AI Tokens, Sovereign Tech & the Themes Defining 2026 | Episode 1

In the inaugural episode of Intelligence & Noise from GSMA Intelligence's Peter Jarich and Tim Hatt cut through the noise on the biggest stories shaping the telecoms and tech industry in the first half of 2026. From AI monetisation and the rise of tokens as a service, to sovereign cloud becoming a genuine competitive edge for mobile operators plus why quantum computing deserves more attention than it's getting. Topics covered: 00:00 – Welcome to Intelligence & Noise 04:30 – The 5 big themes of 2026 so far 14:37 – How AI deployments are shifting from cost-cutting to monetisation 18:50 – Chinese operators bundling AI tokens and what it means globally 22:00 – Sovereignty as a competitive differentiator for telcos 28:30 – The hyperscaler CapEx boom and what it signals 29:33 – Why only 7% of IoT devices are quantum safe #IntelligenceAndNoise #telecom #artificialintelligence #ai #sovereignty #cloudcomputing #hyperscalers #quantumcomputing #quantumsecurity #iot #digitalinfrastructure #techtrends