4G was for humans, 5G was for machines, 6G will be for AI agents

We live in a world dominated by digital services. From a technological perspective, innovation has never moved at such pace or scale, and networks are racing to keep up. Like laying a track in front of a moving train, networks scramble to be ready for the next era of telecommunications. But from now on, there’ll be one key difference: humans are no longer the main customers. More than 74% of new webpages contain AI content. As of November 2024, 70% of Fortune 500 companies have rolled out Microsoft 365 Copilot, with 85% entrusting Microsoft with their integration and innovation decisions. Even email, one of the oldest and most conservative channels, is going bot-first, with 25% of employees using AI to write messages. Gartner forecasts that 80% of enterprises will have generative AI in production by 2026. It’s no stretch to say machines will soon mostly be talking among themselves. Yet, telecom networks are still being built with people in mind. That was the fatal mistake with 5G: operators designed it for human consumption when its true users were always going to be machines. With 6G, that mistake can’t be repeated. Because this time, it’s not just about machines, it’s about the AI agents running on them. These agents won’t just generate content or execute commands. They’ll issue requests, negotiate prices, and buy and sell “network slices” or compute, connectivity, and energy in real time. If operators want to stay relevant, their networks and supporting software need to be redesigned for a new kind of customer: AI code.

Why 5G won’t cut it

The premise of 5G was sound: ultra-low latency, high throughput, and more reliable connections to serve the rising tide of connected devices. But in execution, most operators misjudged the real audience. Rather than preparing networks for industrial automation, smart infrastructure, and machine-to-machine (M2M) interactions, the ecosystem stayed focused on human-facing use cases like faster video streaming, better gaming, and high-speed mobile data. The result? An expensive, underutilized rollout that failed to unlock the full value of 5G. Today, Cisco reports that M2M connections already account for half of all connected endpoints, and AI applications are expected to push uplink demand beyond current spectrum allocations as early as 2027. Ericsson projects total mobile data traffic will triple again by 2030, long before 6G spectrum is widely available. The assumptions baked into the 5G era are quickly becoming obsolete. AI agents don’t work like people. They don’t consume content casually or log on during business hours. They act continuously and programmatically, exchanging data with other agents, sensors, or back-end systems in real time. That means the traditional architecture of mobile networks—built around static provisioning, long-term SLAs, and one-size-fits-all pricing—simply won’t work. These agents will demand flexible, low-latency access not only to connectivity but also compute, storage, and energy resources. They’ll expect to negotiate these parameters dynamically, based on goals, priorities, or constraints like carbon budgets. Operators must start building networks optimized not just for coverage or capacity, but for negotiation, orchestration, and intent-based execution at faster-than-human speeds.

The 6G blueprint: AI by design

Unlike its predecessors, 6G isn’t just a faster version of what came before. It’s a structural rethink of what a network is and who it serves. The International Telecommunication Union’s (ITU) IMT-2030 framework, which sets the official vision and requirements for 6G, positions 6G as AI-native from the outset, embedding artificial intelligence into both the radio interface and control plane. It introduces concepts like integrated sensing and communication (ISAC), where the same electromagnetic signals that transmit data can also perceive and interpret the physical environment. That means networks won’t just carry information. They’ll observe, react, and coordinate autonomously. For example, a swarm of drones responding to a wildfire won’t rely on manual control. They’ll navigate hazards, adjust routes, and relay data to one another in real time, cooperating entirely via machine-to-machine interaction. While 5G might enable a drone to receive instructions, 6G will allow drones to sense and self-organize based on their surroundings. Today, 6G testbeds are pushing boundaries of latency, device density, and spectral efficiency. Terahertz and sub-terahertz frequencies will enable on-demand, terabit-per-second links. Device densities are forecast to reach 10⁸ per square kilometre, enough to support hyper-connected environments filled with sensors, digital twins, and edge AI agents. Latency will drop to sub-millisecond levels, enabling synchronous applications like holographic communication, immersive extended reality, and AI-driven financial micro-trades. But these capabilities won’t be delivered in fixed packages or user tiers. Instead, they’ll be negotiated, brokered, and continuously optimized based on the specific, moment-to-moment intent of the agent. For telecom operators, this requires a move away from static provisioning toward programmable, AI-managed infrastructure designed for real-time, dynamic allocation.

A new experience layer

While M2M takes on more of the provisioning work, the overall network experience remains human-centric. But instead of tapping through interfaces or clicking “confirm,” users will simply express their intent, and agents will act on it. For a consumer, that might mean negotiating a ride, booking a hotel, or orchestrating a work task across multiple services. Increasingly, these agents won’t interact with APIs designed for human latency. They’ll interface with other agents in real time, haggling over price, bandwidth, availability, and even carbon constraints. For operators, this means moving from static service tiers to a marketplace model where requests are dynamic, conditional, and context-aware. Connectivity becomes a smart, tradable resource priced and provisioned per transaction, per intent, per joule of energy consumed. Consider a scheduled cab ride. Today, a user opens an app, chooses a ride, and confirms. In an intent-driven model, the agent knows the user’s calendar, location, and preferences, and issues a real-time query: “Find me a vehicle to arrive at 10:00 AM, under $12, within five minutes.” That agent negotiates with multiple transport providers’ agents, weighing price, carbon footprint, and latency. In complex enterprise scenarios like real-time digital twin orchestration or autonomous supply chain coordination, these transactions could involve per-second network slices bundled with compute and storage, activated and torn down in milliseconds. The experience layer will still be for people, but not negotiated by people. It won’t be built for people.

Who owns the machines?

As AI agents dominate the digital economy, the parameters defining “value” will shift. Pricing models will no longer be based purely on data volume or time. Energy consumption—measured in joules, carbon impact, or sustainability score—will become core metrics for performance and billing. GB/joule charging and billing models may emerge. With resource-intensive AI and blockchain processes trading slices in real time, operators will need to track, manage, and monetize not just bandwidth but the energy required to deliver it. This creates opportunities: eco-efficient agents, low-carbon slices, and intent-based service plans optimizing environmental and economic outcomes. But it also introduces new responsibilities. As networks grow autonomous, they must remain auditable, transparent, and accountable. Trust depends on open telemetry, programmable guardrails, and the ability to detect and remediate exploitative behaviors like slice hoarding or pricing bias without human intervention. This demands a reinvention or reevaluation of telecom software. Business support systems (BSS) must evolve to support dynamic, millisecond-level mediation, intent-based service catalogs, and real-time marketplaces for slices bundled with compute, connectivity, and carbon. Traditional CRM models won’t apply because customers won’t be people—they’ll be agents. Success will be measured by continuous agent quality (CAQs), service uptime, negotiation efficiency, and energy footprint. While the end-user brand may still own the relationship, the operator will own the infrastructure of trust, arbitrating disputes, enforcing policies, and ensuring fairness across billions of machine-to-machine transactions. Operators will evolve from service providers to economic orchestrators. The challenge is to build systems that make this future reliable, sustainable, and safe. AI agents won’t wait for networks to catch up. They’ll shape their own demands, broker their own connections, and expect infrastructure to respond. This change serves humans, but operators who treat code as their number one customer and build networks ready to trade on its terms will succeed.

Originally published at RCR Wireless News on July 25, 2025

FAQ

What is the main focus of 6G networks?

6G networks are designed to serve AI agents, focusing on the dynamic requirements for computation, connectivity, and energy, moving beyond human-centric utility.

How is 6G different from 5G?

Unlike 5G, which was still largely human-focused, 6G integrates AI natively into the network, allowing for autonomous and real-time machine-to-machine communication and orchestration.

What will AI agents do on 6G networks?

AI agents will not only generate content and execute commands but also negotiate prices, and buy and sell network resources like compute, connectivity, and energy in real-time.

Why did 5G not fully meet expectations?

5G networks were designed with human use cases in mind, such as video streaming and high-speed mobile data, but neglected the full potential of industrial automation and M2M interactions.

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4G was for humans, 5G was for machines, 6G will be for AI agents (Reader Forum)