Is your network AI as smart as you think?

Network-operations types tell me that, in the future, AI is going to manage their networks. They also tell me that their vendors told them that very same thing. The good news is that’s sort-of-true. The bad news is the same; with emphasis on the qualifier “sort-of”. To get the most from AI network management, you have to navigate out of that hazy “sort-of” zone, and you do it by thinking about ants and farmers. Ants can build wonderfully complex anthills, with all manner of interconnecting tunnels and levels. Do the worker ants have some mighty engineer-ant directing this process? Nope. Each of them is single-mindedly performing its own simple task, and instincts program them. There is in fact an ant-engineer, but it’s their own DNA that’s organized their work to accomplish the goal. That’s a bit like how most network AI works