The Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA), the industry body dedicated to driving the seamless and interoperable services experience of Wi-Fi across the global wireless ecosystem, has announced its report, AI/ML for Wi-Fi: Enabling Scalable, Intelligent Wi-Fi Ecosystems. It outlines that as Wi-Fi networks become more complex and mission-critical, traditional rule-based management approaches are no longer sufficient for network operations. Highlighting how AI/ML enables a shift from reactive troubleshooting to proactive, predictive and self-optimising network operations, the report shares clear business benefits including lower operational costs, improved reliability and security and enhanced quality of experience.

As Wi-Fi technology and standards advance, they have supported increasingly demanding applications such as enterprise collaboration, industrial automation, immersive media and AI workloads. In the same way that AI use has accelerated across work and home life, Wi-Fi performance expectations of consumers and enterprises now demand intelligent and automated connectivity.

The report provides a perspective for device manufacturers, network operators, enterprise IT and policymakers, on how AI/ML are being integrated across the full Wi-Fi ecosystem.

AI and ML are becoming foundational to Wi-Fi

The report presents a unified perspective on intelligent Wi-Fi. Key findings from the report include:

• AI/ML is becoming foundational to Wi-Fi. It is critical for enabling autonomous, self-optimising networks capable of managing dense deployments and real-time performance demands
• Intelligent Wi-Fi has clear business value. AI/ML reduces operational costs (OpEx), improves reliability and security and delivers a more consistent quality of experience (QoE)
• Fragmentation remains a major barrier. Proprietary approaches, inconsistent data quality and closed interfaces slow innovation and increase integration costs
• Standardization should focus on frameworks. Interoperable frameworks, not algorithms, will be key to success. That interoperability will need to include data models, telemetry, APIs and model lifecycle management
• Hybrid AI architectures will dominate. AI will not just sit at the router, it will combine client, access point, edge and cloud intelligence to achieve the best performance
• AI/ML-native Wi-Fi is the long-term direction. Features of Wi-Fi 8 (IEEE 802.11bn), such DBE and MAPC, will work optimally when driven by an AI/ML engine
• Data is the primary bottleneck. Achieving continued success and new use cases with AI/ML in networks requires shared datasets, federated learning and strong governance models

Developed by the WBA AI/ML for Wi-Fi Project Group, the work was led by Intel and co-led by Airties, Cisco and HPE. The WBA will share the findings with industry stakeholders and standards bodies, including Wi-Fi Alliance and IEEE 802.11 meetings in March.

Tiago Rodrigues, President and CEO of the Wireless Broadband Alliance, said: “Wi-Fi is now expected to perform like critical infrastructure across homes, enterprises and cities, yet operational complexity is rising fast. AI and machine learning are becoming essential to keep networks reliable, secure and efficient at scale. The industry must align on common data, interfaces and governance, so that intelligent Wi-Fi can work across real-world multi-vendor environments and deliver value for all who use it.”

Eric McLaughlin, VP & GM, Connectivity Solutions Group, Intel Corporation, stated: “Intel is proud to lead the amazing team that delivered this comprehensive report. AI/ML is transforming the future of Wi-Fi, and it has become a strategic imperative. We are excited to collaborate with our WBA partners and the broader ecosystem to accelerate its advancement to enable self-organizing, proactive, and more reliable networks with improved QoE across the industry.”

Metin Taskin, CEO and founder of Airties, said: “The effective use of AI/ML in Wi-Fi environments will help ISPs proactively improve performance quality, innovate faster, and most critically, combat churn. Airties is proud to co-lead this WBA initiative and to share our insights and AI-driven software expertise as part of our commitment to empower operators to deliver smooth, smart, secure connectivity.”

Matthew MacPherson, Wireless CTO, Cisco, concluded: “As Wi-Fi becomes the primary connectivity technology for mission-critical enterprise applications, the complexity of managing these environments has outpaced traditional manual methods. This report provides a vital framework for the industry to transition from reactive troubleshooting to a proactive, self-optimizing architecture. By leveraging AI and machine learning through interoperable standards, we are enabling organizations to reduce operational overhead and deliver a more resilient, high-quality experience for every user and device.

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Categories: AI, Articles, Broadband

Tags: AI, broadband, edge, wba, wifi