A service management and orchestration (SMO) entity enabling a functional split between a non-real-time (RT) radio access network (RAN) intelligent controller (RIC) and an external artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (ML) server will, during a data collection phase, utilize the SMO entity and the non-RT RIC to collect and process RAN data and non-RAN data and, during a data transfer phase, transfer processed RAN and non-RAN data from the SMO entity to an external AI/ML server via an interface. During a training model input phase, the SMO entity receives a trained AI/ML model, metadata, and training results from the external AI/ML server via an interface and, during a configuration phase, the SMO entity uses the trained AI/ML model within the SMO entity and the non-RT RIC to transfer configuration parameters to a near-RT RIC.