AI is enabling Telecom Networks to self-heal, improving reliability and efficiency, insights by Dr. Emad Fahmy, NETSCOUT.

What happens when you put a bunch of overachieving network engineers in a room and hand them an intractable problem: Can an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven self-healing “network brain” be created to automate and dramatically accelerate fault detection and resolution in live network operations centre (NOC) environments?

The concept of a network that identifies faults, corrects them, and resumes normal operation without intervention was once considered science fiction. Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) are bringing this closer to routine practice, with the aim of improving reliability and reducing downtime.

Recent trials and industry research indicate that AI, combined with high-quality data, can lessen the need for manual troubleshooting. In the Gulf region, initiatives such as Dubai’s State of AI Report and new government policies have highlighted over 100 active AI use cases. These developments are helping to establish the foundations for self-healing networks to become part of everyday infrastructure.

Catalyst Program Aims for Next-Gen Innovation

Telecom networks are increasingly testing artificial intelligence (AI) and automation to improve service continuity. Recent industry initiatives have explored how combining data from multiple sources can accelerate the detection and resolution of faults in real-world conditions.

The Catalyst Program “CBS” is one such initiative. It is a collaborative project where telecom companies and technology partners work together to test new solutions in practice, such as AI-driven self-healing networks, to address network challenges.

These trials have shown how AI and automation can dramatically accelerate fault detection and resolution in live network environments. The idea was to apply AI to combine and analyse network operations data from many different sources to enable CSPs to automate the swift and accurate resolution of issues. By bringing AI to bear on this critical area of concern, CSPs would benefit through substantially lower costs, and perhaps most importantly, dramatically improved customer experience.

High-Fidelity Curated Data Is Key to the Proof of Concept

The validation that high-quality curated data is needed to drive effective AI solutions. Without high-fidelity packet collection across the network, it is difficult, if not impossible, to identify and correlate issues across multiple data streams, determine root causes, and verify and test automated fixes. AI models require curated data to achieve the full potential of the technology and deliver reliable results.

The AI solution achieved in this case used sophisticated curation of CSP-specific domain data and the fine-tuning of large language models (LLMs) into highly capable small language models (SLMs). This allowed the generative AI to discover network topology, analyse issues encountered, visualize potential customer impacts, identify the root cause quickly, plan resolution steps, and then execute the remediation with remarkable precision and efficiency.

The link between data quality and national progress is just as clear. The UAE has set a National Digital Economy Strategy to more than double the digital economy’s share of GDP, from 9.7% today to 19.4% by 2031, a target that makes reliable data and strong networks not just technical needs, but economic ones.

Why Networks That Fix Themselves Actually Work

Building networks that can repair themselves needs good data and smart monitoring systems that can see what’s happening across the entire infrastructure. Recent tests showed something interesting: when problems affected services, Network Operations Center engineers could spot subscriber registration issues, figure out what went wrong, and fix them without much hands-on work. The early results suggest manual troubleshooting could drop by 80 percent. Operating costs might fall by half.

This matters more in some places than others. Saudi Arabia just took first place in the ITU’s 2025 ICT Development Index, which measures how well countries are doing with digital infrastructure and connections. This makes it a good place to expand AI-powered networks that heal themselves.

The UAE faces similar pressures. Government platforms handled over 170 million digital transactions for 57 million users in 2024. Now they’re processing more than 200 million transactions each month. When you have that many daily interactions, reliable networks stop being nice to have. They become necessary for both regular people and businesses.

What Comes Next for the Gulf Region

The telecom industry is moving toward systems that run themselves. Networks that completely heal themselves are still new, but early rollouts show promise. AI systems can spot problems and fix them much faster when they have access to good, real-time data.

For the UAE and Saudi Arabia, this goes beyond just better network performance. Self-healing systems could support stronger digital economies, protect important services, and maintain the smooth, always-on experiences that people now expect.

These autonomous networks aren’t just a future idea. They’re becoming a strategic need for staying competitive in the region’s digital world.

By Dr. Emad Fahmy – Systems Engineering Manager, Middle East, NETSCOUT

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