Nokia and Microsoft Build Unified Data Platform for AI Network Automation

Nokia and Microsoft Expand Partnership to Speed Network Automation

Nokia and Microsoft announced a collaboration to build an agentic, unified data foundation designed to accelerate AI-driven network automation for telecommunications providers. The solution integrates Nokia Data Suite's telco-specific data products with Microsoft Fabric's unified analytics and AI capabilities, according to details first reported by Nokia.

The partnership addresses a critical bottleneck in telecom AI adoption: data preparation. Operators will gain access to high-quality, trusted data in minutes instead of the weeks typically required through traditional methods. This acceleration enables telecom providers to scale autonomous operations across multi-vendor, cross-domain network environments.

How the Integration Works

Nokia Data Suite delivers prebuilt, reusable telco data products with transparent data quality controls and telco-specific semantic modeling. Microsoft Fabric provides a unified data platform featuring OneLake storage, analytics tools, and AI-native applications including Microsoft 365 Copilot, Foundry, and Power BI.

The combined solution allows operators to provision Nokia's data products on demand and integrate them seamlessly with Microsoft Fabric's enterprise, IT, and third-party data sources. This integration supports hybrid and cloud infrastructures, including on-premises deployments, enabling operators to meet regulatory requirements while advancing automation strategies.

"Nokia and Microsoft are bringing the right data, at the right time, for the right reason to telecom operators worldwide," said Vivek Jaiswal, Senior Vice President of Autonomous Networks at Nokia. "Together, we are helping networks evolve from static infrastructures into programmable, AI-native platforms."

Initial Use Cases Target RAN Optimization

The solution is available now with initial deployments focusing on radio access network optimization. Autonomous VoNR (voice over new radio) assurance uses AI agents to detect service issues, identify anomalies, conduct root cause analyses, and recommend actions with comprehensive network, service, and subscriber observability.

A geo-experience capability applies AI and machine learning to map RAN subscriber sessions to precise geographic locations, identify users experiencing degraded radio performance, and pinpoint coverage or capacity issues. By correlating subscriber, network, and RF data, agents analyze root causes of RAN problems and provide actionable recommendations for both network-sliced and standard 4G/5G users.

Additional use cases include predictive maintenance and fault management, where agents analyze historical and real-time data to anticipate network issues before customer impact.

Why It Matters

Telecommunications providers face mounting pressure to deploy AI-driven automation while managing increasingly complex, multi-vendor network environments. The weeks-long data preparation process has been a significant barrier to scaling AI operations. By reducing data access time from weeks to minutes, this partnership enables operators to move AI from experimental projects into production operations. The agentic approach—where AI agents handle increasingly complex tasks within defined governance boundaries while maintaining human oversight—represents a practical path toward network autonomy that balances automation benefits with operational control.

"Telecom providers are ready to move AI from experimentation into everyday network operations, but that requires trusted data, strong governance and platforms that can scale," said Silvia Candiani, Corporate Vice President of Worldwide Telco & Media at Microsoft.

The collaboration builds on Nokia and Microsoft's existing partnership in cloud, data, AI, and cybersecurity. Details of the unified data foundation were first reported by Nokia in a September 17, 2026 announcement.