AI Proving Ground Podcast: Exploring Artificial Intelligence & Enterprise AI with World Wide Technology

AI is changing by the week. Most companies are still planning by the quarter.Softchoice CEO Andrew Caprara joins the AI Proving Ground Podcast with a refreshingly practical take on what it actually takes to keep up. Forget starting with the latest tool or another sprawling AI transformation plan. Start with a broken workflow, put the right people around it and build something in days, not months.Andrew talks openly about Softchoice’s own experience. The first year brought a lot of activity without much to show for it. Since then, they’ve changed how the work gets done, moving AI projects faster, getting the right people closer to the problem and building a weekly rhythm around AI. And it’s translating into real business results, including more capacity without adding headcount.Because when the technology moves weekly, a 12-week project plan starts to look a little suspicious.More about this week's guest: Andrew Caprara is President and CEO of Softchoice, where he’s leading the company through the same AI transformation challenges facing its customers. Since joining Softchoice in 2014, he has led across sales, services, operations and strategy, giving him a firsthand view of what it takes to turn new technology into real business results. Before Softchoice, Andrew worked in management consulting at McKinsey & Company and earned his MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.The AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments. 

AI spending is climbing fast. But the number itself may be less important than what it reveals about how an organization is actually using AI.WWT CFO Tom Strunk and CIO Kevin Dana are watching that shift firsthand. As token consumption moves from thousands to millions, the spend becomes a signal: where people are experimenting, which use cases are gaining traction and where it may be worth looking more closely for value.They also get into a challenge traditional IT budgets weren't built for. AI usage can scale quickly and unpredictably, making transparency between finance and technology critical. The goal isn't simply to control the cost. It's to understand what's driving it, where it's creating value and how the business can make smarter decisions as adoption grows.Support for this episode provided by: SnowflakeMore about this week's guests:Tom Strunk is Chief Financial Officer and Chief Data Officer at World Wide Technology, where he helps shape the company’s financial, data and investment strategy. Since joining WWT as its 21st employee in 1994, he has helped guide its growth into a global technology solutions provider. Tom brings a CFO’s perspective to AI investment, rising consumption and the challenge of connecting AI spend to real business value.Kevin Dana is Senior Vice President of IT and Cybersecurity and CIO at World Wide Technology, where he leads the company’s technology strategy and digital transformation efforts. With more than 28 years of IT experience, Kevin focuses on using technology to drive meaningful business outcomes. He brings a CIO’s perspective to AI adoption, rapidly growing token consumption and what AI spend can reveal about usage, opportunity and business value.The AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments. 

What changes when scientists stop thinking about how much compute they can afford to use and start thinking about what they could discover with more of it?That question sits behind LillyPod, Eli Lilly & Company’s on-prem AI supercomputer. Chief AI Officer Dr. Thomas Fuchs sees compute less as infrastructure and more as a scientific instrument, something that allows researchers to work at a scale that changes not only the answers they can find, but the questions they’re willing to ask.  It’s a philosophy that runs counter to much of the current enterprise AI conversation. While companies wrestle with token costs, cloud economics and how tightly to ration increasingly expensive AI, Lilly is exploring what happens when some of those constraints begin to disappear. Fuchs calls it a move from scarcity to abundance. And when the underlying economics change, so does the ambition. But Fuchs is no AI maximalist. After two decades in machine learning, he is remarkably unsentimental about the hype. AI, in his view, becomes far more interesting when you stop asking it to be magic and start getting serious about what it can actually do.Support for this episode provided by: InfobloxThomas Fuchs, Dr.sc., is Eli Lilly& Company’s first Chief AI Officer and a machine learning scientist who has spent two decades pushing AI into places where the stakes are real. His career spans NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Mount Sinai and founding Paige AI. He holds a doctorate in machine learning from ETH Zurich and now leads Lilly’s use of AI across science, medicine and the enterprise.The AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments. 

Most organizations don't fail because they aren't working hard enough. They fail because they spend too long preparing for yesterday's problems.​Retired General Mike Minihan has spent a career leading organizations where the cost of being unprepared is measured in lives, not quarterly results. That experience shaped the Mobility Manifesto, a leadership philosophy built on a simple belief: readiness isn't something you create in the moment. It's something you build long before the moment arrives. ​In his conversation with Brian Feldt, Minihan challenges one of leadership’s most comfortable assumptions: that caution is inherently safer. He makes the case for clear priorities, deliberate risk and leaders who stay close enough to the work to own the consequences when they ask teams to move.​The conversation begins with military leadership but quickly becomes something much broader. It's about preparing people for a future they can't fully predict, building cultures that learn faster than circumstances change, and remembering that technology may accelerate transformation, but leadership is what makes it possible.​Support for this episode provided by: Red HatMore about this week's guest:Mike Minihan is a distinguished military leader with over three decades of service in the United States Air Force. Rising to the rank of General, Minihan served in several key positions within the Air Force and Joint Force, including his most recent role as the Commander of Air Mobility Command. Throughout his career, General Minihan has demonstrated exceptional leadership, strategic vision, and a deep commitment to enhancing the capabilities and readiness of the military, especially mobility forces.The AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments. 

For the past few years, enterprise AI had an open tab. Experiment. Build. Give teams access. Put agents to work. Now those agents are running 24/7 and someone has finally looked at the bill.In this episode of the AI Proving Ground Podcast, AMD’s John Hampton and WWT’s Mike Trojecki dig into what happens when AI moves from experimentation to a real operating expense. Scaling it doesn’t mean simply spending more on compute. It means knowing when a workload needs a frontier model, when it doesn’t and where that work should run in the first place.AMD has already put that thinking to work internally, cutting its token costs by 43% while improving response speeds by 2.9x for workloads it rerouted.The next AI advantage may have less to do with who can consume the most compute and more to do with who can use it intelligently.Support for this episode provided by: LenovoMore about this week's guests:John Hampton is Corporate Vice President of AMD Global Pre-Sales, leading the technical sales organization working with enterprise customers across AI, data center, high-performance computing and commercial technology. With decades of experience in the semiconductor industry, he brings a firsthand view of how organizations are making the infrastructure and investment decisions required to scale AI.Mike Trojecki leads the AI Practice at World Wide Technology, helping organizations turn AI ambition into infrastructure that can actually scale. With more than 25 years in technology, his work spans AI architecture, data, computer vision and data center design, giving him a practical view into the decisions enterprises face as AI moves from experimentation into everyday operations.The AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments. 

Humanoid robots have become the poster child for AI. They're dancing, running, stocking shelves and making headlines almost weekly. It's easy to look at them and think the future has finally arrived.But that's not the hard part.Long before a robot can navigate a warehouse, inspect a factory floor or assist in a hospital, it has to understand the world around it. That begins with trusted data, an accurate understanding of its environment and infrastructure capable of making safe, real-time decisions.In this episode of the AI Proving Ground Podcast, WWT's Paige Reiter and Wes Long separate the hype from the reality of physical AI. They explore why the conversation extends far beyond robotics, how physical AI changes the way organizations think about risk and what leaders can do today to prepare for what's next.The robot may capture the attention. The foundation will determine who succeeds.Support for this episode provided by: WekaMore about this week's guests: Paige Reiter spends less time talking about robots and more time helping organizations prepare for them. As a Technical Solutions Architect at WWT, she works with enterprises deploying physical AI through robotics, computer vision and digital twins, translating emerging technology into real-world execution.Wes Long focuses on the work that happens long before a robot ever moves. As a Technical Solutions Architect at WWT, he helps organizations build the data, infrastructure and security foundations that allow physical AI, computer vision and automation to operate safely and at scale.The AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments. 

For the last two years, the conversation has been about getting AI into the enterprise. That chapter is starting to close.Now comes the harder part.Where should AI go first? Which problems are actually worth solving? And how do you build enough trust that people are willing to let AI move from answering questions to taking action?In this episode of the AI Proving Ground Podcast, Brian Feldt is joined by WWT's Walton Smith, Google's Ahmed Ali and Dell's Suri Durvasula for a thoughtful conversation about what comes after adoption. They explore why organizations get stuck chasing possibilities instead of outcomes, how agentic AI is reshaping security and governance, and why the strongest AI strategies start with a clear understanding of the work that matters most.Along the way, they challenge the idea that AI success comes from choosing the right model. Instead, they make the case that success depends on connecting data, infrastructure, governance and people into a system that works together.AI can make almost anything faster. Deciding what deserves AI in the first place is still a leadership decision.Support for this episode provided by: NutanixMore about this week's guests:Walton Smith leads AI and technology strategy for public sector customers at World Wide Technology, helping government organizations translate emerging technologies into real-world outcomes. With decades of experience at the intersection of federal IT, cybersecurity and infrastructure, he works with agencies to build AI strategies that are secure, practical and built to scale. Ahmed Ali helps government organizations navigate the intersection of AI, national security and cloud transformation at Google Public Sector. Drawing on a career spanning cybersecurity, enterprise technology and executive strategy, he works with leaders to turn complex AI capabilities into practical, trusted solutions for some of the world's most demanding environments.Suri Durvasula helps government organizations turn AI strategy into real-world outcomes. As a technology leader at Dell Technologies, he works with federal agencies to navigate AI adoption, data strategy and secure infrastructure, with a focus on building trusted systems that deliver measurable impact.The AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments. 

In July, OpenAI disclosed that models undergoing a cybersecurity evaluation escaped their testing environment, exploited a zero-day vulnerability and ultimately reached Hugging Face’s production infrastructure.The incident raised a difficult question for every organization deploying autonomous AI: What happens when an agent crosses a boundary — not because it was instructed to attack, but because doing so helps it complete the objective it was given?Recorded before the incident became public, this conversation from Cisco Live! features WWT's Istvan Berko, Cisco's Vikram Varakantum and NVIDIA's Trevor Caulder, who discuss what it takes to secure AI at machine speed. They examine the security challenges it has now made impossible to ignore, and discuss why enterprises must secure AI from the silicon and network to the workload, model and identity of every agent.Support for this episode provided by: VAST DataMore about this week's guests:Istvan Berko leads AI Cyber and Innovation at World Wide Technology, where he works with organizations building secure AI systems for production. With more than 25 years in cybersecurity, risk and governance, he brings a practical perspective on the identity, infrastructure and operational challenges shaping the next generation of AI.Istvan's top pick: Everyone Sees the Risk. Nobody Owns It.Vikram Varakantam is Senior Director of Product Management at Cisco, where he leads the strategy behind the company's AI security portfolio. With experience across AI, cloud and application security, he works at the intersection of product, infrastructure and enterprise AI, helping organizations secure AI as it moves into production.Vikram's top pick: Securing AI When Agents Move Faster Than Humans Can RespondTrevor Caulder is a Principal Technologist at NVIDIA, where he works with partners across the AI ecosystem to advance the infrastructure behind secure AI. With more than 25 years of experience spanning silicon, networking and enterprise systems, he brings a hardware-first perspective to securing AI at scale.Trevor's top pick: Breaking Data Silos: How Private Inference Unlocks GPU ROI on Sensitive DataThe AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments. 

AI is forcing enterprises to reconsider what their data infrastructure was built to do. Everpure GM Enterprise Maciej Kranz and WWT Principal Solutions Architect Bob Watson discuss why storing data is no longer enough—and what it takes to make information accessible, governed, secure and ready for inference.They examine the shift toward unified data management, whole-stack AI architecture, shorter investment cycles and governance models designed for a world in which applications, employees and autonomous agents all need trusted access to enterprise data.The AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments. 

AI agents are getting remarkably good at deciding what to do. The harder question is whether they should be allowed to do it.For the last year, Model Context Protocol (MCP) has been viewed as a way to connect AI models to tools. As enterprises move from copilots to autonomous agents, it's becoming something much bigger: the architectural layer that determines how agents access data, interact with systems and operate safely at scale.Brian Feldt sits down with WWT's David Geddam and Chandler Heath to explore why governance is becoming just as important as intelligence. From manufacturing and healthcare to finance, they examine how observability, identity, security and trust will shape the next generation of enterprise AI.Support for this episode provided by: SentinelOneDavid Geddam is Senior AI Advisor and Chief Solution Architect at WWT, where he helps organizations design the architectures behind enterprise AI. With more than 25 years of experience across healthcare, cloud and AI, he specializes in turning emerging technologies into secure, scalable solutions that work in the real world.David's top pick: Model Context Protocol (MCP) and Agent-to-Agent (A2A): The Future of Enterprise AIChandler Heath is a Principal Solutions Architect at World Wide Technology, where he focuses on edge and industrial technologies. His work centers on helping enterprise customers bridge operational technology and AI, designing architectures that are secure, practical and built for production.Chandler's top pick: Why the AI Factory Is Becoming the Enterprise's Next Critical InfrastructureThe AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments. 

Buying GPUs is easy. Building an AI system that keeps them busy is something else entirely.Recorded live at Cisco Live, this conversation with Cisco's Will Eatherton and WWT's Eric Fairfield explores what happens after the hardware arrives. Networking, storage, orchestration and security rarely get the same attention as GPUs, yet they're often the difference between an AI investment that scales and one that sits idle. The organizations that get the most from AI won't be the ones with the most compute. They'll be the ones that build the best systems around it.More about this week's guests: Eric Fairfield helps organizations design the networking foundations that power modern AI infrastructure. With deep expertise in Cisco ACI, VMware NSX and high-performance data center networking, he works with enterprises to solve the complex architecture challenges that determine whether AI environments perform at scale.Will Eatherton leads Cisco's Data Center, Internet and Cloud Infrastructure Engineering team, helping shape the networking architectures behind enterprise AI. From high-performance Ethernet fabrics to AI infrastructure at scale, his work focuses on the systems that make modern AI possible.The AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments. 

Nearly 90% of enterprise data is unstructured. That's a daunting statistic until you realize it may also be your biggest competitive advantage.In this episode hosted at Cisco Live, Brian Feldt sits down with WWT's Jeff Fonke, NVIDIA's Jason Schroedl and NetApp's Mike Hommer to explore why data has become the defining factor in enterprise AI. From token economics and GPU utilization to hybrid AI infrastructure, the conversation keeps coming back to one idea. AI is only as valuable as the data behind it.If your organization is moving beyond AI experiments and into production, this episode offers a practical look at the decisions that matter most and why bringing AI closer to your data may be the smartest investment you make.More about this week's guests:Jeff Fonke leads WWT's High-Performance Architectures team, where he helps customers build the AI infrastructure they'll rely on for years to come. With more than 25 years of experience, he brings a practical perspective on what works, what doesn't and where enterprise AI is really headed.Jason Schroedl is Director of Product Marketing at NVIDIA, where he helps shape how enterprise AI moves from innovation to production. With more than two decades in enterprise technology, he brings a practical perspective on AI infrastructure, data readiness and what it takes to scale AI successfully.Mike Hommer is a Field CTO at NetApp, where he helps organizations make smarter decisions about AI, data and infrastructure. With more than two decades in enterprise technology, he focuses on separating lasting strategy from short-lived hype and helping customers build for what's next.The AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments. 

By the time this episode reaches your feed, the AI landscape may have changed again.That's becoming the new normal.It's tempting to chase every new model, every policy update, every headline. But the organizations making real progress aren't rebuilding their strategy every time the landscape shifts. They're building the resilience to keep moving anyway.Madison Horn and Rob Geis join AI Proving Ground Podcast to explore what this new reality means for enterprise security. The conversation moves beyond the latest AI models to something much bigger: how to build an organization that can absorb change, contain risk, and stay effective when the technology refuses to stand still.In AI security, keeping your head on a swivel isn't just good advice.It's becoming the job.Support for this episode provided by: CloudflareMore about this week's guests:Madison Horn is National Security & Critical Infrastructure Advisor at WWT, where she helps organizations strengthen cyber resilience and prepare for emerging threats at the intersection of AI, cybersecurity, and critical infrastructure. With more than 15 years of experience spanning national security, global incident response, and cybersecurity strategy, Madison advises enterprise and public sector leaders on securing the technologies shaping the future.Madison's top pick: The Quantum Signal from the White House Operators Should Not MissRobert Geis is a Field CTO for Global Cyber at WWT with more than 30 years of experience helping organizations strengthen cybersecurity, manage risk, and protect critical infrastructure. He advises enterprise leaders on cyber resilience, governance, and AI adoption, helping some of the world's largest organizations navigate an increasingly complex and fast-changing threat landscape.Robert's top pick: AI Security Threats: Mythos, Project Glass Wing, and the New Cyber Resilience FrameworkThe AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments. 

By the time this episode reaches your feed, the AI landscape may have changed again.That's becoming the new normal.It's tempting to chase every new model, every policy update, every headline. But the organizations making real progress aren't rebuilding their strategy every time the landscape shifts. They're building the resilience to keep moving anyway.Madison Horn and Rob Geis join AI Proving Ground Podcast to explore what this new reality means for enterprise security. The conversation moves beyond the latest AI models to something much bigger: how to build an organization that can absorb change, contain risk, and stay effective when the technology refuses to stand still.In AI security, keeping your head on a swivel isn't just good advice.It's becoming the job.Support for this episode provided by: CloudflareMore about this week's guests:Madison Horn is National Security & Critical Infrastructure Advisor at WWT, where she helps organizations strengthen cyber resilience and prepare for emerging threats at the intersection of AI, cybersecurity, and critical infrastructure. With more than 15 years of experience spanning national security, global incident response, and cybersecurity strategy, Madison advises enterprise and public sector leaders on securing the technologies shaping the future.Madison's top pick: The Quantum Signal from the White House Operators Should Not MissRobert Geis is a Field CTO for Global Cyber at WWT with more than 30 years of experience helping organizations strengthen cybersecurity, manage risk, and protect critical infrastructure. He advises enterprise leaders on cyber resilience, governance, and AI adoption, helping some of the world's largest organizations navigate an increasingly complex and fast-changing threat landscape.Robert's top pick: AI Security Threats: Mythos, Project Glass Wing, and the New Cyber Resilience FrameworkThe AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments. 

AI has made writing code dramatically easier.Building great software is another story.Recorded live at Cisco Live, Raj Chopra, Cisco's Chief Product Officer for Security, joins WWT's Brian Ortbals and Joe Berger to explore what it really takes to become an AI-native organization. As AI changes the way software gets built, engineering becomes less about producing code and more about solving meaningful problems, applying domain expertise, and creating the right guardrails for systems that can reason and act on their own.This isn't just a conversation about AI-assisted development. It's about how organizations, teams, and leaders need to rethink the way they build, secure, and scale software in the years ahead.When code becomes cheap, judgment becomes the competitive advantage.Support for this episode provided by: CognitionMore about this week's guests:Raj Chopra is Senior Vice President and Chief Product Officer for Cisco Security, where he leads product strategy across Cisco's security portfolio. A cybersecurity industry veteran, Raj previously held leadership roles at Proofpoint and was part of the founding team at Netskope, helping pioneer the Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) category. Throughout his career, he has launched market-leading security products used by enterprises around the world.Brian Ortbals is Senior Vice President of Global Solutions and Architecture at WWT, where he leads teams spanning AI, cybersecurity, cloud, infrastructure, and digital transformation. Since joining WWT in 1999, Brian has helped shape many of the company's technology initiatives, including the growth of its Advanced Technology Center. He works closely with customers to solve complex technology challenges and accelerate enterprise AI adoption.Joe Berger leads WWT's Digital Experiences practice, helping organizations transform how people work, build, and interact with technology through AI. His team focuses on AI-native engineering, employee and customer experience, application development, and data platforms. A recognized technology leader and speaker, Joe works closely with leading partners including Microsoft, Cisco, NVIDIA, and Glean to help enterprises turn AI into measurable business outcomes.The AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments. 

Everybody says they're data-driven.But according to a Harvard Business Review study, only 7% of enterprises believe their data is actually ready for AI. Not agents. Not advanced machine learning. Just AI.Everyone wants the outcome. Far fewer have done the years of work required to make AI useful in the first place.But Matt Pappas has.As Chief Data Officer at Kiewit, he's spent more than 15 years building production machine learning systems that influence billion-dollar decisions, risk assessments, and project forecasts. His team deployed its first company-wide production algorithm in 2017, years before most organizations had even formalized a data strategy.This isn't a conversation about chasing the next breakthrough. It's about what "AI-ready" actually means, why data science remains a craft, how Kiewit uses machine learning to make better decisions, and why Matt believes technology should solve business problems instead of going looking for them.The companies pulling ahead aren't necessarily the ones with the newest models. They're the ones who started taking data seriously long before everyone else had to.The AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments. 

For years, technology leaders could afford a little inefficiency.A system that stayed in place longer than it should. Infrastructure that nobody got around to optimizing. Assets that quietly blended into the background.AI is changing the math.As organizations invest in more intelligence, more automation, and more ambitious digital strategies, every decision about infrastructure, operations, and capacity suddenly matters a little more. Not because the future is out of reach, but because the opportunity is now big enough to be worth chasing.In this episode, WWT's Mark Wall argues that some of the most valuable AI investments aren't new at all. They're hiding in plain sight. The conversation explores why the next generation of enterprise leaders will think differently about efficiency, not as a cost-cutting exercise, but as a way to unlock growth, accelerate innovation, and create room for what comes next.Because the companies that get the most from AI may not be the ones with the biggest budgets.They may be the ones that know how to create capacity for the future.Support for this episode provided by: RiverbedMore about this week's guest:Mark Wall is Managing Director of Automation at World Wide Technology, where he helps enterprises turn complexity into opportunity. With more than 20 years of experience across networking, application services, automation, and infrastructure, Mark works with organizations to modernize operations, drive innovation, and build the foundations needed for the next generation of AI-powered business.Mark's top pick: Claude Mythos and the Remediation Velocity GapThe AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments. 

The most important shift in AI isn't better chatbots. It's the arrival of agents that can work independently.Give them a task before bed and they may finish it before you wake up. They can write code, access tools, analyze information and make decisions without a human in the loop. The productivity upside is enormous but so is the potential risk.In this episode, NVIDIA's Dave Barry breaks down what enterprises are learning about autonomous agents, from secure runtimes and policy controls to observability, governance, and limiting blast radius when things go wrong.The technology is getting more capable by the week.The real challenge is making sure it stays pointed in the right direction.Support for this episode provided by: CrowdStrikeMore about this week's guest:Dave Barry is a Senior Solutions Architect and Data Scientist at NVIDIA. His team focuses on NVIDIA AI software for Agentic AI and accelerated computing. While his background is rooted in computer vision, he enjoys tackling problems across every corner of AI. The AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments. 

The most interesting thing at Cisco Live! 2026 wasn't a product announcement.It was a shift in tone.For years, technology leaders have had the luxury of studying change before responding to it. They could build a roadmap, socialize a strategy, secure a budget, and move forward on their own timeline.AI is taking that luxury away.Across nearly every conversation this week, the same tension kept surfacing. The technology is improving faster than organizations are adapting to it. Security teams are watching the window between vulnerability and exploit shrink dramatically. Infrastructure teams are preparing for a world where software doesn't just serve users, but acts on their behalf. And leaders are being forced to rethink operating models that were designed for a much slower era.In this episode, WWT leaders and industry experts explore what that shift means in practice. From AI-driven security threats and agentic operations to token economics and infrastructure modernization, the conversation focuses less on the technology itself and more on the consequences of its success.Because the question is no longer whether AI will change the enterprise.The question is how quickly the enterprise can change itself.Support for this episode provided by: CohesityThe AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments. 

Remember when employees started using Dropbox before IT approved it?AI agents feel a lot like that moment.People are building them because they're useful. Not because they were told to. The surprise isn't that agents are showing up across the enterprise, it's how quickly they're multiplying.In this episode of the AI Proving Ground Podcast, Softchoice's Craig McQueen and Stephanie Donahue discuss Microsoft's answer to a problem many organizations are only beginning to see: AI adoption is outpacing governance.We explore Microsoft 365 E7, the rise of shadow AI and why organizations are starting to think differently about identity, visibility and accountability in a world where agents can take action on their own.The challenge isn't getting employees to use AI, it's figuring out what they've already built.Support for this episode provided by: HP PolyMore about this week's guests:Craig McQueen is Vice President of Digital Acceleration at Softchoice, where he helps shape the company's technology strategy and go-to-market vision. He leads the development of customer-focused services and solutions that help organizations securely adopt and scale emerging technologies across cloud, data center, collaboration and the digital workplace. Working closely with customers and partners, Craig focuses on turning technology innovation into measurable business outcomes.Stephanie Donahue is Director of AI Business Solutions at Softchoice, where she helps organizations adopt and scale AI-powered ways of working. Her focus includes Microsoft 365, Copilot, agents and the broader technologies shaping the future of work. A Microsoft Regional Director and MVP, Stephanie works closely with customers to turn emerging technologies into practical business outcomes while helping organizations navigate AI adoption, governance and workforce transformation.The AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments. 

AI is collapsing the space between oversight and ownership.In this episode of the AI Proving Ground Podcast, NASDAQ Global Head of Board Advisory Byron Loflin and WWT Global Head of Cyber Advocacy Kate Kuehn break down why boards are entering an age of accountability and what happens when AI moves faster than governance can keep up.As AI moves deeper into the enterprise, the challenge is no longer adopting the technology. It's knowing who owns the consequences. Byron and Kate unpack what happens when innovation moves faster than governance, and what leadership accountability looks like in an AI-driven world.Because the question is no longer whether AI changes the business. It's whether leadership changes with it.Support for this episode provided by: RubrikMore about this week's guests: Byron Loflin is Global Head of Board Advisory at Nasdaq, where he leads board assessments and boardroom training for Nasdaq Governance Solutions. Founder and former CEO of the Center for Board Excellence, acquired by Nasdaq in 2019, Byron is known for his work in board performance, governance, accountability and corporate strategy. He advises boards and executive teams on governance practices, board effectiveness and organizational leadership.Kate Kuehn is Global Head of Cyber Advocacy at WWT and brings more than 25 years of experience leading cybersecurity, technology and AI strategy across the industry. Having served in executive leadership roles including CISO, CEO, Chief Trust Officer and board advisor, Kate is known for helping organizations navigate the intersection of security, risk and emerging technologies. She advises leaders and boards on cyber resilience, AI adoption and integrated risk management strategies.The AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments. 

What changes when AI stops answering questions and starts taking actions?In this episode of the AI Proving Ground Podcast, WWT security leaders Istvan Burko and Jillian Anderson-Nix break down why agentic AI is forcing enterprises to rethink security from the ground up. These systems are no longer just generating content. They're touching sensitive data, triggering workflows, modifying code and operating with a level of speed and autonomy existing security models were never designed to handle.The conversation explores the idea of blast radius, why AI agents can behave like highly privileged employees vulnerable to manipulation, and what happens when AI deployments move faster than governance and operational controls can keep up.We also unpack ARMOR, WWT’s AI Readiness Model for Operational Resilience, along with the practical guardrails leaders should be thinking about now, including observability, least privilege, secure operations and disciplined human oversight for coding agents.If your organization is building or deploying agentic AI, this episode offers a practical look at where the next generation of security risk is starting to emerge.Support for this episode provided by: AkamaiMore about this week's guests:Jillian Anderson-Nix is a Technical Solutions Architect at World Wide Technology focused on enterprise AI security and operational resilience. Her background spans biomedical research, aerospace and applied AI, bringing a cross-industry perspective to securing emerging technologies. Jillian is passionate about building safe, practical and collaborative AI ecosystems grounded in real-world enterprise use cases.Jillian's top pick: How to Use ARMOR: A Guide to AI Security TransformationIstvan Burko is a security and governance leader with more than 25 years of experience across cybersecurity, risk and cloud strategy. He has held senior leadership roles at NTT/Dimension Data and Amazon Web Services, where he contributed to the AWS Cloud Adoption Framework whitepapers. Istvan remains active in the cybersecurity community through industry leadership, events and enterprise security initiatives focused on modern operational resilience.Istvan's top pick: Breaking Data Silos: How Private Inference Unlocks GPU ROI on Sensitive DataThe AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments. 

What happens when vulnerabilities can be discovered in minutes and exploits can be generated faster than organizations can patch them?In this episode of the AI Proving Ground Podcast, former NSA Cybersecurity Director Rob Joyce and WWT cyber architecture and innovation leader Kent Noyes break down how AI is compressing the timelines cybersecurity teams have relied on for decades.We explore why Anthropic’s Mythos became a wake-up call for the security industry, how agentic AI is accelerating vulnerability discovery, and why traditional patching and vulnerability management strategies are struggling to keep pace. The conversation also examines which defenses still hold up under machine-speed pressure, from zero trust and segmentation to deception techniques, resilience planning and recovery.If your security strategy still assumes defenders have time on their side, this episode explains why that assumption is starting to break.Support for this episode provided by: ExtraHopMore about this week's guests:Rob Joyce served more than 34 years at the NSA, spending his final years as Director of Cybersecurity. Throughout his career, he held leadership roles in signals intelligence and cybersecurity, including leading Tailored Access Operations (TAO), the NSA’s elite hacking unit focused on foreign intelligence operations. He also served on the White House National Security Council as Special Assistant to the President and Cybersecurity Coordinator, and as Acting Homeland Security Advisor. Joyce is now founder of Joyce Cyber LLC and serves in advisory roles for organizations including OpenAI, Microsoft, PwC and others.Rob's top pick: Cyber Resilience: Why Security Fails When It Matters MostKent Noyes is a cybersecurity and infrastructure leader with more than two decades at World Wide Technology, where he has held senior roles across technical pre-sales and service delivery. A Cisco CCIE and WWT’s first Distinguished Solutions Architect, Kent now leads Cyber Architecture & Innovation within WWT’s Global Cyber organization, helping enterprise customers address evolving security challenges, emerging technologies and modern cyber risk.Kent's top pick: Defending at the Speed of AIThe AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments. 

AI moves trillions of dollars in milliseconds. So why won’t companies let it send a customer email?In this episode of the AI Proving Ground Podcast, Erik Anderson, CEO of Singularity University and former Topgolf leader, breaks down the real constraint on enterprise AI adoption: trust.We talk about the shift to agentic AI, how it's reshaping thought work, and the tension leaders face between productivity gains and the social contract with employees. If AI gives your team 20% of their time back, Erik argues that's not just cost savings. It's an opportunity to invest in growth, quality, and long term value.We also cover: Why trust becomes the bottleneck before the technology  How AI agents reshape brand and customer experience  What leaders should actually do next Most companies won’t hit a technical limit with AI. They’ll hit a trust limit first.More about this week's guest:Erik Anderson is Founder and CEO of WestRiver Group, a global investment platform focused on the innovation economy. He previously served as Executive Chairman of Topgolf, leading its rise into a global brand, and is now Executive Chairman of Singularity Group. An experienced operator and investor, Erik holds leadership and board roles across technology, energy, and consumer sectors, focused on scaling companies that shape the future.The AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments. 

Most personalization efforts fail long before AI becomes the problem.It fails in quieter ways. A missing identity. A disconnected signal. A decision no one owns.In this conversation, Ralph Jovine and Chris Douglas unpack why most personalization efforts stall long before AI becomes the problem. The issue is structural. Data ownership is unclear. Governance is inconsistent. Signals don’t connect across the journey.They get into what actually needs to be in place for personalization to work at scale, and why the companies that get this right are the ones that treat it as an operating discipline, not a feature.Support for this week's episode provided by: NetskopeMore about this week's guests:Ralph Jovine brings over 20 years of experience in digital marketing and e-commerce. As a former executive at global agencies like Accenture, Merkle, and CEO of Nervewire, he spearheaded large-scale marketing and digital initiatives for renowned brands such as Nike, Cole Haan, Ralph Lauren, L'Oréal, Toyota, Bridgestone, and Hilton Hotels. Ralph's expertise spans various domains, including Business Strategy and Transformation, CX Product Strategy and Technology, Omni-Channel Marketing, Commerce, CRM, Loyalty, Martech/Adtech, and AI/ML Strategy and Application.Ralph's top pick: The C-suite's Blueprint to Personalization in Retail and BeyondChris Douglas is Senior Director of Product for Unified Commerce at World Wide Technology. He leads the strategy and growth of WWT’s Unified Commerce practice, helping organizations modernize how they connect customer data, experiences, and operations. His work spans commerce strategy, retail transformation, loyalty and personalization, and marketing technology, with a focus on turning fragmented systems into coordinated, measurable outcomes that drive growth.Chris's top pick: Customer Experience Priorities for 2026The AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments. 

AI can generate answers instantly. But that doesn’t mean they’re right.Most enterprise AI doesn’t fail because of the model. It fails because the data underneath it doesn’t agree. Different teams, different definitions, different outcomes. It’s subtle, and it breaks trust fast.In this episode, Paul Bruffett, VP of Data and Analytics at Jack in the Box, joins WWT’s Dan Moristro to talk about what it actually took to fix that. A multi-year modernization across core systems set the stage, but the real shift came from treating data as a product and building consistency into how the business defines and uses it.They get into what Dan calls semantic debt, why generative AI makes it harder to ignore, and how modular data products, a modern data stack, and a real MLOps foundation helped turn AI from something interesting into something reliable.If your AI works in demos but not in the business, this is probably why.Learn more about this week's guests:Paul Bruffett is a data and analytics leader with deep experience across cloud platforms, data engineering, and data science. He has designed and implemented enterprise data lakes, big data platforms, and scalable architectures on AWS, Azure, and GCP. Known for a hands-on approach, he focuses on building systems that support continuous deployment of data and AI workloads at scale.Paul's top pick: Jack in the Box CTO Reveals AI PlaybookDan Morrisroe is Managing Director of AI, Data, Analytics, and Management Consulting at World Wide Technology. He works with organizations to turn data and AI strategy into real operating capability, helping align technology, teams, and processes to drive measurable business outcomes at scale.Dan's top pick: From Static Scorecards to Real-Time Retail IntelligenceThe AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments. 

Most AI strategies look good in a demo. The real challenge is getting them to run at scale.Recorded live at NVIDIA GTC 2026, this episode with Ragu Chakravarthi from Core42 and Kraig Ecker from WWT explores what it actually takes to move from AI pilots to production systems.They discuss sovereign AI as critical infrastructure, what control really means across data and operations, and why trust has to be built into every layer. From governance and observability to regulated environments, this is what it takes to run AI in the real world.The conversation also looks ahead to agentic AI, rising token demand, and the growing need for traceability and access control.If you are working to operationalize AI at scale, this episode breaks down what most teams underestimate.Support for this episode provided by: ForescoutMore about this week's guests:Ragu Chakravarthi is Chief Technology and Product Officer at Core42, leading AI infrastructure, platforms, and operations. He oversees large-scale AI cloud deployments across NVIDIA, AMD, and Cerebras, and has driven innovations like Compass and JAIS. His work focuses on enabling secure, scalable AI adoption, with emphasis on sovereignty, performance, and enterprise readiness.Kraig Ecker is EVP of Global Service Provider Sales at WWT, leading teams that help the world’s largest telecom and hyperscale companies adopt next-generation technologies. With deep industry relationships, he has driven growth across AI, 5G, cloud, and edge, expanded WWT into new markets, and helped establish the company as a leading partner across the global service provider ecosystem.The AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments. 

AI is writing code faster than most teams can review it. That’s the tension.Recorded live at NVIDIA GTC with Nate McKie, we get into what happens when developer speed takes off but security and quality don’t.The middle of the development process is collapsing. Code is cheap. Mistakes aren’t.So what actually has to change?We get into AI-native engineering, agentic development and the shift from code generation to code governance. From code review bottlenecks and the “hourglass effect” to model selection, RBAC and secure data access, this is how enterprise teams scale AI without breaking things.Support for this episode provided by: ThalesMore about this week's guest:Nate McKie is a Senior Executive AI Advisor with more than 25 years of experience in software and automation engineering. He helps organizations translate AI into real business outcomes, advising on strategy across data, infrastructure and applications to drive effective and responsible adoption.The AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments. 

AI is working. Your data probably isn’t.As enterprise AI moves into production, a new constraint shows up fast. Not models. Not compute. Data.In this episode, recorded live at NVIDIA GTC, NetApp’s Tore Sundelin and WWT’s Derek Elbert get into what’s actually slowing teams down. The shift from clean, structured data to messy, high-value, unstructured data that’s harder to find, govern and use in real time.This is where things start to break. Data spread across systems. Inconsistent policies. No clear way to trust what’s being used.And once AI depends on live enterprise data, those gaps don’t stay hidden for long.Because at this stage, AI doesn’t fail at the model. It fails at the data.Support for this episode provided by: RiverbedMore about this week's guests:Derek Elbert is an AI Practice leader at World Wide Technology focused on hybrid cloud AI and high-performance architecture. He specializes in networking and storage within modern AI stacks, helping organizations design and scale infrastructure to support data-intensive, production-grade AI workloads.Tore Sundelin is a product leader at NetApp focused on enterprise AI and data platforms. With 20+ years at Microsoft, Google and NetApp, he has built AI-powered products at global scale, including early machine learning capabilities in Microsoft Office. He specializes in turning complex data, governance and platform challenges into production-ready AI solutions.The AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments. 

AI isn’t slowing down. Your data center is.As enterprise AI moves into real workloads, physical limits show up fast. Power. Cooling. Space. Timing. The conversation shifts quickly from what model to use to whether you can run it at all.In this episode, Schneider Electric CTO Jim Simonelli and WWT’s Chris Campbell talk through what happens when AI infrastructure, data center design and workload placement collide in production.Because “speed to first token” isn’t just about model performance. It’s about whether your environment can keep up.More about this week's guests:Chris Campbell is responsible for the strategy, development, and delivery of WWT's AIaaS/GPUaaS and Facilities & Infrastructure solutions, and their associated GTM to our clients. Campbell has also served as Sr. Director - Executive Engagement and Customer Advocacy at WWT, and was responsible for the strategy, development, and delivery of WWT's global customer executive engagement programs, and has also served as a Sr. Director of Engineering and Architecture - Mid America at WWT, where he was responsible for managing WWT's team of consulting systems engineers and architects in Mid America.Jim Simonelli is a Schneider Electric leader focused on the infrastructure realities shaping enterprise AI. He brings a practical view of what it takes to make AI deployable at scale: reliable power, liquid cooling, flexible data center design, and the operational certainty leaders need before turning on compute. He speaks from both sides of the equation, as someone helping Schneider use AI while also helping enterprises build the environments required to support it. His perspective is relevant as organizations weigh cloud, hybrid and on-prem choices and try to move faster without locking into the wrong infrastructure decisions.The AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments. 

AI is working. Until it isn’t.Not because the model failed, but because something behind it did.In this episode, recorded live at NVIDIA GTC, WWT’s Mike Trojecki and Everpure’s Kaycee Lai talk through what starts to show up once AI moves into real use. Data that’s harder to access than expected. Systems that slow things down. Security and governance questions that weren’t part of the original plan.It’s a different kind of conversation than most. Less about what AI can do, more about what it takes to actually run it inside a business.There’s a shift happening underneath it all. AI is starting to behave like a core application, which means it inherits the same expectations around reliability, performance and control.And that’s usually where things get complicated.More about this week's guests:Mike Trojecki brings 25+ years of experience across security, cloud, and AI, starting with his service in the U.S. Air Force supporting White House and Air Force One missions. He’s led emerging tech practices at top integrators and now leads the AI Practice at World Wide Technology, driving high-performance AI infrastructure and data strategies.Kaycee Lai is a data and AI leader with 20+ years of experience driving innovation and enterprise transformation. At Pure Storage, he leads Enterprise AI and Analytics strategy. As founder and former CEO of Promethium, he pioneered Data Fabric, helping organizations unlock more accessible, usable data.The AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments. 

Agentic AI is getting real fast. The challenge isn’t building it anymore. It’s running it without losing control.Recorded live at NVIDIA GTC, this conversation gets into what actually changes when AI moves into production. Not in theory, but in practice.As organizations start designing for real usage, new pressure shows up. Systems get more complex. Costs become harder to predict. And security can’t be something you fix later.Cisco’s Kevin Wollenweber, NVIDIA’s Kevin Deierling and WWT’s Neil Anderson talk through what they’re seeing right now and how teams are adjusting in real time.If you’re thinking about how to scale AI without losing control of your environment, your costs or your risk, this is worth your time.More about this week's guests:Kevin Wollenweber is Cisco's Senior Vice President and General Manager of Data Center and Internet Infrastructure. In this role, he leads product strategy to enhance Cisco's infrastructure solutions for the data center, high-performance routing, and mobile networks. His leadership is pivotal in driving growth and developing cutting-edge solutions to meet the dynamic needs of businesses worldwide.Kevin Deierling is the senior vice president of Networking at NVIDIA, joining from Mellanox Technologies where he was senior vice president of Marketing. He has been a founder or senior executive at five startups that have achieved positive outcomes. Combining both technical and business expertise, Deierling has variously served as the chief officer of technology, architecture, and marketing at these companies, where he led the development of strategy and products across a broad range of disciplines including networking, security, cloud, big data, virtualization, storage, smart energy, and DNA sequencing.Neil Anderson has over 30 years of experience in AI, Software Development, Wireless, Cyber, and Networking technologies. At WWT Neil is VP and CTO in our Global Solutions and Architectures team, with responsibility for over $16B in WWT's solutions portfolio. Neil advises hundreds of Fortune 1000 companies on their global architecture and technology strategy.The AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments. 

Most enterprise AI tries to be impressive. In a hotel, it just needs to work.No one checks in hoping to experience great AI. They want things to feel smooth, fast, intuitive — like everything is just handled. That’s the standard.At IHG Hotels & Resorts, AI is being applied with that mindset. Not as a headline, but as a way to make employees more effective and operations run cleaner behind the scenes.In this episode, IHG Chief Product and Technology Officer Jolie Fleming shares what it actually looks like to scale AI inside a global hospitality business. Not pilots that linger. Not demos that look good in slides. Real changes to how work gets done — across call centers, service workflows, language translation and day-to-day operations.The approach is simple, but disciplined: start with a real problem, fix it, prove it works and then expand. It’s less about chasing the latest model and more about building something that holds up under pressure.And underneath it all, the fundamentals still matter. Data, workflows and governance don’t go away with AI — they become more important. Fast.For leaders trying to move quickly without losing control, this episode offers a clear takeaway: the most effective AI doesn’t announce itself. It just makes everything work better.Support for this episode provided by: Check PointMore about this week's guest:Jolie Fleming was appointed Chief Product & Technology Officer in April 2024. In this role, Jolie is responsible for driving the development of all guest, enterprise and owner-facing products and technology, while working across our regions with marketing, brands, loyalty and operations. Jolie joined IHG in 2021 as Senior Vice President, Guest Products and Platforms (GPP) for IHG's Commercial and Technology team. In that role, she led the development and launch of technology solutions for the new IHG One Rewards programme and supporting mobile app, new hotel websites and the seamless integration of new partners including Iberostar.The AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments. 

At NVIDIA GTC 2026, the conversation shifted from model novelty to enterprise reality. In this episode of the AI Proving Ground Podcast, WWT Chief AI Advisor Tim Brooks explains why agentic AI, inference-heavy workloads and physical AI are forcing CIOs and CTOs to rethink infrastructure, governance, trust and leadership.Brooks, WWT's Chief AI Advisor, said the industry is moving beyond fascination with model releases and into the harder work of managing inference, agents, infrastructure and trust at scale.The shift matters because enterprise AI is no longer defined primarily by training. Brooks points to an inference inflection point, where production systems, multi-step reasoning and autonomous or semi-autonomous agents are driving exponential token growth. That creates immediate pressure on compute, memory, networking and cost decisions that many organizations are still underestimating.The AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments. 

Private AI is quickly moving from niche architecture to a core enterprise AI strategy. As AI workloads move into production, leaders are rethinking where inference runs, how data stays governed and why hybrid AI infrastructure may offer the best balance of performance, cost and control.In this episode of the AI Proving Ground Podcast, VMware by Broadcom’s Chris Wolf, NVIDIA’s Chad Olds and WWT CTO Mike Taylor explore why private AI is gaining momentum across the enterprise. What began as a design choice for highly regulated industries is becoming a practical model for organizations that want to scale AI while maintaining governance, protecting intellectual property and managing infrastructure costs.The conversation examines how inference workloads are spreading across cloud, on-prem and edge environments, why enterprises are becoming more protective of their data and how the economics of sustained AI workloads are shaping infrastructure decisions.You’ll learn:• Why private AI is emerging as a practical enterprise AI architecture • How hybrid AI environments balance cloud, on-prem and edge workloads • Why data governance and IP protection are driving AI infrastructure choices • How inference economics are reshaping enterprise AI strategy • What leaders must do to treat AI as operational infrastructure—not a side experimentIf you're building an enterprise AI strategy or scaling AI into production, this episode offers a clear look at how organizations are designing infrastructure to support AI reliably, securely and at scale.Support for this episode provided by: EatonMore about this week's guests:Mike Taylor leads WWT’s Global Engineering, IT and Services organization, helping position WWT as a single-source partner for digital transformation. He connects WWT’s deep technical expertise with business strategy to help customers adopt emerging technologies and drive meaningful outcomes.Chad Olds leads software sales and customer success across the Americas at NVIDIA. With more than 15 years of experience in AI, data and cloud transformation, he has held leadership roles at NVIDIA, IBM, Anchore, Software AG and startups, and began his career at Red Hat driving open-source adoption.Chris Wolf leads the Private AI business for Broadcom’s VMware Cloud Foundation division, overseeing AI strategy, architecture and engineering. He works with enterprise leaders to design and scale AI infrastructure that balances performance, governance and cost.The AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments. 

As AI spreads beyond developers into every workflow, the differentiator shifts from tools to leadership. In this episode of the AI Proving Ground Podcast, WWT Co-Founder and CEO Jim Kavanaugh argues that winning in AI will lean heavily on culture: how fast an organization can learn, adapt and change. The new leadership challenge is moving fast without creating downstream chaos.More about this week's guest:Jim Kavanaugh is globally recognized as an innovative business executive and is renowned for his inclusive, people-first leadership style. His emphasis on promoting a healthy, vibrant workplace has anchored WWT's award-winning culture, while his savvy business acumen has propelled the company's substantial growth. Jim leads WWT's 18-person executive team and focuses on technology innovation—for both WWT and its customers and partners—long-term planning, strategic acquisitions, financial performance, employee development and workplace culture. Under his leadership, WWT has grown into a multi-billion-dollar company with approximately 12,000 employees globally that is a great place to work for all and is a key business enabler to 80+ of the Fortune 100 companies.The AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments. 

AI-powered coding assistants are rapidly compressing the time it takes to build software and delivering a competitive advantage that can lead to transformational outcomes. But according to WWT Co-Founder and CEO Jim Kavanaugh, the bigger shift is organizational: companies must rethink leadership, data strategy and workforce skills to compete in an AI-native world. In this episode of the AI Proving Ground Podcast, Jim shares his vision for how coding assistants are emerging as one of the most practical and disruptive use cases in enterprise AI.More about this week's guest:Jim Kavanaugh is globally recognized as an innovative business executive and is renowned for his inclusive, people-first leadership style. His emphasis on promoting a healthy, vibrant workplace has anchored WWT's award-winning culture, while his savvy business acumen has propelled the company's substantial growth. Jim leads WWT's 18-person executive team and focuses on technology innovation—for both WWT and its customers and partners—long-term planning, strategic acquisitions, financial performance, employee development and workplace culture. Under his leadership, WWT has grown into a multi-billion-dollar company with approximately 12,000 employees globally that is a great place to work for all and is a key business enabler to 80+ of the Fortune 100 companies.The AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments. 

AI is accelerating everything — including your attack surface.Prompt injection. Shadow AI. Non-human identities. Automated agents making decisions at machine speed. The pressure to move fast is real. So is the risk.In this episode, Fortinet’s Aamir Lakhani and WWT’s Dave Pisarek lay out a practical path forward. No hype — just the controls that actually work.We cover:Why prompt injection isn’t going awayHow attackers hide payloads in unexpected encodingsWhy identity and access management is becoming the control plane for AIGuardrails that matter: least privilege, segmentation, scoped agents, robust loggingWhy every automated system needs a human-reviewed “undo”You’ll also hear where AI is already helping SOC teams move faster — surfacing anomalies, correlating IOCs, and shrinking time to containment.If you’re being asked to scale AI while preventing breaches, this is the conversation to have with your security and engineering leaders.Speed is inevitable.Exposure isn’t.More about this week's guests:Dave Pisarek is a Fortinet Practice Manager with 24 years of experience in information technology and a Fortinet NSE 4 certification. He specializes in network security design and integration, translating complex technical requirements into practical, standards-based solutions. Known for his clear communication and problem-solving skills, Dave develops business plans, architectural designs, and project documentation that align security strategy with operational outcomes.Dave's top pick: Fortinet Xperts 2025Aamir Lakhani is Global Director of Threat Intelligence and Adversarial AI Research at Fortinet. With more than 15 years in cybersecurity, he leads research and architectural strategy across cyber defense, malware, mobile threats, and advanced persistent threats. Aamir has designed solutions for major commercial, federal, and defense intelligence organizations, helping them defend against sophisticated adversaries while advancing FortiGuard and AI-driven security capabilities. Aamir's top pick: Stop Stacking Boxes. Start Designing Security.The AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments. 

Most AI teams aren’t losing to the model.They’re losing to bad prompts.In this episode of the AI Proving Ground Podcast, WWT’s Liz Gattra breaks down the invisible tax of vague instructions, blind trust in outputs and endless iteration loops that quietly burn tokens, waste GPU cycles and drag down ROI.As generative AI moves into production, AI literacy becomes operational leverage — not a soft skill.We cover: • A practical prompt blueprint that improves output quality fast • Why “confident but wrong” is more expensive than you think • How precision reduces token spend and compute waste • When to switch between ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude • Why system prompts, agents and context engineering determine whether AI scales or spiralsEvery vague prompt compounds.The teams that win don’t just deploy models — they train people to think clearly, structure intent and treat prompts like lightweight programs with measurable results.If you care about AI ROI, compute efficiency, and scaling generative AI in the enterprise, start here.Precision isn’t optional. It’s a cost control strategy.Support for this episode provided by: ExtraHopMore about this week's guest:Liz Gattra is Director of Product Ownership at World Wide Technology’s Application Services practice. A former Agile Coach, IT manager, Scrum Master, and Agile Business Analyst, she has led enterprise agile transformations and built product ownership capabilities across internal and client teams. Liz develops and trains product owners to deliver measurable business value at scale. She holds a Master’s in Biology and Biomedical Sciences from Washington University in St. Louis and brings nearly 20 years of cross-industry IT experience.Liz's top pick: The AI Adoption Gap Isn't Technical. It's Human.The AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments. 

AI pilots are easy.Scaling AI across a live network is not.As organizations move beyond experimentation, the challenge isn’t better models — it’s building AI that operates like infrastructure: reliable, secure, and measurable.In this episode of the AI Proving Ground Podcast, Matt Shorts, AVP of AI at Cox Communications, joins WWT’s Greg Schoeny to share how Cox moved AI from isolated pilots into production across a customer-facing network where uptime, trust, and scale matter daily.You’ll learn:Why operating conditions expose bad AI decisions fastHow to modernize without waiting for perfect dataThe risks of rushing into closed platformsWhy momentum beats perfectionHow framing AI as augmentation — not replacement — drives adoptionThis episode is for CIOs, infrastructure leaders, and platform teams responsible for deploying AI in complex, regulated environments.The bottom line: AI only delivers value when it behaves like infrastructure.And infrastructure rewards discipline — not hype.More about this week's guests:Greg Schoeny is Senior Vice President of Services and Strategic Solutions at WWT, leading services sales, business development, and architecture for the Global Service Provider (GSP) business. His team delivers outcome-driven solutions across AI, cloud, security, mobility, automation, and advisory services, supporting customers with professional services, managed services, staffing, and strategic consulting.Matt Cox is a technology leader with 20+ years of experience driving digital transformation and product innovation. He specializes in AI strategy, multi-cloud optimization, and building high-performing teams. Matt has led successful product launches, developed IP strategies, and architected IoT solutions that unlock new revenue and operational efficiency, aligning technology with measurable business impact.The AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments. 

As enterprises rush to deploy AI, observability is emerging as the discipline that determines whether those investments create durable value—or quietly erode it. In this episode of the AI Proving Ground Podcast, WWT's Ivan Wintersteiger, Cisco's Tapan Shah and NVIDIA's Shashank Sabhlok discuss why observability, when treated as foundational, becomes the connective tissue between infrastructure, applications, security and user experience.More about this week's guests:Ivan Wintersteiger brings more than 20 years of experience across IT leadership, engineering, and business development, with a consistent focus on end-user experience and security. In his current role, Ivan leads the End User Computing practice, driving transformational solutions across modern device management, application delivery, and identity management to help organizations operate securely at scale.Tapan Shah leads the Splunk AIOps products—IT Service Intelligence (ITSI) and Splunk On-Call—within the Splunk Observability portfolio. With more than 20 years of experience across observability, systems and network management, application performance monitoring, and AIOps, Tapan has worked closely with large global enterprises across industries, including a significant portion of the Fortune 100. Based in California, he focuses on helping organizations gain end-to-end visibility and operational resilience at scale.Shashank Sabhlok is a senior product manager in the NVIDIA Enterprise product group, where he leads initiatives around AI factory design and enterprise adoption to drive scalable, high-performance AI across organizations. Prior to this, he was the lead product manager for IBM watsonx.governance, IBM's generative AI governance solution, where he successfully led the product from inception to launch and beyond. He holds an MBAi (MBA + AI) degree from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management and McCormick School of Engineering, and a BASc in Electrical Engineering with Distinction from the University of Waterloo.The AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments. 

As organizations move beyond experimentation, compute has become a deciding factor in whether AI delivers real value or stalls before production. In this episode of the AI Proving Ground Podcast, WWT VP Neil Anderson, NVIDIA VP Chris Marriott and Cisco VP Daniel McGinniss talk about how organizations are rethinking where AI runs, how it's secured and how value is measured.More about this week's guests:Neil Anderson has over 30 years of experience in AI, Software Development, Wireless, Cyber, and Networking technologies. At WWT Neil is VP and CTO in our Global Solutions and Architectures team, with responsibility for over $16B in WWT's solutions portfolio. Neil advises hundreds of Fortune 1000 companies on their global architecture and technology strategy.Daniel McGinniss is Vice President of Product Management for Cisco Compute, responsible for developing innovative products and establishing new routes to market for Cisco's multi-billion-dollar compute and SaaS infrastructure management portfolio, while driving new solutions and as-a-service offers with ecosystem partners in alignment with customers' most critical business needs.Chris Marriott is the vice president of enterprise platforms at NVIDIA, spending the last 14 years advancing enterprise solutions. With a background in engineering, including 10 years in ASIC development, Marriott combines technical expertise with strategic insight to address the evolving technology landscape. Outside of work, he enjoys playing ice hockey and exploring the outdoors with his family.The AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments. 

As AI systems grow larger and more distributed, enterprises are discovering that performance, security and time-to-value depend less on individual components and more on how well the system moves, synchronizes and protects data at scale. In this episode of the AI Proving Ground Podcast, WWT's Justin van Schaik, Cisco's Dave Jansen and NVIDIA's Taylor Allison talk about how a well-designed network fabric extends time to value, increases risk and quietly erodes the economics of AI initiatives.More about this week's guests:Justin van Shaik is a Technical Solutions Architect at World Wide Technology, specializing in High Performance Networking, AI and Open Networking. A seasoned technologist, he helps organizations design and deploy advanced infrastructure to support next-gen workloads at scale.David Jansen is focused on technology strategy for Cisco's Global Solutions Engineering team across all segments, verticals, and technologies via an ongoing series of innovation initiatives. David spends a lot of time with strategic customers + partners engagements globally. With over 30 years of experience in the IT industry, David is an industry expert in Cloud, Software Defined Networking (SDN), virtualization, orchestration, large scale WAN backbone, and AI Infrastructure.Taylor Allison is responsible for product marketing related to the NVIDIA Ethernet switch portfolio, including the hardware platforms as well as network operating systems and telemetry tools. Taylor has a passion for product marketing and management in the data center infrastructure space, with expertise in networking, storage, HPC, and AI/ML. Prior to joining NVIDIA in 2021, Taylor was Lenovo's HPC/AI storage leader, responsible for high performance storage platforms, software, and solutions. Taylor earned his MS in Mathematics from the University of North Carolina.The AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments. 

As enterprises move AI from experimentation to production, security failures are no longer isolated incidents—they are systemic risks embedded deep in infrastructure, data flows, and decision-making systems. In this episode of the AI Proving Ground Podcast, WWT's Istvan Berko, Cisco's DJ Sampath and NVIDIA's Ofir Arkin discuss why as AI becomes core infrastructure, security becomes the mechanism that determines whether that infrastructure scales or undermines itself.Support for this episode provided by: RubrikMore about this week's guests:Istvan Berko is the Global Head of AI Cyber and Innovation at World Wide Technology. With 25+ years in security, risk, and governance, he has held senior roles at NTT/Dimension Data and AWS, authored AWS Cloud Adoption Framework whitepapers, and remains active in the cybersecurity community through leadership and industry events.DJ Sampath is Senior Vice President of Cisco's AI Software and Platform group, where he leads the charge in shaping a unified AI vision across the company's product portfolio. A builder at heart and a visionary by design, DJ blends deep technical expertise with strategic storytelling to drive transformative outcomes at scale. He has founded, grown, and sold category-defining startups, advised U.S. government agencies, and emerged as a thought leader at the intersection of enterprise AI and innovation.Ofir Arkin is a renowned information security expert with a career spanning academia, consulting, and executive roles. He's passionate about creating innovative products that address customer needs, and has introduced several industry-first technologies. Known for his dedication to mentoring, Ofir has authored numerous influential research papers and articles, and is a recognized speaker in the information security community.The AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments. 

As organizations struggle to move beyond AI pilots, a new architecture — Cisco's Secure AI Factory with NVIDIA — is emerging as a missing link between experimentation and real business outcomes. In this episode of the AI Proving Ground Podcast, WWT's Neil Anderson, Cisco's Kevin Wollenweber and NVIDIA's Chris Marriott discuss how the Secure AI Factory represents a shift from bolt-on protection to security built into the architecture itself.More about this week's guests:Neil Anderson has over 30 years of experience in AI, Software Development, Wireless, Cyber, and Networking technologies. At WWT Neil is VP and CTO in our Global Solutions and Architectures team, with responsibility for over $16B in WWT's solutions portfolio. Neil advises hundreds of Fortune 1000 companies on their global architecture and technology strategy.Kevin Wollenweber is Cisco's Senior Vice President and General Manager of Data Center and Internet Infrastructure. In this role, he leads product strategy to enhance Cisco's infrastructure solutions for the data center, high-performance routing, and mobile networks. His leadership is pivotal in driving growth and developing cutting-edge solutions to meet the dynamic needs of businesses worldwide.Chris Marriott is the vice president of enterprise platforms at NVIDIA, spending the last 14 years advancing enterprise solutions. With a background in engineering, including 10 years in ASIC development, Marriott combines technical expertise with strategic insight to address the evolving technology landscape. Outside of work, he enjoys playing ice hockey and exploring the outdoors with his family.The AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments. 

As companies move from chatbots to agents, the hardest work isn't prompting — it's building an always-on, governable, cost-aware system that leaders can trust. In this episode of the AI Proving Ground Podcast, Cisco's President and Chief Product Officer Jeetu Patel, NVIDIA Vice President Craig Weinstein and WWT CTO Mike Taylor discuss how Cisco's Secure AI Factory with NVIDIA is designed to close the gap between experimentation and execution by treating AI as infrastructure.More about this week's guests:Mike Taylor is the Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President of Services. He oversees WWT's Global Engineering and IT organization and Services segment to position WWT as a single-source provider to accelerate digital transformation. Mike aligns WWT's unparalleled technical capabilities with its collective business acumen to both advise and execute customers as they seek to become more agile and innovative.Jeetu Patel is Cisco's President and Chief Product Officer, leading global product vision and strategy. Under his leadership, Cisco has driven innovation across its broad portfolio of products, establishing the company as the critical infrastructure for the AI era. Patel joined Cisco in 2020 to lead the collaboration and security business. He quickly became recognized for his commitment to product design and user experience, leading the team through a period of rapid innovation to transform Webex and support customers through the global pandemic. In 2024 he was promoted to the role of Chief Product Officer, where he now leads several multibillion-dollar categories, including networking, computing, security, Splunk, and more.Craig Weinstein is the vice president of the America's Partner Organization at NVIDIA. He has over 26 years of experience in sales, sales management and channel leadership. Previously Craig was part of the America's Partner Organization leadership team at Cisco Systems, where he built strong relationships with key decision makers, stakeholders, channel partners, customers and colleagues. Craig holds communications degree from San Diego State University.The AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments. 

Enterprise AI isn’t failing because of models, tools, or budgets.It’s failing because people don’t actually use it.While most organizations stall after pilots, Ally Financial broke the pattern — reaching over 50% AI adoption with nearly 90% retention.In this episode of the AI Proving Ground Podcast, Ally Chief Information, Data and Digital Officer Sathish Muthukrishnan joins former Bank of America CTO David Reilly to unpack why adoption is a leadership and culture problem, not a technology one.Ally’s breakthrough came from an augmentation-first mindset — positioning AI as a way to help employees do better work, not replace them.In this conversation, you’ll hear:Why “stick rate” matters more than accessHow psychological safety accelerates adoptionTreating internal AI tools like real productsTurning AI pilots into infrastructureIf your AI investments aren’t translating into real usage, this episode shows how to fix it — without burning trust.Support for this episode provided by: IllumioMore about this week's guests:Sathish Muthukrishnan was named chief information, data and digital officer for Ally Financial Inc. in December 2019. In this role, Muthukrishnan is responsible for advancing Ally's technical and digital capabilities, including customer experience, data & analytics, cyber security and infrastructure, and accelerating the company's growth and evolution as a leader in the digital financial services sector. He reports to Ally's CEO.Sathish's top pick: Accelerating AI Adoption: How a Bank Gained Early Insights David Reilly is Chief Development Officer at WWT and previously served on Ally’s Board of Directors. He spent over a decade at Bank of America, most recently as CIO for Global Banking & Markets, after holding multiple senior technology leadership roles. Earlier in his career, David spent nearly three decades in technology and cybersecurity roles at major financial institutions including Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse, and HSBC. He also serves on the boards of Data Dynamics and NPower.David's top pick: Addressing Technical Debt in Financial ServicesThe AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments. 

Enterprise AI is moving out of pilots — and the infrastructure gaps are getting harder to ignore.In this episode of the AI Proving Ground Podcast, Intel’s Lynn Comp and WWT’s Mike Trojecki break down why treating enterprise AI infrastructure as a single hardware decision is a costly mistake. As agentic systems push AI into real operations, assumptions like “AI = GPUs” start to crack under pressure from power, cost, governance, and scale.The takeaway from 2025 is clear: performance alone isn’t the advantage. Fit is.We unpack how agentic AI is reshaping security models and centers of excellence, why disciplined architecture beats oversized builds, and what leaders need to plan for in 2026 to scale AI without locking into brittle, overbuilt systems.Because driving a Ferrari to run errands looks impressive — until you see the bill.Support for this episode provided by: ProofpointMore about this week's guests: Lynn Comp has a wide range of experiences spanning her ~30 years in the tech industry, from strategic planning and go to market of RISC SOCs for both communications infrastructure and mobile phones, to software pipelines laying the groundwork for rapid video-based services innovation, to pioneering the foundational libraries that paved the way for 'software defined' networking with telecommunications operators. Lynn has extensive experience in marketing, product management, product planning, and strategy development across software, hardware, cloud, and communications service providers (CoSPs). Lynn has a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from Virginia Tech and an MBA from University of PhoenixLynn's top pick: AI Meets the Classroom: Shaping the Future of Learning with IntelMike Trojecki brings more than 25 years of experience across technology and leadership. His career began in the U.S. Air Force, supporting missions for the White House and Air Force One, where he developed a foundation of precision and reliability. After transitioning to the private sector, he led emerging technology practices at firms including ePlus and Logicalis. At World Wide Technology, Mike now leads the AI Practice, focusing on high-performance architectures, data, computer vision, and AI data center design to help organizations scale AI with impact.Mike's top pick: AI and Data Priorities for 2026The AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments. 

Enterprise AI didn’t fail.It hit the wall.In 2025, pilots multiplied, copilots spread, and expectations skyrocketed. Then reality caught up. Scaling AI turned out to be less about model quality — and more about data, security, cost visibility, and how organizations actually work.In this episode of the AI Proving Ground Podcast, Chris Campbell and Jason Campagna break down what enterprises learned the hard way, why most AI initiatives stall between pilot and production, and what leaders must fix to make AI deliver real impact in 2026.We get practical about:Why AI breaks when fundamentals aren’t readyWhat agentic systems expose at scaleWhy focus beats hype when AI becomes infrastructureHow winning teams design, govern, and measure AI like a core systemIf your AI strategy looks impressive but hasn’t changed outcomes yet, this conversation explains why — and what to do next.Support for this episode provided by: GraphiantMore about this week's guests:Chris Campbell is Senior Director of AI Solutions at World Wide Technology, where he leads strategy and delivery for AIaaS/GPUaaS and data center facilities and infrastructure solutions. He brings deep experience across executive engagement, customer advocacy, and large-scale engineering leadership. Prior to WWT, Chris held senior leadership roles at Forsythe, Red Hat, BEA Systems, and AT&T. He holds a BA from Columbia University and an MBA from the University of Maryland, where he was a Dingman Entrepreneur Scholar.Chris's top pick:  AI and Data Priorities for 2026Jason Campagna is a strategic technologist at World Wide Technology, where he leads AI solution strategy and helps enterprises navigate the next wave of intelligent systems, from AI assistants to autonomous agents. With deep experience spanning cloud, automation, and platform architecture, Jason focuses on turning emerging technology into operational reality. He brings a pragmatic, execution-driven approach to scaling AI in complex enterprise environments.Jason's top pick: AI Agents: Scaling Your Digital WorkforceThe AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments. 

AI is no longer an experiment — it’s an accountability test.In this episode of the AI Proving Ground Podcast, Dave DeWalt, Founder and CEO of NightDragon, and Kate Kuehn of WWT unpack what happens when AI systems fail, misfire, or create real-world risk — and who ultimately owns the outcome.As organizations look toward 2026, boards want visibility, CEOs want measurable impact, and the lines between IT, security, and the business have disappeared. AI accelerates opportunity, but it also accelerates exposure — collapsing decision timelines and reshaping responsibility.This conversation explores how accountability is shifting to the top of the enterprise, how leaders should think about ownership when AI breaks, and why resilience, governance, and speed now define competitive advantage.Support for this episode provided by: GraphiantMore about this week's guests:Dave DeWalt is founder and CEO of NightDragon, a venture and advisory firm focused on building the world's leading SecureTech platform. A four-time CEO, he has led iconic companies including FireEye, McAfee, and Documentum, creating over $20B in shareholder value. A longtime board leader and public servant, DeWalt has advised four U.S. administrations on national security and cybersecurity and is a recognized voice on technology risk and resilience.Dave's top pick: Infrastructure as a Strategic Target of WarKate Kuehn joined WWT in 2024, bringing more than 25 years of experience leading and advising cybersecurity, technology, and AI strategy. She has held executive and board roles across the cyber ecosystem — including CISO, CEO, Chief Trust Officer, advisor, and board director — with experience at companies such as Aon, BT, and Verizon. A trusted advisor and award-winning leader, Kate focuses on helping executives and boards align cyber risk, AI, and business strategy in an increasingly complex threat landscape.Kate's top pick: AI Won't Save You: Easterly, Joyce and CISOs on the Cybersecurity Reality No One Wants to HearThe AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments.