Artificial intelligence (AI) is everywhere. Any sector you go, the applicaton of AI to reduce costs, automate operations, and make life easier for the executives/workers is going on. Telecom sector is no different. AI is not just a buzz word. But it is also not entirely new. Automation has been happening for a long time. AI just makes it smarter and has capabilties of learning on the go. With AI, the telecom networks won't just be smarter, but also more reliable. Today is the World Telecom Day 2025. Thus, it is the right time to talk about how AI is powering the future of telecom networks with some insights from the industry experts.
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How Will AI Shape the Future of Telecom Networks
Nokia believes that AI will not just enhance customer experience, but it will also unlock new revenue streams. Further, AI will reduce the human intervention in the networks.
Arvind Khurana, Regional VP and Country Head, Cloud and Network Services, Nokia India, said, "AI is rapidly becoming the catalyst for transformation in the telecom industry, addressing some of the sector’s biggest challenges—from enhancing customer experience to streamlining operations and unlocking new revenue streams. As networks evolve toward full autonomy, aligned with TM Forum’s Level 5 Autonomous Network, the role of AI and Generative AI becomes indispensable.
These technologies will drive closed-loop automation across services and domains, enabling networks to operate with minimal human intervention. At Nokia, we are at the forefront of this shift, leveraging AI and GenAI to simplify complex processes, deliver predictive insights, and enable dynamic optimization and self-healing networks—including the ability to anticipate and mitigate cybersecurity threats."
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The telecom networks will also be affected by the way the client side or the device that the user has. MediaTek, one of the largest semiconductor players globally, has been working on integrating AI on its chipsets and enhancing the experience for the customer in consuming network services. MediaTek has made serious advancements in enbaling a smarter experience for the users when it comes to mobile networks.
Anku Jain, Managing Director, MediaTek India, said, "Artificial Intelligence is playing an important role in advancing the telecom sector, enabling smarter network management and enhanced user experiences. As networks evolve to meet rising demands, AI is becoming an integral part of improving performance, efficiency, and adaptability across the telecom ecosystem. At MediaTek, we are leveraging AI to redefine how networks operate. One of our recent advancements lies in the integration of AI-powered modems and chipsets, such as in the MediaTek Dimensity series, which use on-device intelligence to manage connectivity dynamically."
"Further, MediaTek’s M90 5G advanced cellular modem solution uses AI and 5G to intelligently adjust modem operation based on user behaviour, device orientation and network conditions, while also integrating satellite connectivity. This kind of intelligent adaptation not only enhances user experience but also reduces the load on telecom infrastructure, making networks more sustainable and resilient. MediaTek is committed to working closely with industry partners and ecosystem players to bring scalable, AI-enhanced solutions that support the country's digital ambitions and empower a more connected future," Jain added.
With GenAI and AI, it is an opportunity for the industry to modernise the networks at a lower cost. The operational expenditure (Opex) for the telcos will go sigficantly down with the role of AI and GenAI.
Kaitki Agarwal, co-founder and President of A5G Networks, said, "Bringing GenAI to telco is a mindset shift, to enable all the services we are talking about for smart infrastructure we need to modernize the network without leaning too much on legacy. GenAI and AI give us tools to bring efficiency and do network modernization.
Typically mobile networks are upgraded, changed incrementally, not to disrupt the exiting services and keep them backward compatible. With GenAI or in general AI, combined with cloud-native, distributed networks it is better to start from the clean slate than trying to retrofit onto exiting networks. We need to think about costs, energy consumption, shared cloud infrastructure vs. on-premises dedicated infrastructure, data ownership, energy consumption, new data center build outs.
AI and GenAI technologies are influencing end to end mobile network including OSS/BSS, packet core, networking infrastructure and RAN. At present there are lot of manual operations in the network starting from deployment, RF planning, site survey, drive testing and day to day network operations. All these manual operations translate into high OPEX for networks. AI and Gen AI will play a key role in simplifying and making many of these workflows, processes not just automated but also autonomous.
Customer service, customer training are some of the other areas where GenAI will help. Use of AI and GenAI will bring out critical performance indicators for customer service and network efficiency because now we will have more visibility into what is happening in the networks."
With AI, scaling networks and fixing problems at scale is possible. AI is not just about delivering networks smartly, but also about staying connected with the customer to solve their problems. This is where the telcos are benefiting a lot already.
Somshubhro Pal Choudhary, Partner, Bharat Innovation Fund, said, "5G is a network for everyone and everything—phones, sensors, vehicles, and industrial systems. Managing this diversity with static, rules-based networks is no longer viable. Today’s networks still rely on expert intervention and rule engines to manually tweak countless parameters—an approach that doesn’t scale. AI is essential to enable autonomous, self-optimizing systems that adapt in real time.
We’ve invested in A5G Networks to develop an AI-native, decentralized, and scalable mobile core—bringing orders-of-magnitude efficiency and AI to the edge. Traditional centralized cores can’t meet the latency, agility, or resilience demands of modern applications. We envision a distributed system that understands context, applies AI-enabled deep packet inspection, and automates network decisions—powered by an edge-centric, high-efficiency architecture. While fully self-healing networks remain on the horizon, AI is already reshaping telecom—from smarter customer support to improved operational efficiency to intelligent, adaptive networks ready for the future."
The era of responsive networks is here. The tools that the telecom operators are using allow them to identify any issue in any layer of the network in almost real time. AI is not just important with the context of enhancing customer experience, but also boosting security of the networks.
Sachin Arora, Head of Connectivity & IoT for India at Giesecke+Devrient, said, "As AI and IoT converge, we are moving ever closer to truly intelligent and responsive telecom networks. But while AI brings a lot of opportunities, the foundation of this transformation is trust and ensuring the integrity and security of the massive data streams powering these systems is pivotal. And this is where SIM technologies have a massive role to play. Solutions such as eSIM and iSIM, are now essential in providing secure, reliable, scalable, and authenticated connectivity from the ground up. By prioritizing secure-by-design architectures, we can unlock the full potential of AI-driven automation while safeguarding increasing connected networks and devices against evolving threats."
