Agentic AI will likely become a key enabler in creating a credible pathway towards trusted Level 4 autonomous mobile networks, but achieving this will require significant transformation across architecture, standards, security, operations and governance, according to a new industry publication from the Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance (NGMN).
‘Network Automation and Autonomy Phase III: Agentic AI for Autonomous Mobile Networks’ explores the motivation, opportunities, requirements, and ecosystem developments associated with applying Agentic AI for network automation in autonomous mobile networks.
It provides three key insights: a pragmatic reference framework identifying the core components required for Agentic AI-driven network automation; a look at ecosystem maturity and potential or perceived gaps across standards and open-source activities; and a set of considerations to accelerate safe, interoperable and scalable deployment.
The publication highlights that while Agentic AI can act as a foundational catalyst for network automation, the success of commercial-scale adoption will benefit from the readiness of comprehensive and reliable support systems, ecosystem alignment and the mitigation of fragmentation risks rather than individual AI model capabilities or technologies.
It identifies that operators will need robust mechanisms for governance, trust, policy adherence, observability, explainability, operational safety, determinism, assurance, security and cost control.
Laurent Leboucher, Chairman of the NGMN Alliance Board and Orange Group CTO and EVP Networks, commented: “Mobile network operators (MNOs) find themselves at a decisive inflection point as the telecoms industry enters a new phase of network automation. AI is no longer restricted to analytics, prediction, and closed-loop optimisation. Indeed, the rapid arrival of Agentic AI has introduced the prospect of autonomous systems able to reason, plan, collaborate and execute actions within and across multiple operational domains.”
“However, the complexity of networks and high expectations surrounding customer experience means general-purpose Agentic AI technologies must be used carefully with the right harness and guardrails to bring humans in the loop when needed. This is a learning process in itself where operators will have to take controlled risks.”
Guangyi Liu, Chief Expert of China Mobile and NGMN Board Director, said: “Review of standards development organisations (SDOs), industry initiatives and open-source activities demonstrates encouraging momentum across the ecosystem in Agentic AI deployments, but despite this the landscape remains largely complex and unevenly mature.”
“Increased collaboration among MNOs, SDOs, vendors, hyperscalers, and open-source communities is therefore important to achieve confidence in the opportunity of large-scale deployments and provide a more unified end-to-end perspective. That means cross-industry coordination on areas such as telecom-grade interfaces and trust mechanisms, as well as shared testing environments, and evidence-based validation of agent behaviour to ensure solutions remain interoperable, secure and fully aligned with operator requirements.”
Luke Ibbetson, Head of R&D at Vodafone and NGMN Board Director, added: “Capabilities for trustworthiness, security, explainability, observability, interoperability, governance and appropriate human oversight must be in place for Agentic AI in order to accelerate safe, interoperable, and scalable deployment across the telco ecosystem.”
“If the related requirements are met, Agentic AI can help create a realistic route toward trusted Level 4 autonomy where networks are highly autonomous and enable automated decision making, self-optimisation, self-healing and self-management.”
‘Network Automation and Autonomy Phase III: Agentic AI for Autonomous Mobile Networks’ also highlights how isolated proof-of-concepts will increasingly shift towards operational deployments of Agentic AI prioritising well-controlled, high-value use cases in the coming years, with agents capable of managing complex workflows across multiple network domains.
One of the main factors determining the success of this will be increased collaboration across the entire telco ecosystem to help reduce the risk of fragmentation and align on interoperable architectures, interfaces and responsibilities.
*As defined by TM Forum’s Autonomous Networks Project
