Why Vodafone wanted an AI Booster to scale information science

Telecom large Vodafone isn’t any stranger to the world of synthetic intelligence (AI) and machine studying (ML), having used the know-how for years, with a whole lot of knowledge scientists which have constructed 1000’s of fashions.

Whereas Vodafone was in a position to deploy and profit from AI, over the past a number of years it more and more confronted a variety of challenges. Among the many challenges was the problem of scaling its AI workloads in a standardized and repeatable strategy. Vodafone additionally confronted points with velocity and safety.

In a session on the Google Cloud Subsequent 2022 occasion this week, Sebastian Mathalikunnel, AI technique lead at Vodafone, detailed the problems his group confronted and what it needed to do to assist overcome them.

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“Vodafone is fairly mature in its information science journey,” Mathalikunnel mentioned. “However trying again two years in the past, it was truly this precise downside of measurement and scale of Vodafone information science operations that led us to imagine that we might have an issue on our fingers.”

AI Booster to the rescue

Mathalikunnel mentioned that two years in the past, it took a number of steps for any Vodafone information scientist to get a manufacturing surroundings up and operating in Google Cloud.

Not solely have been there a number of steps, however lots of these steps have been guide in nature, requiring time to arrange. That scenario additionally led to many bespoke deployments the place one information scientist’s Google Cloud AI deployment was completely different from one other’s. 

He defined that Vodafone was going through each vertical and horizontal scaling challenges. The horizontal challenges have been from making an attempt to duplicate a workload throughout markets, which was tough since every surroundings was completely different. The vertical scaling points have been concerning the effort and time it took to maneuver from an information science pocket book, to proof of idea, after which into manufacturing within the quickest attainable method.

To that finish, Vodafone developed a platform it calls the AI Booster, which goals to assist clear up the scaling challenges with a standardized set of tooling and processes. The AI Booster depends on a number of Google Cloud elements together with Vertex AI, Cloud Construct, Artifact Registry and BigQuery.

“We’re going from a customized, coding-based strategy to machine studying engineering, to an strategy the place every thing is working based mostly on customary elements and pipelines that tie these elements collectively,” Mathalikunnel mentioned.

Enhancing AI standardization with an information contract

Mathalikunnel famous that as Vodafone was going by the method of constructing out AI Booster, it additionally recognized areas the place processes could possibly be considerably optimized.

For instance, previous to AI Booster, he mentioned that when Vodafone analyzed any ML workload it was operating, roughly 30 to 35% of that code was merely associated to information high quality and information validation. Vodafone now automates a lot of that work with an information contract strategy. 

Mathalikunnel defined that when information is first ingested by Vodafone, it triggers an evaluation of the information when it comes to its distribution and completely different traits, which then kinds a contract. What Vodafone then does is get broad settlement towards this contract with varied stakeholders, equivalent to information scientists and information homeowners. As soon as there’s settlement that the information traits are what the stakeholders need, Vodafone sticks that contract again into the AI Booster pipeline.

When the AI Booster pipeline runs, Mathalikunnel mentioned that it is ready to routinely validate that the information meets the requirement that it was signed off towards.

One of many use instances the place AI Booster has been utilized by Vodafone is with the corporate’s Web Promoter Rating (NPS). NPS is a metric that goals to assist predict the satisfaction a buyer has with Vodafone.

“What we’re making an attempt to do with NPS is making an attempt to get to know or measure the happiness of our prospects with our merchandise,” Mathalikunnel mentioned. ”In order you’ll be able to think about, it’s a fairly vital use case for us to have.”