Voice is Back – And Smarter Than Ever: How Radisys Is Unlocking New AI Revenue Streams for Telcos

Adnan Saleem’s CASA25 talk shows how voice can be telcos’ most powerful AI opportunity—built directly into the IMS core, no apps required.

For decades, voice in telecom was the sleeping giant. Outside of a few quality-of-life upgrades—from narrowband to wideband audio—it remained largely unchanged. Until now.

At CASA25, Adnan Saleem, CTO of Software & Cloud Solutions at Radisys, took the stage with a bold message: Voice is back, and it’s becoming the new frontier of AI innovation inside telecom networks. More importantly, it’s becoming a new revenue stream—right inside the IMS core—without the need for new apps, new devices, or developer ecosystems.

These are telco-native, AI-powered voice experiences and solutions. And they change everything.

The Opportunity Telcos Have Been Waiting For

We often talk about 5G, APIs, or edge compute as revenue enablers. But Radisys is doing something radically pragmatic: turning the 1 trillion voice minutes flowing through telco networks every month into high-value, intelligent services.

Let that sink in. One trillion voice minutes per month, globally, over traditional operator networks—not OTT. These calls already run through IMS cores, where Radisys’ Engage platform lives. That’s where AI meets voice, and telcos meet new monetization.

And it’s not theoretical. Five Tier-1 operators are already deploying or commercializing Radisys’ AI-powered use cases today.

AI-Powered Voice Without the Friction

Radisys’ approach is radically simple and refreshingly telco-centric:

• No app downloads
• No smartphone upgrade
• No change in behavior
• Mobile or fixed line

If you have a phone and a number, you’re in.

Everything is embedded in the network. The user just dials, picks up, or lets their personal AI assistant take over. AI is no longer tied to apps. It’s part of your core telco service.

Use Cases That Speak for Themselves

The Engage platform enables a full stack of AI-powered voice services before, during, and after the call:

📞 Before the Call

• Caller identification & branding
• AI call screening with summaries (without answering)
• AI virtual assistant answers the call on your behalf

🎙️ During the Call

• Live transcription and summarization
• Fraud detection and real-time whisper alerts
• Virtual AI assistants (personalized, eg Juno) that join, take notes, schedule meetings
• Real-time language translation across 100+ languages

📝 After the Call

• Transcripts, summaries, and action items delivered via SMS or email or other channels
• Agentic AI actions (like scheduling follow-ups, setting alerts or reminders)

These aren’t future concepts. They’re running in the IMS core, on real operator networks, today.

Meet “Juno”: Your Personal Assistant on Any Phone

The most compelling demonstration? The telco-native personal assistant.

Subscribers can talk to a private, AI-powered assistant over a standard voice call—just like calling a friend. Juno listens, knows the user’s preferences, understands context (from past calls, emails, documents), and takes actions: scheduling meetings, finding information, dialing contacts, providing suggestions when asked, or joining ongoing calls to take notes.

This is agentic AI, not ChatGPT with a phone number. It’s secure, sovereign, and subscriber-controlled. No data leaves the network unless the user wants it to.

Why This Matters for Telcos

Most telco innovations today require ecosystem-building, heavy IT, or new consumer behaviors. Radisys offers a refreshing alternative:

• It leverages infrastructure telcos already own.
• It creates differentiated, high-margin voice services.
• It works across all phones—even low-end devices.
• It gives telcos control and visibility, not Big Tech.

More importantly, it flips the script on voice. From being a declining utility to becoming the core channel for AI-powered services.

Fraud Detection: A Killer Use Case

One standout example is fraud detection.

Imagine receiving a suspicious call—“This is the Bank of Canada, we need your details.” Radisys’ AI listens, detects red flags, and whispers a warning in your ear. “Proceed with caution—potential fraud detected.”

Better yet, it automatically logs, transcribes, and reports the event—regionally tuned to local fraud trends. This is real-time protection at scale, with models trained for each market and updated continuously.

Why Radisys?

Radisys has quietly powered real-time media infrastructure for over 180 global operators. With more than 15 years of deployment experience, they’re already embedded where it matters: in the media layer of the IMS core.

Their heritage makes them a rare breed: a partner that understands real-time, IMS, telco-grade reliability, and AI. Combine that with a platform like Engage, and you get telco-native innovation without the integration headache.

This isn’t CPaaS or over-the-top voice automation. This is native telco AI voice, built for scale, built for privacy, and ready for monetization.

The Bottom Line

Radisys didn’t just bring voice back—they brought it forward.

With AI running directly in the network, telcos have a clear path to:

✅ Launch revenue-generating services fast

✅ Differentiate with in-network AI experiences

✅ Compete without giving up control to third-party apps

✅ Serve every user, regardless of device

It’s time to stop thinking of voice as legacy. With Radisys, voice becomes the OS of intelligent engagement—no app store required.