According to the latest report released by Juniper Research, as industry players accelerate their efforts to achieve "zero-touch" network operations, mobile operators will invest over 86 billion US dollars in artificial intelligence solutions in the next five years.
The research predicts that by 2029, the annual investment by operators in AI will increase from 13 billion US dollars in 2025 to 22 billion US dollars, an increase of 62%. The industry is striving to minimize human intervention in network management, thereby achieving faster and more efficient mobile network operations, which has driven this growth.
This research company emphasizes that AI is the key driver of this transformation. These autonomous systems are designed to use predefined parameters and advanced problem-solving capabilities to independently make and execute decisions.
Optimizing the Radio Access Network (RAN) through agent-based artificial intelligence (Agentic AI) has been identified as the application with the highest return on investment. This technology will enable operators to significantly reduce delays in the decision-making process and pave the way for real-time network optimization.
Juniper predicts that first-line operators will lead the early deployment, but warns that success depends on the use of lightweight AI models. These models have fewer parameters and can meet low latency requirements, which is crucial for improving customer experience through faster autonomous operations.
Regionally, China and East Asia are expected to dominate global cellular network AI investment, while India and Western Europe will also occupy a major share.
The report's author, Alex Webb, stated that although operators are expected to make huge investments in AI, "the cost savings brought about by energy consumption reduction achieved through Agentic AI implementation is expected to become an important factor for operators to achieve return on investment."
As operators compete to deploy and innovate through AI in the short term to achieve cost savings and energy efficiency, Juniper also predicts that the industry will shift to leveraging AI technology for revenue generation. AI is expected to support operators in launching new enterprise and consumer services, including fixed wireless access (FWA) and dedicated networks, as they pursue diversified business models.
The report predicts that by 2029, total operator network revenue will increase from 973 billion US dollars in 2025 to over 1 trillion US dollars. Although the growth rate is not significant, it comes at a time when consumer spending on operator services is declining. Under increasing pressure, AI-supported network slicing provides a key opportunity, allowing operators to offer differentiated connections on shared physical infrastructure.
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