Why Data Readiness Is Holding Telecom AI Back
At FutureNet World 2026, Wavelo's Director of Solutions Engineering, Bob Dietrich, sat down with Francis Haysom, Principal Analyst at Appledore Research, for a candid conversation about one of the most pressing challenges in AI-driven telecom today: data readiness.
Most carriers are building massive data lakes — pulling from siloed sources, updated once a day at best. But as Bob and Francis discuss, that's simply not enough for the kind of real-time, autonomous decision-making the industry is moving toward. Whether it's a security threat emerging in milliseconds or a radio access network balancing energy, customer experience, and CapEx simultaneously, the decisions that matter most can't wait overnight.
The conversation digs into what "contextual data" really means — not just what the data says, but who updated it, when, why, and how often. That metadata layer is what builds trust between AI systems and the humans overseeing them.
Bob and Francis also get into the role of ontology as the foundation for digital twins, why a "big bang" migration approach almost always fails, and what it will actually take to make agentic AI work in telecom — including the thorny question of how agents should handle conflict with one another.
Watch the full conversation!
