as terminal localization). By offering developers a catalog of services offered by Orange and other operators, the Brand positions itself as an aggregator and simplifier for its customers.
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Research far ahead, close to us
Finally, two things stood out for me: the openness and hybridization of Orange research skills with startups and outside partners to encourage the sharing of expertise, the exchange of ideas and co-innovation. The nine innovations that I selected were all conceived in partnership, and I think that's pretty healthy.
But all this only makes sense if there's a real mastery of skills in-house; otherwise you're just rebadging existing things. And, as Jean Bolot, Director of Research, reminds us in a privileged one-on-one that I had with him, Orange has a historic strike force of highly specialized researchers.
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I'd like to pay tribute here to their accessibility and excellence, which I was able to witness during the two interviews I hosted about the impact of quantum on cryptography and the optimization of software modules to reduce their impact on the environment. Thanks to them for lifting a corner of the veil on the future!
Director of LAB36 / Head of Innovation at Narratiiv School / Podcaster "Les Eclaireurs du Numérique" / Columnist Tech&Co (BFM Business)
An explorer of digital worlds for a quarter of a century, the future is my daily bread. As a web pioneer, I explain the impact of digital technology and sketch out future scenarios, drawing on the imaginations of pop culture.