Towards the end of 2025 TelcoForge conducted an online survey reaching across the service provider, vendor and research communities. The results from almost 160 senior executives suggest that the industry’s biggest constraints are no longer purely technological. Instead, workforce capacity and organisational readiness are emerging as the most frequently-cited barriers to progress, whether in 5G monetisation or in 6G development.
When asked to identify their biggest current challenges, 66% of respondents cited skills and recruitment gaps, the highest response of any category. This placed human capital concerns ahead of business change driven by AI and machine learning (61%) and capital investment pressures (55%).
The seniority of respondents gives this finding additional weight. Nearly two-thirds (63%) identified themselves as C-levels, with a further 27% at VP or Director level. The prominence of skill concerns at this level suggests that talent availability is being experienced as a strategic constraint rather than a purely operational issue.
Recruitment behaviour reinforces this picture. Three-quarters of respondents rely on headhunters and recruitment firms, with 69% also drawing on their own professional networks. Together, this points to two things; firstly, a competitive labour market for experienced talent, particularly as operators attempt to manage multiple technology transitions in parallel. The dark side of this, though, is the 69% professional networks statistic. It suggests that there’s a relatively small set of people that executives trust to do a job, rather than bringing in people from other industries or disciplines and training them up… which does seem to be perpetuating the problem of recruitment.
Collaboration: The downfall of 6G
Looking further ahead, respondents expressed clear concern about the conditions required for 6G to succeed. Asked to identify the most likely reason for 6G failure, 55% cited a lack of industry collaboration and innovation. By comparison, only 25% pointed to unclear business models.
This outcome is notable given the industry’s longstanding reliance on shared standards and collective development through bodies such as 3GPP and GSMA. While funding and regulation are often highlighted as challenges in public debates, this survey suggests that industry leaders themselves see coordination and collective innovation as the more pressing risk. In an environment where we have industry bodies, consortia and alliances for pretty much everything and everyone, a follow-up question might be whether we have too many or too few of them.
Meanwhile, near-term priorities remain firmly focused on 5G, with 77% identifying monetisation as their leading area of interest.
In other words, we have a sector that self-reportedly is still working to extract value from existing investments while already questioning its readiness for the next generational shift.
AI: A challenge rather than a priority
AI and machine learning appear prominently as sources of disruption. Business change driven by AI/ML was the second-most cited challenge overall, yet AI does not feature among the top areas of expressed interest.
Rather than indicating disinterest, this may reflect uncertainty about how AI fits into existing operating models, skill sets and value chains. While conversations about the technology, its role in networks or customer-facing environments, and how it might create brand new strategic opportunities and/or headaches abound, in practice AI appears to be experienced first as an organisational and capability challenge rather than as a clearly defined growth opportunity.
While it’s worth noting that many large companies are shedding jobs at present, it’s not at all clear that this is a case of cause and effect with autonomous systems and/or AI. However, the fact that organisations are already in flux only adds a layer of complication when it comes to planning future organisational capabilities and responsibilities.
Organisational and implementation challenges may well also reflect the state of discussion on AI these days, with questions around the practical implementation and effectiveness of AI systems increasingly popping up. Questions over whether, and in what situations, AI can deliver meaningful ROI have been rife over the past few months. Meanwhile the possibility of an AI bubble – and what that might mean financially and strategically if it bursts – has become a recurrent conversation in some circles.
Popular problems
Taken together, the results point to an industry with no shortage of strategic ambition, but with growing concern about its ability to execute. Skills shortages, organisational readiness and collaboration are seen as greater constraints than the availability of technology itself.
For a sector accustomed to measuring progress in network generations, this represents a shift in emphasis. The pace of change may ultimately be determined less by technical roadmaps than by whether the industry can develop the talent, structures and cooperative models needed to support them.
Note – coming soon: more analysis plus the full report.
