The AI boom and opportunities for service providers
AI has evolved from a futuristic concept into a power force that’s reshaping industries around the globe. In fact, according to recent surveys and projections, the AI landscape is experiencing explosive growth:
- 92% of companies plan to increase AI investments over the next three years, fueling a competitive race to harness its benefits
- The generative AI (GenAI) market is projected to reach $467 billion by 2030, with a 27% compounded annual growth rate
Communication service providers (CSPs) are at the front of this transformation. In 2024, 71% of CSPs focused on AI and GenAI initiatives to enhance customer experiences and streamline operations. And early adopters are seeing tangible results:
- AI-driven helpdesk bots achieve a 60% higher customer resolution rate
- AI-powered automation and analytics in network management deliver 40% cost savings
These promising outcomes underscore the need for CSPs to advance further along the AI value chain. By doing so, they can offer differentiated, high-value solutions that position them as essential partners in the AI ecosystem.
The role of service providers in the AI value chain
Emerging AI applications are fundamentally changing service provider network traffic by generating diverse, dynamic data streams that require low latency connectivity, increase uplink demands, and drive the need for higher capacity data centre interconnects. Key drivers include:
- Multimodal assistants process or integrate information from multiple different types of data, whether video, images, or text
- AI-enhanced user-generated content blends traditional user-generated content with AI to improve speed, personalization, quality, and scalability
- AI agents, which are autonomous forms of AI that can perform tasks, make decisions, and achieve goals on behalf of users
- AI integration with the physical world—through digital twins, robotics, and edge-to-cloud workflows using sensors and video feeds—requires low-latency, robust infrastructure
Additionally, the surge in AI training—involving massive data transfers, distributed training, and iterative optimization—further strains network capacity. Real-time edge inferencing, such as facial recognition and behavior analysis, relies on strong edge infrastructure to handle continuous, high-volume data uploads.
To ensure reliable performance for these AI-driven workloads, service providers must implement AIOps-based QoS assurance. This includes traffic prioritization, predictive load balancing, and resource optimization.
Service providers can strategically align with the AI value chain to capitalize on the growing demand for AI-driven solutions by enhancing their infrastructure and services by:
- Expanding 5G capacity for high-speed, low-latency wireless connectivity
- Accelerating fiber rollouts to deliver ultra-reliable broadband
- Upgrading Data Center Interconnect to enable seamless, high-bandwidth data transfers between data centers
By leveraging AIOps, service providers can offer assured AI connectivity, delivering secure, personalized, and optimized network services tailored to enterprise needs, with features like real-time traffic prioritization, predictive resource allocation, and automated fault resolution.
Other opportunities include:
- AI edge hosting partnerships to provide low-latency connections for edge-hosted AI applications, such as real-time inferencing for IoT devices, autonomous vehicles, or smart cities
- Sovereign AI factories offering GPU-as-a-Service or AI-as-a-Service to enterprises seeking secure, scalable, and localized data center infrastructure for AI training and deployment
- Investments in sustainable energy solutions to power AI-intensive data centers, addressing environmental concerns while meeting enterprise demands for green computing
Through these initiatives, service providers can become pivotal players in the AI ecosystem, delivering end-to-end solutions for diverse AI applications.
How can HPE Juniper Networking help service providers deliver AI-enabled services?
HPE Juniper Networking has been working closely with service provider customers to redefine networking with our AI-native approach. By continuously evolving Juniper Mist™, our AI-native networking platform, we’re delivering AI for network operations with industry-leading AIOps, as well as robust infrastructure purpose-built to meet the demands of networks for AI workloads.
AI for network operators
HPE Networking’s secure, AI-native networking revolutionizes operator and user experiences while prioritizing security.
- AI-native analytics, virtual network assistants (VNAs), and Large Experience Model (LEM)-based automation solutions offer proactive insights into network behavior for campus, branch, and data center networks, while self-driving, closed-loop remediation capabilities simplify WAN operations. Benefits include:
- 50% lower deployment time for campus and branch networks and 50% lower resolution mean-time-to-resolution for WAN issues, resulting in a faster, assured service experience
- Self-provisioning, optimized services, and service-level agreement (SLA) assurance, ensuring seamless, reliable connectivity
- Security is fortified through trusted networks and Advanced Threat Protection, integrating Zero Trust principles and unified management to safeguard against evolving threat
Real-world examples:
- Orange Egypt halved incident resolution time
- T-Mobile transformed customer experience in its retail stores
Networking for AI workloads
AI workloads demand networks that are high-performance, ultra-reliable, and built for scale. HPE Networking’s secure, AI-native networking delivers:
- High-performance, scalable infrastructure optimized for AI workloads, supporting 800G connectivity and silicon diversity to ensure robust data center performance
- Open architectures that enable seamless multivendor integration and advanced Ethernet fabric management for flexible, efficient operations
Security remains a top priority, with comprehensive data center security measures, including Zero Trust principles and unified threat management, ensuring AI-driven environments are protected against sophisticated threats while maintaining scalability and interoperability.
Elevate your position in the AI value chain
To thrive, service providers must participate in the value chain by offering AI-enabled services that deliver differentiated, high-value solutions. HPE Networking’s secure AI for networking and networking for AI solutions can help service providers successfully navigate this transformation, facilitating the delivery of AI-enabled services and enabling the seamless integration and optimization of AI-driven capabilities.
As a result, service providers will be able to deliver:
- On-demand provisioning with SLAs to ensure the rapid, reliable deployment of tailored network resources, meeting dynamic customer needs
- AIOps-driven managed services that harness AI to optimize network operations, reduce downtime, and enhance efficiency through predictive analytics and automation
- Edge inference model hosting to enable low-latency AI processing for applications like IoT and real-time analytics
- GPU/AI-as-a-service to empower businesses with scalable, on-demand access to high-performance computing, driving innovation and unlocking new revenue streams while positioning themselves as strategic partners in the AI ecosystem
By adopting these strategies, CSPs can establish themselves as indispensable strategic partners in the AI ecosystem, driving growth and differentiation in a rapidly evolving landscape.
