From security and CPUs to AI and 5G, Intel goes deep

Earlier this year, EP&T Magazine was invited as a media guest of Intel Corporation to attend Mobile World Congress 2025 (MWC25) in Barcelona—one of the world’s premier events for wireless technology, connectivity and innovation. While on-site, EP&T had the opportunity to engage with Intel on a range of topics spanning semiconductors, AI, network infrastructure, and edge computing. The following Q&A captures key insights shared by Intel during and after the event. Given the breadth of subjects and teams involved, responses have been attributed to an Intel spokesperson.

General Industry and Strategy

Q: Intel has been making major moves in AI and Edge computing. What key messages are you bringing to MWC25?

Intel: At MWC 2025, Intel unveiled significant updates to our Xeon 6 processors, marking a big leap towards fully integrating AI at the hardware level, complete with supporting software and an open eco-system.

Source: EP&T

As AI becomes an essential part of enterprise innovation and a ‘must have’ for competitive advantage, companies across various sectors – like retail, manufacturing, healthcare, telecom, media, entertainment, infrastructure, and more – are increasingly looking to integrate AI into their preexisting IT systems in space-constrained, low-power, and cost-efficient environments. This also often requires local data processing, whether in retail points-of-sale, cellular sites, or greenhouse sensors.

Based on over 100,000 real-word Edge implementations with our partners, Intel introduced three complementary offerings that address the unique challenges of Edge computing.

The first element is AI Edge Systems, with new additions to our Xeon 6 family of processors along with Core Ultra and other hardware. Those provide OEMs and ODMs access to standardized blueprints, benchmarks, and verification tools to easily configure systems to meet the performance and power consumption needs of different use cases, whether it is vision AI or Gen AI.

The second element, known as Edge AI Suites, addresses the software needs to deploy AI Edge solutions. These are open, industry-specific AI software development kits (SDKs) for independent software vendors (ISVs), system integrators, and solutions builders. These suites simplify the creation of custom AI solutions for various industries by providing curated reference applications, sample code, and benchmarks to accelerate application development. Currently, we offer four suites optimized for retail, manufacturing, smart cities, and media and entertainment.

Source: EP&T

The third element is called Open Edge Platform. In essence, it is a modular, open-source platform that simplifies the development, deployment, and management of edge and AI applications at scale. With cloud-like simplicity, this platform allows ISVs, solution builders, and operating system vendors to integrate and remotely manage software components efficiently and leverage performance optimizations from Intel’s latest software advancements.

Intel AI Edge Systems, alongside Edge AI Suites and the Open Edge Platform, empower the ecosystem to bring edge AI to market faster and more efficiently.

Q: Intel has been vocal about its focus on security in enterprise computing. Can you elaborate on how security features are evolving across your product lines?

Intel has prioritized security for many years. In the late 1990s, we started implementing Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) practices, which rely on thorough research to guide the development process, embedding security and privacy principles at every step. Hardware security took on renewed importance in 2017, based on revolutionary security findings felt across the industry. With each new platform release, Intel continues to introduce advanced security features to meet ever-changing cybersecurity challenges.

Intel technology supports zero-trust cloud security with hardware-enabled capabilities, optimized software, and developer tools that can strengthen third-party security solutions. Further, Intel partners with cloud service providers, security software vendors, and systems integrators to build powerful, effective security solutions for a broad variety of computing environments and usage models worldwide.

Data centre infrastructure, as well as devices at the edge, are one of the most important investments an organization can make.

As data generation surges at the network edge, security remains a critical focus. The Intel Xeon 6 SoC and our vPRO platforms rise to this challenge with advanced security features that enable more secure, zero-trust connections across the entire IT infrastructure.

Intel CPUs & AI PC

Q: How is Intel optimizing its latest CPUs for AI acceleration at both the consumer and enterprise levels?

Intel continues to push the boundaries of AI performance and power efficiency for both businesses and consumers, setting new standards in personal computing and bringing AI capabilities to the edge, data centres, and cloud technologies.

Earlier this year, Intel introduced new and more powerful Intel Core Ultra processors including the H and HX series, now available also on commercial laptops and workstations. Intel is on a mission to improve its line up of processors with every generation, boosting performance while making them more energy efficient. Currently, we are on track to power 100 million AI PCs by the end of 2025.

Source: EP&T

Q: The AI PC has been a major industry trend. How does Intel define an AI PC, and what role do your latest processors play in making it a reality?

Publicly available, internet-based generative AI tools depend on the extensive processing power of large data centres. When users input their information, it is sent to the cloud and incorporated into the learning model. In contrast, AI PCs can process data directly on the computer, eliminating the need for internet connectivity and ensuring data is securely handled locally, away from third-party access. This local processing not only mitigates security and privacy risks but also reduces potential latency issues associated with cloud-based AI services.

For businesses aiming to excel in the AI era, our new processors deliver significant performance improvements, increased efficiency, and strong security and management features to help modernize IT infrastructures.

For creators, road warriors, and remote or mobile workforces, it offers top performance along with reduction in power consumption, resulting in significantly longer battery life.

vPRO & Business Computing

Q: Intel vPRO is known for its security and manageability in business environments. How are you evolving the platform to meet the needs of remote and hybrid workforces?

Intel is evolving its vPro platform to better address the needs of remote and hybrid workforces by significantly simplifying its deployment and management. Historically, vPro required dedicated on-site hardware servers for IT management, hindering wider adoption. Now, Intel is streamlining the process while reducing costs with a free SaaS offering at vprofleet.intel.com.

The new SaaS offers improvements in a few key areas. Firstly, the new model simplifies the setup of the vPRO onboarding process from 24 steps to only six, significantly reducing deployment time.

Additionally, this cloud-based platform allows businesses both small and large to manage a fleet of devices from anywhere, using a single interface. This makes vPRO accessible to organizations that previously lacked the resources for dedicated server infrastructure.

Furthermore, the simplified IT management allows for quicker remediation of security issues, as some of our clients experienced and leveraged during the CrowdStrike outage. Thanks to the vPro platforms, our clients were able to recover quickly with minimal downtime, highlighting the platform’s value in maintaining business continuity.

Lastly, Intel is broadening vPro’s integration with popular management tools like Microsoft Intune, CrowdStrike, and HP Workforce Solutions. This allows IT administrators to leverage vPro’s capabilities within their existing workflows.

Q: AI-powered cybersecurity threats are on the rise. How does Intel vPRO help mitigate emerging security risks?

Intel vPro helps mitigate emerging AI-powered cybersecurity threats through several key features and strategies embedded in its hardware-based security and manageability system.

The most notable feature is the built-in hardware security. Intel vPro integrates security features directly into the hardware, providing a robust defense against attacks that software-only solutions might miss. This includes protections against firmware-level threats, which are increasingly targeted by sophisticated cyberattacks.

Another powerful element that makes vPRO more resilient to security threats is its advanced remote management capabilities. The platform allows IT administrators to remotely manage and secure devices, even when they are powered off or outside the corporate firewall. This capability is crucial for quickly addressing security incidents across a distributed workforce.

Going forward, Intel plans to integrate vPro with popular management tools like Microsoft Intune and add cloud-native integrations to enhance the ability of organizations to monitor, detect, and respond to threats using their existing security infrastructure.

5G, Edge Computing & Connectivity

Q: Intel has been actively involved in 5G and edge computing. What role do your latest processors play in optimizing network and telecom infrastructure?

Intel’s latest Xeon 6 System on Chip (SOC) processors play a significant role in optimizing telecom infrastructure. This is achieved in a few ways.

The new CPUs enhance vRAN capacity by offering more than twice the virtualized radio access network capacity compared to previous generations, improving the ability of networks to connect mobile devices efficiently.

Additionally, the processors include onboard Ethernet controllers, media acceleration, and AI acceleration capabilities, which streamline operations and reduce the need for additional hardware components. By allowing up to 72 cores in a single rack, the processors also enable operators to consolidate their hardware needs from two servers down to one, resulting in significant cost savings.

The new processors deliver up to 14 times the media transcoding capabilities of previous offerings, supporting efficient handling of media-rich applications at the edge while boasting a 70 per cent improvement in performance per watt. This improvement helps reduce energy consumption and lower the total cost of ownership for telecom operators.

Q: With the convergence of AI and 5G, how is Intel helping telcos deploy more intelligent networks?

Intel is empowering telecom companies to deploy more intelligent networks at the convergence of AI and 5G through a multi-pronged approach, including advanced silicon, strategic partnerships, and a focus on sustainability. The company is working with leading telecom companies around the world, Canada included, to upscale their networks.

Some examples on the collaboration with telecom companies include AT&T, that, partnered with Intel and Ericsson, is building a highly open and programmable RAN network using Xeon 6, enabling seamless AI advancements through software updates.

The collaboration with Vodafone is another example of how Intel supports the virtualization of 5G core and RAN, enabling more flexible and scalable networks. Vodafone’s OpenRAN deployments, built on Intel Xeon, demonstrate the competitiveness of this approach against legacy RAN. Ericsson, a key partner, is industrializing Open RAN and AI RAN innovations with Xeon 6, achieving its first Cloud RAN call on the platform.

Other operators like TELUS, Rakuten Mobile, Reliance Jio, and SK Telecom are also leveraging Intel Xeon for smarter, more flexible networks.

Future Outlook & Industry Trends

Q: Given Intel’s recent focus on AI and heterogeneous computing, what do you see as the biggest industry shifts in the next 2-3 years?

In the next couple of years, AI will continue to be integrated into various sectors, driving innovation and efficiency. This includes advancements in AI-powered automation, enhanced human-AI collaboration, and the development of new AI applications. By embracing AI-driven system design, Intel is set to accelerate development of full-stack solutions and purpose-built silicon tailored for specific needs, like innovative architectures and essential workflows.

With the rise of edge computing, we foresee more robust AI capabilities being deployed closer to data sources. This shift will improve real-time decision-making and reduce latency, benefiting industries like healthcare, smart cities, and industrial automation. IT architectures are also expected to be significantly different, evolving from a traditional application-focused approach to new multiagent architectures.

Generative AI is expected to continue to reshape enterprise technology where companies will increasingly integrate AI into their operations, driving innovation and efficiency through AI-powered automation and enhanced human-AI collaboration.