Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming the way business gets done.
Not so long ago, AI was a tool used by a few leading-edge companies and some bold startups. No more. Nowadays AI is finding a place in the workflow of all kinds of businesses, from retail to healthcare, manufacturing to agriculture.
The rapid adoption of AI by existing businesses is forcing many companies to reexamine their Wide Area Networks (WANs) to ensure that branches and other remote sites have the connectivity needed to support the AI tools of today and tomorrow.
In this post we will show how to prepare your WAN for the coming changes.
AI in branch locations
AI is being deployed not only in headquarters operations, but in branch locations as well. Those deployments have a significant impact on the networking needs of those branches. AI is being used to enhance customer service, improve efficiency, and generate additional revenue. Some examples include:
- Augmenting customer service: AI assistance helps staff tap into a company’s knowledge base to answer questions about products, check on inventory status, and process transactions. Such “virtual experts” are especially helpful in businesses that hire seasonal employees who do not have the benefit of long experience with the company.
- Computer vision: AI-analyzed computer vision is helping businesses track inventory, monitor foot traffic, and detect/prevent theft.
- Improve medical care: smaller medical clinics can access expert level analysis instantly to improve patient care and reduce delays. AI can be used to reduce the burden on staff of tasks such as scheduling and transcribing notes.
- Agentic AI: The next leap in AI is expected to be agentic AI, where the AI can function relatively autonomously, making decisions and solving problems on its own.
AI is not only driving demands on the network, it is also being deployed in the WAN itself. AI is being used to optimize traffic management and to identify and resolve network problems.
Understand the networking needs of your AI deployments
Different AI use cases have different networking needs. In many applications, for example retail employees relying on AI experts to help customers, reliable wireless connectivity is critical.
Computer vision needs a lot of bandwidth. Some applications rely on low latency. The more dependent companies become on AI, the less tolerant they are of any downtime or network glitches.
There are also some trends that can reduce the burden on networks. Edge AI is an architecture that pushes AI processing to the network edge, right in the device or branch office. This can improve response times and reduce the demands on the WAN.
Increased deployment of AI can bring with it increased security risks. Mobile end points and unmanaged devices introduce security vulnerabilities.
The future is multi-WAN
As AI and the digital transformation drive ever greater reliance on resources in the cloud, a single wired access point supporting WiFi is not going to be adequate. With the widespread availability of LTE/5G cellular, standard network arrangements will increasingly be hybrid, with wired connectivity combined with LTE/5G failover and bandwidth augmentation. Another advantage of cellular WAN is that it can be deployed in hours, making it easy to get new locations or pop ups online in a hurry.
Zero-trust based security is an essential feature in networks today. Zero trust does away with the old perimeter-based approach to network security and replaces it with one where all network users and traffic are viewed with suspicion, providing a far greater level of security.
Networking for the branches of today and tomorrow
Some of the key features to look for to support the AI-driven branch include:
- Support for diverse connectivity options, wired and wireless
- Easy to deploy and manage
- Balance between performance, flexibility, resiliency, and cost
- Zero-trust based security
AI is driving network needs today
Ericsson Enterprise Wireless supports AI-driven branches with the power of 5G. Our solutions are “future ready” with zero trust security and support for Edge AI available in our routers.
AI is here today, and it is evolving rapidly. The right WAN configuration is critical to supporting both today’s needs and tomorrow’s visions.
Learn more about Edge AI
Learn more about AI for Cellular Networking