Network automation has been on every telecom operator's roadmap for years. Yet despite the investment, promises, and POCs, most are still far from their goal. It’s time for an honest conversation and not about theoretical future-states, but about what it takes to make automation work in production.
This webinar series is built for network engineers, architects, and tech leaders ready to move beyond the hype. Across six sessions, we uncover why automation projects fail and define the role of AI as both an execution agent and a development tool. We’ll dive into the practicalities of deploying in brownfield environments, demystify Level 5 autonomy, and share strategies to secure internal buy-in for network automation.
So, whether you are just starting out or deep in the journey, join us to cut through the noise and move toward production-ready automation and a robust foundation for autonomous networks.
We are now two episodes in and before our summer break, it felt like the right moment to pull together what’s come up so far in our webinar series ‘A Pragmatic Approach to Network Automation’. One pattern has already emerged: whether the conversation is about automation strategy or AI, success depends less on technology than on the confidence people have in the systems they're asked to trust.
Episode 1: The wake up call: Why network automation hasn’t delivered (yet)
Host Ian Ginn welcomed Brad Zellefrow, a principal solutions automation architect at Ductus with around a decade of network automation experience. The conversation started with a blunt statement that most automation programs don't fully succeed. Only around 18% deliver on all their original objectives. The rest land somewhere between partial success and outright failure, and the reasons are rarely purely technical.
Several familiar patterns emerged. Teams often rush into coding before securing buy-in, choose fashionable use cases instead of defining a measurable ‘North Star’, or treat automation as a project that ends rather than a product that evolves. Real-world examples back each of these up, including why the buy-in problem turns out to be the hardest one to fix.
There's also a useful distinction drawn between brownfield and greenfield automation: it's not the technology that makes brownfield harder; it's asking people to defend processes they've maintained for years.
The episode closes with concrete advice on what to do when a project has already stalled.
📺 Watch Episode 1: The Wake-Up Call – Why buy-in is the hardest problem to fix
Episode 2: The AI question, where it fits (and where it doesn't)
Inmanta's second guest was Mats Eriksson, Global Telco Principal at Tieto. Drawing on four decades in telecom R&D and ten years working with orchestration and AI, he tackled the question everyone seems to be asking: where does AI genuinely improve network automation?
The answer that emerged was a framework, not a yes or no. The central idea was simple: if you can define the algorithm, ask whether you need AI at all. AI earns its place where it's correlating large amounts of data to create visibility that wasn't there before, not necessarily where it's making the call. One discussion focused on precision: in network operations, "almost correct" can still mean failure, illustrated through a memorable personal story about a father-in-law.
The conversation ultimately connects these ideas through control loops, hierarchical composition (the Lego analogy is a good one), and a five-point checklist for when AI actually belongs in your automation stack.
📺 Watch Episode 2: The AI Question – a 5-point checklist for when AI belongs in your stack
The thread connecting it all
Strip away the specific topics from these first two episodes, and the same thread runs underneath both: trust. In episode one, it's about data and processes. In episode two, the same logic gets applied to AI. Different context, same idea, and it's the foundation the rest of the series builds on.
The next conversation moves from theory into practice, with Adam Kirchberger (Nomios) and Daria Batrakova (FNT Software) sharing lessons from real brownfield deployments. If the first two episodes establish why trust matters, the next explores what it takes to earn it in production networks. Join us on September 9th at 16:00 CEST.
This pragmatic, trust-first way of thinking is exactly how we approach orchestration at Inmanta. If it resonates, learn how we help telcos get network automation into production, or join us live in September for the next conversation at the 2nd Edition of the Network Automation & Innovation Summit.