How do you scale AI across an entire telecom estate without losing control of it?
That’s the question at the centre of a candid, on-the-ground conversation from DTW26 (TM Forum’s Digital Transformation World), featuring Brian Cappellani, CTO of Hansen Technologies, and Ashish Kar, VP, Head of BSS and AI Solutions, for Telefónica in Germany.
The Problem: AI is Everywhere, and That’s the Risk
Brian opens with a simple but pointed observation: agentic AI has stopped being a feature and become infrastructure. It’s embedded across BSS, OSS, the network, and customer channels – built in-house by operators, delivered by vendors, and run across hyperscalers and on-prem alike.
That diversity is powerful, but without a coordinated approach, it creates real exposure: vendor opacity, inconsistent data, operational drift, and ultimately regulatory risk.
His answer is to treat AI governance as a platform in its own right – with clear policy, consistent monitoring, explainability, compliance artifacts, and full lifecycle management, aligned to TM Forum’s Project Foundation and AI Native Canvas.
The Proof Point: Telefónica in Germany’s “JARVIS”
Ashish takes that framework and grounds it in reality. Telefónica in Germany is launching JARVIS, an Agentic AI fabric developed for software delivery, applied AI, and operational stability – live in July 2026, with a goal of immediate productivity uplift, resulting in an incremental double-digit monthly cost reduction.
JARVIS is designed to keep sovereignty and customer trust intact across roughly 40m+ customers, while working closely with TM Forum Open-API standards (including TMF921), AI-native ODA canvas and AWS Bedrock AgentCore.
Why it Matters
The line that sums up the whole conversation: fragmented AI multiplies your risk; unified governance multiplies your value.
It’s a practical look at what “trusted AI” actually requires operationally – not just in principle.
The full video digs into the Q&A too – how Telefónica and Hansen actually collaborate day to day, how they keep AI token costs under control, and what surprised them most about the partnership.