6G Insight | Mérouane Debbah: 6G Is No Longer Merely an Advancement in Communication Technology—It Is the Convergence Point of AI, Computing, Sensing, and Beyond

After the successful conclusion of the Global 6G Conference in 2025, we are honored to invite Mérouane Debbah, Co-Chair of the Technical Program Committee (TPC) of the conference and Professor at Khalifa University in the United Arab Emirates, for an exclusive interview. He will share his profound understanding of "Co-Defining 6G with the Entire Industry", his practical experience in promoting the integration of scientific research and industry, and his outlook on the future of global collaboration on 6G.

6G is not a faster 5G, but a deep integration of technological paradigms

"'Co-Defining 6G with the Entire Industry' is not only the theme of the conference, but also represents the fundamental logic of development in the 6G era," Professor Debbah said in an interview.

 In his view, 6G is no longer merely an advancement in communication technology—it is the convergence point of AI, computing, sensing, and beyond. 6G will not just connect people. It will serve machines, intelligent systems and even cross-domain industry ecosystem.

"6G will not just connect people. It will serve intelligent systems that span domains such as healthcare, mobility, manufacturing, defense, and transportation. This requires that the definition of communication systems must go beyond communication itself," said Debbah.

Such cross-industry co-design is not optional for 6G—it is foundational 

At Khalifa University, and through his prior leadership roles at Huawei and the Technology Innovation Institute in Abu Dhabi, he has consistently championed cross-disciplinary innovation. He mentioned that one of their major initiatives, the NeuroWave platform, integrates private 5G with low-latency access to large language models (LLMs) for edge intelligence—an effort born out of collaboration between telecom, AI, and secure computing sectors. Similarly, their 6G Research Center is actively involved in projects that align communication theory with sensing and intelligent decision-making in fields such as energy and critical infrastructure.

"Such cross-industry co-design is not optional for 6G—it is foundational," stressed Debbah.

From lab to market: How to build a bridge between academia and industry?

Professor Debbah pointed out that one of the primary challenges in transitioning 6G technologies from lab to market lies in the fragmentation of priorities between academia and industry. While researchers focus on theoretical breakthroughs, industry seeks robustness, interoperability, and scalability. Bridging this gap requires agile prototyping, shared testbeds, and most importantly, industry-aligned research objectives from the outset.

In his experience, the TelecomGPT project—the first LLM tailored for telecom applications—illustrates this well. They designed the system based on real-world operator requirements (e.g., multi-lingual support, low power inference at the edge), and validated it with stakeholders from both the telecom and AI sectors. The result is not only a strong academic output but also a deployable product that meets operator needs in the Middle East and beyond.

Additionally, through European-funded collaborations and joint industry-university frameworks, he has led several projects where AI-based network optimizations and self-organizing systems have moved from simulation environments to embedded deployments in infrastructure.

"Ultimately, what works best is a 'co-innovation' model where both the problem definition and the evaluation criteria are shared between researchers and industrial partners from day one," said Debbah.

During the conference, Mérouane Debbah, Professor of Khalifa University in the United Arab Emirates and Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), shared the research results of Khalifa University around the integration of communication and computing, the impact of AI on communication, and the construction and application of related models. He pointed out that from 2G to 6G, technology is constantly evolving, and AI will be everywhere in the 6G era. AI has changed the communication protocol, and future communications will focus more on data reconstruction rather than simple transmission. The emergence of intelligent agents has changed the way business is done, and LLMs can directly complete business processes. In the field of telecom, LLMs operate in various ways, and the basic model can be customized.

From technology to global collaboration: We need more than just innovation

As TPC Co-Chair, he is excited to see this year's conference serve as a true convergence point for academia, industry, and policy. He looks forward to bold ideas that push theoretical frontiers, but also expects to see demonstrations of real-world relevance—systems that can scale, adapt, and inspire.

He also hopes this conference will foster global dialogue, not just on technical innovations, but on standards, spectrum strategy, trust frameworks, and responsible AI integration in 6G.

"It is only through such multidimensional exchange that we can realize the full potential of 6G as a pillar of global digital transformation," said Professor Debbah.