What Telco Execs Really Think About AI on the Home Network

Telcos are already using voice agents and agentic AI to turn proactive, self-healing Wi-Fi management into fewer truck rolls. Now they're eyeing AI as broadband's next revenue line

By Christopher Lycett, Event Director, Informa Connect

Network X 2026 runs 13–15 October in Vienna. Register now — operators and vendors will be there to talk about what's next for AI on the home network.

Communications service providers (CSPs) are asking hard questions about AI in the home network: the router, the mesh nodes, and the dozens of connected devices sitting in a customer's living room.

Among them: Which use cases actually cut truck rolls and churn? How much troubleshooting is a CSP willing to hand to an algorithm making real-time changes inside someone's home? And can AI turn a commodity broadband pipe into a monetizable smart home platform?

At Network X 2025 in Paris, Liberty Global's Mark Kinlen, VP, Platform Architecture, pointed to three converging forces that can simplify the digital home including customer-facing voice agents, agentic AI, and gradual smart home standardization.

In his operator keynote, “Improving In-Home Network Performance and Smart Home Monetisation with Wi-Fi Technology,” Kinlen said the value of AI shows up once LLMs are embedded inside agentic frameworks that can reason and act across telco systems. The objective, in Kinlen's framing, is hyper-automation paired with logic and explainability at machine speed, so care and service workflows get faster without becoming a black box (Network X).

Some of that same debate returns at Network X 2026 in Vienna, October 13-15, where Vodafone's Oscar Gallego, Director of Home Technology & Products Group Networks, opens the WiFi Networks & Services track with an Operator Address, Transforming Home Routers into Smart Home Command Centers (Register here).

Here's what the latest research and these carrier conversations reveal about where AI on the home network is actually paying off, and where operators would like to go next.

Telco Execs Featured in This Article

Mark Kinlen, VP, Platform Architecture, Liberty Global — read the Network X 2025 session recap

Oscar Gallego, Director of Home Technology & Products Group Networks, Vodafone

Fabrizio Campanale, VP Network Operations, TV & In-Home Engineering, Sunrise

What does the research show about AI's impact on the home network?

The most specific data yet on this question comes from a September 2025 report Omdia produced for the Broadband Forum called The Future of the Connected Home which surveyed 116 broadband service provider executives across 32 countries plus 13 in-depth interviews.

According to the survey results, 74% ranked AI as important or very important to their connected home strategy, a third had already deployed it in production broadband services, and another 56% planned to within a year.

What are the Top Carrier Issues with AI on the Home Network?

Does AI actually cut cost? Centralized Wi-Fi management is already mainstream and self-healing pilots point to fewer truck rolls and support calls, but cost, complexity, and skills gaps still hold back roughly a fifth of operators.

Can operators trust AI to act inside a customer's home? Explainability and auditability are the design requirement, not an afterthought. Liberty Global's Mark Kinlen argues agentic AI must be able to reason and act with logic operators can inspect before it touches a live home network, echoing the same trust gap seen in the RAN.

Where's the new revenue? Broadband speeds are climbing far faster than ARPU, and operators are still working out how AI-enabled smart home services — not just faster Wi-Fi — become a paid tier.

Asked to prioritize AI use cases, operators put network traffic optimization first and Wi-Fi performance and optimization second, ahead of customer support chatbots and energy management. The report singles out adaptive Wi-Fi as the most promising immediate use of AI. Report author and Omdia Senior Research Director Michael Philpott found operators are focused on reducing fragmentation at the chipset, CPE, and software-platform level which “helps drive greater innovation.”

Where are operators finding real value from AI in the home network today?

Liberty Global's Kinlen noted in the Paris session that front-line care agents often juggle 20 to 40 data points across multiple screens despite years of IT investment. He said customers blame their provider for in-home performance issues no matter the root cause, whether it’s building materials, neighboring RF conditions, or a household's own mismatched smart devices.

His prescription was agentic AI that consolidates that context automatically, recommends actions, and supports triage. That requires controlled openness, which he said included agent-to-agent protocols, the right data exposed at the right layer, and clear pathways from customer-facing assistants into the operational stack. It also requires cross-ecosystem collaboration spanning silicon, CPE, middleware, and back-office systems, since no single operator can standardize the smart home alone (Network X).

Will operators let AI touch the home network without a human in the loop?

Broadband Forum CEO Craig Thomas, speaking to the Network X Content Council, said agentic AI is essential if operators want AI's full benefit inside the home: “If you're going to have the full benefits of AI, the agentic AI is critical, so it can make its own decisions autonomously, so that if there's something wrong with the Wi-Fi, for example inside the home, it can make those changes there and then without actually having a third party human interface” (Network X).

Wireless Broadband Alliance CEO Tiago Rodrigues pointed to quality-of-service and quality-of-experience data as the area already delivering the clearest wins for the end-user device. Counterpoint Research's Marc Einstein flagged Wi-Fi sensing (turning the router into a home security and health-monitoring device) as the next frontier operators are building on top of the network itself (Network X).

What's next for AI on the home network at Network X 2026?

Kinlen's call for cross-ecosystem collaboration and auditable AI returns to the stage in Vienna. Vodafone's Oscar Gallego opens the WiFi Networks & Services track on 13 October with an Operator Address on turning home routers into smart home command centers. Next comes a panel on customer retention with Omdia's Michael Philpott and Sky Italia's Giuseppe Galeone.

The track's headline session, Panel Discussion: AI-Driven Proactive Network Management, runs 15:40-16:20 and brings together Philpott, Gallego, Sunrise's Fabrizio Campanale (VP Network Operations, TV & In-Home Engineering), and Wi-Fi Alliance VP of Marketing Jeff Platon to dig into systems that can reallocate bandwidth for a detected gaming session without user input, and self-healing networks that cut truck rolls and support calls.

Vodafone's Ivo Buljevic closes the track's AI conversation with an address on monetization beyond speed. That sets up a final panel on value-added services with BT Group's Hassan Jaafar. Network X 2026 runs 13-15 October at VIECON, Vienna. More than 5,500 telecom leaders are expected across mobile, fibre, Wi-Fi, and data centre networking. View the agenda and register to hear how operators across Europe are answering these questions in practice.

FAQs: AI on the Home Network

Where is AI improving home network performance today?

AI is driving proactive Wi-Fi management and, per Liberty Global's Mark Kinlen, a shift toward voice agents and agentic AI as the interface for a fragmented smart home. It's already helping telcos cut truck rolls and resolve issues before a customer notices.

What's the biggest obstacle to broader AI adoption on the home network?

Trust and revenue are the big ones. Operators want a human in the loop before AI acts autonomously inside a customer's home, and Omdia's research shows broadband speeds are rising far faster than ARPU. That leaves CSPs searching for how AI-enabled smart home services translate into new revenue rather than just lower support costs.

Where can telecom leaders discuss AI on the home network in person?

Network X 2026 in Vienna hosts Panel Discussion: AI-Driven Proactive Network Management on Tuesday, 13 October, 15:40-16:20, in the WiFi Networks & Services track. View the session and register to join the conversation.

About the Author

Christopher Lycett is the Event Director of Network X and has been since the event's launch in 2022.