- Energy management could be the next big AI use case for telcos
- MTN, AT&T, and Deutsche Telekom are turning to AI to reduce power usage in their networks and increase efficiency beyond what was possible with ML.
- Industry executives say this use case is still young but could see significant improvements.
Carrier AI adoption started with chatbots, customer service, and document summarization as carriers looked to tackle the low-hanging fruit first. Now, carriers are applying AI to a big budget item: energy.
At DTW Ignite 2026 in Copenhagen this week, carriers and vendors alike discussed energy management as the next AI use case that will bring about significant change for carriers.
“We have very clearly demonstrated a pre-AI world and a post-AI world on many sites in South Africa and Cape Town,” MTN Group CTIO Charles Morapisi told Fiers on the show. “When you compare the energy savings before and after, the savings were very significant because we were much smarter in terms of what we were doing.”
Raj Savoor, AT&T’s vice president of network analytics and automation, made similar comments during a recent Fierce Network virtual event, saying the company was able to leverage network foundation models to achieve “significant” improvements in energy efficiency compared to previous ML models.
Deutsche Telekom also outlined plans to use AI-based algorithms to turn network assets on and off more efficiently.
Still, the adoption of AI in applications such as antenna steering and energy management is still in the “early stages,” Jan Hoffmeyer, AWS vice president and head of communications, told DTW’s Fiers. But it has the potential to fundamentally change the game.
Currently, optimization is done on a time interval basis, he said. With AI, you can do it in real time or near real time.
“These antennas should be off and low power by default, but turn them on. [when needed]. Now they are running at full power most of the time. So I think we have a huge opportunity to increase efficiency,” Hoffmeyer said. No additional infrastructure is required. They need to get more out of the infrastructure they have in place before they can deploy it. ”
Why is it important and why now?
Considering the amount of money we spend on energy each year, energy management is a huge opportunity for businesses. Depending on which power source they want to use, carriers spend an average of 4% to 20% of their operating budgets on energy. With both transportation and energy costs rising, there is a good chance that this range will increase unless something is done.
Thankfully, energy management appears to be one of the easiest places to achieve AI-based autonomous operations.
Anders Westergren, head of BCSS solution area network management at Ericsson, told DTW’s Fiers that when it comes to energy management, it may be easier to achieve Level 4 autonomy “because it’s a single domain” and the enabling technology is mature and well understood.
See all coverage from Click here for DTW Ignite 2026.
