Reflecting on IBC, IFA and Apple ‘awe-dropping’: the common themes we saw and the implications for the telco industry

In September, GSMA Intelligence attended two of Europe’s leading industry conferences: IFA and IBC. We also followed Apple ‘awe-dropping’ event. Here we reflect on the common themes spanning the three events and what the new developments and innovations mean for our industry.

From new services to better user experience, AI’s impact is widening

AI is hard to miss at most industry events these days and while many applications still centre around machine learning, the number of advanced AI demos and commercial implementations is increasing. At IFA, we saw a notable number of generative AI demos, such as from Lepro, SwitchBot and Metz, with several focusing on digital assistants. At Apple ‘awe-dropping’, the company unveiled its translation feature powered by Apple Intelligence which enables live translation of conversations on AirPods and live transcriptions on iPhones.

One of the key highlights at IBC was the use of generative AI to enhance metadata and provide natural language query capabilities within TV UIs, creating a new paradigm for content search and recommendation. Various vendors including Kaltura, KT Altimedia, Netgem, Whale TV, Xperi and ZTE, showcased next-generation UIs at the show. If executed well, these innovations should address the consumer pain point of endlessly searching for content within an increasingly fragmented landscape, enabling consumers to access content which is relevant to them in a far more intuitive manner. 

More broadly, as the integration of advanced AI deepens in consumer products and services, companies providing advanced AI tech and services will need to push harder towards addressing concerns in various areas such as AI’s reliability, data privacy, security and safety. Further, for consumer AI adoption to scale up (and for AI monetisation) providers will need to ensure that real utility is delivered to consumers with their advanced AI-enabled features and services rather than just gimmicks.

Cloud still dominates AI computing, but on-device is vying to share the load

At IFA and IBC, we saw many AI-enabled solutions relying on the cloud to do the ‘heavy lifting’, but we also saw a growing number of players promoting and advancing on-device AI. At IBC, KT Altimedia and ZTE showcased set-top boxes with built-in neural processing units (NPUs) to enable various AI-powered capabilities for video services, such as video optimisation, natural language queries and subtitling. At IFA, several TV OEMs like HiSense, Samsung, TCL and LG, showcased TVs with chips optimised for on-device AI processing. At Apple’s event, the increasing importance of on-device AI compute was reflected in the latest iPhone 17 smartphone line-up featuring the new A19 series chip, which includes new neural accelerators built into each GPU core, and a GPU that works in tandem with the refreshed neural engine. This silicon upgrade puts Apple in a stronger position to progress the rollout of its advanced AI-enabled features, including a revamped Siri in early 2026.

Companies involved in the consumer value chain will need to increasingly balance on-device and cloud AI capabilities, weighing up the pros and cons of each approach, for example weighing a trade-off between device/CPE cost and latency. One consideration is how the device is 'paid for' by the consumer, e.g. one-off purchase, instalments alongside long-term contract, bundled with a high-end service, etc. For flagship devices which cater to high-spenders cost concerns are more manageable compared with mid-to-low range devices and these devices then naturally will be where OEMs test the frontiers of on-device capabilities.

The TV is becoming more than just a passive screen 

Whereas the TV screen has traditionally been associated with passive ‘lean back’ experiences, it is increasingly being transformed into a central hub/control panel for a multitude of converged digital services, spanning digital communications, entertainment and the smart home. In demos shown at IBC, TV-as-a-Service provider Netgem showcased its TV offering which integrates cloud gaming into its pay-TV UI with this service designed as a value-added service to fibre broadband providers. The aim of integrating cloud gaming is to create ‘lean forward’ TV experiences to increase customer stickiness and reduce churn. 

At IFA, Samsung showcased its cloud gaming platform Samsung Gaming Hub, which is available mainly on Samsung TV sets. Further, at IBC video technology company Kaltura showcased TV as a social platform, including viewer ability to have shared conversations and emojis on TV screens, using their smartphones as companion device. ZTE went one step further by incorporating the ability to control smart home devices via the TV. TV’s use for this purpose was also showcased by Samsung, HiSense, TCL and LG at IFA.

Having access to all the services (e.g. gaming and smart home) is not suitable for everyone, so promoting these capabilities will need to be targeted. Indeed, some demographics may be overwhelmed if too much at once is shown on their TV screen. Also, ideally, these components should be modular, so that they can be 'exposed' to those who will use them.