Managed network services: AI, autopilot, and the new telco value chain

A worker in front of power lines and a communications tower

The modern enterprise network is a living, breathing creature of connectivity and security that demands constant care. For enterprise IT leaders managing the network, the mission has always been to balance expense optimisation with high-quality service operations—a task that can feel like trying to fix an airplane while flying it.

The days of manual network management are ending. We’re finally seeing the managed network services (MNS) market evolve into something more intelligent—and AI is a catalyst.

According to Gartner®, "I&O [infrastructure and operations] leaders seek AI/machine learning-enabled providers to achieve shorter cycle times and higher-quality services via automation."1

This goes far beyond faster configurations. It’s a fundamental transformation to an intelligent, predictive network that manages itself.

The journey ahead will focus on the experience

For those of us who aren't network managers, consider a familiar experience: You’re a passenger on an airplane. Sometime after takeoff, the plane reaches cruising altitude, and the captain turns off seatbelt sign. At that point, sophisticated systems are keeping the aircraft steady while the crew manages exceptions. Most passengers don't give this a second thought.

What passengers do care about is the experience: the stability and speed of the Wi-Fi connection, the attentiveness of the flight attendants, the quality of the food offered, and/or the cleanliness of the plane.

Think of MNS as being on the same trajectory. The next wave is true autopilot: networks that monitor, adjust, and optimise themselves in real time. The differentiator will be the experiences layered on top: the portals, the integrations, and the seamless digital interactions that customers see and value.

Unifying network management is a must

For managed service providers (MSPs), the race to zero touch is both a challenge and an opportunity to enable new value streams.

Network, security, and IT teams can’t afford to operate in silos anymore. Their platforms must unite management functions across the entire network life cycle—from LAN to WAN to security—and embed automation directly into the core process. A unified platform approach is emerging.

A common pitfall in the MNS market is the integration gap, where an MNS provider struggles to integrate with a customer's internal IT service management (ITSM) system for case management. This lack of integration significantly reduces service quality and experience.

A successful, AI-powered MNS offering natively connects with a client’s IT operations, transforming a disjointed set of services into a single, predictive, automated operation. This integration enables partners to deliver on the full promise of Secure Access Service Edge (SASE), private 5G, and multi-cloud networking.

It also opens the door to remote catalogues, seamless order handovers, and revenue growth (yes, even for telcos).

Co-managed services: The future of partnership

To be successful in the AI era, telco and MSP leaders must adapt their service delivery platforms to deliver superior customer experience and drive continuous service improvement.

This means moving beyond the traditional rip-and-replace MNS model to a co-management model. A true partner does more than manage connectivity for a client; it manages it with the client. This approach is built on transparency, offering customers greater visibility and control through an MSP’s portals and platforms.

The future of MNS hinges on three imperatives, all enabled by a single AI-powered platform:

  1. Unified automation: Automate the entire life cycle of network configuration, changes, and assurance using generative AI-driven workflows.
  2. End-to-end visibility: A simplified tech stack can provide a single view across a customer’s IT, network, and security operations to help proactively resolve issues before they affect the business.
  3. From provider to partner: Providers must co-manage networks with customers, share real-time visibility, and drive continual improvement.

Find out how ServiceNow can help you put AI to work for telecom.

1 Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Managed Network Services, Ted Corbett, Nauman Raja, Jon Dressel, Lisa Pierce, Karen Brown, Danellie Young, 4 October 2024

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