If AI Matters To Your Business, Digital Corridors Deserve Your Attention

InnovationIf AI Matters To Your Business, Digital Corridors Deserve Your AttentionByMichael Flannery,Forbes Councils Member.for Forbes Technology CouncilCOUNCIL POSTExpertise from Forbes Councils members, operated under license. Opinions expressed are those of the author. | Membership (fee-based)Jun 03, 2026, 09:00am EDTMichael Flannery is President of Uniti Solutions & Kinetic Business. getty​If U.S. enterprises want to utilize AI to maintain their dominance, they will need an innovative communications infrastructure designed to support demands, both now and for many years to come. The massive and growing appetite for data demands high-capacity data transport segments and networks that can move information at lightning speed between data centers, clouds and end users. Thus, there is a rush to build fiber-optic digital corridors across North America and the globe.​In fact, AI is only as effective as the infrastructure behind it. So, if your business uses AI in its operations, you should be paying close attention to who’s building these digital corridors, where and when, because this is the infrastructure that will determine, in large part, how fast, reliable, scalable and secure your AI systems can be. While the nicknames for some of these fiber optic digital highways—Heartland Fiber Project, the "Beach Route," T-Rock Express—seem like they’ve been lifted from our past, the corridors themselves are integral to a present and future that depend on AI.​Digital Corridors And Your Company's Road Map​Digital corridor projects can stretch hundreds and even thousands of miles and cost billions of dollars. Many involve public-private partnerships and consortia with multiple companies, including telecom companies with fiber optic networks, infrastructure providers, energy and electricity providers, hyperscalers, neocloud providers and more. Some link large metro areas to lower-cost data center markets, while others cross borders or run subsea, carrying data...