3GPP Release 19 and beyond — AI at the physical layer

Embedding AI in the PHY layer gives the telco ecosystem new tools for efficiency, spectrum use, and performance — and lays the groundwork for 6G’s AI-native vision

5G promised speed and capacity, but delivering on that promise has created new challenges: dense deployments, energy demands, and the limits of traditional optimization methods. 3GPP Release 19 seeks to address these pain points head-on by embedding AI and ML into the RAN and physical layer (PHY), offering operators new tools to tame complexity and unlock efficiency.

AI/ML exploration began in earlier releases, targeting beam management, positioning, and channel state information (CSI) enhancements. Release 19 builds on this work by introducing a general framework for AI/ML on the air interface. Ericsson calls this framework