Artificial intelligence (AI) has taken the world in the past few years, and the broadband industry is riding the wave with agentic AI tools for customer support systems, network management, and construction management.
AI has also had major cybersecurity implications this year, both in terms of increased attacks and improved tools to combat those attacks.
We’ll cover some major reports and developments so far this year. Then, we’ll go over some of the most important ways telecoms are using AI.
Broadband Executives Adopt AI
According to an October report from Google Cloud, more than half of broadband executives had embraced agentic AI by mid-June of 2025 and were using it in their businesses. They found the following uses, based on self-reporting by telecommunications companies with at least $10 million in annual revenue:
- Security operations and cybersecurity: 47%
- Tech support: 46%
- Customer service and experience: 45%
- Product innovation and design: 45%
- Marketing: 43%
- Productivity and research: 43%
- Software development: 41%
- Network or equipment configuration and automation: 39%
No category broke the halfway mark, though, and “adoption” doesn’t amount to execution. Just a few days earlier, a different report from IFS found that 52% of broadband executives surveyed said their organizations lack the budget for AI and system readiness, even though 88% said AI has improved profitability and 74% said AI is generating more ROI than expected.
There’s a lot of hype in AI, but deciding whether to implement it means evaluating your existing processes and finding gaps that AI might be able to fill.
Integrating AI to Improve Customer Service
Customer service emerged as a key customer driver in 2025, with big broadband players like AT&T and T-Mobile leading the way. Agentic AI tools, which can solve problems before customers even notice them, can make a world of difference.
Already, companies are using AI tools to automate customer service and offer troubleshooting help without the need for a live agent. Windstream by Kinetic was an early adopter of AI for customer service back in 2024, and companies like RouteThis are hoping to use AI to improve the rate of self-installs industry-wide.
Using AI could enhance broadband customer service, but using it for customer-facing applications is not without its perils. According to a May report from Cisco, 89% of survey respondents said technology businesses must combine human empathy and connection with agentic AI efficiency to optimize customer experience.
AI for Construction Planning
The final rollout of the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment Program (BEAD) is underway, but the Fiber Broadband Association predicts the adoption of AI will require a 2.3x increase in fiber miles (from 159 million to 373 million). All that construction will take a lot of planning, and AI can help at every step, starting with analyzing deployment needs and planning. Then, AI tools can assist with quality control, speech-to-text reporting for techs in the field, pattern analysis, and monitoring for optimal efficiency.
AI and Cybersecurity
Increasing adoption of AI has meant an increase in cybersecurity attacks. A study by Verizon found an 85% increase in mobile attacks, with 63% of respondents saying the attacks caused outages that lasted at least a day. A separate report from Comcast said there had been 25 billion cybersecurity attacks in the last year, and another report from Semperis found that at least 71% of companies across all industries had experienced at least one high-impact cybersecurity event last year that halted critical business functions.
It’s alarming, but AI can help companies — and their customers — deal with cyberattacks. For example, AT&T is testing an AI receptionist that can help fight spam calls.
In April, a report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) cited real-time detection tools, automated responses when attacks occur, and improved detection of phishing attacks as ways to fight AI fire with fire.
Broadband service providers can already use AI for cybersecurity, construction, and customer service, but at least one company says integrating AI into customer equipment is the future. Embedding AI in routers and other boxes at the edge of the cloud is still proof of concept, but we look forward to seeing what comes of the idea in 2026 and beyond.
