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Ep 152 – Fastweb + Vodafone charts a new course (Max Gasparroni)
Fastweb + Vodafone’s Max Gasparroni on integrating telcos in the AI era.
Podcast
Ep 153 – MTN climbs the AI mountain (Charles Molapisi)
This week’s guest
Charles Molapisi
Group Chief Technology & Information Officer MTN GroupWhen the internet arrived, operators laid the track and watched the OTTs collect the fares. Africa’s MTN Group doesn’t intend to let that happen again. In June, it put a hard number in front of investors: R30 billion in value from AI within three to five years, a target that by MTN’s count no other mobile operator in the world had put on the record.
I sat down with MTN Group CTIO Charles Molapisi, who oversees technology spanning 19 markets and nearly 320 million subscribers. We get into why Africa holds as little as 1% of the world’s computing power and what he intends to do about it, the AI agents already earning their keep inside MTN, and why he sees a competitive advantage in a workforce that’s nervous about AI.
Listen now to hear:
- Charles’ three AI buckets and the one he’s most excited about [05:10];
- Why Africa shouldn’t ship its data offshore [06:49];
- Why MTN is “customer zero” for everything it builds [07:40]; and
- What leaders should tell employees who think using AI is cheating [10:01].
Links and resources
- Learn more about MTN Group, Africa’s largest operator. It’s number one or two in almost every one of its 19 markets.
- Dig into the R30 billion AI value target MTN set at its Capital Markets Day in June:
- Read the full breakdown in “MTN Targets R30-Billion AI ’Value Creation’ Over Five Years, Starting With Internal Efficiency.”
- Watch the Capital Markets Day livestream, where the AI value target went public.
- Browse MTN’s Capital Markets Day 2026 hub for the investor materials behind the number.
- Learn more about MTN Nigeria’s assistant Zigi, which now talks back in English and Pidgin, so customers can check balances or buy data just by speaking.
- Find out more about the project in Côte d’Ivoire, where MTN turned fiber into a sensor that listens for the micro-vibrations of a digger and flags a cut before the spade goes in.
- Explore MTN’s energy work in South Africa, where AI lifted site energy savings from 2.8% to 13.5% across the Western Cape, reducing one of the biggest cost lines on the P&L.
- Tired of wrangling 40 systems that disagree with each other? The Totogi Ontology sits over your existing BSS, OSS, and network and holds every rule, discount, and decision your business makes in one model, so your agents take only actions you allow. It’s the inside-out answer to the bystander problem Charles warns about.
- Discover how VIVA Bolivia ranks every cell site by revenue with Totogi and gains insight into where its next G should go.
- Find out how Totogi helped Zain Sudan replace its Ericsson charging system on AWS in just 18 days, proving the cloud can carry a core network fast.
- Catch the climb Charles calls a bucket-list ride: Alpe d’Huez at the 2026 Tour de France. He rode the amateur version of Stage 20—178 km and 5,300 metres of climbing. Watch the pros grind up it and look for Richard Carapaz in the polka-dot jersey, the one awarded to the race’s best climber.
- 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
Charles Molapisi is a distinguished telecommunications executive known for leading large-scale digital transformations and operating companies in the MTN Group. In his current capacity, he is leading a new frontier of technological evolution, primarily focused on driving systemic value creation through the orchestration and integration of AI across all operational markets. His career at MTN is marked by tenure as Chief Information Officer at MTN Nigeria, CEO of MTN Zambia, and the role of Group Chief Technology and Information Officer, where he was instrumental in the strategic rollout of 5G technology, the optimization of capital expenditure, rollout of the cybersecurity program, and the modernization of API and data infrastructure.
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- 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 AI target has MTN Group set?
At its Capital Markets Day in June 2026, MTN Group committed to R30 billion in AI value creation within three to five years, starting with internal efficiency. Group CTIO Charles Molapisi says he wants MTN to capture the value AI creates rather than watch others collect it, as happened with the internet. Read the full breakdown of the R30-billion target or watch the Capital Markets Day announcement.
2. What are MTN’s three AI buckets, and where does Charles Molapisi see the money?
Charles Molapisi frames MTN’s AI strategy around three pillars: AI Inside (running MTN more efficiently), AI B2C (serving consumers), and AI B2B (helping enterprises adopt AI). He argues the real money lives in applications, not the infrastructure underneath. Find the investor materials behind MTN’s AI value target in the Capital Markets Day 2026 hub.
3. How is MTN using AI inside its network today?
MTN is applying AI to energy, fiber, and capital planning. In South Africa’s Western Cape, AI lifted site energy savings from 2.8% to 13.5%. In Côte d’Ivoire, MTN turned fiber into a sensor that flags a cut before a digger breaks through. MTN Nigeria’s assistant Zigi also speaks in English and Pidgin so customers can check balances or buy data by voice.
4. How does Charles Molapisi get MTN’s teams comfortable with AI?
Charles Molapisi turns his teams’ nervousness about AI into momentum rather than resistance. He focuses on making AI useful, safe, and relevant to everyday work, backed by clear governance and transparency about how jobs will change. He also says adoption must be led locally, with MTN providing common tools, platforms, and guardrails across its markets.
5. How does the Totogi Ontology help telcos avoid the “bystander problem”?
Many telcos have business rules scattered across dozens of disconnected systems. The Totogi Ontology sits over existing BSS, OSS, and network systems so they speak one language, and every decision AI agents make flows back in, so the rules sharpen with use. It is the inside-out answer to the bystander problem Charles warns about.
6. What has Totogi done for telcos facing the same challenges as MTN?
Totogi’s case studies show cloud and AI delivering fast, practical results. VIVA Bolivia ranks every cell site by revenue with Totogi, which informs where its next G should go, answering the same capex question Charles is tackling with MTN’s Smart CapEx. Totogi helped Zain Sudan replace its Ericsson charging system on AWS in just 18 days during civil unrest, proving the cloud can carry a core network fast.