HKUST Charts a Roadmap for Agentic 7G AI-Powered Wireless Networks Reasoning-Empowered Communication Framework Enables AI Agents to Collaborate at Scale A research team from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) proposed a new Reasoning-Empowered Task-Oriented Communication (TOC) framework that enables AI agents to determine what information to share, when communication is necessary, and why a communicate should occur. The research could pave the way for collective intelligence in future 7G wireless networks. Led by Prof. Khaled B. LETAIEF, New Bright Professor of Engineering and Chair Professor of Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering (ECE) at HKUST, the team includes XIE Songjie and LI Hongru, both PhD candidates in HKUST’s ECE; Dr. WANG Zixin, Research Assistant Professor of ECE; Prof. SONG Shenghui, Associate Professor of ECE and the Division of Integrative Systems and Design; and Prof. ZHANG Jun, Professor of ECE. The research, titled “Towards Reasoning-Empowered Task-Oriented Communication for Agent Networks”, was published in the prestigious academic journal npj Wireless Technology. This research presents a roadmap for how communication and reasoning may converge in the coming decades, helping shape the evolution of wireless networks beyond 6G. It offers an early vision for the development of future 7G wireless systems capable of supporting large populations of autonomous AI agents capable that can reason, collaborate and make collective decisions. Today’s communication systems are engineered to deliver data as accurately and reliably as possible. However, future smart cities, autonomous vehicles, healthcare platforms and industrial systems may involve millions of intelligent agents simultaneously exchanging information. Simply scaling today’s communication architectures may not be enough. Without new approaches, communication itself could become a bottleneck that limits the collective intelligence of future AI ecosystems. To address this challenge, the HKUST team’s Reasoning-Empowered TOC framework integrates reasoning into the communication process. Before transmitting, an AI