Building Predictive, Reliable Networks

At the SCTE Connect Panel on AI & Connectivity, held at Comcast’s flagship Washington, D.C. Xfinity location, a dynamic group of industry leaders gathered to explore a timely and critical topic: how artificial intelligence and connectivity technologies are converging to reshape the digital infrastructure of tomorrow.

Hosted by Justin Forer, SVP of AI Strategy & Transformation at Comcast, the panel brought together experts from across the AI and telecom landscape, including executives from Clarifai, HPE, and InsightFinder. Each brought a unique lens—ranging from infrastructure acceleration and edge inferencing to model distribution and operational reliability.

InsightFinder CEO Helen Gu delivered an actionable vision for AI’s role in the future of telecom and connected systems. Her focus on predictive operations, real-time intelligence, and AI accountability anchored the panel in the operational realities telecoms face as they attempt to scale AI across distributed, high-volume environments.

Panel Context: AI + Connectivity = Intelligent Systems

The panel’s framing made one thing clear: AI and connectivity are no longer separate disciplines—they are co-evolving. As Justin Forer opened the conversation:

“AI is no longer just a layer on top of our networks—it’s becoming embedded in the very fabric of how we design, operate, and optimize them.”

This sentiment echoed throughout the discussion. From Comcast’s efforts to build AI-ready infrastructure across 1,500 edge locations, to HPE’s push for accelerated computing at the network edge, the message was consistent: intelligence needs to be local, efficient, and operational.

And that’s where Helen Gu, and InsightFinder’s perspective fits into the conversation.

Making AI Operational in the Real World

The panel focused on enabling technologies—new devices, architectures, and platforms— and Helen zeroed in on what it takes to make AI effective in the real world.

1. Predictive Operations: AI as a Preemptive Force

Helen’s key message centered around the transition from reactive to predictive operations. Telecom networks are massive, complex, and highly sensitive to disruption. Yet most of them still rely on outdated approaches to incident management—detect, respond, repeat.

Helen reframed this cycle:

“Predictive operations start with real-time anomaly detection. Our platform continuously ingests telemetry, logs, and performance metrics from across the network and identifies subtle patterns that precede outages or degradation.”

This shift—from reacting to predicting—isn’t just a technical innovation. It’s a business necessity in an always-on digital economy. As infrastructure becomes more software-defined, proactive monitoring is no longer a luxury—it’s a baseline requirement.

2. Automated Root Cause Analysis: Reducing MTTR at Scale

Helen also emphasized how automated root cause analysis plays a crucial role in scaling operations. With thousands of systems generating millions of alerts, human operators can’t keep up. “Our models correlate signals across systems to pinpoint the source—whether it’s a misconfigured router, a failing node, or a software bug.” This complements efforts discussed by Comcast to embed real-time telemetry at the field level (e.g., FDX devices) and Clarifai’s work on deploying optimized models at the edge. InsightFinder bridges these efforts by delivering intelligence that’s not just fast—but accurate, explainable, and actionable.

3. Responsible AI: Trust at the Operational Layer

Helen brought a strong emphasis on AI governance and reliability—a topic often overlooked in infrastructure discussions. “We’re building safeguards to ensure that AI decisions are explainable, auditable, and aligned with operational goals. That includes addressing challenges like model hallucinations, data drift, and bias.”

In a high-stakes, uptime-critical domain like telecom, explainability and auditability aren’t just regulatory checkboxes—they’re essential to trust. Helen’s commitment to safe, transparent AI ensures that innovation does not come at the cost of stability or user trust.

Fitting into the Broader Ecosystem: A Unifying Layer

Helen’s perspective provides a critical unifying layer in the broader AI + connectivity ecosystem:

• Comcast is building distributed, latency-sensitive infrastructure for AI workloads.
• HPE is enabling high-performance edge compute to process those workloads.
• Clarifai is distributing optimized AI models (SLMs, LLMs) efficiently across networks.
• InsightFinder, led by Helen, is ensuring that all of this complexity results in intelligent, reliable operations that enhance user experience and reduce downtim

InsightFinder doesn’t compete with these layers—it activates them. Helen’s vision positions AI not just as a backend enhancement, but as a front-line decision-making partner in daily operations.

Looking Ahead: What InsightFinder’s Perspective Says about the Future

If this panel reconvened five years from now, we’d likely be discussing:

• Autonomous network operations that require minimal human intervention.
• Context-aware AI agents that collaborate with engineers to resolve issues.
• Ubiquitous edge intelligence, where inference happens milliseconds from the user.
• Self-healing infrastructure that detects, diagnoses, and remediates itself.

Helen’s contributions to the panel suggest that this future is not only possible—it’s inevitable, provided we build the right foundations now. That means real-time observability, predictive analytics, explainable AI, and tightly integrated systems that communicate across the stack.

Final Thoughts

Helen Gu’s message had a key call to action:  as the telecom industry embraces AI at scale, the ecosystem must operationalize responsibly, predict proactively, and build trust as we automate. In an era defined by connectivity and intelligence, her perspective, and InsightFinder’s mission – can be a guide for organizations navigating the next wave of AI-powered transformation. For more information about how InsightFinder can help your organization prepare for the the future, schedule time to speak with our team.