Stefan Pongratz

Vice President

Dell’Oro’s AI RAN Advanced Research Report is a 5-year market forecast that tracks how artificial intelligence is being incorporated into RAN infrastructure—including hardware, software, and architectures such as Cloud RAN, vRAN, and Open RAN—and how this evolution is shaping the broader RAN market.

The analysis covers AI RAN adoption by technology, compute location, AI RAN tenancy, and region.

The report focuses on the infrastructure-driven portion of the AI RAN opportunity, where adoption is most visible and measurable today. It examines how AI is being integrated into existing and emerging RAN architectures, and how this is influencing product strategies, deployment models, and competitive dynamics across the RAN ecosystem.

This matters because AI is expanding the role of the RAN—from a connectivity layer optimized for performance and efficiency to a more adaptive platform capable of supporting differentiated services. While adoption remains in the early stages, tracking how AI translates into measurable impact on network performance, spending, and vendor positioning is critical for understanding the long-term trajectory of the RAN market.

    • For vendors: AI is proliferating across all the RAN layers. The question is no longer if AI RAN and AI-RAN will happen, but rather how, what, where, and when.
    • For operators: Opportunity to improve efficiency while testing new revenue models
    • For investors: AI RAN is accelerating rapidly. But the impact on growth, vendor dynamics, and RAN economics varies dependent on what type of AI RAN the operators are implementing.

To take advantage of the opportunities in this market, component manufacturers, equipment vendors, service providers, and financial institutions need to answer critical business questions, including:

    • What is the AI RAN vision?
    • What is the value of AI RAN?
    • How will AI RAN impact the RAN vendor landscape?
    • How big is the AI RAN market opportunity?
    • What type of AI RAN will the operators target?
    • Is AI RAN more for 5G or 6G?
    • What implementations will dominate over the next five years?
Report Coverage
  • Location: Market projections for Centralized and Distributed AI RAN
  • Regional insights: Adoption trends across North America, EMEA, China, and Asia Pacific
  • Tenancy: AI RAN adoption for single-purpose and multi-purpose scenarios
  • Technology: AI RAN forecasts for 6G and 4G/5G

 

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