AI-Native Telco Forum signals industry acceleration
By Ray Le Maistre
Sep 9, 2026
Rakuten Mobile's Chief AI and Data Officer, Sachin Verma, addresses the ANTF audience.
- This year’s two-day AI-Native Telco Forum is over
- The sessions and show floor signalled a clear acceleration in AI-native developments in the telecom sector
- Tangible progress is being made across the whole ecosystem
DÜSSELDORF – The AI-Native Telco Forum (ANTF) – After two days, 14 sessions, support from 25 event partners, a cocktail reception for the near 200 attendees and numerous meetings and discussions on the sidelines, this year’s ANTF is over, and if there’s one key takeaway, it’s that there is plenty of evidence of accelerated AI-related progress across the telecom sector.
The sessions were notably enlightening, whether it was Deutsche Telekom (DT)’s senior VP of network strategy and data & AI in networks, Ahmed Hafez, reminding the industry why there needs to be a more consistent (and cleaner) approach to data management or Orange’s VP of cloud & software engineering, Philippe Ensarguet, explaining why it’s critical that telcos take control of, and “own”, the validation and verification process associated with the use of AI agents, or NTT Docomo’s Itsuma Tanaka explaining why it’s critical not only to telcos but also to society in general that the industry embraces and makes the most of the AI opportunity.
Add to that the real-world engagements that the likes of Amdocs (with Liberty Latin America and many others for its agentic operating system), Netcracker Technology (with C Spire for its agentic AI use cases), and Totogi (with seven new deployments of its Ontology system that provides context for AI-enabled operations), as well as the incredible progress being made by the GSMA’s Open Telco AI initiative, and there is meaningful and (for the telecom sector) fast-paced progress being made with AI-native strategies.
That much was also evident from the findings of TelecomTV’s inaugural AI-Native Telco Index report, a key output of the AI-Native Telco Accelerator (ANTA) initiative, launched at the forum – see New report identifies the AI-native telco frontrunners.
Even better news is that all of the ANTF sessions will be available to watch on demand on TelecomTV within a few days and I would very much recommend catching up with the many insights shared during the two days. You can also read more of our coverage of the event in the coming days by checking on our dedicated AI-native telco channel.
- Ray Le Maistre, Editorial Director, TelecomTV
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