5G networks are complex, dynamic, and expected to support ultra-low latency, massive IoT, and network slicing at scale. Manual operations can’t keep up. This session explores how AI morivated and driven automation combined with cloud native infrastructure can enable truly autonomous networks. We will look at the key building blocks intent based networking, closed loop automation, and AI/ML pipelines that predict, detect, and resolve issues before they impact customers. CNCF projects like Kubernetes, OpenTelemetry, and Argo enable scalable orchestration, observability, and continuous delivery for these pipelines. We will learn on how to architect self healing, self optimizing networks using open source tooling, and how to address security and compliance challenges when introducing AI into mission critical telco operations.