At Semafor World Economy Lumen CEO Kate Johnson Issues Open Letter to CEOs: “Is Your Network AI-Ready?”—Calling for AI-Ready Network Modernization

Johnson will participate in a fireside chat on “AI’s Next Chapter” at the annual global forum in Washington, DC

DENVER--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Timed to coincide with Semafor World Economy 2026, taking place April 13-17 in Washington, DC, Lumen Technologies’ (“Lumen”) (NYSE: LUMN) CEO Kate Johnson issued an open letter to CEOs asking, “Is your network AI-ready?” The letter points to the urgent need to upgrade networking infrastructure to support AI aspirations. Johnson will expand on the topic during a fireside chat that is part of a session on “AI’s Next Chapter,” which begins at 9 a.m. ET on Tuesday, April 14.

“The network is the nervous system in an AI-driven enterprise. It determines how fast you can move, how much you spend, and whether your AI investments produce value,” said Johnson. “To support your business, networks must be resilient, adaptable, programmable, and consumption-based — just like cloud.”

Johnson emphasizes that:

• AI is fundamentally reshaping network demand, and yesterday’s networks can’t keep up: Data is moving continuously across clouds, data centers, and the edge, with autonomous systems already driving a significant share of traffic.

• Network performance is inextricably linked to value creation and customer experience: Constrained networks slow time to insight and time to first token, limit the customer experience, and constrain high-value compute investment returns.

• Networks must be able to scale dynamically: Adaptable infrastructure is essential to cope with constantly shifting conditions in today’s complex environments.

Read Johnson’s, “An Open Letter to My Fellow CEOs” here: lumen.com/isyournetworkready.

Watch live or a replay of the Semafor World Economy fireside chat on AI’s Next Chapter here:
https://www.semafor.com/article/04/05/2026/watch-semafor-world-economy-day-2.

About Lumen Technologies

Lumen is unleashing the world's digital potential. We ignite business growth by connecting people, data, and applications – quickly, securely, and effortlessly. As the trusted network for AI, Lumen uses the scale of our network to help companies realize AI's full potential. From metro connectivity to long-haul data transport to our edge cloud, security, managed service, and digital platform capabilities, we meet our customers’ needs today and as they build for tomorrow.

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