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AI is changing what enterprises expect from their networks. As organizations move from AI experimentation to deployment, the conversation is shifting beyond connectivity itself to the operational models, automation, and ecosystem coordination required to support AI-ready digital infrastructure.
That shift framed the discussion when Omdia, IDC, STL Partners, Analysys Mason, and Disruptive Analysis joined an Analyst Perspectives session during the Mplify Member Summit – EMEA held in Lisbon. Rather than debating whether Network as a Service (NaaS) is viable, analysts focused on how AI is reshaping networking requirements, enterprise expectations, and the industry’s next phase of evolution.
As the global alliance advancing AI-ready digital infrastructure, Mplify convened industry analysts and ecosystem leaders to examine these changes. Several themes emerged consistently across the discussion.
AI Moves from Optimization to Transformation
One of the strongest themes was that AI is changing the conversation around networking. Instead of simply making existing processes faster or cheaper, AI is creating entirely new workloads with requirements that are difficult to predict today.
That uncertainty strengthens the case for NaaS. Enterprises deploying distributed AI applications, agentic systems, inference workloads, and increasingly dynamic infrastructure cannot rely on static networking models. They need programmable, adaptable connectivity capable of responding to changing demands in real time.
Several analysts noted that the industry’s challenge is no longer proving that programmable networking is valuable. Instead, the challenge is ensuring networks are flexible enough to support workloads that have not yet been fully imagined.
Enterprises Care About Outcomes, Not Network Specifications
Another recurring message was that telecom providers must rethink how they engage enterprise customers. Historically, networking conversations have centered on technical metrics such as bandwidth, latency, availability, and service levels. Enterprises, however, increasingly measure success by business outcomes.
Rather than asking for a specific Ethernet service with defined performance characteristics, future enterprise requests may describe business objectives: support an AI fraud detection platform, maintain regulatory compliance, minimize inference latency, or optimize application performance.
This shift requires providers to move beyond selling connectivity toward enabling business outcomes.
Trust Becomes an Even Greater Competitive Advantage
In an increasingly automated marketplace, trust may become one of the industry’s most valuable assets.
As AI agents gain the ability to compare providers, evaluate services, and automate purchasing decisions, one might assume relationships become less important. Several analysts argued exactly the opposite.
Technology will increasingly make it easier to compare prices and capabilities, but enterprises will continue to value trusted partners who consistently deliver reliable outcomes. Long-term relationships, transparency, operational excellence, and confidence in execution remain powerful differentiators, particularly when AI systems begin making recommendations based on historical performance and operational data.
Differentiation Must Go Beyond Self-Service
Five years ago, simply offering self-service networking represented meaningful differentiation. Today, that is no longer enough. As NaaS capabilities become more common across the market, providers must compete through richer customer experiences, AI-enabled operations, broader ecosystem participation, and deeper service innovation.
Observability emerged as one particularly important area. Enterprises want greater visibility into how their networks perform, how changes affect applications, and how infrastructure supports business operations. Better insight builds confidence, helping accelerates adoption.
Open Ecosystems Will Matter More Than Closed Platforms
Federation, interoperability, shared standards, and common operational frameworks emerged repeatedly as prerequisites for scaling AI-ready digital infrastructure across providers and ecosystems.
Rather than inserting themselves as intermediaries between buyers and sellers, successful models are increasingly expected to enable commerce across an open ecosystem. This philosophy aligns particularly well with AI-driven automation, where multiple providers, services, and digital marketplaces may work together dynamically to satisfy enterprise intent.
Several analysts viewed this open, composable approach as a significant strength because it encourages innovation without competing directly against ecosystem participants.
The Industry Still Has an Education Challenge
Despite the excitement surrounding NaaS, analysts reminded attendees that much of the enterprise market is still early in its adoption journey. Many organizations remain unfamiliar with modern NaaS capabilities, while others continue to define the term differently. Some view it as on-demand connectivity, others as API-driven automation, and still others as a fully programmable network platform.
That diversity of definitions creates confusion.
Education, both within provider sales organizations and among enterprise buyers, remains essential. The market cannot accelerate if customers do not clearly understand what problems NaaS solves or how it delivers measurable business value.
Looking Ahead
The discussions reinforced that the industry stands at an inflection point. The analyst panel demonstrated that these were not isolated observations. The same themes surfaced repeatedly across the discussion.
AI is creating new networking requirements that demand flexibility, automation, and programmability. Enterprises are shifting their focus from technical specifications to business outcomes. Trust, transparency, and observability are becoming increasingly important competitive differentiators. Open ecosystems are enabling broader innovation, while education remains critical for accelerating market adoption.
The next stage of NaaS will not simply be about connecting locations more efficiently. It will be about creating the intelligent, programmable foundation that enables the AI-driven enterprise.
Collectively, these analyst perspectives reinforce the importance of industry collaboration as AI reshapes digital infrastructure. While the analysts approached the discussion from different angles, they consistently highlighted the need for greater automation, interoperability, trusted frameworks and ecosystem coordination. These are precisely the areas where Mplify is advancing industry collaboration through standards development, interoperability, tryst frameworks, and implementation.
Participating analysts have published research that explores these topics in greater depth.
Learn More
- Listen to the full recording of the Analyst Perspective session from the Mplify Member Summit EMEA in Lisbon.
- Analysys Mason | AI is reshaping network-as-a-service (NaaS), both in terms of how NaaS is used and what it is used for | June 16, 2026
- Disruptive Analysis | Mplify NaaS Event: APIs & AI-ready networks | June 11, 2026
- IDC | Mplify’s EMEA-hosted Global NaaS Event, 2026: Charting the Path to NaaS for AI | June 26, 2026
- STL Partners | NaaS for AI: Takeaways from Mplify Lisbon | June 2026