The telecom industry is entering a more decisive phase of transformation, where progress is measured not by plans or pilots, but by what is being deployed, scaled, and monetized.
As operators move from experimentation to execution, the opportunity is not just to adopt more AI, but to build systems that combine intelligence with trust across networks, data, and customer operations. TM Forum DTW Ignite 2026 focuses on how those capabilities come together to drive measurable business outcomes.
Composable IT and ecosystems
Complexity continues to slow progress across telecom. Tightly coupled systems, fragmented integration paths, and years of technical debt make it harder to launch new services, adapt quickly, and deliver consistent experiences across channels.
TM Forum continues to position Open Digital Architecture as both a practical migration path away from legacy complexity and the architectural foundation for AI-native operations, with tools, standards, Open APIs, and reusable components designed to support more modular, cloud-native, and interoperable platforms.
That is why the Composable IT and Ecosystems summit sits so centrally in this year’s event: it reflects a broader industry shift from digital transformation as a long-running aspiration to reinvention for the AI era, where openness, composability, and governance become prerequisites for scaling intelligent operations.
For operators, the value is practical. Modular environments make it easier to modernize in stages, improve interoperability across business and network domains, and create a stronger foundation for ecosystem plays such as CAMARA and Open Gateway. This is where solutions such as Infobip’s Network API offering become relevant—helping operators turn standardized capabilities like number verification, SIM swap detection, and device location into practical services that expand revenues, strengthen trust, reduce fraud, and reach more developers.
With Microsoft, teams can standardize platforms, simplify integration, and create an environment where new capabilities can be introduced with greater speed and confidence.
That conversation will continue in the panel discussion “The AI-Native ODA Roadmap.” The session will explore how operators can build AI-native operations on common foundations across IT and networks, with emphasis on interoperability, governance, reusable patterns, and business value. It is a timely example of how TM Forum DTW Ignite 2026 is connecting architectural change to the strategic and operational priorities telecom leaders are navigating now.
That same modernization path is also reshaping the business side of telecom through Agentic Business Support Systems (BSS). Instead of hard-coded workflows, operators can use AI agents to interpret intent, orchestrate actions across catalog, ordering, billing, and care, and accelerate the path from request to resolution.
With Microsoft, TM Forum Open APIs, and a composable architecture, BSS can evolve into a more adaptive, outcome-driven system that enables faster service creation, stronger customer experiences, and new monetization opportunities across the ecosystem.
new work iq apis
This direction is reinforced by recent Microsoft Build 2026 announcements, where capabilities such as Work IQ and Agent 365 introduce a consistent way to ground AI agents in enterprise context, apply governance by design, and orchestrate actions across systems. Together, these capabilities make it easier for operators to move from isolated automation to agent-driven workflows that are composable, secure, and production-ready at scale.
This evolution also reflects the emergence of more persistent, context-aware agents—exemplified by experiences such as Microsoft Scout—that can operate continuously across tasks and systems, moving from reactive copilots to proactive digital coworkers that help coordinate work across the enterprise.
Autonomous networks
The industry is moving beyond manual processes toward systems that can interpret signals, recommend next actions, and automate response within clear controls. That shift sits at the heart of the Autonomous Networks summit at DTW Ignite 2026, where the focus is on how operators can make autonomy practical in day-to-day operations.
AT&T offers a strong example for incident management. By improving observability, creating better context across operational data, and accelerating the path from detection to action, operators can improve reliability and shorten the time between issue discovery and resolution. Microsoft supports this direction with cloud-scale data services, AI capabilities, and a platform approach that helps teams operationalize intelligence rather than isolate it in pilots.
Microsoft’s Network Operations Agent (NOA) framework extends this vision by enabling operators to deploy coordinated AI agents across network operations—helping interpret signals, orchestrate actions, and drive closed-loop automation with greater consistency and control.
The broader direction is clear. Operators are moving toward more predictive operations, more intelligent assurance, and more trusted automation that improves resilience, experience, and efficiency.
AT&T will also bring this story to the Park stage at DTW Ignite 2026, where the discussion is expected to highlight how End-to-End Incident Management uses current context, observability, and AI to move faster from detection to action. It adds a timely, customer-led example of how operators are applying agentic decision-making to improve reliability, reduce disruption, and make autonomy more practical in live network operations.
By bringing more context and intelligence into incident management, we are improving how quickly teams can identify issues, coordinate response, and restore service with confidence. This type of advanced agentic technology is helping us keep our customers connected and provide a better experience for them.
—Mark Austin, Vice President Data Science, AT&T
Underpinning this shift is the emergence of unified data and AI platforms that can ground agents in real-time operational context. With Microsoft Foundry and Foundry IQ, its knowledge layer, operators can connect data across network, service, and customer domains, enabling agents to reason more effectively and support closed-loop decisioning that moves from insight to action with greater speed and consistency.
Microsoft’s recent work in Azure Networking operations adds an important operational lens to this shift. Rather than treating agents as simple assistants, the model is evolving toward more persistent digital coworkers that help coordinate the messy middle of operations across incidents, repairs, vendors, and validation steps. In large-scale environments, that can reduce manual effort, shorten mitigation time, and free engineers to focus more on judgment, oversight, and higher-value decisions while agents keep execution moving across systems and teams.
Trustworthy AI and data
AI creates value only when it is grounded in trusted data, strong governance, and a clear path to action. In telecom, that standard matters because operators work in highly regulated environments and depend on reliable decision-making across critical services.
That is why the Trustworthy AI and Data summit at DTW Ignite 2026 matters. The conversation is not only about model capability. It is about data readiness, governance, observability, and the controls required to scale AI responsibly across the business.
This is reinforced by Microsoft’s perspective on local AI, where operators extend the AI execution model closer to where data is generated—improving latency, resiliency, and control while keeping data private. Running inference locally or at the edge can also shift the cost profile, reducing dependency on centralized compute for time-sensitive or high-volume workloads while enabling new real-time scenarios.
SoftBank brings that point into focus through its AI-powered customer platform, where the value shows up in responsiveness, service quality, and workload reduction. In its work with Microsoft, SoftBank is applying Microsoft Foundry, Azure OpenAI in Foundry Models, Azure AI Search, and Semantic Kernel to help build a more intelligent call center experience that reduces wait times, improves response quality, and supports more scalable customer operations. The example reinforces that AI success depends on the right data foundation and a disciplined link to measurable outcomes.
Microsoft sees telecom ontologies as an important part of the foundation for trustworthy AI. By creating a shared semantic model across network, service, customer, and operations data, they help AI systems reason with more context, improve explainability, and support more consistent decisions across domains. Combined with Microsoft Fabric as the unified data foundation, Fabric IQ as the intelligence layer, and Microsoft’s broader data and AI platform, that structure can help operators reduce fragmentation and move with greater confidence from isolated use cases to governed, reusable intelligence.
That theme will also come through in Alberto Manuel Fernandes Dias’ panel, “Data products at scale—the blueprint for AI-native telcos.” The discussion reinforces that scaling AI in telecom depends on more than models alone. It requires well-designed data products, clear ownership, and disciplined governance to turn fragmented information into reusable, high-quality, and AI-ready assets. For operators, that blueprint matters because it creates the consistency, trust, and lifecycle discipline needed to support autonomy at speed and scale.
Accelerating transformation through partner innovation
Transformation in telecom does not happen in isolation. Across TM Forum DTW Ignite 2026, Microsoft and its partners are working together to help operators modernize networks, simplify operations, and bring AI into real business processes.
From composable IT and cloud-native BSS modernization to agentic marketplaces, digital twins, and voice AI pilots, these collaborations reflect how the industry is moving from experimentation to scalable, outcome-driven innovation.
- Amdocs is highlighting continued momentum in cloud-first modernization through its expanded work with Lumen, helping accelerate enterprise billing transformation on Microsoft Azure. Separately, Amdocs is also showcasing how its Entitlement Server on Azure is setting new performance benchmarks for digital service delivery, reinforcing the value of scalable, AI-ready cloud infrastructure for telecom providers.
- Beyond Now is also demonstrating how AI is reshaping telecom monetization through its work on agentic marketplace experiences. In collaboration with Microsoft, the company is highlighting how operators can use intelligent automation and AI-powered ecosystems to accelerate service innovation, streamline partner engagement, and unlock new digital revenue opportunities.
- Kenmei is advancing how operators can make network data more usable for AI-powered operations through its new Network Performance Data Product built on Microsoft Fabric. Running natively in Azure, the solution combines governed network KPIs with a telecom ontology layer, helping operators accelerate agent-ready use cases while keeping data secure, unified, and under their own control.
- By integrating Nokia Data Suite with Microsoft Fabric, operators can access on-demand telecom data products that simplify data integration across complex, multi-vendor environments. This unified data foundation enables faster adoption of AI, generative AI, and automation, supporting the journey toward autonomous networks.
- Norwood is demonstrating how voice AI is becoming more practical for telecom providers through its OpenSpan Voice platform. In collaboration with Microsoft, the company is piloting AI-powered small and mid-sized businesses (SMB) voice capabilities with a major United Kingdom and Australian telecommunications provider, demonstrating how operators can deliver more intelligent, responsive customer communication experiences at scale.
- Tech Mahindra and Microsoft are advancing telecom innovation with a 5G Network Digital Twin, an intelligent virtual replica that enables AI-powered optimization, proactive issue resolution, and new monetization opportunities. Built on Microsoft Azure and Fabric, the solution unifies data, simulates network scenarios, and drives measurable impact across cost efficiency, network slicing, service assurance, and autonomous operations, while maintaining enterprise-grade governance and data sovereignty.
Customer momentum: From blueprint to production
The strongest signal in telecom today is that customer stories are moving from blueprint to production. Leaders want to see where transformation is working in practice and where AI is delivering value beyond the pilot stage.
- MEO stands out because its modular AI factory connects strategy to execution, giving the company a more repeatable path to scale new use cases across the business. AT&T highlights the operational side of the story, with incident management illustrating how better data and more intelligent workflows can improve detection, triage, and resolution.
- TIM Brazil adds a security-focused example, showing how integrated signals and intelligent protection can strengthen operational resilience while reducing noise and improving response. Together, these examples show how operators are turning transformation into something more tangible, operational, and repeatable.
TM Forum also shows how quickly AI can move from experimentation to scaled impact. Using Microsoft 365 Copilot and Microsoft Copilot Studio, the organization moved rapidly from early pilots to production with internal and member-facing agents. Its cross-functional productivity agent, Buddy, is already delivering measurable ROI across multiple departments, while Navigator—launched in time for TM Forum DTW Ignite 2026—simplifies access to standards and articles for members. The result is a strong example of how AI can improve internal productivity, strengthen knowledge access, and create a foundation for broader support across the innovation cycle, from catalyst to production.
That momentum is visible across the telecom landscape. Recent public examples show operators using Copilot to strengthen leadership decision-making, workforce productivity, and sales execution—from Singtel and Ooredoo Qatar to KPN—while large-scale deployments across Accenture, Cognizant, Infosys, TCS, and Wipro reinforce how quickly the supporting ecosystem is scaling the skills, services, and implementation capacity needed to help enterprises and operators move from pilots to broader adoption. Together, they point to the same shift: AI is becoming part of day-to-day work, with measurable impact on speed, decision quality, and business outcomes.
That is why TM Forum DTW Ignite 2026 feels timely. Innovation matters, but adoption matters more. The next chapter of telecom will be shaped by operators that can turn transformation into repeatable outcomes.
Join us in Copenhagen
TM Forum DTW Ignite 2026 arrives at a pivotal moment for the telecom industry. TM Forum has structured the event around three mission summits all designed to help operators move from ambition to real change:
- Composable IT and Ecosystems
- Autonomous Networks
- Trustworthy AI and Data
We look forward to continuing these conversations in Copenhagen and sharing how Microsoft, together with customers and partners, is helping telecom organizations translate strategy into measurable progress. In the end, the next chapter of telecom will be shaped by operators that can pair intelligence with trust at scale.
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