Towards the Dark NOC: AI-native operations at scale

Chair: George Glass, CTO, TM Forum 

12:00 – 12:15 
Turning the NOC AI-native  
Traditional network operations centers are evolving into AI-native operational environments powered by predictive assurance, digital twins, and autonomous workflows. This session explores how CSPs are redesigning the NOC for AI-native operations using digital twins, predictive assurance, and autonomous workflows to move from reactive fault management to real-time decision-making. 

• Scaling autonomous assurance across complex, hybrid networks 
• Using digital twins to predict and simulate network behavior 
• Benchmarking autonomy and bridging the people gap: How will we advance our understanding of network autonomy levels and the impact on business outcomes?  
• And how will we equip people across the industry to work together to make it happen? 

George Glass, CTO, TM Forum
in conversation with 
Shuvo Saha, VP of Education, TM Forum 

12:15 – 12:30 
Fireside chat: Data to decisions: AT&T’s autonomous network journey 
For AT&T, preparing networks for the AI era means turning real-time network and operational data into trusted, actionable intelligence. This session explores how an AI-ready data foundation, service management and orchestration (SMO), and intent-driven workflows can break down data silos, enable closed-loop automation, and advance autonomous network operations at scale. Participants will gain practical perspectives on building a scalable data-to-decision architecture and progressing toward greater network autonomy. 

Rob Soni, VP RAN Technology, AT&T 
Paul Challoner, VP Chief Technology Officer, Global Customer Unit AT&T, Ericsson 

12:30 – 13:00 
Panel: When AI takes the ops seat  
As telecom operators introduce AI-assisted and autonomous operational workflows, the role of network operations teams is rapidly evolving. This panel explores how AI is already making operational decisions inside live network environments - and what it takes to scale this safely across the NOC, from incident management to real-time optimization. 

• Where is AI already making real operational decisions today? 
• What currently breaks when you try to scale autonomy and what do we need to do to have more trust in AI operations? 
• How far AI should go in live operations? 
• Determining what the next-generation NOC team looks like 

Moderator: George Glass, CTO, TM Forum 
Mike Witkowski, VP Network Engineering & Operations, T-Mobile
Bradley Mead, Head of Networks Managed Services, Cloud Software & Services, Ericsson 
Sara Coppo, Telco Programs Lead, BMC Helix