What’s up with… AI’s impact on ICT, Samsung, Huawei

• Cisco et al assess AI’s impact on ICT roles
• Samsung’s profits soar in Q1
• Huawei faces court showdown with the US

In today’s industry news roundup: Cisco, Intel, IBM, Google and more have formed a consortium to examine the potential impact of AI on ICT sector jobs; Samsung’s preliminary Q1 results offer some welcome relief for the chip industry’s vendors; The US Department of Justice is set to challenge Huawei in court in early 2026; and more!

While no one really yet knows exactly what sort of impact the use of new generation AI systems will have on workforces and skills requirements, no one wants to sit around and wait to find out. With that in mind, a consortium of major technology sector companies, including Cisco, Accenture, Eightfold, Google, IBM, Indeed, Intel, Microsoft and SAP have formed the AI-Enabled Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Workforce Consortium with the aim of assessing “AI’s impact on technology jobs” and identifying “skills development pathways for the roles most likely to be affected by artificial intelligence.” Francine Katsoudas, executive VP and chief people, policy and purpose officer at Cisco, noted: “AI is accelerating the pace of change for the global workforce, presenting a powerful opportunity for the private sector to help upskill and reskill workers for the future. The mission of our newly unveiled AI-Enabled Workforce Consortium is to provide organisations with knowledge about the impact of AI on the workforce and equip workers with relevant skills. We look forward to engaging other stakeholders – including governments, NGOs, and the academic community – as we take this important first step toward ensuring that the AI revolution leaves no one behind.” Read more.

Following a tough year for the chip sector’s vendors, things are looking up. Samsung has reported preliminary first quarter revenues of around 71tn Korean won ($52.4bn), up by about 11% year on year, and an operating profit of about 6.6tn Korean won ($4.9bn), up by more than 900% year on year. “Samsung reported results that beat expectations confirming that the boom in demand for AI is affecting more than just Nvidia, while a modest recovery in smartphones is likely to have added some icing to the cake,” noted experienced technology sector analyst Richard Windsor in his latest Radio Free Mobile blog.

Telecom Italia (TIM) has negotiated a €1.5bn bridge loan to help cover its “re-financing needs until the closing date of the NetCo transaction,” the operator noted. The Italian national operator is in the process of selling its fixed access network assets (NetCo) to private equity firm KKR and others for up to €22bn.

Malaysian telco Axiata has agreed to divest its operations in Myanmar, which would result in its exit from the civil war-ridden country. This will be done by Edotco Group, majority-owned by Axiata, which will sell its entire 87.5% stake in Edotco Investments Singapore, which is the sole shareholder of Edotco Myanmar. The company has agreed to sell the Myanmarese business for around $150m and the deal is expected to close in the next 12 months, subject to regulatory approvals and closing adjustments. “[The] decision to exit Myanmar was made due to deteriorating macroeconomics and operating environments in Myanmar”, Axiata explained in a note to investors, adding that the proceeds from the divestment will be used to maintain its balance sheet and reduce debt.

Indonesia’s Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison and Nvidia reportedly plan to invest $200m in building an AI centre in the province of Central Java in 2024. The report suggested that the centre will be in the city of Surakarta which has well-developed 5G infrastructure and sufficient human resources. Indosat reportedly wants to become the pioneer in AI development in its domestic market and is keen to develop an AI centre of excellence. Earlier this year Indosat unveiled it had signed up to become an Nvidia Cloud Provider Partner and deploy Nvidia graphics processing units (GPUs) in its datacentres in addition to offering access to GPU processing to enterprise users on an as-a-service basis – see Indosat taps Nvidia for AI muscle.

The US Department of Justice’s criminal case against Huawei, which is accused of misleading banks about the vendor’s business in Iran, as well as the theft of trade secrets from six US tech companies and other charges, is heading for the courtroom in January 2026, reports Reuters. According to Assistant US Attorney Alexander Solomon, “settlement discussions ended in an impasse” and the case, which is expected to last up to six months, will now be heard in court. Huawei has pleaded not guilty. The initial set of charges against Huawei included some that led to the house arrest in Canada of the vendor’s CFO Meng Wanzhou: She was detained for almost three years while fighting against extradition to the US but in September 2021 she flew back to China after striking a deal with US prosecutors.

Orange Business has developed a feature to measure the carbon footprint produced by the movement of people and goods, as part of its solution Flux Vision. The offering analyses “millions of anonymised technical data points” in real time on the Orange consumer mobile network. The tool converts data into indicators that measure the number and the movement of populations across various geographical areas, and specialises in commerce, transport and tourism. And now, with the integration of the new indicators, it is set to help clients manage their transition to sustainability. Flux Vision is already used by Orange Business customers in various scenarios, such as for more intelligent public lighting activation and to support a waste prevention campaign on beaches by analysing visitor numbers. The business arm of the French telco group noted that large-scale innovations in AI have enabled the development of new indicators that can help reduce carbon footprint, especially in tourism and logistics. “Technology and innovation support us in meeting current ecological, economic and social challenges on our way to sustainability. Flux Vision is just one example in our portfolio committed to promoting sustainable environmental performance. Digital technology simplifies the creation and management of large quantities of data, which is essential to measure this environmental performance”, stated Jérôme Goulard, director of sustainable development at Orange Business. A similar tool for collecting anonymised data about user mobility has also been developed by Virgin Media O2 (VMO2) Business, which earlier this week scored a deal with UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) to provide insights into population dynamics, travel patterns and other movement trends.

- The staff, TelecomTV