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Ep 127 – The courage to change (Jim Abolt)
Strategic transformation leader Jim Abolt explains why telcos aren't seeing AI ROI and how to achieve real transformation by redesigning work instead of augmenting it.
Podcast
Ep 128 – Talking AI with Telecoms.com (Scott Bicheno/Iain Morris)
This week’s guest
Scott Bicheno and Iain Morris
Telecoms.comThe telco industry has been buzzing about AI transformation, but few operators have seen tangible results beyond pilot projects. The challenge isn’t just adopting new technology—it’s fundamentally changing how telcos build and maintain their business support systems (BSS).
For this special episode, I join Scott Bicheno and Iain Morris on the Telecoms.com podcast to discuss Totogi’s recent AI demonstration at TelecomTV’s AI-Native Telco Forum in Düsseldorf, Germany. This is one of our rare “double drops,” where both podcasts share the same conversation. We talk about Totogi’s live coding demonstration in Germany, which used AI and BSS Magic to generate over 600,000 lines of BSS code, explore the concept of ontology in AI systems, and dive into why telcos struggle with AI implementation. Fair warning: this episode is longer than usual, but we cover a lot of important topics.
Listen now to hear:
- Why telcos can’t get past “zero to one” with AI—and where to start [19:01]
- The inside story behind Totogi’s live coding feat [39:33]
- How telco-specific ontology helps AI understand our industry’s business logic [41:28]
- Why many veteran developers resist AI-generated code [53:05]
Links and resources
- I have a big idea that needs bold execution: my BSS vision for telcos. I want to use AI to help operators solve their vendor interoperability mess by creating a product that helps them build their own BSS. Learn how Totogi generated over 500,000 lines of BSS Code in one day—LIVE!—at TelecomTV’s AI-Native Telco Forum, proving that BSS Magic is the real deal. Check out our results.
- Watch my recent interview with Ray Le Maistre from TelecomTV where I discuss how coding with LLMs is approaching human-level capability.
- Read my blog, Düsseldorf changed everything for BSS, where I break down three objections people have about BSS Magic and explain how we’re systematically proving each one wrong.
- Check out Scott Bicheno’s article Totogi’s automated BSS code-writing demonstration, The Fast Mode’s Totogi Demos AI-Built BSS From Scratch in a ‘Single Day’, Edward Finegold said Totogi “stuck their necks out” to show what’s possible with a new approach to BSS, and TelecomTV’s coverage Totogi creates new BSS system on AI-Native Telco Forum show floor.
- Learn more about Totogi’s BSS Magic and how AI is transforming BSS development.
- Read my blogs to learn why telco is the perfect use case for AI-assisted development, how context engineering enables production-ready AI applications, and why your legacy BSS vendors won’t rebuild as AI-native.
- Read my blog on how the public cloud is YOUR problem.
- Learn about my other companies, Skyvera and TelcoDR.
- Check out my full 2-hour conversation with Scott Bicheno and Iain Morris on the Telecoms.com podcast.
- Explore Gauntlet AI, the 10-week program my son went through that is training developers in AI-powered coding.
- Scott, Iain and I also discussed how Wimbledon’s switch to AI technology for line calls mirrors concerns about AI replacing human expertise. Read more about the controversy.
- Want to know more about the beer we were drinking? Scott and Iain’s favorite is BrewDog’s Hazy Jane.
- We talked about my love of both pickleball and tennis in this episode. If you’re curious about the differences between the two sports, this video explains the seven biggest ones.
- Check out this episode on our YouTube channel.
- You can find the episode transcript here.
Wanna talk AI and public cloud? Telco execs, set up a meeting with our team to learn how to tap the immense business value it can bring.
Guest bio
The Telecoms.com Podcast is a weekly show produced by Telecoms.com and hosted by industry experts Scott Bicheno and Iain Morris. The format centers on irreverent and engaging discussions about current trends, controversies, and major news in the global telecommunications sector, often featuring special guests from telecom operators, vendors, and analysts.
As the Editorial Director of Telecoms.com, Scott Bicheno has been covering the mobile phone and broader technology industries for over 20 years. Prior to Telecoms.com, Scott was the primary smartphone specialist at industry analyst Strategy Analytics.
Iain Morris is the International Editor at Light Reading. Prior to boosting Light Reading’s UK-based editorial team numbers, he was a successful freelance writer and editor covering the telecom sector. He was previously the lead telecom analyst for the Economist Intelligence Unit.
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Podcast credits
- Executive Producer and Host: Danielle Rios, TelcoDR
- Senior Producer: Lindsay Grubb, TillCo Media
- Senior Editor/Brand Manager: Alisa Jenkins, Springboard Marketing
- Audio Editor: Andrew Condell
- Supervising Producer: Amanda Avery
- Associate Producer: Kriselda Dionisio
- Music: Dyami Wilson
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Frequently Asked Questions
1. What did Totogi demonstrate at TelecomTV’s AI-Native Telco Forum in Düsseldorf?
Totogi performed a live coding demonstration using AI and BSS Magic to generate over 600,000 lines of code in one day. The demonstration involved creating six BSS modules from scratch using one forward-deployed engineer and AI, making over 300 commits to production. This proof-of-concept showed that AI-assisted BSS development is achievable in real-time, addressing industry skepticism about AI’s practical capabilities in telecom software development.
2. What is ontology in the context of Totogi’s BSS Magic, and why does it matter?
Ontology in BSS Magic refers to the vocabulary of telecom—the nouns (subscriber, device, SIM, cell tower) and verbs (onboarding, deactivating, provisioning) specific to the industry. This context engineering gives AI the guardrails and business logic needed to understand telecom operations. BSS Magic’s ontology layer expects to interact with BSS systems and knows telecom deeply, enabling it to generate appropriate code without requiring developers to specify every detail.
3. How does Danielle Rios recommend telcos start their AI journey?
DR recommends starting with customer support rather than network applications, as it’s safer and less risky. Customer support tickets contain structured data with human-generated correct answers from previously solved issues. Build a retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) database on solved tickets, start with easy use cases like password resets, and gradually tackle harder problems. This approach lets organizations learn AI implementation while minimizing risk to core operations.
4. What skill set does someone need to use BSS Magic effectively?
Users need AI expertise—specifically understanding how to work with AI development tools and prompt engineering—as well as telco knowledge. However, Totogi has encapsulated much of the telco knowledge needed in BSS Magic’s ontology layer, reducing the burden on operators. The forward-deployed engineer acts as an architect, scheduling work and monitoring AI progress rather than writing code line-by-line. They guide the AI through sophisticated prompts while BSS Magic handles the technical implementation.
5. What are Scott Bicheno’s and Iain Morris’s perspectives on public cloud reliability after an AWS outage?
Scott and Iain expressed skepticism about over-reliance on public cloud providers, particularly after the December 2024 AWS US-EAST-1 outage that took down numerous websites including Telecoms.com and Light Reading. However, DR countered that resilience is a shared responsibility—companies choosing US-EAST-1 are accepting higher risk for lower cost. She explained that proper architecture with redundancy across multiple AWS regions prevents such outages, and companies can build resilience for relatively modest additional investment compared to maintaining private infrastructure.
6. How do the Telecoms.com hosts view AI-generated code and developer resistance?
Iain Morris raised concerns about developers becoming too removed from their own code when using AI, citing a LinkedIn post from an experienced developer who felt “helpless” modifying AI-generated code he had directed. Scott shared this skepticism about losing underlying human competence. Both hosts worried about what happens when AI can’t solve a problem and humans need to step in. DR acknowledged veteran developers often resist AI-generated code but argued this represents a natural evolution—like moving from punch cards to higher-order programming languages—where developers work at a higher level of abstraction.