AI reality bites as just 2% of Asia-Pacific telcos claim live agentic operations
Asia-Pacific telecom operators are accelerating AI investment but just 2% have scaled AI agents into core systems for live operational tasks, according to TM Forum research released ahead of Innovate Asia 2026, (Nov 17-19, Bangkok).
TM Forum’s “Reinventing IT for the AI era” survey of telco industry CIOs reveals that, while 89% of respondents identify AI as critical to their organization’s competitive strategy, almost a quarter (24%) of these admit they are not investing sufficiently to succeed. For 72% of CIOs, AI remains experimental or “bolt on” for specific tasks, and only 55% rank the integration of AI across their core enterprise architecture as a top three priority for the next 18 months.
The research shows how APAC operators’ intentions for AI to reshape how technology creates customer value are at risk of stalling at execution. The challenge now is to move from automation to autonomy at scale – an essential step in Asia’s Race to 2030 – before disconnected pilots add cost and complexity rather than delivering growth.
Almost half of respondents cite skills as a major obstacle to AI adoption (49%), followed by low-quality data (43%), high cost (42%) and AI accuracy or hallucination concerns (39%). Almost two in five (38%) also say that critical human decision-making is not sufficiently documented, making it harder to scale AI safely and consistently in production.
“The ambition and investment are in place, but moving from automation to autonomy means tackling the hard realities of deployment,” said Harry Wang, Regional Director, APAC at TM Forum. “These challenges cannot be solved in isolation. Innovate Asia brings operators and technology partners together to tackle the practical barriers, learn from what is already working, and share real-life pathways to harnessing the business benefits of autonomy at scale.”
Join us at Innovate Asia 2026
These findings frame the agenda at Innovate Asia 2026, where TM Forum will bring more than 1,200 telecom leaders, technology partners and solution makers to Centara Grand at CentralWorld, Bangkok, from 17–19 November.
Under the theme From Architecture to Autonomy: Asia’s Race to 2030, the event will focus on how operators can move from experimentation to execution across AI-native IT, autonomous networks and trusted AI and data.
About the research
Reinventing IT for the AI era is a TM Forum Insights research report based on a survey of 216 IT executives from 111 operators across 72 countries. Respondents include C-suite leaders, network architects and software engineering practitioners. The Asia region findings draw on 55 respondents and should be read as directional, providing an indicative view of regional CIO priorities rather than a statistically definitive benchmark.
The full global report is available: Reinventing IT for the AI era
About TM Forum
TM Forum is an alliance of over 800 organizations spanning the global connectivity ecosystem, including the world’s top ten Communication Service Providers (CSPs), top three hyperscalers and Network Equipment Providers (NEPs), vendors, consultancies and system integrators, large and small.
We provide a place for our Members to collaborate, innovate, and deliver lasting change. Together, we are building a sustainable future for the industry in connectivity and beyond.
To find out more, visit: www.tmforum.org
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