NVIDIA has published its fourth annual State of AI in Telecommunications survey, highlighting widespread adoption across the sector.
Telecom network automation, in particular, is strengthened compared to customer experience.
NVIDIA's report says AI is underpinning autonomous networks and AI-native wireless infrastructure, enabling new business and revenue opportunities across consumer, enterprise and national services.
The survey found 90% of respondents say AI increases revenue and reduces costs, 77% expect AI-native networks to launch before 6G, and 65% said AI is driving network automation; 60% are using or assessing generative AI, up from 49% in 2024, and 89% said open source models and software are important to strategy.
The top ROI use cases were autonomous networks at 50%, improved customer service at 41% and internal process optimization at 33%.
“There is a seismic shift underway in the telecom industry driven by AI,” said Sebastian Barros, managing director of Circles, a Singapore-based telecommunications provider.
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The report says network automation has overtaken customer experience for investment and deployment, with 88% of organisations at autonomy levels 1–3 and edge computing investments bringing AI inferencing closer to users.
It also highlights near-universal productivity gains from AI, with 26% citing major to significant improvements, and finds 89% of respondents plan to increase AI budgets in the next 12 months, with 35% expecting increases greater than 10%.
The recap
- NVIDIA survey reports extensive AI adoption in telecommunications.
- 90% say AI increases revenue and reduces operating costs.
- 89% plan to raise AI budgets in next 12 months.
