AI is reshaping the future of wireless networks, driving smarter, more efficient connectivity. At MWC 2025, FNTV sits down with industry leaders to discuss AI’s impact and the innovations shaping next-gen networks. Discover key insights on automation, optimization, and the future of wireless technology. Watch now!
Steve Saunders:
Welcome back to FNTV and at MWC '25. I'm Steve Saunders, and I'm excited for our next chat show where we're going to be getting stuck into the detail of AI's role in wireless networks. And to help me with this, I'm joined by three industry experts who are helping shape the future of wireless communications. Balaji Raghothaman from Keysight, Harjot Saluja founder and CEO of Reach, and Joel Stradling our colleague from IDC. Welcome to all of you. Let me start with you, Balaji. How can wireless AI enhance IoT applications in networks?
Balaji Raghothaman:
AI has been shown to be quite powerful in a lot of facets of wireless communication, specifically when it comes to IoT devices. They need a lot of QoS optimization, traffic flow shaping and so on. And these have been shown to be very powerful areas where AI can have a big influence.
Steve Saunders:
Well, that sounds like a positive impact, certainly. Harjot, what do you think about this?
Harjot Saluja:
I think I agree, I think the AI has already being used from before in the old form of machine learning. And now we have come to the next generation of it, if you will, to optimize how these devices communicate because with IoT, you have a large scale, you're not working with individual consumers. And AI works very well with large scale because now you have a machine sort of doing the optimization as opposed to people.
Steve Saunders:
Right. And what sort of scale of network are we talking about here, exponentially larger than the challenges of a consumer network?
Harjot Saluja:
Yeah. I mean, think about number of devices you use today in your daily life versus if you go back 10 years. You got, of course, the devices you interact with yourself, but then there are devices that are interacting with what we do everyday life. So I think we are going from having less than one device in one human's life to multiple devices. So that kind of brings that scale in the developed countries. And then you have emerging markets where there was a fraction of a device interacting with a human, and now you've got multiple of those devices with the cost coming down. Yeah, massive scale, and I think AI does well when it comes to solving massive scale connectivity, optimization and experience.
Steve Saunders:
Excellent.
Balaji Raghothaman:
And-
Steve Saunders:
Joel, give us a... I'll come back to you in a second. Joel, tell us, are there security implications for AI and wireless networks?
Joel Stradling:
Yeah, there certainly are. I mean, I think in terms of applications, the sky's the limit with, especially as we move to 5G and faster speed. When you've got 1000 times the bandwidth, you can do far more amazing things. And the applications and use cases could be a multitude, and AI will be a part of those applications operating, it's all about large volumes of data. And manual tasks, they're no longer fit for tasks. You cannot manually monitor security incidents on a wireless application that has AI. So AI will be applied actually to strengthen cybersecurity and enable to make companies or allow companies to move quickly to innovate and develop these incredible use cases, I think we shall see. You need to have AI-backed cybersecurity in place.
Steve Saunders:
You're a glass half full fellow, aren't you? Because I think-
Joel Stradling:
Comes with comes to the territory.
Steve Saunders:
Yeah. No, I appreciate it, I think you're taking the right approach actually. I feel positive about things overall. In the US where I live, the environment is becoming almost completely unregulated, deregulated as far as the development of next-generational technologies, specifically AI. We have unregulated AI in nuclear power stations in North America, which I think is a terrible idea. In that environment, doesn't it increase security risks to have AI involved in wireless networks?
Joel Stradling:
Well, it certainly does. If there is no correct AI governance in place. On the point of regulations, the US innovates, the Asians imitate, and the Europeans regulate. That's something that we see, it's kind of a stereotype, but there's something in that. So within Europe, so for example, we have the EU AI Act, and those things are being looked at very carefully. It could be that the European markets will be a beacon of light for driving AI governance programs forward. I think, again, those frameworks are required. Glass half empty, half full argument, I get that because we don't want security to be the department of, no, we've gone past that stage. But again, in order to go quickly, you need to have good frameworks in place, and AI governance is a big part of that.
Steve Saunders:
I think there's some truth hiding in all stereotypes, isn't there? But at the moment, as an American working in technology, I would say most Americans are worried, and most Europeans are frustrated. And most people working in technology in China are about 10 years ahead as far as a lot of this stuff, and that's a dangerous situation for our industry right now. So what do you think Balaji, how important is this AI trend for Keysight?
Balaji Raghothaman:
Oh, Keysight as a company that provides test and measurement solutions, we have a kind of a two-pronged role. One is just like the rest of the industry or the rest of every single sector of industry globally, we are using AI to improve our own solutions and our own instruments that we offer as services and solutions. At the same time, the bigger part of our role is to react to the use of AI and the emergence of AI in wireless networks, and how in this new milieu we will test, and measure, and characterize performance because it's a whole new world, things are not the sort of the stationary implementations of the past where you test once and then you deploy it and you forget it. It's a living thing, the algorithm as such. And so you have to take special care in ongoing performance testing, and also looking ahead to all the sort of the risks that can entail. So there is a industry-wide debate, and I would say that Keysight is playing a leading role in shaping that debate in terms of test methodologies for 6G and AI as such.
Steve Saunders:
It's sort of n-dimensional, isn't it? Because you've got 6G, which is going to be faster, and it's going to have lots of different capabilities. But then you combine it with IoT and digital industrialization where we get a network of trillions at some point, and those for Keysight, for security experts, and for you, it's going to be really challenging. Do you still feel optimistic about the whole situation, Harjot?
Harjot Saluja:
With respect to AI, you mean?
Steve Saunders:
Hmm.
Harjot Saluja:
Yeah, I think, look, it reaches in the business of know Shopify-ing the telecom vertical, right? We are making it simple and easy for people to monetize telecom assets, create new applications, maybe be mobile, fixed wireless ISP. So for us, we are using AI the same way internally, but also we have an AI interactive video conversation list that can create a mobile service for you. You talk to it, you tell what you like, tell what kind of things you want to do. If you think about that, if you go back 10 years, that-
Steve Saunders:
Is mind-blowing.
Harjot Saluja:
... to build something like that would cost millions of dollars to put it together, and now you can do it at almost no cost. So I think yes, I think certainly hopeful with that. And I think yes, you have to also be careful with respect to the downside of some things kind of going too fast like you said. You have to kind of create that balance, but we feel pretty good about the value we are getting as a company and giving it to our customers, leveraging AI.
Steve Saunders:
Fantastic. Guys, it's really great that you're here and that you are talking about all of these issues, which are really going to be critical to our industry, and that we're thinking about them now. Thank you all very much for being such a great panel. Thank you.
Joel Stradling:
Thank you.
Steve Saunders:
Cheers.
Harjot Saluja:
Thank you.
Balaji Raghothaman:
Thank you very much.