Innovate First, Monetise Later: Unleashing the Full Potential of AI

The last decade promised great digital innovations such as virtual worlds where people would work, socialize, and learn online. Most of these visions never came to fruition. Limited bandwidth, insufficient computing power, costly devices, privacy concerns, cybersecurity issues, and liability risks stalled them.  

However, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is different. Unlike virtual ecosystems, which have proven difficult to realize, AI is tangible and quantifiable, and is set to transform the way we live, work, and govern. It is already bringing about transformative change, impacting industries and society in ways that virtual worlds could not. Those nations and corporations that invest in AI today will dominate the next wave of innovation. 

Infrastructure and energy for the AI era 

AI cannot thrive without infrastructure. Fiber-optic networks and 5G roll-out are accelerating, but demand will soon outpace supply. Density, attenuation, and latency are now defining factors, not footnotes. Essentially, the Telecom operators should consider moving beyond the mindset of traditional service providers toward becoming key facilitators of the emerging AI-driven world, linking and building data centers to power AI on a large scale. This evolution requires a shift in mindset: from merely providing bandwidth to orchestrating the seamless flow of intelligence.

Operators are uniquely positioned to bridge the gap between centralized hyperscale clouds and the distributed edge. By interconnecting regional data centers with fiber, they facilitate the massive data flows required for training models, while simultaneously delivering the ultra-low latency connectivity needed for real-time AI inference.  

In addition, the availability of energy has become a most pressing concern. Data centers consume vast quantities of power, and effectively scaling AI will require the use of affordable, sustainable energy sources to meet unprecedented demand. The ability to balance power density and attenuation while ensuring efficient energy usage will determine which players can remain competitive in this new AI era. 

Getting it right will make or break the future of countries 

GPU performance is doubling every 18 months, creating an intelligence surplus. AI is ready to run at a scale never seen before. Yet access is uneven. Wealthy nations and corporations pouring resources into AI will plough ahead, while others fall behind. AI is no longer just technology; it defines economic and geopolitical power. 

Policy and regulation will shape adoption. Privacy, cybersecurity, and liability are critical, but bureaucratic delays could stall progress or create new risks. The countries that get this right will not only control the technology; they will define the rules of the AI era. 

The democratization of intelligence will boost infrastructure expansion 

Just as smartphones forced networks to expand, AI is pushing infrastructure to its limits. 5G and eventually 6G networks will be stressed by democratized AI usage. Children today interact seamlessly with ChatGPT, Siri, and Grok. Tomorrow, AI will be sitting at the heart of daily life. The “AI brain” must move closer to users, driving unprecedented demand for connectivity and compute. 

Telecom operators have a unique edge: rights of way, central office locations, networks to build on, and an existing customer base. Those who leverage these assets will become indispensable partners in the AI ecosystem. Central offices, which used to house legacy switching equipment, can now become edge data centers that handle AI tasks closer to users, reducing delays. By upgrading these sites and using the fiber networks they already own, operators can go beyond simply providing connectivity. They can compute power directly into the network architecture and turn the network into a smart platform, ensuring that when a teenager asks a chatbot a question or an autonomous vehicle navigates a junction, the response is fast and reliable. The challenge is transforming infrastructure into intelligence at scale, ready to serve a generation that expects instantaneous AI access. 

Boldly go… or fall behind 

Fifty-five years ago, Corning scientists reduced fiber optics attenuation from 1,000 dB/km to 17 dB/km. Today, we are approaching 0.1 dB/km, and the next wave of innovation promises even more dramatic breakthroughs. AI is reaching a similar inflection point: abundant computing power, smarter networks, and infrastructure designed for large-scale use will make mass adoption inevitable. However, while innovations in fiber and AI infrastructure are setting the scene, they alone will not be enough to overcome the challenges that are currently impeding the adoption of AI.  

This is an opportunity that is too big for any one sector to handle alone.  It requires a coordinated ecosystem-based approach: Governments must fast-track permits and modernize grids to meet energy demands, while energy providers need to accelerate the expansion of renewable energy capacity. Meanwhile, telecommunications leaders must deploy dense, high-capacity optical networks. Public-private partnerships will be crucial for sharing financial risk and aligning on standards. Significant investment in AI infrastructure, including bandwidth, computing power, energy and regulatory frameworks is essential to unlocking AI's transformative potential and ensuring global competitiveness.  

The Internet became essential because the necessary infrastructure was built before its potential for monetization was clear. AI is following the same path. Economic opportunities will emerge, yet the ultimate applications are still unknown. What is clear is that the world of tomorrow will be determined by the actions taken today. Those who hesitate will watch from the sidelines as AI reshapes society, economies, and global power. 

Hamza Alamoosh is Director, Network Architecture, Carrier, EMEA at Corning Optical Communications. He joined the company in 2012 and oversaw the building and expansion of Corning’s market presence across the Middle East region for a number of years, before dedicating his expertise to defining the long-term vision for network design, standards, and planning. He develops innovative, future-flexible solutions, including in the data center and data center interconnect areas. Hamza is an electrical engineer by education and holds also an EMBA degree from the Hult International Business School.