EP 79: Hussein Shel from AWS

Hussein Shel, CTO and head of business development for energy and utilities at Amazon Web Services, joins Bobby and John to talk about his journey from Chevron engineer to cloud technology leader. They explore how AI coding tools are changing the game for energy companies, why the barrier to entry for building apps has never been lower, and what it means when your reservoir engineer can now spin up their own solutions in minutes instead of months. Hussein shares why he thinks we're only scratching the surface of what's possible when you combine domain expertise with modern AI tools, discusses the cultural shifts needed for energy companies to move fast, and explains why he's both excited about AI's potential and concerned about its massive energy demands.

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Click here to view the episode transcript.

00:00 - Welcome and introductions
03:14 - Early AI experiments and low-code tools
08:11 - Core principles that haven't changed
12:04 - Managing costs and governance
15:15 - Data access and shadow IT
17:16 - Building apps in weeks vs months
19:25 - Domain-specific foundation models
21:10 - AWS infrastructure and energy footprint
26:21 - Custom silicon and partnerships
29:11 - Current AI model landscape
33:36 - Enterprise adoption challenges
38:58 - Cultural change from the top
42:06 - Scoping problems and quick wins
46:16 - Legacy systems and technical debt
52:18 - Building AI-first energy companies
56:57 - Tech debt acceleration
1:00:04 - Speed round and favorite spots

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