AI inference in practice: choosing the right edge

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Inferencing is the real-time decision-making of an AI model. As AI adoption grows, inferencing will accelerate, raising questions about workload processing and business benefits. As outlined in "Distributed inference: how AI can turbocharge the edge", enterprises need to know that where inferencing happens – whether at the user edge (device and enterprise) or network edge (far edge, near edge and telco private cloud) – will have major implications for application performance, data sovereignty, resilience and energy efficiency.
This research forms part of a series illustrating the impact of AI inference, with each report focusing on a distinct edge location and featuring an example company. This analysis examines how running AI workloads on the edge can deliver improved outcomes, with Aible the featured company.
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AI inference in practice: time is money
As AI adoption grows, inferencing will accelerate, raising the question of where workloads will be processed and how they translate into business benefits. This analysis examines AI on the near edge in distributed telco data centres, with Kinetica highlighted as an example.
Distributed inference: how AI can turbocharge the edge
For several years, edge compute has been a key part of the 5G value proposition for telecoms operators selling into industries – even before AI. However, AI adds a new dimension to the value of edge through distributed inference.
IFA 2025: an AI-first show with five other defining themes
Like at most other technology shows today, AI was ubiquitous at IFA 2025 – the European consumer electronics show – and the growing application of advanced AI, including generative AI, was clear to see. There were also notable developments across the smart home, wearables, smartphones, home robots and gaming.
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