Davos WEF 2026 | Agentic AI Will Redefine How Telecom Networks Are Built: Ericsson CTO Erik Ekudden

I think it's a good framing Shireen that AI is already powering 5G networks today. But I think back to the discussion here in Davos, it's been very much about the ROI of AI. It's very much about diffusion of AI and I think those are hugely important because the most advanced companies now they get the return on the investments and we're starting to see more AI applications, generative AI flows permeating throughout enterprises. But I think the discussion that needs to be connected to that is how do you actually get AI to the end users or getting data from sensors. So advanced connectivity is really what will power the future of AI and that discussion is just starting right now. So to your point about AI in the network we are already powering 5G with AI to create better user experience, lower energy consumption but also to be able to create more services faster. So AI in terms of autonomous networks, autonomous 5G networks, that's actually already deployed in the most advanced networks today.

We see that and I think we've been fortunate to start very early in our own journey. So AI in R&D is already paying off. It's changing the way that we develop systems. Of course, developer experience is critically important for our many talented engineers, many of them actually in India as we talked about. But this is really a journey that we started many years ago. And now over the last year or so, we're starting to see significant productivity improvement, which is great. But more importantly, when you change the complete workflow, when you change the way you're working, not just coding, testing, everything, it really changes how fast we can come to market with the latest product. So yes, AI is already having an impact on us. And then of course in finance, in sales, in customer care, you see these kind of use cases really starting to take.

I am because I think that's when we can start to go from very simple tasks that need to be automated. That's of course the first step and when you can start to connect it in workflows agents talking to each other creating bigger solutions that's really where the big change comes. But I think it also has a big impact on the digital infrastructure itself. So Ericsson builds mobile network infrastructure around the world. 50% of the world traffic outside of China passes through networks that we deliver. So of course it matters a lot in terms of where that AI traffic will go. Will it only be downlink traffic from an AI agent down to a device or glasses AI glasses or will it perhaps be more in the other direction? You're sending from the sensors you're sending from the AI glasses up to the cloud. And that changes traffic patterns. It changes how we need to dimension and build networks. So AI has a huge impact on networks and especially agentic AI because then you have chattiness between many agents. Think of a workflow that can consist of tens if not hundreds of different agents talking to each other. So it becomes more like a fabric, a mesh of communication. I call it the intelligent fabric because of course it needs to know about the traffic. Not all traffic is created equal.

Well, today as I said, we are already building AI into networks, embedded AI, creating better user experience all the way up to customer care and so forth. And that means that AI powered 5G is really what will be the opportunity for our customers when it comes to the AI transition in society. So you don't need to wait for 6G. And I think here India has a fantastic starting point. One of the absolutely best and biggest networks is rolled out in India. So of course once you have that better network, better network for AI, you can start to create new services for society AI based services and of course you can create much better networks themselves. So I think the journey towards the future 6G it really starts with 5G standalone today AI powered 5G to get all these benefits and then you have relatively smooth upgrade then to AI native 6G. So it really comes as a stepwise journey.