Agentic Buyers, Analog Sellers: How AI Agents Are Breaking Telecom’s RFP Model

Agentic Buyers, Analog Sellers examines how autonomous AI agents are reshaping enterprise telecommunications procurement and challenging the traditional, relationship-driven RFP and sales model. The paper introduces “Agentic Commerce,” where AI agents increasingly handle supplier discovery, evaluation, negotiation, contracting, optimization, and supplier management while humans govern policy, risk, and final approvals. It presents five frameworks for telecom leaders to assess readiness, build machine-readable commercial capabilities, govern AI autonomy, and transition toward agent-to-agent commerce. The paper also outlines new organizational roles, KPIs, technical architecture, and a phased roadmap for adapting products, pricing, contracts, and sales processes to AI-driven procurement.