Circles is using AI to turn telecom support from a cost centre into a faster, more personalised growth engine
Updated
May 1, 2026 2:04 PM
A woman holding a phone while using a laptop. PHOTO: ADOBE STOCK
Circles, a Singapore startup that builds software for digital telecom operators, has launched an AI concierge as part of its partnership with OpenAI. The release marks a new step in the company’s effort to modernise how telecom providers serve and retain customers. The move reflects a wider shift in the telecom sector. Many operators still rely on older support systems that can be slow, fragmented and costly to run. AI is now being tested as a way to improve service while creating new revenue opportunities.
Circles said the concierge is built on OpenAI’s API platform and sits within what it calls an AI-native telecom stack. In practical terms, the system is designed to handle customer support, account changes and personalised offers through automated interactions.
One part of the platform is called CareX. According to the company, it can deal with billing issues, service requests and network-related problems. Circles said CareX currently resolves 85% of customer queries globally without human intervention and reaches a 95% resolution rate on end-to-end tasks. That matters because customer support remains one of the larger operating costs for telecom providers. Faster automated handling could lower pressure on service teams while reducing wait times for users.
The second part of the platform is Xplore IQ, which focuses on revenue growth. The tool is designed to predict what a customer may need, recommend a suitable plan or offer and complete upgrades or downgrades automatically. Circles said the early rollout has led to a 22% rise in average revenue per user for Circles.Life Singapore. It also said personalised offers helped reduce customer churn by 9%.
"AI should empower users - not force-fit into outdated journeys. OpenAI's role has been critical in enabling Circles to scale this vision globally. With the AI concierge, we are moving beyond providing simple answers to delivering real-world outcomes, along with balancing cost and latency to maximize value for operators and customers alike", said Awais Malik, Global Chief Growth Officer at Circles.
"Circles is demonstrating how advanced AI can modernize essential industries like telecommunications at scale. By combining frontier models with multi-agent systems, they are enabling telecom operators globally to deliver faster, smarter and more personalized customer experiences. This milestone is a strong example of how AI can deliver tangible value for businesses and customers they serve", Oliver Jay, Managing Director, International for OpenAI, added.
Together, the tools are intended to connect customer service, operations and sales into one system. Rather than treating support and monetisation as separate functions, the company is combining them into a single digital layer.
Circles said the partnership will continue over the next two years as both companies work toward a more autonomous telecom model. Whether that vision is achieved remains to be seen, but the direction is clear: telecom operators are increasingly treating AI as core infrastructure rather than an optional add-on.
Keep Reading
Why investors are backing Applied Brain Research’s on-device voice AI approach.
Updated
January 28, 2026 5:53 PM
Plastic model of a human's brain. PHOTO: UNSPLASH
Applied Brain Research (ABR), a Canada-based startup, has closed its seed funding round to advance its work in “on-device voice AI”. The round was led by Two Small Fish Ventures, with its general partner Eva Lau joining ABR’s board, reflecting investor confidence in the company’s technical direction and market focus.
The round was oversubscribed, meaning more investors wanted to participate than the company had planned for. That response reflects growing interest in technologies that reduce reliance on cloud-based AI systems.
ABR is focused on a clear problem in voice-enabled products today. Most voice features depend on cloud servers to process speech, which can cause delays, increase costs, raise privacy concerns and limit performance on devices with small batteries or limited computing power.
ABR’s approach is built around keeping voice AI fully on-device. Instead of relying on cloud connectivity, its technology allows devices to process speech locally, enabling faster responses and more predictable performance while reducing data exposure.
Central to this approach is the company’s TSP1 chip, a processor designed specifically for handling time-based data such as speech. Built for real-time voice processing at the edge, TSP1 allows tasks like speech recognition and text-to-speech to run on smaller, power-constrained devices.
This specialization is particularly relevant as voice interfaces become more common across emerging products. Many edge devices such as wearables or mobile robotics cannot support traditional voice AI systems without compromising battery life or responsiveness. The TSP1 addresses this limitation by enabling these capabilities at significantly lower power levels than conventional alternatives. According to the company, full speech-to-text and text-to-speech can run at under 30 milliwatts of power, which is roughly 10 to 100 times lower than many existing alternatives. This level of efficiency makes advanced voice interaction feasible on devices where power consumption has long been a limiting factor.
That efficiency makes the technology applicable across a wide range of use cases. In augmented reality glasses, it supports responsive, hands-free voice control. In robotics, it enables real-time voice interaction without cloud latency or ongoing service costs. For wearables, it expands voice functionality without severely impacting battery life. In medical devices, it allows on-device inference while keeping sensitive data local. And in automotive systems, it enables consistent voice experiences regardless of network availability.
For investors, this combination of timing and technology is what stands out. Voice interfaces are becoming more common, while reliance on cloud infrastructure is increasingly seen as a limitation rather than a strength. ABR sits at the intersection of those two shifts.
With fresh funding in place, ABR is now working with partners across AR, robotics, healthcare, automotive and wearables to bring that future closer. For startup watchers, it’s a reminder that some of the most meaningful AI advances aren’t about bigger models but about making intelligence fit where it actually needs to live.