Firms that fail to upgrade their networks risk falling behind as demand for faster connectivity continues to grow, Zayo has warned.
According to new research by the digital infrastructure provider, organisations are ramping up investment in network capacity in a bid to deal with new demands thanks to AI, data-heavy applications and cloud services.
“AI is exposing a hard truth: networks built for yesterday’s traffic patterns will not support tomorrow’s workloads,” said Bill Long, Chief Product & Strategy Officer at Zayo.
“The organisations set up to capture AI’s value are investing now in the bandwidth, fibre, and architecture required to scale. They understand that the next decade of competitive advantage will depend on network infrastructure that is built for AI.”
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The data also revealed that demand for long-haul fibre doubled between 2024 and 2025, as large organisations expanded connections between data centres in a bid to support growing digital workloads.
This comes as the research stated fibre demand also increased sharply, rising by up to 20 times in some markets, reflecting on the need for businesses to process more data closer to users.
Additionally, Zayo also found hyperscalers and carriers remain the largest buyers of long-haul fibre, accounting for 95% of purchases, while AI infrastructure providers and cloud companies are becoming increasingly significant customers.
