Syed Ali Raza Zaidi

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Associate Professor, University of Leeds, UK

Title of talk: Agentic AI Empowered 6G Wireless Networks

Abstract:

The next generation of wireless systems, 6G, is set to unlock advanced Self-X capabilities through the seamless integration of an AI-plane into the network fabric. This AI-plane will enable networks to self-orchestrate and self-manage based on high-level user intents. Recent progress in Generative AI (GenAI) brings new opportunities for such intent-driven control, particularly by encoding multimodal information within a unified embedding space. This capability supports the creation of autonomous agents that can both interpret intent and manage network behaviour dynamically, before and after deployment. In this talk, we introduce a unified framework for multimodal agents empowered by large language models (LLMs) and foundation models, enabling the fluid conversion of user intent into concrete, adaptive network operations. This approach marks a significant step toward truly intelligent, self-evolving 6G networks.

Short Bio:
Syed Ali Raza Zaidi Member, IEEE is an Associate Professor at the University of Leeds in the broad area of Communication and Sensing for Robotics and Autonomous Systems. He co-leads the UK's Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and UKRI-funded Future Communications Hub for Empowering Distributed Cloud Computing Applications and Research (CHEDDAR), which has received £16 million in research funding. He also leads the Emergent Compute Pillar within the CHEDDAR work programme, as well as DSIT- and AISI-funded initiatives on agentic AI for cloud-native telecommunications. Earlier, from 2013 to 2015, he was associated with the SPCOM research group, working on a US ARL-funded project in Network Science. From 2011 to 2013, he was a research associate at the International University of Rabat. He was also a visiting research scientist at Qatar Innovations and Mobility Centre from October to December 2013, where he worked on the QNRF-funded project QSON. He completed his doctoral degree at the School of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, where he was awarded the G. W. and F. W. Carter Prize for best thesis and best research paper. He has published over 90 papers in leading IEEE conferences and journals. From 2014 to 2015, he served as an editor of IEEE Communication Letters and as the lead guest editor for the IET Signal Processing Journal's Special Issue on Signal Processing for Large-Scale 5G Wireless Networks. He has also served as lead editor for the IEEE Communications Magazine Feature Topic on Communication Technologies for Robotics and Autonomous Systems and for the IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications (JSAC) Special Issue on Design and Analysis of Communication Interfaces for Industry 4.0. He is also an editor for the IET Access, Fronthaul, and Backhaul book series, and is currently an Associate Technical Editor for IEEE Communications Magazine. He is also the Industrial Sponsorship and Programme Chair for ICC 2026. He has been awarded grants from COST IC0902, the Royal Academy of Engineering, EPSRC, Horizon Europe, and DAAD (totalling approximately £5.5 million) to promote his research outputs. He has also been an invited keynote speaker and panellist at various leading international conferences and workshops. His current research interests include Generative AI for cloud-native telecommunications, as well as the modelling, analysis, and design of large-scale connected intelligent systems.