Circles CRO: Telcos must go AI-native to succeed

The pace of AI development is faster than the wider technology ecosystem expected. What’s changed in the past year, however, AI is becoming less abstract and more concrete – with businesses having more conversations to assess its impact and how it could affect profit and loss (P&L).

For Sanjay Kaul, chief revenue officer (CRO) at Circles, AI is fundamentally transforming go-to-market strategies and driving continuous evolution and improvement. He shares his expertise with Capacity about how the pace of AI is changing telco operating models and delivering more unique experiences for customers.

“Operators now use AI to predict customer churn and dynamically adjust acquisition strategies in real-time,” he explained. “Personalisation is finally achievable at scale.”

The AI-native techco shift

Kaul acknowledged a significant industry shift towards AI-native techcos, operators that embed AI at the core of their architecture rather than treating it like a ‘nice-to-have’ feature.

The AI-native techco is starkly different to legacy telco systems. For one thing, it completely redesigns its business around AI from the start – embedding AI into how products are built, how customers are acquired, how retention is managed and how new revenue opportunities are identified. This enables new ways for a business to scale, Kaul explained.

“Go-to-market strategies are continuously evolving, not set once per quarter,” he said. “Acquisition and retention are AI-driven, enabling operators to identify and act on customer signals in real time rather than waiting for a report.

“The distinction comes down to architecture, not tooling, where AI sits and what it’s allowed to touch.”

Structuring a telco business in this way means that data is more unified, rather than being siloed, Kaul noted, connecting network service and customer data into shared workflows. It also means that actions are closed-loop, with decisions in AI-native settings being automated and validated in real-time – in addition to assurance, risk management and revenue controls being embedded directly into service design and delivery earlier, rather than being applied reactively after services go live.

“Ultimately, AI-native telcos continually deliver value to customers, and that compounding effect is what separates them from operators running AI on systems that were not built for it,” Kaul said.

For Circles, this AI-native operating model offers the advantage of testing assumptions in-market quickly and learning from real-time customer behaviour. Kaul explained how the company rapid-tests hypotheses rather than using lengthy planning cycles.

“We run targeted pilots for specific market segments, including privacy-conscious users, price-sensitive customers and people who resonate with a particular brand, before making broader bets,” he said. “Plans and pricing are continually refined based on what’s working.”

As a result, Kaul said Circles can achieve faster time-to-market and lower upfront investment.

“We also differentiate against traditional vendors by selling outcomes, not licenses and customisation, reframing the sales conversation to consider the P&L impact,” he said. “We partner with, rather than competing against, the incumbents’ ecosystem, co-selling an integrated network-to-digital stack, meeting operators where they already have vendor relationships.”

He added: “Bundling in embedded finance and OTT turns the pitch from “modernise your BSS” into “here’s a new revenue line” – connectivity alone is increasingly commoditised, so the deal size and buyer motivation both shift from cost-takeout to growth.”

It’s personal, or is it?

Circles’ position on AI is foundational, with the belief that operators need AI-native operating models to compete in a fast-paced digital transformation environment.

“Intelligence should be embedded across the commercial, network and customer experience stacks,” Kaul said. “Critically, AI has to drive both the customer experience and operational efficiency to be most effective.

“For us, AI is also what makes the telco-to-techno transformation real, and our OpenAI partnership builds on this vision.”

Announced in August 2025, the OpenAI/Circles partnership was to build a fully AI-native telco platform to improve user experience and operator efficiency. It enables the AI layer that Circles is building to be as capable as possible, having validated the model by operating the Circles.Life MVNO in Singapore.

“This proof point should give partners confidence in our platform’s ability to work at scale,” Kaul explained. “Next is extending it across more markets and more operators.”

Moving forward, Circles is gathering information to integrate AI into customer experiences effectively. In a recent company survey, 65% of its customers still prefer speaking to a human when resolving issues, as opposed to 19% preferring digital services.

“AI is excellent at anticipatory, high-volume work. Where humans remain irreplaceable is in the moments that carry real weight with our customers, such as a billing dispute, a service disruption, or a customer who is frustrated and wants to be heard,” Kaul noted, adding that he sees AI’s role as enhancing the impact of human interactions.

“By managing preliminary issues, AI ensures that when customers reach a person, that person is informed and can fully focus on a meaningful conversation,” he said.

“AI reserves the human touch where it matters most.”

Also noted in the survey, 87% of customers are satisfied with their telco, but 70% would switch for a better experience. Kaul explained how satisfaction doesn’t equate to loyalty, as digital trends continue to evolve.

“Personalisation is often tailored to segments rather than individuals,” he said. “The individualised approach should focus on predictive retention strategies, including flexible plans and bundles, rewards and lifestyle services and add-ons that extend the value of the partnership.”

A truly personalised customer experience moving forward extends beyond better pricing but will need to focus on what customers really need, he suggested.

“Telcos need to proactively recommend relevant services, adjust dynamically and create real value beyond the network,” he added. “The AI-native techco vision is the path to delivering that at scale.

“The technology exists; it just depends on whether operators are willing to build for customer demands rather than the status quo.”

A new chapter for telcos

However, misunderstandings persist. Operators often believe that becoming a techco means adding digital products to a telecom business, but Kaul insisted this is not the case.

“The real transformation is changing from a company that sells connectivity to one that continuously creates value for customers through intelligence, personalisation and digital ecosystems,” he said. “That means moving well beyond being a connectivity provider and actually becoming part of customers’ daily lives.”

For Circles, value creation comes from building an ecosystem that customers actively choose to engage with – which requires a larger focus on engagement and ecosystem growth.

“Underpinning it all is the AI-native techco concept, which leverages intelligence to anticipate customer needs and continuously deliver them,” Kaul added. “Many operators are still optimising the old model. They need to replace the model with something fundamentally different.”

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