Live from the Data Center Frontier Trends Summit 2025 – Reston, VA

In this episode, we bring you a featured panel from the Data Center Frontier Trends Summit 2025 (Aug. 26-28), sponsored by Schneider Electric. DCF Editor in Chief Matt Vincent moderates a fast-paced, highly practical conversation on what “AI for good” really looks like inside the modern data center—both in how we build for AI workloads and how we use AI to run facilities more intelligently.

Expert panelists included:

Steve Carlini, VP, Innovation and Data Center Energy Management Business, Schneider Electric

Sudhir Kalra, Chief Data Center Operations Officer, Compass Datacenters

Andrew Whitmore, VP of Sales, Motivair

Together they unpack:

How AI is driving unprecedented scale—from megawatt data halls to gigawatt AI “factories” and 100–600 kW rack roadmaps

What Schneider and NVIDIA are learning from real-world testing of Blackwell and NVL72-class reference designs

Why liquid cooling is no longer optional for high-density AI, and how to retrofit thousands of brownfield, air-cooled sites

How Compass is using AI, predictive analytics, and condition-based maintenance to cut manual interventions and OPEX

The shift from “constructing” to assembling data centers via modular, prefab approaches

The role of AI in grid-aware operations, energy storage, and more sustainable build and operations practices

Where power architectures, 800V DC, and industry standards will take us over the next five years

If you want a grounded, operator-level view into how AI is reshaping data center design, cooling, power, and operations—beyond the hype—this DCF Trends Summit session is a must-listen.