The outcomes of a current IEEE survey signifies that 6G stays extra of a analysis matter than a near-term enterprise precedence
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) not too long ago performed a survey of tech leaders concerning the impression of assorted applied sciences in 2026, discovering that solely 7% of respondents view 6G as a prime space for AI impression — a notable discovering coming from a know-how usually described as AI-native. The affiliation mentioned the discovering suggests 6G stays extra of a analysis matter than a near-term enterprise precedence.
Talking with RCR Wi-fi Information concerning the consequence, IEEE Senior Member David Witkowski mentioned that to really perceive how 6G may impression AI, the business first must outline what 6G will likely be.
“From that perspective, we additionally want to take a look at the place we in 5G? As a result of every era of mobile know-how does two issues: It resolves points with the earlier era or limitations with the earlier era, and it provides options that weren’t included within the earlier era’s definition,” he mentioned. We’re about midway by the 5G period, and Witkowski, like most business consultants, believes its impression has been underwhelming so far when it comes to adoption, superior options, and ROI.
He brings this as much as level out that, consequently, 5G continues to be the main focus, with 5G — and in some circumstances 4G — radios nonetheless going up, making it troublesome to really predict precisely what to anticipate from 6G. “That being mentioned, I do suppose that there are some issues,” Witkowski continued. “Very doubtless, the factor that 6G will do within the AI area is that it must tackle that query of add capability.”
He defined that earlier mobile networks have been architected primarily for downloads, which is why 5G can ship gorgeous speeds — usually exceeding a gigabit per second throughout pace checks — whereas add speeds are sometimes a fraction of that. This imbalance exists as a result of radio sources and spectrum have traditionally been optimized to ship information to customers, not obtain massive volumes from them. That design creates a rising problem for AI, which more and more depends upon importing information reminiscent of images, video, reside digicam feeds, and voice inputs to the cloud. As AI brokers turn out to be extra interactive and real-time, restricted uplink capability turns into a bottleneck to efficiency and consumer expertise.
“I imply, when you concentrate on it … The community was designed to ship movies to us. It was designed for YouTube. It was designed for Instagram. It was designed for TikTok. It wasn’t designed for AI, so 6G needs to be,” he mentioned. “It’s an add versus obtain query.”
Does it go each methods? Will AI assist 6G?
RCR additionally mentioned with Witkowski how, if in any respect, AI might assist 6G tackle spectrum effectivity or coordination. “I feel it’s a query of utilizing AI to foretell the conduct of customers primarily based upon their previous utilization patterns,” he surmised. Basically, as an alternative of counting on a set downlink–uplink cut up, AI might predict community load by studying how completely different customers sometimes behave. By anticipating which customers will want increased add capability, the community might proactively shift spectrum and assign them to cells higher fitted to uplink, bettering effectivity with out overprovisioning unused sources.
“Usually, versus having folks attempt to guess learn how to configure the community sources, it’s increasingly more doubtless that that’s going to be handed off to some type of machine studying algorithm. After which finally the community will attempt to optimize itself,” he reasoned. “That looks like an apparent use of AI know-how to me.”
