During the 2026 Summer Davos Forum, Liu Shangli, Senior Vice President of Ericsson and President of Northeast Asia, shared profound insights on the future development of artificial intelligence. He pointed out that as AI technology advances, its focus is shifting from digital brains to physical forms.

Liu Shangli believes that current investments in the AI industry are mainly focused on foundational computing power such as chips and data centers. However, the ultimate form of intelligence will be "physical AI," meaning AI will no longer be limited to language models on screens, but will need to have physical entities capable of sensing, interacting, and performing tasks, such as robots or various automated unmanned devices.

In this process, the role of network infrastructure will undergo a fundamental change. Liu Shangli emphasized that if large language models are considered the "brain" of AI, then network systems will become the "nervous system" connecting the brain to the physical body. To enable these robots and drones to operate efficiently and in real time, they must rely on powerful communication networks.

Based on this trend, Liu Shangli predicts that the next wave of winners in the AI field are likely to come from the telecommunications operator group. With their long-term accumulation in fiber optic cabling, base station construction, and network coverage, telecom operators are expected to transition from traditional pipeline providers to core computing power and neural network hubs in the future physical AI ecosystem.