WAIC2026 Observations | In the Token Era, How Can Enterprises Make AI Work?

The 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) recently concluded in Shanghai. During the four-day global industry event, from world models to industrial brains, from enterprise intelligent agents to AI scientists, a noticeable change emerged: discussions shifted from focusing solely on the size of AI model parameters and computing power to frequently mentioning the word "Token."

What is a token?

From a telecommunications industry perspective, the 2G/3G era had text messages billed per message, the 4G/5G era had data traffic billed per megabyte, and in today's era of computing power networks, tokens are the most basic unit of measurement in the AI world.Each model call corresponds to the consumption of tokens, just as each internet access corresponds to the consumption of data traffic.

Previously, tokens were merely an internal metric focused on by technical personnel. However, this year, WAIC set "token economy" as a core theme for the first time, with tokens being openly priced and presented as digital commodities that can circulate across borders. Some exhibitors even held up signs at the entrance shouting, "1 million tokens given away for free!"

This sends a clear signal: tokens are becoming the basic currency of the AI era, and their smooth circulation directly determines whether AI businesses can truly take off.

Previously, at MWC26 Shanghai in June, Talk2all had already recognized this trend: for AI to truly take off, the network must come first. Its SD-WAN cross-border dedicated network line was created precisely for this purpose.

So, what real-world obstacles did the token encounter during its actual circulation?And how did Ta'ao Communications SD-WAN overcome them one by one?

01 Network Fluctuations, Tokens "Can't Be Spent"

In fact, the three major telecom operators have developed and launched various token packages. Users can subscribe to a certain amount of tokens, similar to subscribing to data packages in the past, to access various large-scale services.

However, many companies have found that when accessing overseas large-scale services, they frequently encounter issues such as request timeouts, response delays, and data retransmissions. When deploying multiple intelligent agents for cross-border collaboration, every instruction must be transmitted in real time; network fluctuations can stall the entire chain. Even though the tokens are in the account, they cannot be spent due to network instability across borders.

Talk2all's SD-WAN addresses this issue by focusing on the circulation process. It supports multi-network convergence, automatically detects global network paths, and intelligently selects the smoothest route for data transmission. If the public network is congested, it uses a dedicated line; if that line is slow, it automatically switches to another, allowing the tokens to truly circulate.

02 Delayed Response, Tokens "Can't Be Sent Out"

At this year's WAIC conference, AI has evolved from simple chatbots into fully functional workers. They've become deeply integrated into daily workflows, helping people process documents, follow up on tasks, coordinate meetings, and retrieve information. Token consumption has also shifted from "humans using AI" to "AI agents feeding" tokens.

This means higher demands on the network. Previously, slow networks were tolerable for humans; now, slow networks can disrupt the relay of instructions between AI agents, bringing business processes to a standstill.

Talk2all's SD-WAN, through global backbone nodes, builds dedicated local area networks for AI agent instructions, ensuring low latency and high stability for cross-border collaboration. Whether it's accelerated access to overseas AI applications, cross-border data synchronization for AI agents, or real-time collaboration across multiple branches, network guarantees of carrier-grade quality are guaranteed.

03 Compliance Risks: Tokens "Can't Go Global"

The WAIC conference released a series of policy dividends for cross-border data flows, encouraging companies to utilize global AI resources while adhering to regulations. However, many companies focus only on how to expand their business overseas, neglecting the compliance requirements of cross-border networks.

In his keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the WAIC conference, President Xi Jinping emphasized the need to strengthen risk awareness and ensure security and controllability. He stressed the importance of paying close attention to the various inherent and derivative risks arising from artificial intelligence, promoting the construction of a legal and regulatory framework, technical monitoring, risk warning, and emergency response system, strengthening the bottom line of security, preventing abuse and misuse, and ensuring that artificial intelligence always remains under human control.

Talk2all provides legitimate operator links and native clean IPs, with customizable firewall encryption. All cross-border network nodes comply with domestic data export regulatory requirements. Companies can quickly build compliant and stable cross-border connection channels through SD-WAN, blocking compliance risks in advance and ensuring worry-free overseas business expansion.

It is foreseeable that tokens will permeate the daily operations of various industries in the future, becoming a fundamental element driving AI business operations, and cross-border circulation will become the norm.

Talk2all's SD-WAN cross-border network leased line will open up global network channels for overseas enterprises, allowing tokens to circulate smoothly and be fully utilized in cross-border business.