Overcoming Hurdles in Telecom Network Automation

Nokia's Gustavo Duarte on Justifying Early Investments Through Measurable Use Cases Matthew Perry • November 26, 2025

Telecom companies face pressure to automate complex processes, yet many struggle to justify early investments. Automation is often perceived as a bunch of scattered tasks, and a lack of structured approach and measurable use cases leads to stalled buy-in from the organization, said Gustavo Duarte, vice president of sales for cloud and network services at Nokia.

See Also: Agentic AI and the Future of Automated Threats

"A lot of the struggle comes from the lack of a clear vision, and how and where do you start identifying use cases that are not too big, not too risky, but also that has enough value that can be quantifiable," Duarte said.

Automation proves most effective when teams apply it to time-consuming tasks within self-contained departments, he said. "The moment you start allocating automation, and you ...