On February 9, 2023, at the "2022 Communications Service Provider Innovation Awards" Asia-Pacific Awards Ceremony held by Gartner, China Unicom won the Asia-Pacific champion with the "Network Digital Employee" project. As the first telecom operator in China to win this award, it fully demonstrates China Unicom's remarkable achievements in digital transformation and high international recognition of China Unicom's scientific and technological innovation to promote economic development.
Gartner, the world's leading information technology research and consulting services company, recognizes information technology innovations around the world that drive cost reduction, efficiency improvement, service improvement, and industrial transformation. Gartner has a recognized international influence, and its industry development reports have become the vane leading the digital development of all walks of life. In 2022, Gartner is calling for innovative cases in the field of communications operators for the first time in the world, to explore the potential of digital technologies to drive the development of future communication networks.
The conference collected more than 60 innovative cases of major communication operators around the world, and after half a year of fierce competition and layers of screening, China Unicom was shortlisted for the finals with the "Network Digital Employee" project, becoming the only communication operator in China to enter the Asia-Pacific finals.
In line with the future development trend of digital networks, China Unicom has taken the initiative to explore integrated innovation and transformation in terms of business, network and system, and bravely served as the "national team of digital information infrastructure operation and service, the main force in the construction of a smart society in digital China, and the vanguard of digital technology integration and innovation", contributing to the high-quality development of the digital economy.
The "Network Digital Employee" innovation case shares China Unicom's experience in the digital transformation of network operations from three aspects: team building, capability building, and organization and management of "digital employees" working together with people. By creating a "network digital employee", it assists people to perform complex tasks such as planning and decision-making, replaces people to perform repetitive tasks such as equipment monitoring and status inspection, and surpasses people to perform difficult tasks such as building green and resilient networks. By collaborating people and "digital employees", China Unicom practices "man-machine division of labor" and "human-machine collaboration" from different perspectives and in the production environment, explores the relationship between humans and "digital employees", continues to promote industry transformation and organizational change, and accelerates the evolution and upgrading of digital networks in the future.
In the future, China Unicom will continue to deepen its digital transformation, focus on its five main businesses, namely "big connectivity, big computing, big data, big applications, and big security", empower industrial upgrading with technological innovation, and contribute more Unicom wisdom and strength to the development of the digital economy in China and the world.