As we move into 2026, one truth has become undeniable: AI will only be as powerful as the networks that support it.
Broadcom’s report, “The State of Network Operations, 2026: AI and its Effect on Enterprise NetOps,” reveals a clear shift—from reactive troubleshooting to proactive, AI-driven operational intelligence. Produced in partnership with Dimensional Research, this report is based on a survey of more than 1,300 IT and network leaders worldwide.
Here are the top five AI and networking trends and predictions for 2026 that every CIO and director of network operations should have on their radar.
Trend: Nearly every organization (99%) now runs a cloud strategy, yet fewer than half say their network can handle the demands of AI workloads.
Prediction: In 2026, “AI readiness” will no longer refer to computing or data—it will mean visibility.
Network teams will measure success not just in uptime or throughput, but in their ability to see, predict, and explain what’s happening across public cloud, Internet, and edge environments.
💡 95% of respondents report blind spots in their network visibility, led by public cloud environments.
Takeaway: Visibility is the new performance metric—and the foundation of trust in every AI initiative.
Trend: 87% of IT teams say that Internet and cloud dependencies create network blind spots.
Prediction: In 2026, observability platforms will evolve beyond traditional monitoring. Expect a new category: Experience intelligence platforms that merge user experience analytics, AI inference visibility, and network telemetry into one real-time pane of glass.
This will enable leaders to understand how every AI-driven decision affects human experience.
It’s not just about seeing packets move—it’s about measuring satisfaction, latency, and productivity as business outcomes.
Trend: While 99% of companies use some form of automation, only 27% describe their practices as mature.
Meanwhile, 76% rely on third parties to fill expertise gaps.
Prediction: In 2026, we’ll see a rapid rise in AI-augmented automation—intelligent systems that act as digital copilots for network operations teams.
Rather than replacing engineers, these tools will recommend, triage, and remediate in collaboration with humans.
“The future of automation isn’t hands-off—it’s hands-in-partnership.”
Takeaway: Expect a redefinition of efficiency, with AI extending the reach and capability of smaller, more strategic network teams.
Trend: 92% of organizations plan to use AI-enabled observability tools, yet 71% of leaders admit they don’t fully trust AI to make autonomous decisions.
Prediction: 2026 will usher in the Trust Economy for AI operations.
CIOs will prioritize explainable AI—algorithms that provide justification for every routing adjustment, triage recommendation, or predictive alert.
This demand for transparency will create a new KPI: Trust per decision—the measure of how confidently humans can act on AI’s output.
Takeaway: AI doesn’t just need to be accurate; it needs to be auditable.
Trend: Visibility and automation are merging into proactive intelligence.
Top capabilities desired by network operations teams include intelligent traffic shaping (47%) and predictive analytics (46%).
Prediction: By 2026, predictive performance management will move from elite capability to operational baseline.
AI will forecast congestion, latency, and degradation—before they affect users. This marks the rise of self-healing networks that anticipate, adapt, and act autonomously.
Takeaway: The era of firefighting is ending. The next phase of networking is anticipatory—where resilience is built, not recovered.
2025 was the year most network operations teams started to believe that AI wasn't just another marketing buzzword.
2026 will be the year most network operations teams start evolving their network observability practices to ensure smarter, faster, and more autonomous infrastructure than we’ve ever seen before!
The CIOs and IT leaders who succeed won’t just connect data; they’ll connect trust, foresight, and experience.
Because in the age of AI, network visibility is the new currency of confidence.