The ABCs of AI

“AI Won’t Replace You, But Someone Using AI Might”

AI is everywhere; stickers, marketing, hype. Network engineers are understandably skeptical.

In this episode, Andy Lapteff is joined by longtime friend of the show John Capobianco (now Head of AI & DevRel at Itencho) and Mike Bushong for a practical, optimistic “ABCs of AI” discussion designed for working network engineers.

We start with a blunt reality: automation adoption is still low, and the old “automate or die” narrative hasn’t helped. Then we pivot into what’s changed: modern models are strong enough to be useful, but only if you stop treating them like a search bar and start connecting them to real tooling and real data.

John explains the core building blocks—LLMs, RAG, agentic workflows, and especially Model Context Protocol (MCP)—and why MCP may be the protocol that finally makes AI feel operationally real.

Finally, we land on a concrete “Hello World” for neteng: connect an AI client to a source of truth like NetBox or Nautobot (in a sandbox), start with read-only workflows (logs, config deltas, compliance), and build from there—safely.

If you’ve been curious but overwhelmed, this is your on-ramp.

Full show notes, transcript and links: https://artofnetworkengineering.com/episodes/the-abcs-of-ai

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