New-generation intelligent operations: An AI-native reinvention

As AI becomes more deeply embedded in telecoms networks, the industry is entering a new phase of operations and maintenance (O&M) transformation. AI is becoming a core capability rather than an overlay, which means that O&M processes must evolve from being reactive and rules based to become dynamic and data driven, with systems able to sense, decide and act with minimal human intervention.

In intelligent O&M, AI agents are positioned as “digital employees” that collaborate with human engineers. The focus is on using numerous agents working in tandem with people and each other across multiple domains to augment decision-making and increase automation to handle increasing network complexity. Platforms and underlying technologies – including data foundations, AI frameworks and cross-domain orchestration – are critical enablers of this transformation.

Without unified platforms, intelligent O&M will remain fragmented and difficult to scale. Achieving agentic operations requires not only architectural flexibility, but also a coherent vision for how AI is embedded across the entire business and how legacy environments should be modernized. The case studies presented in this paper demonstrate how communications service providers (CSPs) are navigating this transition in practice.