Telecoms and machine learning – what does the future look like?

Terms such as machine learning, big data, predictive analytics, autonomic computing, are being used more and more both in the telecoms field and more widely.  Some serious claims are being made - that machine learning heralds a sea-change not only in the way the telecoms and IT industries face their own strategic and operational challenges, but also in terms of solutions opportunities for their customers.  How real is this?  And what are we talking about anyway?   This was t