Artificial intelligence, Social Innovation and Sustainability: A qualitative case study of Telenor´s research department

Abstract

Private companies are important profit-motivated actors whose innovative activities significantly contribute to economic performance. However, firms' R&D activities also have the potential to foster substantial changes in society through so-called social innovations. Social innovation has, among other things, the immense potential to contribute to addressing environmental challenges. Though, research on relationships between industrial R&D-departments activities and social innovation toward sustainability is quite limited. With this research gap in mind, the present thesis investigates the following question: Can R&D of AI carried out by large companies' R&D departments lead to social innovation that can contribute to sustainability? The thesis will investigate the question by focusing on one of the most consequential new technological paradigms of our times: artificial intelligence (AI). It is rapidly developing as one of the most important technologies in the digitally transformed world with various applications in several industrial sectors and service activities. One such area of application is that it can contribute to addressing complex environmental challenges. The leading Norwegian telecommunication company Telenor is one of the actors who have seen artificial intelligence's potential to address environmental challenges. Their internal research department has a separate team dedicated to exploring and experimenting with the technology. Two of their projects illustrate their efforts to orient the technology toward sustainability: the Green Radio project and the Air Quality project. This thesis focuses on Telenor's R&D Department as an empirical case and these two AI projects as relevant illustrations. Furthermore, it will examine the questions: "How is Telenor Research's AI-work described by the actors involved in their projects?" and "o Do these descriptions represent relevant cases of social innovation oriented towards sustainability?" In-depth interviews with various actors involved in the work constitute the study's methodological approach and empirical data material. A narrative analysis strategy was applied when analyzing the data. The goal was to understand how the perspectives the informants presented and what components of the story they emphasized. The findings indicate that Telenor Research's AI team actively seeks to align their business interest with their responsibilities towards society when picking projects. They utilized different approaches to the work of creating AI solutions, as well as knowledge and competence in sustainable AI. Through engaging in various collaborations, they not only produced these things but also shared them with their surrounding actors. The work showed several impacts ranging from proving how AI can be used to address environmental challenges, improve operations and routines, cut the waste of resources, strengthen the company's social profile, and inspire others. By producing new AI solutions that meet the societal need to fight environmental issues, which showed beneficial impacts on society and the environment, one might assess this as a case of social innovation oriented towards sustainability.