Kentik Use Cases for AI-Powered Network Operations
Network operations has two recurring problems: time (too many incidents, too little staff) and consistency (the same alert gets handled differently depending on who is on call). Kentik AI is built to address both, using an AI agent (AI Advisor), automation features like Cause Analysis, and governance tools like runbooks and custom network context.
This guide covers the most common AI-powered NetOps use cases for Kentik and links each one to the relevant Kentik Solutions, product pages, and documentation.
About Kentik: Kentik AI combines unified network telemetry with AI-driven analysis so teams can ask questions in natural language, automate common investigations (like “what changed?”), and deliver consistent outcomes with runbooks and organization-specific context.
Learn how AI-powered insights help you predict issues, optimize performance, reduce costs, and enhance security.
AI-powered NetOps use cases at a glance
- AI-guided troubleshooting with multi-step investigations (AI Advisor)
- Standardize incident response with runbooks and custom network context
- Instant “what changed?” triage for traffic spikes and drops (Cause Analysis)
- AI-assisted planning: capacity, runout, cost, and architecture decisions
- Faster communication: AI summaries and evidence-backed incident narratives
1. AI-guided troubleshooting with multi-step investigations (AI Advisor)
Kentik AI Advisor helps engineers troubleshoot like a network engineer by interpreting natural language requests and running transparent, multi-step investigations across telemetry.
Teams ask:
- Can I ask one question and have the system run the investigation steps automatically?
- What is the likely root cause, what changed, and what should we do next?
- Can I validate the answer with supporting evidence and data?
What you need to see:
- Unified telemetry (flows, metrics, synthetics, routing context) that can be queried quickly
- An AI interface that exposes the steps and evidence, not just a black-box answer
- A way to ask follow-up questions that deepen the investigation
How Kentik helps:
- AI Advisor interprets natural language requests and reasons through complex, multi-step network investigations and acts autonomously to run queries across your telemetry.
- Provides step-by-step logic and transparent supporting data so conclusions are auditable.
- Produces clear, concise recommendations for next actions during triage and troubleshooting.
Related product page: AI Advisor
Learn more about Kentik AI Advisor in this short video overview:
2. Standardize incident response with runbooks and custom network context
Kentik AI makes incident response repeatable by letting teams codify how investigations should run (runbooks) and what the AI should know about your environment (custom network context).
Teams ask:
- How do we make troubleshooting consistent across shifts and skill levels?
- Can we teach the AI our naming conventions, IP schemas, and operational constraints?
- Can we start investigations from an alert with the right steps already in place?
What you need to see:
- A way to define step-by-step procedures for specific alert types
- A place to store organization-specific network information that applies across investigations
- Controls that keep investigations systematic and reduce human error
How Kentik helps:
- Supports runbooks, which are Markdown-formatted “recipes” to guide AI Advisor through diagnostic steps for specific alerts, and can be assigned to alert policies.
- Supports custom network context (Markdown-formatted) so AI Advisor can use your environment-specific knowledge in every conversation (design, naming, IP schemas, critical apps, procedures).
- Provides consistent, reliable, and scalable outcomes using AI-assisted reasoning, custom context, and runbooks.
Related pages:
3. Instant “what changed?” triage for traffic spikes and drops (Cause Analysis)
Kentik Cause Analysis eliminates manual slicing by automatically identifying the dimensions driving a traffic change and presenting them as a hierarchical breakdown.
Teams ask:
- What changed during that spike, drop, or reroute?
- Which dimensions drove the change (apps, IPs, ASNs, cloud services, regions)?
- Can I compare “before vs after” quickly and confidently?
What you need to see:
- Time-window selection for traffic analysis and comparison
- Automated identification of contributing dimensions with a usable breakdown
- A fast path from “insight” to “filter and verify” investigation
How Kentik helps:
- Cause Analysis automatically identifies the most contributing dimensions to traffic and presents results in a hierarchical table, reducing repetitive trial-and-error investigation.
- Supports time-window comparison workflows to isolate what changed between periods.
- Integrates into Kentik AI’s broader “Ask. Know. Act.” workflow so engineers can go from change detection to explanation faster.
Related pages:
Learn more about Kentik Cause Analysis in this short video overview:
4. AI-assisted network planning: capacity, runout, cost, and architecture decisions
Kentik AI Advisor helps teams design and plan with evidence using utilization trends, forecasts, and automated analysis workflows.
Teams ask:
- Where do we have network capacity risk (runout) and where are we wasting spend?
- Which upgrades or interconnect changes are the best next investment?
- Can we plan for growth with forecasts tied to real usage?
What you need to see:
- Utilization trends and baselines with forecasts (capacity, runout, cost)
- A way to turn planning questions into repeatable analysis workflows
- Clear recommendations that can be validated with underlying data
How Kentik helps:
- AI Advisor supports planning by identifying opportunities to reduce or optimize cost with utilization trends and recommendations, and helps with capacity, runout, and cost forecasts.
- Kentik capacity planning provides daily forecasting and automatic runout projections to reduce surprises.
Related pages:
5. Faster communication: AI summaries and evidence-backed incident narratives
Kentik AI helps NetOps teams summarize incidents and insights with context-enriched explanations that improve handoffs, postmortems, and stakeholder updates.
Teams ask:
- Can we generate consistent incident summaries tied to evidence, not opinions?
- How do we communicate what happened to other teams and leadership quickly?
- Can summaries include the right context about our network and critical apps?
What you need to see:
- Context-enriched summaries that reference the underlying telemetry
- Repeatable investigation logic (runbooks) so narratives are consistent
- Organization-specific context so summaries reflect your reality
How Kentik helps:
- Kentik AI supports reading AI-generated, context-enriched summaries of key network insights and enables quick questions about the state of the network.
- AI Advisor can produce concise triage summaries tied to underlying flow/metrics/synthetics data so teams can validate conclusions and accelerate communication.
Related pages:
Example AI-powered workflows (enterprise and service provider)
The sections above describe the core Kentik AI capabilities (AI Advisor investigations, Cause Analysis, runbooks and custom context, and evidence-backed summaries). Below are practical examples showing how teams combine those capabilities in day-to-day operations.
Enterprise workflow examples
1) “The app is slow” triage
When performance degrades, teams often need to quickly determine whether the issue is in the network, DNS, the application, or an upstream provider, and then guide next steps.
- Use Kentik AI Advisor to start a multi-step investigation across flows, metrics, synthetics, and routing context.
- Use Cause Analysis to isolate what changed in the affected time window (top drivers by app, destination, ASN, region).
- Generate a concise, evidence-backed summary for stakeholders with the likely root cause, scope, and recommended action.
2) “Why did network cost spike?” attribution and optimization
When costs spike, teams need to identify which apps, accounts, and regions are driving spend and where to right-size or optimize routing paths.
- Use Cause Analysis to surface the drivers of the change and confirm whether it’s new traffic, a routing shift, or a usage pattern change.
- Use AI Advisor to guide deeper investigation and propose next-best actions.
- Use AI-assisted planning workflows to connect trends to capacity/runout and inform right-sizing or routing decisions.
3) “Is this suspicious?” evidence-backed incident narrative
When suspicious or anomalous traffic occurs, teams need a clear narrative that correlates traffic, routing, cloud, and synthetic signals.
- Start with AI Advisor to gather and correlate the relevant telemetry.
- Apply runbooks and custom network context so investigations follow consistent steps and reflect your environment (naming conventions, critical apps, escalation contacts). Learn more: Kentik AI.
- Produce an escalation-ready, evidence-backed summary for incident response and postmortems.
Service provider and NOC workflow examples
1) BGP reachability and path-change triage
Triage BGP reachability and path changes, correlate routing events with traffic impact, and produce an escalation-ready summary.
- Use AI Advisor to investigate the event, gather evidence, and scope impact quickly.
- Use runbook-driven triage to ensure consistent response across shifts.
- Generate a concise narrative for upstream providers and internal teams.
2) DDoS and suspicious spike investigation
Investigate spikes by identifying dominant sources/destinations, vectors, and affected links, then communicate impact and next actions.
- Use Cause Analysis to identify the drivers of spikes/drops and accelerate “what changed?” triage.
- Use AI Advisor to guide deeper investigation and propose next steps.
- Produce evidence-backed summaries for internal escalation and customer communication.
3) OTT/CDN-driven traffic shifts and validation
Explain OTT/CDN-driven traffic shifts by isolating drivers (ASN, region, destination) and validating post-change outcomes.
- Use Cause Analysis to isolate the drivers of the shift and validate key contributing dimensions.
- Use AI-assisted planning to evaluate whether the shift implies capacity risk, runout, or a need to adjust routing/interconnect strategy.
- Summarize what changed and how you validated outcomes for internal teams and external partners.
4) Standardize NOC response across shifts
Standardize triage so the first investigation step is always the right one, even during high-pressure incidents.
- Use runbooks + custom network context to make investigations repeatable and environment-specific.
- Use evidence-backed summaries to improve handoffs, postmortems, and customer-facing updates.
FAQs about AI-powered NetOps
What can Kentik AI Advisor do for NetOps day to day?
AI Advisor helps teams ask questions in natural language and run multi-step investigations across flows, metrics, synthetics, and routing context. The goal is faster triage with transparent evidence, not black-box answers. Kentik supports these workflows with AI Advisor, which can interpret natural-language questions and run multi-step, evidence-backed investigations across your telemetry (AI Advisor).
How do runbooks improve AI troubleshooting consistency?
Runbooks codify the steps a senior engineer would follow for specific alert types, so investigations are repeatable across shifts and skill levels. They also reduce “random walk” troubleshooting during high-pressure incidents. Kentik supports runbook-driven consistency by letting you attach Markdown runbooks to alert policies so AI Advisor follows your preferred diagnostic steps (Kentik AI).
What is custom network context and what should we include?
Custom network context is organization-specific knowledge the AI can use: naming conventions, IP schemas, critical applications, provider contacts, operational procedures, and known constraints. Good context makes answers more accurate and more actionable. Kentik supports this with Custom Network Context in Kentik AI settings, so organization-specific knowledge is used in all AI Advisor conversations (Kentik AI docs).
What’s the fastest way to answer “what changed?” during a traffic spike or drop?
Use Cause Analysis to automatically identify which dimensions drove the change in the chosen time window, then validate by drilling into those top contributors. This replaces manual slicing and speeds time-to-explanation. Kentik supports this with Cause Analysis, which automatically isolates the dimensions driving spikes and drops so you can move from change detection to explanation quickly (Kentik AI).
How do I generate an incident report that’s evidence-backed?
Start from the telemetry: what changed, what was impacted, and what signals explain why. Kentik AI Advisor is designed to generate natural-language incident summaries grounded in traffic, routing, cloud, and synthetic data. Kentik supports evidence-backed reporting by generating summaries directly from underlying telemetry and keeping the investigation steps auditable (AI Advisor).
Can AI help with planning, not just troubleshooting?
Yes. AI can assist with capacity planning, runout forecasting, and cost optimization by summarizing trends and highlighting where to investigate. Planning works best when recommendations are tied to measurable telemetry and forecasts. Kentik supports AI-assisted planning by using unified telemetry to guide design, capacity, and optimization decisions, and by pairing AI insights with forecasting workflows like capacity planning (Kentik AI).
How do we keep AI outputs auditable and safe?
Use tools that show evidence trails, keep investigations transparent, and standardize logic via runbooks. In practice, the most useful AI outputs are the ones you can verify quickly. Kentik supports auditability by exposing the investigation steps and supporting data behind AI outputs so engineers can validate conclusions before acting (AI Advisor).
What are good starter runbooks for NetOps teams?
Common starters include “BGP session down,” “interface errors/congestion,” “SaaS slowness,” “DNS degradation,” and “DDoS spike triage.” Start with the alert types your team sees most frequently and refine from postmortems. Kentik supports this by letting teams start with a small set of runbooks mapped to common alert types, stored and managed centrally in Kentik AI settings (Kentik AI docs).
How can AI help a NOC troubleshoot faster during incidents?
AI can standardize investigations with runbooks, automate common steps (identify impact, isolate drivers, check paths), and produce evidence-backed recommendations for next actions. Kentik supports NOC triage with AI Advisor plus fast, unified telemetry queries so responders can identify scope, likely cause, and next actions quickly (Kentik for Service Providers).
Can AI be used for BGP and routing incident response?
Yes. AI-guided workflows can help triage reachability and path changes, correlate routing events with traffic impact, and generate a clear incident narrative for escalation. Kentik supports routing incident response by combining AI-guided investigations with BGP reachability and AS-path visibility, including leak/hijack alerts (BGP Route Monitoring).
How can AI help with traffic spikes driven by OTT or CDN changes?
Use automated “what changed?” analysis to identify the drivers (ASN, CDN, region, destination) and then validate outcomes after routing or interconnect adjustments. Kentik supports this by pairing AI-driven change triage (Cause Analysis) with CDN/OTT traffic classification and interconnect context so teams can explain what shifted and why (Peering and Interconnection).
How do teams keep AI outputs consistent across shifts?
Use runbooks and custom network context so investigations follow your team’s preferred steps and reflect your environment and operational constraints. Kentik supports consistent outcomes by combining runbooks and custom network context so AI investigations follow the same steps and reflect your environment across every shift (Kentik AI docs).
Related Kentipedia reading
Get Started with Kentik AI
AI-powered NetOps is about turning “we got an alert” into “we know what changed and what to do next,” consistently and with evidence. Kentik AI is designed to help teams investigate faster, standardize response across shifts, and communicate clearly during incidents.
The Kentik Network Intelligence Platform with Kentik AI combines:
- Kentik AI Advisor for natural-language, multi-step investigations with transparent supporting data and actionable recommendations.
- Cause Analysis for fast “what changed?” triage of traffic spikes and drops (with the key drivers surfaced automatically).
- Runbooks + custom network context (within Kentik AI) to codify how your team troubleshoots and keep investigations repeatable and environment-aware.
- AI-generated summaries to speed handoffs, escalation, and post-incident narratives without losing the evidence trail.
Get started with Kentik: Start a free trial or request a personalized demo today.
