MWC ZTE believes that AI-driven automation will play a vital role in the telecommunications industry. As 5G networks are rolled out, ZTE expects AI to become essential not only for infrastructure management but also for operational support and business processes.
The company sees “AI for operations” as a major opportunity for telecom providers to secure a leading position in the coming market. By using AI to automate and optimize processes, service providers can improve service quality, reduce operational costs, and deliver new value-added offerings to customers.
These views underpin a whitepaper titled “Expediting AI for Operations in the Networks of Future,” released by ZTE in collaboration with market research firm IDC. The report forecasts that enterprises able to analyze all relevant data and translate it into actionable insights will gain significant productivity advantages over less data-driven competitors.
Anticipating a hyper-connected future, ZTE has invested years of research and development in big data and AI to create the uSmartInsight platform. This platform is designed to accelerate AI operationalization across multiple sectors, helping customers turn large-scale data into timely, actionable intelligence. ZTE emphasizes that for operators of next-generation 5G networks, leveraging AI will be unavoidable. The company highlights three primary areas where AI will have major application potential: network operation, configuration and orchestration, and optimization. Of these, network operation is expected to see immediate value from AI-based automation, while configuration, orchestration, and optimization will deliver substantial benefits as 5G matures.
At Mobile World Congress 2018, ZTE announced a strategic partnership with InfoVista to make an application-aware SD-WAN solution generally available. The combined solution offers a unified branch gateway that merges ZTE’s routing, overlay networking, zero-touch provisioning, and service orchestration with InfoVista’s application visibility, quality-of-service control, session-level routing, and WAN optimization capabilities. This integrated approach aims to simplify branch deployments, improve application performance, and accelerate service rollout.
By focusing on AI-driven automation and integrated network solutions, ZTE positions itself to support operators and enterprises in managing increasingly complex network environments. The company’s investments in AI platforms and strategic partnerships reflect a broader trend in telecommunications: as networks evolve, automation and intelligent analytics will be central to maintaining efficiency, reliability, and competitive differentiation.