Ericsson AI-based NetCloud Assistant (ANA) for enterprise WWAN networks

Ericsson has launched its generative AI-based NetCloud Assistant (ANA) — a virtual expert designed to simplify enterprise 5G network administration. Unlike traditional chatbots, which leverage search to provide links to existing resources, the system has the ability to read, understand, and generate new text and graphical content.

The generative AI virtual expert has been designed for enterprise Wireless WAN (WWAN) networks, utilising large language models, with all its AI components hosted entirely within Ericsson’s environment. This design enables user and data privacy by avoiding API calls to third-party consumer generative AI applications.

The system correlates information from Ericsson’s library of technical documentation into concise summaries personalised to the customer’s network, transforming hours or even days of work into seconds. It accelerates day one deployments with step-by-step guidance for WAN edge device configuration based on best practices. It also automates common diagnostic tasks and provides step-by-step instructions to troubleshoot and resolve connectivity issues, speeding up mean time to repair.

Future releases will translate business requirements into recommended SD-WAN and WAN bonding policies to enhance WAN performance and application availability. Future releases will also see the creation of detailed graphs that visualise more complex information not typically available in standard NetCloud dashboards or pre-canned reports.