Wi-Fi is important to businesses, and they are preparing for the changes that will be brought by Wi-Fi 7, according to a survey by Enterprise Management Associates (EMA).

The survey — “Enterprises Embrace AI-Driven Wi-Fi to Meet Today’s Network Demands,” which was sponsored by Extreme Networks — was based on responses of 152 North American IT professionals. It found that 59% of enterprises in which respondents work are planning Wi-Fi infrastructure upgrades in the next year.

The survey press release said most of the projects involve the move from Wi-Fi 6 to Wi-Fi 7. The popularity of the latest iteration of the Wi-Fi standard is due to the desire for increased bandwidth and higher performance expectations. The survey findings reported that AI-powered Wi-Fi 7 is capable of universal zero trust network access, high available architecture, location-based services, and cloud-based management.

“The nature of work has changed, and this change has rendered legacy Wi-Fi architecture obsolete,” Shamus McGillicuddy, EMA’s vice president of research for network infrastructure and operations, said in a press release about the survey.

“End users are no longer tethered to their desks. They are mobile, which requires broader coverage and capacity for high-density connections. They are also using real-time communications applications more regularly, which drives up bandwidth consumption and elevates performance requirements.”

Other findings from the Wi-Fi survey:

• Fewer than half — 46.7% — of respondents said their organization’s current approach to Wi-Fi networking is a complete success.
• 41.4% identify rising user expectations as the top challenge in Wi-Fi management.
• 67.1% cite performance requirements as the leading driver for upgrades for campus and office networks.

In short, the survey found that Wi-Fi has moved from being a nice add-on for shoppers or a way for enterprises to handle non-critical activities to a central component of how companies operate.