At the Autonomous Network Summit during MWC Barcelona 2026, Cyient outlined how autonomy is reshaping network operations for telcos
On the opening day of MWC in Barcelona, Cyient brought together industry leaders, operators, and technology experts to tackle one of telecom’s defining priorities: advancing the journey toward level 4 autonomous networks.
Under the theme “Embracing Intelligence at MWC: The Human + AI Blueprint for Autonomous Networks,” the sessions underscored a core belief driving Cyient’s strategy — that autonomy is not achieved by AI alone. Instead, the future of network operations lies in the deliberate integration of artificial intelligence with deep human expertise.
In the keynote address, “Networks That Run Themselves: Turning Resilience into Revenue,” Arunav Roy, SVP and global head of connectivity at Cyient, highlighted how autonomy directly supports business outcomes. He framed the challenge for operators around accelerating network engineering and deployment, simplifying operations and embedding automation at scale.
In a panel that RCRTech’s principal analyst, Sean Kinney, moderated it became clear that the path toward higher levels of autonomy requires clearer industry alignment. “I know that there is a lot of buzz on level 4 autonomy, but it is also important to understand what exactly is level 4 autonomy and how close we are. What are the timelines so that the industry can adopt?” Ravi Sinha, the CTO, connectivity, of Cyient emphasized — pointing to the need for practical benchmarks and realistic roadmaps rather than abstract ambition.
Ultimately, autonomous capabilities are no longer solely about cost reduction. Predictive maintenance, self-healing architectures, and closed-loop automation increasingly translate into measurable gains, from improved uptime to differentiated service-level assurances that can unlock new revenue streams.
However, closing the loop effectively remains a central challenge. “What we really need is a way to organize all of the data that’s collected in a standard way,” said Sanjay Aiyagari, chief architect, telco CTO office at Red Hat. “How do we close the loop? And close the loop correctly so that it’s actually closed.” His comments underscore the importance of standardized data frameworks and interoperable systems in making autonomy truly operational.
The panel reinforced that autonomy does not replace human expertise. Instead, it elevates it — allowing network teams to move from reactive intervention to strategic oversight, innovation and governance supported by AI-driven insights.
According to Joaquim Croca, cluster head of Europe at Cyient, the company has positioned itself as a key enabler in that transition: “We are a complexity resolver, so whenever you have lots of different technologies in your network from different vendors, with different complex models of network sharing, network slicing, etc., etc., we come with our platform and our services and we make sense of that, we resolve, we simplify.”
By focusing on AI-enabled operations that improve mean time between repairs, enhance network efficiency and reduce overall costs, Cyient aims to help operators transition from fragmented automation initiatives to integrated autonomous operating models.
As demonstrated at MWC, Cyient sees autonomous networks not as a distant aspiration but as an achievable next phase of telecom transformation — one in which human intelligence and AI work in tandem to deliver resilient, self-optimizing networks built for the demands of the AI era.
| Download Cyient’s Autonomous Network L4 Guidebook for Telcos here. |
