Ericsson VP and CTO Erik Ekudde: What I understand from India's AI ambitions is ...

Ericsson's senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer Erik Ekudden is quite upbeat about India's AI ambition. Ekudden was in India for the recently-concluded India AI Summit. Speaking to news agency PTI, Ekudden said that India's AI ambition, spanning the entire technology stack, aims to drive innovation across the domestic ecosystem while also contributing globally. He sees India's AI ambition reflect a clear push to drive innovation across the entire technology stack, not just domestically but with global impact. "What I understand from India's ambition when it comes to AI, and certainly across the stack, is really helping and driving innovation across the Indian ecosystem, and I would say also globally because AI being a very global phenomenon, will benefit from strong local innovation, but also collaboration across the world. And I think this is really what we are betting on," he said.

Ericsson CTO said that strong local innovation combined with collaborations will be key to unlocking the full potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) which is "inherently a global phenomenon". Ekudden stressed on the importance of networks in this journey. He stressed that the evolution of networks will be central to the AI journey. According to him, full benefits of such advances will only be realised with robust, AI-powered connectivity, with 5G evolving toward AI-native 6G networks in the years ahead.

Future is rise of Agentic AI or AI Agents

He said that while AI is already being used to optimize 5G networks, the future will see the rise of agentic AI or AI agents, and eventually physical AI such as robots and humanoids. He said at present, networks are being optimised primarily for generative AI use cases, but the next phase will centre on AI agents and more autonomous, agentic systems. Over time, this will extend to physical AI, including robots and humanoids.

However, he stressed that such capabilities cannot be fully realised without stronger connectivity, noting that today's AI-powered 5G networks must eventually evolve into AI-native 6G infrastructure to unlock the full potential of these technologies.

Talking about partnerships in India, Ekudden added, "We are working very closely with our customers here in India. We're working with the partners in the ecosystem, universities, making sure that India can stay at the forefront, both when it comes to advanced connectivity, 5G evolving into an AI-native 6G in the years to come."