‘AI will solve optical communications problems that are unimaginable today’

News and Business

The optical communications industry is entering a new era, one that is defined scale, efficiency, and intelligence.

This shift was front and centre at this year’s ECOC Exhibition in Málaga, where Market Focus Committee Chair Michael Lebby outlined how artificial intelligence is set to transform photonics over the coming decade.

Lebby describes today’s moment as part of the “fourth industrial revolution”, driven by cyber physical systems, automation, and AI. The industry has already overcome what he calls the historic “purple brick wall”, a long-standing cost performance barrier that limited progress in optical hardware.

Many of those challenges have now been solved, with the industry unlocking “x2” improvements in bandwidth, density, power consumption, and data rates across physical photonics components.

What comes next, he argues, is even more revolutionary. AI is emerging as a tool that will accelerate R&D and enable engineers to solve problems that were previously out of reach.

“In the next 10 to 20 years, we’re going to solve problems that are unimaginable today,” Lebby explains, not through incremental optimisation, but through AI-driven design, modelling, and automation.

With the purple brick wall seemingly behind us, the industry now faces “blue brick walls”, which are new barriers that require intelligent tools to overcome. AI will be central to breaking through them, enabling photonics researchers to explore larger design spaces, predict performance more accurately, and innovate at a pace the sector has never experienced.

You watch the full interview here: