Nokia predicts AI will make up almost half of all network traffic by 2035.

In its Global Network Traffic Report 2026, the Finnish giant forecasts that global network traffic will grow 28 percent annually, nearly quadrupling to 3,789 exabytes (EB) per month halfway through the next decade. AI-native traffic will account for 44 percent of the total, representing approximately 1,681EB per month.

Traffic generated directly by AI applications and workflows is expected to increase 60-fold from this year’s levels, growing at a 58 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) to reach 987 EB per month, representing 26 percent of global traffic. Another 694EB per month, or 18 percent, will come from AI-influenced traffic, such as increased video consumption or online shopping. Remaining traffic will be of the traditional, non-AI sort.

Enterprise access AI traffic is forecast to grow at a 59 percent CAGR, faster than consumer AI and overtaking consumer AI later in the forecast period. Industrial IoT applications will generate approximately 70 percent of enterprise AI traffic by 2035, driven by devices like cameras, autonomous vehicles, drones, and sensors.

This subset also includes humanoids, with Nokia detailing that physical AI traffic generated by robots, robotaxis, and the like will increase 105-fold at a 68 percent CAGR to approximately 67EB per month by 2035.

Agentic AI will become one of the fastest-growing traffic categories, increasing approximately 160-fold to 585EB per month by 2035, representing a 76 percent CAGR.

Nokia also expects around 1,134EB per month of AI traffic will enter access networks. Edge and metro core will service 36 percent of all AI-native traffic, with the former carrying nine percent of AI-native traffic, and the latter handling 27 percent of AI-centric traffic. The rest will be serviced by regional core or central cloud.

The vendor did warn that the uplink-heavy nature of AI will pose a considerable challenge to capacity.

“As uplink demand rises, it will place increasing stress on the cellular network,” Nokia noted. “Uplink share describes the traffic mix on a cell, not the pressure placed on the network. What matters is how much of a cell’s uplink capacity this traffic uses during busy hours. Above 70 percent utilization, we see latency and jitter start to rise, impacting many applications, including AI.”