By Claus Hetting, WiFi NOW CEO & Chairman
It is clear that technology is in the midst of an AI revolution – but what remains far less clear is how this revolution will reshape connectivity. In the coming months and years, the Wi-Fi industry will be compelled to answer a long list of critical questions. This needs to happen before it is too late for the industry to adapt, innovate, and capture emerging opportunities. There is no doubt that Wi-Fi has a critical role to play in providing the connectivity that AI needs. But what exactly is that role?
The questions are many. Will AI increase demand for wireless speed and capacity? Will AI applications require new levels of reliability and low latency? How much intelligence will move to the network edge? Will AI continue to transform network operations, security, and user expectations – and if so, how? What new requirements will emerge for connecting robotics, video, autonomous devices, and industrial automation? The AI revolution is not just creating demand for better connectivity. It could be fundamentally changing what connectivity is. Networks are evolving from transport infrastructure into intelligent systems that understand, optimise, secure, and increasingly manage themselves.
AI is arguably the most significant technological change since the advent of wireless connectivity and the Internet itself. Tectonic shifts like these are exceedingly rare. When they happen, they create a profusion of new opportunities for innovation, investment, and growth. So where will the greatest opportunities for the Wi-Fi ecosystem be found?
One way to view wireless connectivity in the age of AI is through the lens of four metrics. The first three have been around since the dawn of wireless: Speed, capacity, and coverage. The fourth metric is less a physical characteristic and more of a new dimension: Intelligence. The next generation of networks will increasingly be judged and valued by their adaptability, meaning their ability to continuously optimise and reconfigure themselves in response to changing requirements.
Wi-Fi may be uniquely positioned for this future – because few connectivity technologies, if any, have demonstrated the same ability to evolve quickly in response to change. For more than twenty-five years Wi-Fi has been the Swiss Army knife of connectivity, adapting successfully to a remarkable and continuously expanding range of use cases and market requirements.
There is high a likelihood that the winning connectivity platforms of the next decade may not be those with the best performing radios but those that best combine connectivity with automation, optimisation, security, application awareness, and intelligence. Perhaps the ultimate AI-powered network is one that is not managed by humans. It is one that continuously reinvents itself without human intervention.
We do not yet know precisely how this fourth dimension of networking will evolve and at what pace. But we intend to find out. These are the questions WiFi NOW and our community of experts intend to explore in coming months and years.
You are invited to join us on this journey of innovation and opportunity.
/Claus.
