TalkTalk Group

So certainly well into new territory there.

Headlines this morning about the collapse of a broadband infrastructure provider, TalkTalk, are a clear example that high yields are damaging to both public and private sectors alike.

And this week's public sector finance update was not pretty viewing indeed.

And with the budget fast approaching, that's the 28th of October, markets are very attentive to all of the statements and inference about tax and spend plans of the Burnham government as we approach.

So it's, it was lovely to be able to sit there and kind of absorb the content, but it's why I love a mixed industry panel because you get such differing perspectives of, on the same challenge, on the same questions.

So, you know, we had Kevin Cassar on the panel, friend of the pod, chief data officer of TalkTalk, and you know, they're talking about edge AI and, you know, green ops and being able to, you know, take into consideration the heat of the electricity of the routers and the ethics behind you could know a problem is being, is about to be experienced before the customer.

And y- and, you know, talking through that is such a great example of imagine y- you know, someone turns up your door now and goes, "Oh, hiya, can I come in? Your router's not working." And I go, "Well, hang on, I'm recording a podcast.

It's all up and running." It's like, yeah, well, it's not about to, or there's gonna be something, you know-

But for me, the benefit of a finance function is what those finance professionals do with those numbers, how they serve the businesses that they work for to get those results.

And is the time in the initiation the key bit? We had Fiona Roberts on here who'd done the Transformation at TalkTalk.

She said, ask the question right at the start and invest the time in the beginning.

Is that what you found in your experience as well?

You're going to hear from several guests, in particular two from the Financial Conduct Authority, Jessica Russu, the FCA Chief Data Information and Intelligence Officer, as well as Edmund Towers, head of the FCA's Advanced Analytics and Data Science unit, who between them give you the clearest picture I've heard of what responsible AI adoption looks like from both the regulatory and technical side.

You'll also hear from Luke Pearce at Santander UK, from Sara Self, AI director at Aviva, and from Kevin Cassar, chief data and AI officer at TokTok, drawing on his experience building AI trial system in health insurance.

What comes through across every one of these conversations is that the organizations doing this well are not treating compliance and innovation as opposing forces.

They are treating them as the same agenda.

It was painful.

In the end, somebody rang me from TalkTalk apologising, saying that they'll get somebody out there Thursday morning, eight to one.

Again, I stressed to them the importance of the engineer ringing me beforehand because I need to get somebody there to give access.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, yes, the engineer rang me.

So we've had a brand new front door fitted and the person who fitted the door decided to cut the cable.

I'm like who even does that? So I don't know where we stand at the moment.

I don't know if TalkTalk are going to charge me for this but the issue was resolved.

It was three hours of my life back and forth trying to resolve this but it is sorted and the irony of it is it was actually our fault in the first place but It's all of these things, the behind the scenes that people don't see.

And before any of this even started, Emma and I were actually already working together as oracy specialists at a communication charity called Talk the Talk.

Not to be confused with TalkTalk, as some people are when we rock up in reception.

We're not there to sort out the broadband.

We deliver communication workshops with them.