Ting Cai on how AI and ecosystem offerings unlock telecom growth
Artificial intelligence wasn’t just a buzzword at DTW Ignite 2025; it was the focal point. This year, one of Europe’s premier telecom industry events placed AI front and center with a dedicated AI & Data track. Experts and industry leaders from around the globe gathered in Copenhagen to map out the future of telecom – one powered by the intelligent application of AI.
Among the headliners was Ting Cai, Chief AI & Data Officer at Rakuten Group, who delivered a captivating keynote address, charting Rakuten’s innovative AI-nization strategy and its transformative impact on the mobile industry.
In his first appearance at DTW Ignite, Cai shared Rakuten’s unique approach to AI, highlighting the company’s commitment to enhancing customer experiences and driving the future of mobile connectivity.
More than just a mobile company, Rakuten is an innovation pioneer
“Rakuten isn’t just a mobile company, and we’re not just an e-commerce company. We’re an innovation company with a long history of ‘seeing around corners,’ using technology to build a better future for our customers and a more profitable business,” Cai declared.
He highlighted Rakuten’s pioneering spirit, recalling how the company challenged dominant business models of the time when it launched Rakuten Ichiba in 1997 – an online marketplace connecting merchants with customers across Japan. He also emphasized Rakuten’s bold decision in 2010 to enact “Englishnization,” making English its official internal language and fostering a global mindset.
This entrepreneurial legacy has propelled offerings like Rakuten Card to the top spot as Japan’s #1 credit card, complemented by a comprehensive suite of Fintech services like Rakuten Pay and Rakuten Bank.
More recently, the company disrupted the telecom industry with Rakuten Mobile, built on innovative, industry-disruptive technology and driven by a mission to democratize telecom. “Today, with AI-nization, our initiative to infuse trustworthy, useful AI into everything we do, we think AI has the potential to benefit all of society than any revolution before it,” Cai asserted.
The Rakuten Ecosystem: A unique advantage in the AI age
“What truly differentiates Rakuten is our vast and diverse ecosystem,” Cai emphasized. “From online e-commerce to mobile stores and point machines at supermarkets, Rakuten offers a seamless experience for its users. Whether it’s reading restaurant reviews, booking a golf course or scheduling a beauty appointment, the Rakuten Group provides a comprehensive suite of services.”
He explained that this interconnectedness, combined with unique customer insights gleaned from countless user transactions and interactions, provides a powerful advantage in the age of AI. “There is no company in the world like Rakuten, and that uniquely positions us to deliver value with AI,” Cai stated.
Rakuten’s approach to AI development is not about relying solely on vendor solutions. Instead, the company takes a deliberate, ground-up approach. “We focus on a specific niche and develop proprietary capabilities that provide a competitive advantage,” Cai explained. “Rakuten starts with a robust data layer, then adds advanced deep learning and language models. Our team has designed a full-stack AI system that empowers the entire company and has allowed Rakuten to create more value for its customers,” he said. He also noted that Rakuten combines its unique data and channel advantages with industry-leading AI technologies from partners.
Beyond mobile connectivity: Leveraging AI and the ecosystem model
Cai then addressed the challenges facing the telecom industry, noting the stark contrast between the rapid growth and investment in the AI world and the relatively slow growth in telecom. “The telco industry, compared to ‘AI world’ where investment is pouring in and innovation is fast, is slowing,” Cai emphasized. He pointed out a recent PwC report that projected global revenue to grow only 2.9% over the next three years, with similarly modest growth in industry investment. “This isn’t sustainable,” Cai declared. “We need to find an accelerant for growth – and I believe that accelerant will be AI.”
Cai emphasized that the key to unlocking growth lies in embracing a “digital-first, ecosystem-first” mindset, shifting away from legacy approaches. “Being a great connector is no longer enough,” he stated. He highlighted the importance of going beyond basic connectivity and creating value-added services. “Platforms that we use heavily on our phones have become indispensable parts of our daily lives.” He added that Rakuten aims to make its mobile apps a central touchpoint and a gateway to the broader Rakuten Ecosystem.
He connected Rakuten’s vision to the Japanese concept of Omotenashi, emphasizing the company’s commitment to providing exceptional service at a reasonable cost. “This spirit of great service for a reasonable cost drives Rakuten’s entry into the Mobile space, where we aim to deliver unparalleled value and reduce costs for households,” he said.
Augmenting Human Intelligence with AI
At its core, Rakuten’s vision is to augment human intelligence with the power of AI. “By developing our own large language models and seamlessly integrating them into our technology stack, Rakuten is pushing the boundaries of what’s possible,” Cai explained. He pointed out that Rakuten prioritizes developing language models specifically designed to drive business value for its Japanese customers.
He also emphasized the importance of making intelligent tradeoffs, embracing cutting-edge technologies like Mixture of Experts (MoE) to navigate the complexities of performance, security, latency and cost. “Before launching any product, Rakuten rigorously tests and validates it internally to ensure it delivers exceptional value to its users. This commitment to quality drives the company’s success,” he added.
Cai also emphasized Rakuten’s commitment to empowering every business in Japan to build and succeed with AI. He noted that Rakuten’s models capture Japan’s unique linguistic, aesthetic and cultural nuances and are fully compliant with Japanese laws and regulations.
In addition, Cai highlighted Rakuten AI for Rakutenians, an AI tool available to all employees. “This empowers teams to create AI templates and tools for finance, coding assistance and office tasks. In fact, the Rakuten AI for Rakutenians team has already seen an 80% reduction in time-to-market for product releases by using AI coding assistants, demonstrating the transformative power of AI within the organization.”
He then highlighted Rakuten AI for Business, a new suite of tools designed to empower Rakuten’s 900,000+ business partners with the same AI-driven productivity gains the company is seeing internally. This offering is specifically designed for Japanese businesses of any size, technical skill level or budget. The tools are designed with privacy, security and Japanese legal compliance in mind, and consulting is available to accelerate time to value.
Rakuten AI for Business includes a robust library of ready-to-use templates that augment a wide range of tasks across operations, sales, planning, marketing and engineering. “This is a powerful value-add service for our mobile customers,” Cai explained. “They already rely on Rakuten Mobile for connectivity; now they can rely on us for deeper levels of business productivity. This not only increases revenue but also drives loyalty.”
AI-powered automation and efficiency gains in telecom
Finally, Cai highlighted the transformative potential of AI in automating network operations, citing Rakuten Symphony’s Site Lifecycle Management solution as a prime example. This solution leverages AI and digital workflows to facilitate more efficient network deployment and management, resulting in improved build efficiency, significant OPEX savings and enhanced data integrity. He shared compelling results, including:
- 30% savings in operational expenses and 60% building site efficiency, with 4x faster activation
- 90% of tickets handled instantly by AI
- 120K sites auto-provisioned
Cai wrapped up his keynote with a call to action, urging telecom leaders to embrace AI without delay, while offering three key recommendations:
- Take an AI-first mindset: Think about how AI can augment every part of your business and how it can solve real business challenges.
- Break out of the legacy mindset: Embrace building an ecosystem of AI products and services that deliver value to customers.
- Invest in the right tools and partnerships: A diverse approach in which you build some AI, buy some AI and partner with other AI innovators will help you achieve your goals faster.
“There’s no time to waste. The pace of AI innovation will only accelerate, not decelerate. You need to act NOW,” he urged.
