Top Takeaways from Mobile World Congress 2025

Last week, the annual Mobile World Congress was held in Barcelona, Spain. Esper was on site with a presence in the Washington State Department of Commerce booth, where we represented startups in Washington State at the show. 

We had a great show, meeting with partners, pinpointing new tech, and trendspotting new tech and industry shifts that matter to businesses. The standout business technologies offer new ways to use existing technology or represent a shift in enterprise thinking. Here are my top takeaways.

• Drones are big business — and not just for consumers: From an amazing self-flying quadrocopter that might be the future of personal transportation (but probably not) to Vodafone Business’ unique and innovative approach to fixing network outages by creating temporary links using drones, it’s clear that this technology is not just dominant, but it still has plenty of innovation steam left in its tank. 
• AI is everywhere — especially the edge: We fully expected to see AI in all the things at MWC, but one thing that really stood out was the push for AI on the edge. It’s clear that businesses don’t just want AI — they want it running locally, on the edge. Key players like Gigabyte, Intel, and many others are spearheading this push with new tech. Some companies even project that within the next five years, AI will run completely on edge devices (for both business and consumer use) without the need for the cloud. Lofty? Sure. Exciting? Definitely. 

• Businesses are ready to move beyond Wi-Fi: Wireless connectivity is and will continue to be a mainstay in modern businesses, but it’s clear at Mobile World Congress that 5G (and beyond) is shaping up to be the always-on, hyper-connected network of the future. While 5G/LTE are fallbacks for Wi-Fi in many organizations, it’s starting to look like a shift in that philosophy is indeed coming. This expands beyond traditional 5G networks, with clearer paths to Private 5G/6G networks thanks to “roll your own” hardware packages from specialized manufacturers that will allow companies to build out mobile networks in locations with little-to-no connectivity. 
• Unified solutions are the way forward: Enterprises are looking for consolidated, end-to-end solutions that combine multiple pieces of the traditional tech stack. We saw plenty of products featuring prepackaged IT solutions for everything from AI models and deployment to security tools and compliance. A good example is Palo Alto Networks’ new AI-powered SASE for 5G, which aims to protect critical company data on 5G devices. (See, there’s that 5G thing again.) 

While we saw plenty of cool, inspiring technology at MWC, these are just a few of the bigger themes that prove to us that some of the most exciting innovations are happening in the business-focused, mission-critical subsector of technology. 

But, realistically, what does all this mean for Esper customers and partners? A lot, actually. From our Pando Edge AI Solution Accelerator that helps companies deploy and support AI models at the edge to our ongoing support of private LTE/5G networks (ever wondered what managing hardware on a private network looks like? We have plenty of experience there!), and our single-pane-of-glass approach to device management, security implementation, drift management, and compliance enforcement, we’re fully prepped for the future we saw at MWC.

For more on everything cool we saw at Mobile World Congress, including on-the-spot videos, hot takes, and even an interview with one of our competitors (yes, really), check out our LinkedIn!