- AI-driven traffic and variability are forcing operators to scale automation faster and more carefully
- Like many operators, Telstra is advancing toward autonomy in low-risk areas while keeping humans in control of high-impact decisions
- Data quality, normalization and cross-network visibility remain the biggest barriers to full automation
AI demand isn’t just increasing traffic loads inside telecom networks — it’s fundamentally reshaping how those networks are operated, according to Regan Ireland, global head of pre-sales solutions, products and digital experiences at Telstra.
Speaking during Fierce Network's AI and the Automated Network virtual event this week, Ireland said the past 12–18 months have been defined by both scale and unpredictability. Growth from hyperscalers and emerging neoclouds has been “unfathomable,” but just as important are the shifting expectations around responsiveness and reliability.
“The demand changes both in magnitude but also in location,” he said, adding that AI is “really raising the bar on us how quickly we’re able to respond” and how reliably operators can automate across their own networks and those of partners.
That shift is accelerating Telstra’s move toward more autonomous operations — but not in a straightforward way.
“Autonomy…is something you have to build, but it’s also something you have to earn,” he said, noting that Telstra's approach prioritizes automation in lower-risk, repeatable tasks while keeping humans accountable for policy and risk. What's needed is "clean telemetry,” strong observability and a “governed source of truth” before operators can trust automated systems at scale.
Not removing the humans, yet
Today, Telstra is somewhere between traditional automation and full autonomy, he said. The company is using automation to speed detection and recovery, and improve customer outcomes but not to remove human decision-making where it matters most.
When speaking generally about the industry at large, he emphasized that engineers still play an important role in determining “policy,” managing “exceptions” and evaluating risk tied to customer impact.
“Anything to do with policy, with complex exceptions…those sorts of complex trade-offs, they are something that I think there will always be a human in the loop,” he said. What Telstra wants to eliminate is the operational drag around those decisions, aka, “the manual friction… the handoff and the reconciliation, repeat checks, the double checks.”
The data challenge remains top-of-mind
That friction often traces back to the industry’s biggest constraint: data.
Ireland said data “still remains the biggest challenge,” particularly when it comes to telemetry. The issue is not just collecting more data, but making it usable.
“It’s only useful when it’s normalized or correlated…otherwise the signal just gets lost in the noise,” he said, describing how operators can become overwhelmed by alarms without a clear way to extract meaning.
Visibility gaps across network boundaries compound the problem, forcing continued reliance on manual validation where systems don’t align.
For customers, though, the benefits of increased automation should be tangible. Ireland pointed to a shift toward proactive operations. “We’ll get back to you” should become less common, replaced by faster response times, better visibility into service delivery and more consistent handling of incidents, he said.
That includes “faster to quote, faster to get a solution” and clearer, real-time insight into what’s happening in the network. The goal, he said, is a model where customers can see their services status at any time and understand risks and mitigations as they happen.
The end state isn’t a hands-off network. It’s one where automation removes the repetitive work while human judgment continues to define how operators manage risk, resilience and customer impact.
To listen to Fierce's full interview with Ireland, catch our AI and the Automated Network virtual event on demand by clicking here.