ConnectMobile Delves Into AI-Enhanced Messaging, Scalable Innovation, Branded Calling ID™

On Tuesday, October 14, CTIA hosted ConnectMobile as part of this year's Mobile World Congress in Las Vegas. The event brought together stakeholders from across the messaging and voice ecosystem to discuss how providers can combine Rich Communication Services (RCS) texting and artificial intelligence (AI) to create personalized interactions that benefit both consumers and businesses. They also discussed evolutions in enterprise onboarding and vetting that have the potential to enable branded calling and RCS adoption at scale, and updates on the deployment of CTIA's Branded Calling ID" (BCID"), among other topics.

Below, we recap a few takeaways we heard from industry experts who are innovating to bring next-generation technologies to the messaging and voice networks.

• The Use of AI Agents in Consumer Messaging Is on the Horizon. Service providers have begun to combine RCS and AI agents to create personalized and interactive messaging for customers. RCS messaging is a carrier-based protocol that upgrades standard SMS messaging by enabling rich media and interactive features. According to the industry experts presenting, the combination of RCS and AI has the potential to tailor the consumer experience by empowering consumers to communicate directly with brands about the precise products and services they are looking for.
• RCS Is Expected to Grow, with Consumers Asking for a More Interactive Messaging Experience. CTIA's research team also provided new insights into consumer preferences in the messaging ecosystem. According to CTIA's research findings, 49% of consumers surveyed want a more interactive messaging experience, and enterprise RCS messaging is expected to steadily grow over the course of the next decade. However, consumer trust remains critical – in the voice context, data shows that 76% of consumers state that they are more likely to answer a call if it is verified and they have other indicators of the caller.
• Protecting Consumers Is Critical to Growing SMS and Ensuring the Success of RCS. CTIA President and CEO Ajit Pai said during his keynote that while the wireless industry has done a good job of keeping the messaging ecosystem mostly free of scammers and other bad actors, providers must continue to take proactive measures to preserve consumer trust. Pai emphasized that absent effective industry efforts, regulators could seek to impose regulatory requirements and restrictions.
• Cutting-Edge Customer Onboarding and Vetting Solutions Are Critical for Deploying Branded Calling and RCS Technologies at Scale. Industry presenters also emphasized that effective know-your-customer (KYC) and know-your-business (KYB) processes are critical for ensuring trust in the messaging and voice ecosystems. They noted that providers engaged in small- and medium-sized business (SMB) KYC and KYB verification are using AI to reduce friction in the vetting process. While friction is critical to ensure that SMBs are properly vetted before they make calls or send messages, efficient verification helps prevent SMBs from shifting to OTT messaging platforms. Panelists also emphasized that providers engaged in SMB vetting must also account for threats posed by AI, such as injection attacks, in which fraudsters use created or stolen personally identifiable information to pass provider verification procedures.
• BCID" Is on the Rise and Evolving. The ConnectMobile event also included in-depth discussion of BCID". One year after the commercial launch of BCID", panelists discussed how the technology is helping to connect enterprises with customers and restore trust in the voice network. BCID" leverages IP-based STIR/SHAKEN – along with a variety of other data sources – to provide the verified digital identity of the caller, which can include the caller name, and brand logo. Both T-Mobile and Verizon have launched BCID" on their networks, and voice service providers participating in BCID" are adding flexible "call reasons" to provide more detail to consumers about the purpose of an incoming call.

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