The 2026 CVM bets: what separates winners from the rest?

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The 2026 CVM bets: what separates winners from the rest?

My first contact with Machine Learning was not in a telco office. 20 years ago I wanted to beat the roulette. I was sure that with the right ML model I could predict where the ball would land, travel the world and live off casino money.

I even made a bet with my brother that I would build an ML model that beats the wheel. He laughed. I coded.

For almost two years I tried everything I could find: neural nets, decision trees, genetic algorithms, ensembles. Days and nights of code, simulations and disappointment.

Result: zero success in the casino. Plus a lesson to stop trying to break math. Start looking for places where ML creates real value. That’s how Exacaster was born.

In 20 years ML went from “only for geeks” to a mainstream telco capability

Our first ML use cases in CVM were simple: predict churn, run smarter campaigns, save a few more customers.

Back then, ML in telco was something only geeks talked about. In early meetings, people told me: “I don’t understand a word you say about ROC curves, confusion matrices, lift.”

Fast forward 20 years and the story is very different.

According to CVM Trends 2026: Telecom Edition report, 77% of telcos are now piloting, scaling or have fully embedded ML for churn prediction, up-sell, cross-sell and other CVM programs, and continue to actively invest into new solutions.

My friend Marek Wiktor Grabowski from Orange Polska calls this machine learning adoption the “industrialized money printing machine” in telecoms.

That’s what I call a massive shift.

But massive ML & AI adoption alone won’t turn CVM teams into money printing machines in 2026. Leadership has to decide to switch it on and press the gas pedal.

Technology isn’t the bottleneck anymore. Lack of leadership alignment, resources, and simple appreciation of results is. You can see it in the CVM Trends report:

  • ~80% of telcos now have at least one CVM KPI on company scorecards, but only a fraction have a CVM strategy aligned and approved at the top.
  • 72% of CVM teams spend at least half their time on reactive ad-hoc work: last-minute campaigns, “can you send this to the base tomorrow?” requests, fixing what broke. The data is there. The models are there. But the week still goes to firefighting instead of building long-term value.
  • CVM teams are tiny. The most common size is 3–5 people, and 63%+ say they’re under-resourced. One small squad is expected to manage the full base, all lifecycle programs, all channels, and “transform the future.”
  • And the paradox: ~70% of CVM teams generate up to 20% extra revenue uplift, yet 71% say their work gets little or no recognition across the business. The money is real, but the story stays in the background.

So yes, the technology is ready. Now it’s on leadership to align the organization and properly resource CVM so it truly becomes that “industrialized money-printing machine.”

So how do we turn it on?

When I was trying to beat roulette, I was basically gambling against math. In CVM, we don’t have that luxury. Every model, every campaign, every decision is real money, real customers, real careers.

That’s why I see CVM Trends 2026 as more than “interesting insights.” It’s a practical user manual for turning your CVM function into an industrialized money-printing machine that is sustainable, data-driven, and finally recognized by the business.

Read the full CVM Trends 2026: Telecom Edition report at cvmtrend.com

“You must embrace failure, because here at CVM, ‘test and learn’ is the only way,” says Mohamed Mejri, Commercial & Marketing Analyst at Tunisie Télécom.

In a highly regulated market, Mohamed’s team relied on a manual, multi-step campaign process to try a new campaign. One slip caused the wrong message to be sent to the wrong customer segment, overwhelming the contact center with claims.

The lesson: when you try something new, not every campaign will succeed – but every test offers insight. Don’t see it as failure, but as learning. That’s the essence of “test and learn.”

What’s your CVM horror story? Share it with us and help others learn from your journey.

The latest news and insights on Customer Value Management within the telecommunications industry for this month.

  • 📢 [Insights you can’t miss] Listen to the CVM Trends 2026 Talk with 3 telco CVM experts, where they unpack the key strategies, tools, and trends shaping global CVM practices in 2026.

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