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“Telecom operators have long provided the infrastructure to power communication and connect people. Now they are poised to take on a new role: building the AI infrastructure that enables enterprises, governments, and consumers to unlock AI’s full potential.”
AI infrastructure: A new growth avenue for telco operators, McKinsey & Co., February 2025
09:00
Welcome & Opening Remarks
Annie Turner
Editor
Mobile Europe
How AI is shaping tomorrow’s networks
A look at the different kinds of AI that are in action, and where for what purpose, in today’s networks. How is their use, separately and in combination, likely to evolve and shape future networks?
Moderator: Robert Curran
Consulting Analyst
Appledore Research
Yue Wang
Chief Technologist - Network and AI
China Telecom
Olivier Simon
VP Smart Networks and Data
Orange
Inanç Çakiroğlu
Group CIO
VEON
The evolution of the agentic AI opportunity
Agentic AI improving customer experience through greater insight into their customers, and also boosting employees’ productivity across business AND engineering. Perhaps the biggest and most important is agentic AI in network operations for all kinds of issues and tasks – and next year we expect operators experimenting with agentic AI to boost revenues.
Susan White
Head of Strategy and Portfolio Marketing
Netcracker Technology
Cut the hype, fix the foundations: Telco’s AI reality check
Everyone’s talking about what AI can do. We’re talking about what AI needs to work.
In this fireside chat, Werner Heijstek and Yiannis Kanellopoulos take a clear-eyed look at the realities of deploying AI. While the telecommunications industry chases bold predictions and rapid rollouts, many initiatives are already stumbling—not because the ambition is wrong, but because the foundations aren’t ready. AI is software. And like any software system, it’s only as strong as its foundation.
Expect cautionary stories from the field, a debunking of the “AI can fix itself” myth, and a deep dive into the risks—from legacy complexity, security issues, to data debt. This session offers a practical, engineering-led path forward for those who want scalable, sustainable AI that actually delivers.
Werner Heijstek
Senior IT Strategy Director and Telecom Digital Transformation Lead
Software Improvement Group
Yiannis Kanellopoulos
AI Practice Lead
Software Improvement Group
Multiplying the impact of automation with AI
How can combining different kinds of AI (machine learning/closed loop, analytics AI, GenAI and agentic AI) amplify the operational and business gains of automation?
Siniša Arsić
Director of Data, Analytics and Intelligent Automation of Business Processes
Telekom Srbija
How telcos can enable AI for enterprises
In a recent Capgemini survey, the top expectation of 62% of businesses leaders who responded was that their telco partners will provide early access to cutting-edge technologies and joint efforts on pilots and prototypes. With AI leading the way in innovation right now, how can network operators be the key enablers?
Moderator: Larbi Belkhit
Industry Analyst
ABI Research
Marie-Hélène Briens
VP Employee Experience Portfolio
Orange Business
Frank O. Miller
Chief AI and Platforms Officer
Colt
Inês Matos
Head of AI and Data Analytics
Vodafone
Beatriz Ortega Eguizábal
EMEA Telco Business Development Manager
Red Hat
12:05
Break
Will AI deliver ROI on 5G?
Can AI generate 5G revenues beyond connectivity? Are claims such as those made by SoftBank and NVIDIA realistic? For example, that telcos could generate about $5 in AI inference revenue from every $1 of capex invested in new AI-RAN infrastructure. Also, Verizon’s hopes for private 5G nets and the edge?
Moderator: Joseph Attwood
Analyst
Analysys Mason
Andy Corston-Petrie
Senior Manager, Intelligent Service Orchestration Research
BT Group
Terje Jensen
SVP Global Business Security Officer
Telenor
Michal Sewera
Head of Cloud Native 5G Core DevOps
Deutsche Telekom
Partner Session
Cloudification is changing how services are delivered and managed, enabled by modular software architectures that depend on cloud native technologies like microservices, and cloud-native designs. Is digitalisation increasingly dependent on cloudification for all aspects of telco?
Moderator: Darius Singh
Consulting Director - Enterprise Platforms Lead
STL Partners
Data is AI’s raw material – are operators benefiting from theirs?
Telcos’ data management and infrastructure have been described as “very legacy”. How big is the task they fact in making it AI-ready?
Moderator: Darius Singh
Consulting Director - Enterprise Platforms Lead
STL Partners
13:05
Closing Remarks & End of Conference
All times UK. Session timings and content subject to change.