AI is poised to bring sweeping changes to how telecom engineers and technicians do their day-to-day jobs, but panelists at SCTE Tech Expo this week argued there’s a distinctly human element to the work that AI can’t fulfill.
When it comes to hands-on work – understanding the specific tools and techniques to install cable and whatnot – AI can’t train those skills, said Paul Broadhurst, founder, president and group CEO at Technetix.
AI can check some of the work a technician does, but “a lot of the things that are being done on a network aren’t just electronic software tests,” he said. For instance, “Did I put the cable on [or turn up the connectors] properly? The way I see AI, it’s an extremely useful tool, but it can’t train you in those craft skills.”
Abbie O’Dell, senior director of learning services for field operations at Charter, noted while there’s so much talk about all the different applications for AI on the job, we can’t forget AI should supplement – not replace – a task.
“If we’re thinking about specific things that AI can do too much, it may take us off track from realizing that it’s truly an assistive thing that should be invisible to the learning experience,” she said. “That being said, obviously we need to think strategically about how we make that happen.”
SCTE wants to make sure AI is part of broadband technician training without overtaking the learning process that occurs in the real world. CEO Maria Popo previously told Fierce the trade group is leveraging AI to create “on-the-job micro certifications,” that automatically trigger once a technician has completed a task (such as fiber splicing) after a certain number of hours.
Larry Walcott, engineering fellow at Comcast, said these “micro certifications” also aim to help the broadband industry figure out how to make AI models more accurate – as well as come up with better standards on how to use it.
“Everybody wants to go ‘well you should do this instead of that.’ Well, we’re not there yet,” he said, noting how just a year ago, “if you would have asked GPT what’s the maximum transmit power for a DOCSIS 3.0, 3.1 cable modem, it very eloquently told you the wrong answer and everybody thought it was right.”
If the industry can figure out how to fine-tune the AI data, technicians could spend less time memorizing information and instead invest more time in honing their craft, O’Dell added.
“If we don’t have to spend that human time drilling on memorization of stuff, because we have a reliable place where we can look it up, it gives us more time for the hands-on practice,” she said. “It gives people the ability to practice things we otherwise can’t.”
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