AI technologies are evolving faster than we can imagine. New AI applications and innovations are emerging every day, creating huge opportunities for the information and communication technology (ICT) industry. But how can operators best seize these new opportunities?

At Sunday's launch of Huawei's new AI-Centric Network solution, Yang Chaobin, Director of the Board and CEO of the ICT Business Group, outlined how carriers can maximise these new opportunities in the AI era.

Recent breakthroughs in AI have resulted in a large number of innovative, intelligent applications emerging. These applications allow AI to quickly integrate into work and daily life. For example, AI-driven robots can do housework and care for the elderly. In China, drones are already being used at scale for deliveries. However, more and more intelligent services like these will also stimulate new network demands.

Mr Yang focused on the requirements of three market sectors: individuals, organizations, and broader society. As more 5G applications emerge, the experience expectations and requirements of individual users change. For example, delivery drivers, live streamers and gamers have different uplink, downlink and latency requirements. AI will continue to drive these requirements in three ways.

Firstly, AI is driving traffic. For example, the DOU (date of usage) of smart vehicles has exceeded 200 GB to support in-car AI assistants and entertainment. This is 10 times the average DOU of individual users.

Secondly, AI is driving the need for higher uplinks. For example, 10 million people are expected to use AI glasses by the end of 2025. The interactive nature of these devices will demand large uplinks.

Finally, AI is increasing the demand for real-time interaction. AI-enabled real-time calling currently has 75 million users. Individual users now expect traffic-based experience and are demanding more personalized services. This means networks will need diversified capabilities.

For organizations, AI is transforming collaboration mode. What used to be person-to-person is transforming to agent-with-agent interactions. As a result, the number of connections, the frequency of interactions and the response speeds will all need to increase. For example, in smart manufacturing scenarios, multiple robots need to synchronize their actions in real time to avoid collisions, which requires the deployment of edge cloud. And through cloud-network-edge-device collaboration, an ultimate experience could be guaranteed. Traditional network resource configurations cannot support this, and pre-configured connectivity will be replaced with on-demand connectivity. Bandwidth is also moving from large downlink to ultra-large uplink and downlink, and latency needs to be in real time.

If we look at society as a whole, AI applications will be everywhere, accelerating intelligent transformation. Inclusive AI will require all-scenario coverage of massive connectivity. By 2030, there will be 200 billion connections worldwide will be needed. It is companies like Huawei, with its continuous innovation in the telecom field that is delivering multiple applications across many markets. To meet these demands, the Chinese tech giant invested over 19 billion euros in the Research and Development sector in the last year, according to 2024 Global Top 100 R&D Investment Companies scoreboard by EU Commission.

AI services are also reshaping industries and creating huge opportunities for carriers, which has resulted in the launch of Huawei's AI-Centric Network solution that covers multiple domains. Mr Yang stated that this solution would comprehensively improve network capabilities and achieve converged connectivity. It also enhances intelligence to realize application-oriented operations and maintenance (O&M) and will help create a solid ICT network, allowing carriers to adopt new service and business models and seize the opportunities presented by AI.

“Huawei’s AI-Centric Network solution is designed to address these needs,” said Yang. “It revolutionizes network capabilities to enable all-domain connectivity. It will power a shift towards application-oriented O&M, and will reshape telecom services and business models to take full advantage of new opportunities presented by AI.”

AI-centric networks – A four-layered approach

Yang expanded on the challenges carriers face moving forward, explaining how Huawei’s solution can help them better prepare for a surge of new AI-powered applications.

1. All-domain connectivity. With more in-depth collaboration between AI and networks, carriers will be able to optimize resource orchestration for routing, bandwidth, and so on. This will provide intelligent applications with universal network access, ultra-high uplink and downlink, and service-level agreement (SLA) assurance.
2. Application-oriented O&M. Advances in AI applications will give rise to more complex service scenarios and massively diverse experience requirements. This will necessitate a shift from traditional, resource-oriented network O&M to a more application-oriented approach. Huawei’s Telecom Foundation Model supports predictive and proactive O&M, experience optimization based on application-level awareness, and tailored, more fine-grained operations. Carriers will be able to significantly enhance the efficiency of network O&M while taking user experience to entirely new levels.
3. Enhanced AI-to-X services. At the individual user level, AI-centric networks can deliver the right experience for different AI scenarios by assigning the exact levels of bandwidth, latency, and reliability needed. At the organizational level, they can break through bottlenecks in capacity and response times configured for person-to-person interactions, evolving networks to support person-to-agent and even agent-to-agent interactivity. And at the societal level, AI-centric networks will enable ubiquitous connectivity to speed up AI adoption in public services like education and healthcare, providing more inclusive value for communities around the world.
4. Innovative business models. Finally, different experience requirements will give carriers the opportunity to explore new business models that monetize a broader range of metrics. Essentially, AI-centric networks will allow carriers to go beyond traditional traffic-based monetization and start monetizing experience itself. This will unleash the full potential of connectivity and open up new revenue streams.

The AI era is fast approaching. Huawei says it is ready to work with carriers and partners worldwide to help networks achieve ubiquitous, ultra-broadband and all-domain connectivity by continuing to enhance intelligence, making networks more efficient, and delivering superior user experience.