The head of AI who had never heard of an ontology | Rob Buller

Cyberhill Partners builds and deploys enterprise AI solutions, including Cerebro, an enterprise AI platform Rob describes as AI in a box, and Wolverine, a digital twin product, drawing on eight years of AI work inside the intelligence community.In a recent episode of BUILDERS, we sat down with Rob Buller, Chief Executive Officer of Cyberhill Partners, to learn how the company is bringing intelligence-community-grade AI to enterprise buyers who are still missing the semantic layer that makes AI work.Topics Discussed:Why the core principles of technology adoption have not changed, but complexity has, splitting the buyer across CIOs, CTOs, and CISOsThe AI factory model: a runtime AI fabric that plugs into Snowflake, Databricks, Grok, or Gemini instead of shipping compiled, embedded logicHow Cyberhill positions Cerebro against Palantir on cost, vendor lock-in, and implementation speedWhy Rob has been shocked that heads of AI at multi-billion dollar companies do not know what an ontology isHow large incumbents like Workday and Salesforce try to freeze the market when new technology emergesWhy Cyberhill picks verticals by following demand into government, automotive, and healthcareMarketing at the local level in secondary markets like Dallas and Denver with billboards, airports, and quarterly steak dinnersPartnerships with ServiceNow and Databricks, and government AI work including a global biosurveillance platformGTM & Technology Adoption Lessons:The market cannot buy what it does not understand: Rob has been on roughly a hundred client calls where heads of AI at multi-billion dollar companies could not define an ontology. Without the semantic layer, he argues, you cannot apply context to AI or get traceability. Until buyers understand that, adoption stalls, so education is now part of the sales motion whether Cyberhill wants it or not.Sell the problem solved, not the underlying technology: "People don't care about ontologies and knowledge graphs, they care about can you solve my problem." Cyberhill leads with the business problem and only opens up the technical underpinnings when a buyer wants to know why the product is different.Expect incumbents to freeze the market: Rob says large companies respond to new AI entrants by telling customers they already have AI covered. He admits it does not really work, but it works a little bit. Plan the GTM knowing buyers are hearing "you don't need AI" from vendors they already pay.Let demand pick your verticals: "I've found that business is a lot like water. It finds the lowest level." Rather than forcing a vertical strategy, Cyberhill follows where demand shows up: government, automotive, healthcare. When healthcare demand grew, the company hired a doctor, because subject matter experts are how it enters an industry credibly.Position against the expensive incumbent on speed to value: Rob calls Palantir a great company and a great platform, but points to cost and vendor lock-in. Cyberhill's counter is malleability and implementation speed: "we can implement it in days, not months."Compete where the playing field is level: Instead of fighting Salesforce for attention in New York, LA, and San Francisco, Cyberhill markets at the local level in secondary markets like Dallas and Denver, with billboards, airport advertising, and quarterly steak dinners. Own the category conversation before the window closes: Rob predicts everybody will be talking about the semantic layer in enterprise AI within three years, if not sooner. He also acknowledges the loudest technology does oftentimes win, which makes owning that conversation early a strategic requirement, not a vanity project. // Sponsors: Front Lines -- Silicon Valley's leading Podcast Production Studio. We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership. Mention you are a listener and get a 10% discount. www.FrontLines.io/Podcast-as-a-Service