At LEAP 2026, Nokia’s Roque Lozano brought the artificial intelligence conversation back to an often overlooked reality: transformative AI does not begin with an application. It begins with the physical and digital systems capable of moving vast amounts of data quickly, securely, and reliably.
As Saudi Arabia accelerates its ambitions to become a global technology and AI hub, the Kingdom’s opportunity will depend not only on powerful computing and sophisticated models, but also on the high-capacity networks, data-center connections, and automated infrastructure supporting them. For Lozano, Senior Vice President of Network Infrastructure for the Middle East and Africa at Nokia, the next stage of the AI race will be decided beneath the surface, in the infrastructure that allows intelligence to operate at scale.
Beyond the Hype of AI Applications
Much of the public conversation around AI focuses on what users can see. It centers on chatbots, image generators, intelligent assistants, autonomous vehicles, and new business tools that promise to reshape entire industries. Yet every one of those services depends on a less visible foundation: the networks that transmit information between users, cloud platforms, data centers, and edge computing environments.
At LEAP 2026, Lozano pointed to a fundamental shift in how digital traffic will be created and consumed. The internet is no longer defined solely by people sending messages, streaming entertainment, or browsing websites. A growing share of activity will come from machines, software agents, connected devices, and AI systems communicating continuously with one another. This emerging “token economy” will place extraordinary pressure on the infrastructure that carries data across cities, countries, and continents.
That shift changes the role of telecommunications providers and infrastructure companies. Connectivity can no longer be treated as a background utility that matters only when it fails. It is becoming a strategic economic asset, particularly for countries seeking to develop domestic AI capability rather than simply consume AI products built elsewhere.
Building an AI-Ready Kingdom
Saudi Arabia’s technology strategy is increasingly tied to major investments in data centers, cloud capacity, advanced computing, and digital services. The goal is not simply to deploy AI tools within existing businesses, but to create an ecosystem where AI development, deployment, and innovation can occur at scale inside the Kingdom.
Lozano’s remarks highlighted the importance of linking these investments through high-performance infrastructure. Data centers and AI factories cannot operate as isolated assets. They need resilient, high-bandwidth, low-latency connections that allow workloads to move efficiently between computing sites, cloud environments, enterprises, and end users. Nokia’s work on data-center interconnection in Saudi Arabia reflects the growing importance of these links in the country’s wider digital architecture.
The infrastructure challenge is also becoming more complex. AI workloads require significant computing power, but they also generate a continuous demand for data movement. A delayed connection, limited network capacity, or weak security layer can affect the responsiveness and reliability of services built on top of it. In that environment, networks must be designed not merely for volume, but for intelligence, adaptability, and uninterrupted performance.
The Rise of Autonomous Connectivity
The next generation of networks will need to do more than carry traffic from one point to another. They will increasingly be expected to sense changing conditions, anticipate demand, optimize performance, and respond to potential problems before users experience disruptions.
Nokia has positioned AI-native connectivity as part of this transition, with technologies spanning radio access networks, core networks, IP, broadband, and optical transport. At LEAP 2026, the company emphasized that resilient connectivity is essential to enabling data to flow across the many layers of an AI-powered economy.
This is where automation becomes especially significant. Networks handling increasingly unpredictable volumes of AI-generated traffic cannot rely entirely on manual intervention. They must become more capable of managing themselves through predictive maintenance, automated optimization, and real-time decision-making. The promise is a network that can direct resources where they are needed, reduce inefficiencies, and maintain service quality even as demand rises.
For Saudi Arabia and the wider Gulf, this creates an opening to adopt next-generation connectivity early. Lozano has also suggested that the region could become an early adopter of 6G, a future network standard expected to support more responsive, intelligent, and adaptive digital services.
Infrastructure as a Competitive Advantage
The countries that lead in AI will not necessarily be those with the most popular consumer-facing applications. They may be the ones that build the conditions in which innovators, enterprises, researchers, and public institutions can experiment with confidence.
That means investing in data centers, fiber capacity, cloud access, cybersecurity, energy efficiency, and the networks connecting every part of the digital ecosystem. It also means recognizing that AI infrastructure is not a single building, platform, or technology. It is a connected system in which computing, connectivity, automation, and security must evolve together.
At LEAP 2026, Lozano’s message was ultimately one of strategic urgency. The AI economy will require more than powerful models. It will require a durable infrastructure layer capable of carrying an unprecedented flow of intelligence across industries and borders. Saudi Arabia’s ability to build that layer could help determine whether it becomes a market for AI innovation or one of the places where the future of AI is actively created.
