Eighteen percent of communications service providers (CSPs) expect artificial intelligence (AI) to represent more than half of their metro networking traffic during the next three years, while only 16% described their networks as “very ready” for AI, according to a report from Heavy Reading and Ciena.

The report — which looked at expected use of metro and long-haul networks by cable operators and fixed, mobile, and converged CSPs during the next three years — found that 49% expect AI to exceed 30% of metro traffic. On the long-haul front, the study found that 52% of CSPs believe AI traffic will exceed 30%, and 29% believe AI will contribute more than half of long-haul traffic.

Respondents expect to play a bigger role in AI connectivity, particularly among enterprises that use 100G, 400G, and 800G bandwidth services.

The report, which focuses on the next three years, was based on a survey of 77 CSPs by Informa TechTarget, which was fielded this year. Other findings from the report:

• 50% of respondents ranked high-bandwidth wavelength services as top in a list of services expected to grow the most from AI over the next three years.
• 25% of report respondents expect dark fiber to grow the most due to AI.
• 74% of CSPs expect enterprise customers to drive the most traffic growth on their networks over the next three years, ahead of hyperscalers and cloud providers.
• Globally, the top challenges include CapEx constraints (38%), go-to-market/business strategies (38%), and network management (32%).
• 39% report their networks are ready, with “much of the network in place but still some work to do.” Forty percent say they are “somewhat ready” with much work remaining, and 5% reported their optical networks are not ready at all.

“This research highlights the rapid rise of AI applications — from large-scale models to cloud AI services and edge-to-core workflows — that are set to become major drivers of both local and long-haul network traffic,” Sterling Perrin, Heavy Reading’s Senior Principal Analyst, said in a press release about the AI report.

“For metro networks, where AI will compete with video, web, and IoT traffic, the projected growth is striking. With AI expected to take an even larger share of long-haul capacity within three years, it’s clear that AI data flows, including those used for training and inference, will put unprecedented demands on CSP networks.”