Effective and Efficient Telco Operations – Can network automation and AI help create a new normal?
Futurenet World Asia returns in 2025 for its fifth edition, bringing together 600+ attendees, 60+ speakers and 30+ sponsors/exhibitors in a high calibre conference of CSP executives, representatives of vendors, Industry organisations and analysts for two intense days, all sharing a single-minded focus – Shaping future networks with AI and Automation.
APAC markets – The telco industry is globally rethinking itself and APAC is representative of this transformation journey. Operators are streamlining capital amid fierce competition and consolidation. Monetizing 5G and delivering new services consistently demands lean, AI-driven autonomous operations to establish a new operational model.
The pace of change varies across APAC, we have developed markets – large and small, developing markets – also large and small. ASEAN especially faces challenges due to lack of scale in many markets. Regional operators like Singtel, Axiata and Telenor Asia can share core competencies and platforms across countries, enabling them to deploy services on a larger scale. Singtel Digital InfraCo has initiatives to expand GPU capacity and scale AI across APAC.
CSPs are divesting fixed assets, recycling capital and seeking efficient alternatives to CAPEX heavy expansions. The significant investments required for 5G, combined with intense competition, have driven market consolidation through national-level mergers, resulting in operational consolidation and driving change.
Monetisation – CSPs are working to monetize their 5G networks by rolling out advanced services like FWA, IoT with RedCap, network slicing, NaaS platforms, and enterprise edge solutions. Delivering these innovations at scale demands highly cost-efficient operations and agility. Agentic AI can process real-time data from multiple sources, automate decisions, and radically streamline workflows—boosting productivity and transforming how telcos operate. The challenge now: What do we need to do, to deploy these at scale with operational changes? For Effective and Efficient Telco Operations – Can network automation and AI help create a new normal?
Appledore’s recently published NAS market share report, seen here, shows that AI and data are shaping the Network Automation Software (NAS) space globally. Market growth confirms that CSPs and suppliers are preparing for operational change using novel technologies around AI and Data. With Agentic AI, we see that CSPs are advancing beyond isolated pilots toward integrated, autonomous AI agents embedded in critical systems— and not just as assistants, they are rapidly becoming autonomous performers.
Futurenet World Asia does a great job of consistently driving insightful discussions, reflecting on achievements, taking stock of current status and then drilling down on the opportunities and the challenges that we need to resolve to take us forward – Progressing step by step and asking several key questions on the way.
The conference includes keynotes and panels with CxOs – Jorge Fernandes, Singtel Group CTO, Thomas Hundt, Axiata Group Chief Business and Technology Officer, Ken Tan DNB CTO, Marko Cetkovic M1 Chief Digital Officer, Sharad Sriwastawa Rakuten Mobile co-CEO and CTO, and valuable insights from many technology leaders in the region.
Day 1 focuses on the goal and how to get there – the next gen Telco and Agentic AI / Autonomous networks, B2B and customer experience while Day 2 focuses on Networks for AI and AI for Networks – the opportunity for the future Telco and 5G, Cloud-native and Open RAN as drivers / enablers. Addressing many important points as below.
- What does the next-gen Telco look like? – how can AI create and support a new normal – business agility and operational efficiency, supported by a new operational model and AI-native architectures
- Critical questions – How do we align the organization, get investments and talent? Do we need to overhaul operations, what will the operations team look like?
- The opportunity with Agentic AI – Is the data available, with required modeling? How do we tackle the data challenge and leverage the power of AIOps? Can we manage CE autonomously? Will Agentic AI enable a new ecosystem?
- The journey so far – from Reliance JIO – GenAI to Agentic AI – the next wave
- Autonomous Networks – Paving the way to AN L4, Key design principles, integration with legacy systems and evolution. What is the early adopter experience? How do we maintain trust?
- Telco as a Platform and APIs – What do services look like if network capabilities are exposed?
- Customer-centricity – How can hyper-automation help with hyper-personalisation?
- For Enterprise customers – Can operational automation redefine the B2B experience?
- Networks for AI – How does the network evolve to support the AI data centre traffic – infrastructure, intelligent automation, how can we keep up with pace of change?
- AI for Networks – Quick wins, use cases, transformations – what can the next steps and a strategic roadmap?
- 5G, Cloud Native and Open-RAN – Can AI be the catalyst to help unlock value from these?
Looking forward to in-depth discussions on these topics through the talks, panels, on the show floor and networking. And of course, we have the Futurenet Awards, in eight different categories and one nominated category – The Technology Leader!
Appledore is participating in the event once again, as an invited Research Partner. Shanthi Ravindran will chair a panel on Day One – Roadmap to Autonomous: Seamlessly integrating Autonomous Networks to bridge the gap between Intelligence & Infrastructure.
A warm welcome to Futurenet World Asia, at Marina Bay Sands, Singapore, on 16–17 September.
