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ARTICLE | Jan 30, 2026

Forward Networks launches agentic AI system built on network digital twin

The new Forward AI capability builds on the vendor's digital twin and is designed to allow network teams to ask complex questions, understand network behavior, validate outcomes and safely automate workflows.
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Network operations teams face a flood of AI-powered tools promising simplified management through natural language interfaces. Many amount to conversational wrappers around existing capabilities, offering convenience but not fundamental changes to how networks are managed and verified. That’s what Forward Networks’ first AI tool, called AI Assist, provided when it launched in 2024.

Now in 2026, Forward Networks is taking a different approach with an agentic AI system that goes beyond a conversational interface. Rather than simply answering questions, it dynamically plans and executes multi-step workflows across hybrid and multi-cloud environments while maintaining mathematical verification of its recommendations.

Forward Networks was founded in 2013 by four Stanford PhDs, and the company spent more than a decade building mathematically accurate network digital twin technology before introducing AI capabilities. The new agentic capabilities in Forward AI are firmly grounded in the founding vision of the company, which is all about delivering an accurate representation of a network.

“When we founded Forward Networks, we started with a simple but strategic question: Does the network actually behave as intended, by design, in production, and across changes,” David Erickson, CEO and co-founder of Forward Networks, told Network World. “Answering that question requires more than visibility. It requires a mathematically accurate model of the network itself.”

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