2025 AI in Networking

Welcome to the NextGenInfra AI in Networking Showcase, our research guide for enterprise and carrier network executives navigating the complex landscape of AIOps for networking, revised for 2025 to address the rise of agentic workflows.

This year's report covers the evolution of the three waves of AI: predictive, generative, and agentic. We look at the state of the technology and the market, as well as the leading use cases in 2025. We also re-examine the path to autonomous networks. We hope our report provides useful guidance in your decision-making as you look at AI implementation for your network operations.

Thanks to our sponsors for making this resource possible!

Perspectives on AI in Networking from Industry Thought Leaders

Our curated video gallery below showcases insights from industry leaders and practitioners actively involved in implementing AI, machine learning (ML), generative AI (GenAI), and agentic AI in real-world network environments.

The highlights reel features the following industry leaders:Jean-Phillippe Goyet (Blue Planet, a division of Ciena), Wim Henderickx (Nokia), Archana Khetan (Ericsson), Kishan Ramaswamy (Arista Networks), Ram Ramanathan (Ribbon), Ben Hickey (IBM), Scott Robohn (Solutional), and Vijoy Pandey (Cisco Systems). Listen to their quick takes on the transformative impact of AI (predictive, generative, agentic) on network operations across enterprises and carriers.

Reader feedback on AI in Networking 2025 — Harnessing the AI Deluge: “well-written,” “tracks the cutting edge in AI,” “thoughtful.” Grab your copy now and give it a read today!

Content from Sponsors and Thought Leaders

Views expressed are those of the presenting individuals and companies and may not necessarily represent views of Converge Digest or AvidThink.

Arista Networks

AI in Enterprise Networking with Arista VeloCloud

Kishan Ramaswamy, Director, Product Management at Arista Networks, reports that analysis of over 200 customers shows a significant portion of bandwidth consumption at the branch comes from AI applications, which require low latency WAN environments and exhibit symmetric, bursty traffic patterns unlike traditional asymmetric models. He explains that Arista’s VeloCloud solution is specifically designed to address these AI application requirements and capabilities.

Blue Planet (a Ciena Company)

Digging into Agentic-AI Operations with Blue Planet

Jean-Phillippe Goyet, Sr. Director Product Management – AI at Blue Planet (a Ciena Company), outlines their two-pronged AI approach that builds out-of-the-box applications while enabling customer enrichment, featuring a three-layer agentic framework announced at DTW. He describes their business process re-engineering methodology that optimizes existing processes and creates new capabilities, exemplified by 5G slicing where natural language processing converts user intents into dynamic network services.

Cisco Systems

AGNTCY - Cisco’s Open Framework for AI-Driven Networks

Vijoy Pandey, SVP & GM of Outshift by Cisco Systems, leads the development of the Internet of Agents (IoA), a new architectural layer enabling secure discovery and collaboration between AI agents. The IoA architecture, implemented through the open-source Agency project under the Linux Foundation, focuses on agent discovery, workflow composition, secure communication, and evaluation while integrating with existing protocols to enable real-time agent interactions at scale.

IBM

What's Next for AI-Driven Networking

Ben Hickey from IBM introduces IBM Network Intelligence, a new product designed to enable autonomous network operations that can identify and remediate issues before outages occur while optimizing capital expenditure and achieving cloud-like utilization rates of 90-95%. The solution combines analytical AI for handling network telemetry scale with generative AI capabilities to cut across siloed data and systems, initially focusing on day-2 operations with plans to expand into day-1 build and day-0 design use cases.

Nokia

Nokia: The Future of AI-Driven Operations

Wim Henderickx, CTO IP Division at Nokia, discusses how Nokia is evaluating its product portfolio against TM Forum operational flows and implementing a “divide and conquer” strategy for autonomous network operations by creating specialized expert systems for different network domains. He highlights the need for standardized interfaces and protocols like MCP to enable collaboration between different vendor systems, allowing Nokia to deliver level four autonomous operations in multi-vendor operator environments.

Ribbon

AI Automation for Real-Time, Multi-Vendor Networks

Ram Ramanathan, Senior Director of Product Management at Ribbon, discusses the company’s practical AI implementation strategy that moves beyond traditional siloed automation toward outcome-driven architecture addressing specific network problems. He outlines Ribbon’s vision for multiple AI agents communicating through protocols like MCP to enable automated ticket creation and progress toward autonomous networks, with primary investments focused on agentic AI development and enhanced network data analysis recommendations.

Solutional

AI's Impact on Network Operations: Strategic Guidance for Real Results

Scott Robohn, CEO of Solutional, explains how AI is changing network operations and creating new opportunities for organizations to fundamentally alter their network management approaches. With over three decades of networking experience, Robohn describes how Solutional helps customers navigate vendor claims, evaluate realistic AI applications, and develop effective strategies for network automation while avoiding technology dead-ends.

Director's Cut (Extended Edition Videos)

Arista Networks

Arista's Vision for Agentic AI in Enterprise Networks - Director's Cut

Kishan Ramaswamy, Director, Product Management at Arista Networks, reveals that AI applications now consume 95% of branch network bandwidth across their customer base, requiring specialized network solutions for low latency and bursty traffic patterns. His insights showcase how Arista Networks‘ cloud platform integrates AI capabilities for network troubleshooting and application management while supporting enhanced operations across wired and wireless environments.

Ribbon

AI Automation for Real-Time, Multi-Vendor Networks - Director's Cut

Ram Ramanathan, Senior Director of Product Management at Ribbon, outlines the company’s focus on cloud-native technology and AI-driven automation through a three-layered architecture approach for carriers and enterprises. He describes how Ribbon serves key market segments including deployment automation, cloud monitoring, and security management while maintaining a vendor-neutral strategy that enables integration with existing infrastructure.

Blue Planet (a Ciena Company)

Digging into Agentic-AI Operations with Blue Planet - Director's Cut

Jean-Phillippe Goyet, Sr. Director Product Management – AI at Blue Planet (a Ciena Company), and Roy Chua, Principal and Founder, explore how Blue Planet implements agentic AI through their AI Studio framework, which operates across three layers: agentic core, tooling, and application consumption spanning inventory, orchestration, assurance, and 5G slicing. Goyet explains that Blue Planet approaches agentic AI from a business process re-engineering perspective, focusing on optimizing existing processes before transforming them entirely, with proof of concepts including autonomous network capabilities and AI-driven network planning using graph neural networks.

IBM

What's Next for AI-Driven Networking - Director's Cut

Program Director Ben Hickey and Sanil Nambiar from IBM showcase IBM Network Intelligence, which enables networks to autonomously prevent trust issues before outages occur while optimizing capital spending through precise deployment timing. The technology aims to boost network utilization from 40% to 90-95%, creating opportunities for new business models and revenue-generating services.

Ericsson

Powering Enterprise Wireless with Agentic AI

Archana Khetan, SVP of Product Management and Technical Marketing at Ericsson, outlines the company’s AI strategy and its implementation of LLMs internally with emphasis on security and network operations. She details how Ericsson’s NetCloud Manager utilizes agentic AI to enhance automation and user experience in enterprise 5G deployments while focusing on specialized 5G intelligence for network quality and commercial optimization.