The theme for TM Forum Digital Transformation World (DTW) Ignite 2026 in Copenhagen is "The Future. Faster." As we move further into the decade, connectivity has evolved from a utility into the central nervous system of modern society. Telecommunications (telco) networks now support the most critical infrastructure—from remote healthcare and smart utility grids to national defense and emergency response. The transition from "telco to techco" means that they’re delivering the intelligent foundations that power a global digital economy.However, this increased reliance on the network brings a new level of complexity. As networks transition toward autonomous network Level 4 autonomy (ANL4), the software entities managing them must act with speed and precision that humans cannot match. The challenge is autonomous entities often have individual and misaligned objectives. When they compete for the same pool of network resources, the resulting conflicts can threaten the stability of the entire network.This is the focus of the Catalyst project: "Conflict management in intent-based networks."The hidden friction of automated networksAn autonomous intelligent network is operated by a vast array of software agents. These entities pursue their specific goals—such as maximizing energy efficiency or optimizing signal quality—with individual decisions and actions. Without coordination, these actions inevitably lead to conflicts. Traditional automation is often reactive and prescriptive. It relies on static scripts that struggle to handle the dynamic nature of 5G and AI-native environments. If a conflict occurs, human intervention is typically required to mediate. This manual checkpoint acts as a ceiling that prevents service providers from reaching true ANL4 maturity. In phase 1 of this Catalyst project, a hierarchical precedent was used to address the issue of conflict management.To break through this ceiling, a system is needed to detect and resolve conflicts automatically. Phase 2 of this Catalyst project demonstrates how to protect the network from the effects of conflicts using situational adaptive techniques that are fully automated and aware of business value.A real-world test: First responders and the Stockholm RANIn a modern O-RAN environment, the biggest hurdle to autonomy is the "black box" problem. A typical service provider uses specialized RAN applications (rApps) from various vendors—one for power saving, another for traffic steering, and a third for load balancing. Because these apps often operate with proprietary logic in isolation, they can easily issue conflicting commands to the same network resources. One app might attempt to power down a cell to meet a sustainability target while another is trying to boost capacity for a high-value 4K broadcast.The stakes of conflict resolution are best understood through a real-world scenario. Consider the city of Stockholm, where a shared RAN infrastructure serves 2 very different groups: emergency responders and commercial broadcasters.In this scenario, a video broadcasting customer requests a 4K live production slice over a network shared with an active slice for first responders. This creates an immediate resource conflict. The broadcaster needs high bandwidth, while the emergency responders require absolute priority and guaranteed low latency.This Catalyst project solves this conflict by moving away from isolated scripts toward a collaborative intent management loop. By introducing new, open application programming interfaces (APIs), we enable third-party components to participate in a shared autonomous domain. This means rApps no longer act in a vacuum. Instead, they function as intelligent agents that must negotiate and validate their proposed actions against a centralized coordination agent.The technical backbone of this coordination is a set of knowledge graphs. These graphs provide a unified view of end-to-end network context, aligning disparate intent requirements into a single source of truth. When an rApp proposes an optimization, the system evaluates the action against active service commitments and predefined business guardrails.If a conflict is detected, such as an optimization that would compromise a first responder's latency, the action is blocked at the O-RAN SMO or non-RT RIC level before it can impact the network. This helps ensure that only one entity has the authority to act on a specific parameter at any given time, transforming the network from a collection of competing disparate environments into a self-governing ecosystem.