Samsung and Verizon are redefining network efficiency with AI. At MWC Barcelona, Alok Shah of Samsung and Steven Rice of Verizon shared insights into their collaboration on Samsung’s AI-powered Energy Savings Manager in Verizon's commercial vRAN network. This innovative solution analyzes traffic patterns and site environments to automatically optimize energy use without compromising performance, delivering an average of 15% energy savings, with a maximum of 35%
AI isn’t just about efficiency—it’s shaping the future of mobile networks. By integrating AI across planning, optimization, and operations, Verizon and Samsung are paving the way for smarter, more adaptive networks. Learn how this partnership is driving real-world impact and what’s next in AI-driven connectivity.
Alejandro Piñero:
All right. Welcome back to FMTV here at MWC Barcelona. We're starting day two strong. We're talking AI networks with Samsung and Verizon. Alok, Steven, thanks for joining us this morning and let's get right to it. Alok, tell us about what you've been doing with Verizon. A lot of talk about AI obviously here at MWC. What role has that played in the work you guys are carrying out together?
Alok Shah:
Yeah. Recently we announced a collaboration with Verizon centered around Samsung's AI-powered Energy Savings Manager application running in Verizon's commercial network. And what that application does is it understands the site environment, takes a look at historical data associated with usage at the site, and then attempts to turn down some of the equipment either at cell level or even at path level in order to reduce energy consumption while not impacting the throughput and the user experience at the site. So very exciting collaboration. We're looking forward to bringing it deeper into Verizon's network going forward.
Alejandro Piñero:
Excellent. And of course, Steven, from your perspective, AI must be a central part of what you're working on and how you're going to build out your network. Tell me about what role it'll play and what benefit does it bring to your customers at the end of the day.
Steven Rice:
When we think about our network and what we're trying to do from a growth and architecture standpoint, we really do put the customer at the center of that and want to walk through how we can add value and/or improve the overall experience for them. This is just another example of looking at AI opportunities and just general opportunities for improvement when we think about the overall customer experience. We want to focus in on this case how we improve use of our network and energy efficiency. And it may not be something that the customer necessarily sees every day but what we do end up with is a more efficient network that doesn't impact their experience, makes a positive experience for them, and then we can go about working on the next thing that will improve, actually improve their experience, improve performance with the benefits that we get from a feature like this.
Alejandro Piñero:
Yeah, and obviously as we said, a lot of talk around AI and what role it plays in the network. Probably everyone's thinking about it, but this is clearly a story of success. So can you maybe touch on what are some of those factors that is giving you this really successful project?
Steven Rice:
When we look at AI, there's not a one thing that we're trying to accomplish with it. It really is being moved into the overall network experience across the board, whether it's personalization of the customer experience or looking for overall performance improvements or capacity improvements of the network. It's not a one thing. It's really almost all things. And as we look at this engagement, we think it's a great opportunity to have a great step forward and almost build a foundation on for each and every next step, which would include improvements to the customer's overall experience, would include the way we can grow our network in a very efficient manner. And all those things end result in how we drive an actual end product, elegant product and overall efficient product that we think they can use each and every day for what they really think is important.
Alejandro Piñero:
So we're seeing here some real tangible results and objectives. So let's close out this interview by thinking ahead and I'll give you both a chance here to speak to what you're looking forward to the most or what you're most excited about when it comes to AI and its implementation networks. Alok, shall we start with you?
Alok Shah:
Yeah, absolutely. We think AI will be transformative to operator networks. One thing that's very clear is that mobile operators generate an incredible amount of data in their network, and it's more than humans are able to process and gain insights from. And so being able to leverage AI models and new technologies that are being developed in other industries and we're seeing the benefits in other industries is going to have a huge impact for telecom. And this energy savings manager is a good starting point. Like Steven said, it's a foundation. We're seeing 15% on average energy savings at the site just from this. And then what we can do to build on top of that across network planning, operations, optimization really sky's the limit.
Alejandro Piñero:
Excellent. And Steven, what are you looking forward to?
Steven Rice:
Yeah, as we kind of talked about already, we're looking at this as an opportunity for inclusion in more than just one thing. And as we look at what our customer demand is, we see AI opportunities helping drive and meet that demand. We see great partnership and they're excited about taking advantage of solutions that our Samsung is bringing to the table and making sure that as we kind of build and grow the network, that AI will be a part of that. And we think it makes a better network in the end and makes us more efficient in the end. And it's something that we think we'll be seeing across the board in our overall RAN network.
Alejandro Piñero:
Excellent. Well, gentlemen, I look forward to seeing the outcome and what you guys will do next together in this partnership. But thank you so much for taking some time with us in your busy schedule in Barcelona. And we'll see you again soon.
Steven Rice:
Great. Thanks a lot.
Alok Shah:
Thank you.