Beyond the innovation horizon: Advancing connectivity in the AI era
The AI supercycle has begun and much like the Internet revolution, it is fundamentally reshaping the role of connectivity and how we use and experience technology. It is also changing the traffic patterns in telecommunications networks.
At Nokia, we believe that secure, advanced connectivity infrastructure is an integral enabler of AI innovation, connecting intelligence across the world’s devices, the network edge and data centers. We are collaborating closely with our strategic partners and customers to drive the convergence of AI and radio access networks, capturing the benefits of AI.
Advancing connectivity for the AI supercycle
Several key constraints must be addressed to unlock new growth opportunities with AI. Those include productivity stagnation in mature economies, the availability of energy infrastructure and the fragmentation of the telecommunications markets that can lead to gaps in connectivity.
Recently, new research commissioned by Nokia surveyed more than 2,000 technology decision-makers. The study revealed that 88% of U.S. telecommunications providers and enterprises and 78% of European respondents see connectivity and infrastructure as the biggest barriers to scaling AI. In fact, providing secure, high-performance connectivity to meet the demanding KPIs of AI-native traffic for bandwidth, capacity and latency will be a major value driver for telecommunications providers. Without investments in connectivity, AI cannot reach its full potential.
Moving AI-RAN from vision to commercial reality
It was just last year that AI-RAN, the convergence of AI and radio access networks, started gaining wider attention. And now, through our groundbreaking partnership with NVIDIA, we are bringing the AI-RAN vision to life. Our AI-RAN solution, powered by the NVIDIA ARC-Pro computing platform and Nokia anyRAN software, enables RAN and AI workloads to run on a shared, GPU-accelerated platform, supporting software-defined RAN evolution.
Sharing computing resources between AI and RAN workloads and moving AI inference from AI factories to the network edge unlocks new revenue models for our industry. Our joint AI-RAN solution accelerates AI innovation and lays the groundwork for commercial deployments of a geographically distributed, AI-native computing grid. It has the potential to become a future blueprint in telecommunications networks worldwide, helping our customers stay ahead of the AI supercycle. We are already working with leading telecommunications providers in different countries to trial our Cloud AI-RAN solution.
Preparing for physical AI and AI-native 6G
The adoption of generative AI has been very fast on a global scale, sparking a new wave of creativity, and we are witnessing a rapid growth in agentic AI. The next wave of disruption will blur the boundaries between physical, digital and human worlds. Physical AI systems, such as robotic AI, autonomous vehicles and advanced devices that enable immersive experiences, will demand ultra-low latency and massive uplink capacity.
Networks will need to respond in milliseconds and in the next phase, even less than one millisecond, to enable real-time communications. Nokia has a key role in developing AI-native 6G architecture, which will be crucial for making these capabilities a reality. To support the needed capacity expansion and the timely introduction of 6G, regulators and governments must create a favorable environment by simplifying policies and ensuring sufficient spectrum for telecommunications networks.
Co-innovating to capture the AI opportunity
The AI supercycle is a once-in-a-generation opportunity. To ensure that connectivity does not become the bottleneck for AI innovation, we need close collaboration and co-innovation across the industry ecosystem.
At Nokia, we are proud to lead this transformation in partnership with leading technology companies. Watch the recording from our Tech Winter Horizon 2025 event to hear insights from Nokia leaders and partners like NVIDIA, SoftBank, Elisa and Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison. Together, we are building the foundation for a world where connectivity enables ubiquitous access to AI innovation.
