In May 2025, Optus CEO Stephen Rue outlined plans in Australia to integrate AI in telecom operations to boost efficiency and customer service with focus on human oversight to rebuild trust, after recent network and security failures.
Rue, who took over the reins of Singtel owned telecosmic in November 2024, is leading the firm after a tumultuous period that included a record-breaking data breach and a 14-hour network downtime. The blunders elicited universal condemnation, the introduction of rules for emergency calling, and the removal of former CEO Kelly Bayer-Rosmarin.
Rue said that AI would help improve customer experience by determining service faults, enabling faster troubleshooting, while Optus is trying to regain people’s trust and enabling more relevant products.
“It will help identify faults… enabling us to just fix [customers’] own issues,” he said, adding, “AI can help bring lots of data analytics in a timely way to humans so they can make better decisions.”
Still, “you’ll always need technicians in the field… people making decisions in call centres,” Rue stressed that automation won’t replace the human workforce“AI can actually supplement that.”
Rebuilding Trust for AI in Telecom
Since taking on the CEO role, Rue stated his focus had been on governance, managing risk, and re-establishing public confidence. Optus added 238,000 mobile subscribers of which 52,000 were on postpaid plans over the financial year to 31 March 2025. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization reached $2.2 billion, up 5.7% on a year-on-year basis.
Rue is also concentrating on long-term stability in AI in telecom and cost discipline.
“It’s simplifying the organisation, keeping our costs in check and making sure that we are still able to have a range of products that are going to be competitive in the marketplace,” he said.
Appealing to infrastructure, Rue identified gaps in national mobile coverage and came right out in support of the government’s plan for universal outdoor coverage. The policy recommends tapping the use of low-Earth orbit satellite networks like Starlink as a way of boosting connectivity to remote areas.
“It will… provide operators like Optus with an ability to provide affordable ways of providing those services,” Rue said, “In a way, much of the policy debate has either been resolved or has moved on over the past decade.”
Reflecting on his previous stint as CEO of the National Broadband Network (NBN), Rue said the central policy debates surrounding the rollout had been largely answered.
As AI in telecom continues to evolve, Rue’s time in the office promises a digitally connected future but just as much people-oriented for Optus.
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