Available worldwide via Amazon (Kindle Edition)
US: $5.99
Other regions: Local Amazon pricing
Available here:
https://www.amazon.nl/dp/B0GMXLX56T
Allison Kirkby is not cutting costs. She is reshaping BT, stripping it to its essence. While global data consumption is at an all-time high, BT is reducing its workforce by 40%. This is not a conventional restructuring; it is the deliberate birth of a software-defined telecom, where AI is not just a tool, but the new engineer.
Europe’s next digital backbone is not emerging from a single campus or corporate headquarters. It is taking shape through a distributed network of laboratories, researchers and industrial partners — and one of its most important nodes lies in Portugal. From Lisbon to Aveiro, the Instituto de Telecomunicações (IT) has become a quiet but decisive force in how Europe approaches artificial intelligence, next-generation networks and digital trust.
While the U.S. telecom market is dominated by scale-driven giants such as AT&T and Verizon—racing toward AI-native networks—the Netherlands tells a different, distinctly European story. Here, the transformation of telecom is less about sheer size and more about fiber depth, reliability and human-centered design.
When Warren Buffett speaks, markets listen. His annual letters are dissected line by line, his investment choices treated as signals of economic truth. Yet far from the spotlight, a far larger and arguably more consequential investor shapes global capitalism with almost no noise at all. Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global — often called the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund — does not try to beat the market. It is the market.
Quantum computing is often presented as a technological race: who has the most qubits, the lowest error rates or the boldest scientific claims. That framing is misleading. The real story unfolding in 2025 is not about hardware benchmarks, but about how societies choose to organize technological power.
Artificial intelligence is often discussed as a single phenomenon, but its complexity resists one-dimensional explanations. AI is not only a technology, nor merely a market, nor just a political issue. It operates simultaneously at three interconnected scales: the macro level of geopolitics and power, the meso level of infrastructure and industrial capacity and the micro level where citizens, companies and institutions encounter AI in daily life.
Artificial intelligence is often discussed in silos: geopolitics at the macro level, infrastructure at the meso level and user experience at the micro level. But in reality, these layers are deeply interconnected. Decisions made at one level ripple across the system, producing consequences that are felt far from their point of origin. Understanding AI requires thinking in chains of cause and effect, not isolated segments.
Artificial intelligence is no longer a peripheral technology for Europe’s telecom operators. Companies such as Vodafone, Deutsche Telekom, T-Mobile and KPN are increasingly embedding AI deep into their networks, operations and strategic positioning. What was once a tool for optimization is now becoming a prerequisite for survival in a sector under pressure from low margins, heavy regulation and global technological competition.
