Inside the Big Themes Shaping MWC Barcelona 2026
MWC Barcelona 2026 made one thing clear: the telecom industry is entering a new phase, where AI feels more tangible, policy feels more urgent, and innovation is being judged by its real-world impact.
Mar 19, 2026
Inside the Big Themes Shaping MWC Barcelona 2026
In this episode, Matthew Roberts welcomes Lara Dewar, CMO of the GSMA, back to the podcast for a wide-ranging conversation on what this year’s event revealed about the future of connectivity. From AI’s shift into more embodied, agentic, and consumer-facing experiences to the growing importance of inclusion, regulation, and practical use cases, Lara offers a front-row view of where the industry is heading next. She reflects on 20 years of MWC in Barcelona, the role the event plays in bringing together industry and government, and why marketers, operators, and policymakers are now all grappling with the same challenges. The conversation also explores the risk of leaving communities behind in the AI era, the need for more locally relevant technology, and why sectors like healthcare may be next in line for telecom-led transformation.
So if you are interested in the absolute latest from MWC and what it means for telecom on a larger scale, press play!
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“At the GSMA, we're going through some transformative thinking from a marketing perspective, rationalizing systems and tools, and looking for places where it makes sense to layer in the right AI tool. There's lots of things available. They don't all do the same thing, and it's not as simple as having copilot write stuff for you. It's not that simple. We are looking for ways to employ it because you need to be able to walk the talk. We can't talk about it externally if we're not doing it internally and reducing barriers to change and making sure that rollouts are safe and that our brand remains authentic.”
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