AI Still Dominating Discussions as Mobile World Congress Opens in Las Vegas

Building networks has never been more complicated, said Boingo Wireless CEO Mike Finley. “AI is reshaping everything, and the pressure to stay agile, efficient and resilient is constant.” In 25 years, “the world will look dramatically different,” with a future “shaped by technologies we’re only beginning to understand today,” he said.

AI agents “will manage the rhythms of daily life, handling your grocery orders, booking your appointments, monitoring your nutrition and even responding to your moods and health needs,” Finley said. “The blueprint for that future is already being built today.” The most successful businesses “don’t wait for disruption, they anticipate it,” he added. “They change before they have to. … They build infrastructure that’s ready for what’s next.”

Anil Jain, Google Cloud's global managing director of strategic consumer industries, said AI is “one of the most transformative technologies of the 21st century.” It will “shape and reshape” industries, create some “and also affect the public at large,” he said. “You can’t get through the day right now and not have a conversation about AI.” Typical of any major technology, the hard part can be separating reality from “the hype,” he added.

Most companies are focused on the value they can get from AI and the impact on their businesses, Jain said. “Leaders are no longer asking if, but how.” Companies are already seeing “real returns” from AI, starting with improved customer experience, “which is obviously very, very relevant to all industries, but especially the telecom industry."

AI is also helping companies work in “smarter ways” across marketing, finance, legal, procurement and IT, he said. That “allows you to then justify and unlock further investments.” The current focus is "agentic" AI, which is “about AI that can reason, can make decisions and then can be automated to act,” he said. The next step is physical AI, where companies can take all of AI’s capabilities, “integrate them and then embody them in the physical world.” More and more companies now have an AI chief, he noted. “There will be so many jobs created that it’s hard to predict.”

AI means faster, bigger and more sophisticated cyberattacks as well, said Lara Dewar, GSMA's chief marketing officer. “While AI can be used to attack, it can also be used to defend,” and security systems are using generative AI to keep ahead of threats, she said. The major U.S. carriers have announced plans to use open application programmable interfaces (APIs) for number verification and SIM swap.” Such APIs “allow companies to validate customer identities and to provide an additional level of protection, ultimately strengthening overall security.”

North America leads the world in satellite to mobile phone connections, Dewar said. “These capabilities supplement our mobile networks and redefine what coverage everywhere means.” The region is also “pioneering” open radio access networks and AI-driven RAN architectures, “giving operators more flexibility, lower costs and faster time to market for new features,” she said. GSMA-promoted open APIs are “changing the game for developers” and serve as a “catalyst for innovation across sectors.”

The AI market is projected to hit $5 trillion by 2033, said Emily Fontaine, IBM's global head of venture capital. “That’s an enormous number” that creates “unprecedented opportunities for startups, for investors, for enterprises, for the entire ecosystem.” In the first half of the year, there was $104 billion in investment in AI worldwide, which is already more than in all of last year, she said. “It’s moving really fast and people are spending big.”

A few months ago, only 26% of companies reported they had adopted aspects of AI, which has climbed to 42% today, Fontaine said. Industries “want tailored solutions,” and that’s driving growth. She said she will probably look at 1,000 startups this year. “We see a lot of interesting startups that pop up, but there’s no market yet for them.”