“The opportunity for telecom to step into the center of the AI cycle is real. Whether the industry grabs it is still an open question.”
As usual, MWC 2026 was heavy on announcements and buzz as AI seemed to be stamped on half of the show floor. Attendees are getting sharper though and have honed their ability to separate the signal from the noise. Alas, distinguishing genuine progress from AI washing has become a discipline unto itself.
In our post-MWC episode of Zero-Touch Live, Geoff Hollingworth speaks with telecom expert Chetan Sharma of Chetan Sharma Consulting to unpack what they saw, what surprised and what it means for telecom as we look ahead.
📺 Watch the replay now below.
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Determining what was real at MWC
Geoff and Chetan worked through the key themes from the week, spotlighting the meaningful progress they observed. Key takeaways included:
AI was everywhere, but production was sparse. Chetan estimated more than half of announcements were AI-centered, yet only 10 to 15% of what was shown was actually in production. Real progress was concentrated in three areas: on-device AI processing, network operations, and traffic management and energy optimization.
Data strategy remains the harder problem. Many operators are pursuing AI initiatives without having resolved their underlying data infrastructure. Siloed data may support isolated POCs, but rolling out AI at scale requires a unified data layer—a realization increasingly recognized across the industry.
6G still hasn't answered the most basic question. 6G has plenty of organizational momentum but still lacks a compelling answer to the most basic question: why? Until the conversation shifts toward operational efficiency and cost, rather than just delivering the next icon on a device screen, the pace mismatch between AI development and 3GPP's decade-long cadence will only get harder to ignore.
Sovereignty has become a vertical issue. What was a background conversation at MWC 2025 is now front and center. Independence across the chip layer, energy, infrastructure, software and applications is being discussed openly, with NTN strategy increasingly intertwined with that dynamic.
Some operators are showing real ambition. A range of operators demonstrated expanded roles in their respective ecosystems. Now, the question is whether they can sustain the course as technology and geopolitical conditions continue to shift
"What MWC made clear is that the gap between ambition and execution is widening, and operators are going to land on different sides of it."
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