Q&A: Edge, latency, energy and governance in a distributed AI world

**Executive summary:** Datacom leaders discuss where edge and near-edge deployments add value for latency‑sensitive AI workloads and outline challenges in orchestrating distributed AI — including energy and sustainability trade‑offs, governance, lifecycle and access management, FinOps, and risks such as prompt injection and supply‑chain concerns — while emphasising the need for consistent policies and tooling across cloud, data centre and edge environments.