The AI Proving Ground Podcast team is proud to kick off a weeklong series of daily releases from WWT's Business Innovation Summit — bringing you unfiltered conversations with the visionary leaders shaping the next decade of artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, cloud and enterprise AI strategy. Featuring insights from executives at Cisco, Google Cloud, Microsoft, NVIDIA, NightDragon, Morgan Stanley and more, this series offers urgent, real-time perspective on how AI is transforming the global economy, redefining risk, and rewriting the rules of competitive advantage.

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.

Core42 Chief Growth Officer Edmondo Orlotti dives into how Core42 and G42 are building sovereign, national-scale AI infrastructure and what enterprises can learn as they face their own challenges with data governance, GPU scarcity, fragmented environments and global regulatory pressure.

Support for this episode provided by: Thales

More about this week's guests:

Mike Trojecki is a technology leader with 25+ years of experience spanning security, networking, cloud and AI. A former U.S. Air Force Tech Controller supporting White House and Air Force One missions, he brings a deep commitment to precision and reliability. He now leads WWT's AI Practice, helping organizations build high-performance architectures and data-driven solutions that unlock real business value.

Mike's top pick: AI Use Cases: Balancing Speed and Risk for Real-World Success

Edmondo Orlotti is Chief Strategy Officer at Core42, part of G42, an AI company headquartered in Abu Dhabi, UAE. His previous assignments were in AI & HPC at global level with Hewlett Packard Enterprise and with NVIDIA Professional Systems Group. He has been addressing advanced simulation and analytics needs of industrial and academic environments from the very beginning of the deep learning age, from data center to edge. With over 25 years of experience in the IT sector at global level and an interdisciplinary background, covering marketing and sales roles, he has always been focusing on IT innovation. In the automotive industry, working with Formula 1 teams up to large automotive OEMS, he's been addressing their HPC & AI challenges from the manufacturing floor up to autonomous driving.

Edmondo's top pick: A Guide for CEOs to Accelerate AI Excitement and 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.

Customer expectations are shifting faster than most organizations can respond. In this episode of the AI Proving Ground Podcast, leaders from healthcare, utilities and retail break down how AI is redefining what “good” customer experience looks like — and how their industries are rethinking service models, operational workflows and human touchpoints to keep pace with a new, AI-shaped standard.

More about this week's guests:

Dr. Eric Quinones is a physician leader committed to the Quintuple Aim—elevating patient experience, improving population health, lowering costs, strengthening clinician well-being, and addressing social determinants of health. He drives these outcomes through digital innovation and data-driven transformation that advance both clinical and business goals.

Eric's top pick: HLTH USA 2025: The Year Healthcare Took its Relationship with AI to the Next Level

Adam Nathan is an analytical, curious leader focused on helping organizations align business priorities with modern technology to drive meaningful transformation. Motivated by impact at societal scale, he is dedicated to advancing the Utility and Energy sectors—modernizing the critical infrastructure that powers everyday life.

Adam's top pick: Accelerating Utility Rate Case Filings with Generative AI

Brian Murphy is a seasoned executive and strategist with 30+ years of success at the intersection of business and technology. A trusted solution architect and thought leader, he has guided major organizations through complex transformations, consistently delivering measurable impact and strategic clarity.

Brian's top pick: From Kiosks to AI: What RLC 2025 Means for the Future of Restaurant Tech

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.

Back by popular demand, this encore episode breaks down how to turn AI hype into real results.

Aritificial intelligence shouldn’t add more work—it should make work smarter. Jon Duren and Jay Custard share how to turn AI hype into real results: integrate it into daily workflows, tie pilots to KPIs, manage adoption like a product and design for trust. A playbook for making AI actually work at work.

Support for this episode provided by: Digital Realty

Learn more about this week's guest:

Jay Custard has deep experience helping companies harness the power of digital technologies to drive meaningful customer experiences. An experienced digital marketing and ecommerce executive, he has worked across multiple disciplines with both large and small companies to enable integrated transformational retail experiences on a global scale. He has been fortunate to serve the customers of Crocs, New Balance, FinishLine, Southeastern Grocers, and Cabela's with a focus on user experience, analytics, marketing, merchandising, and technology transformations.

Jay's top pick: 4 Key Principles for Reimagining Retail with Science and Vision

Jon Duren is an accomplished technology professional with over 25 years of experience in service-provider, data center, cloud and AI solutions. He is driven by a passion for applying technical solutions to achieve business outcomes and is currently working to expand the WWT AI Solutions practice. Jon actively seeks out the best strategies to create customer value. He is constantly monitoring marketing trends, innovative and disruptive technologies, and significant market transitions to identify opportunities for driving customer growth and success. With a talent for breaking down complex topics into easy-to-understand concepts, Jon is able to develop and share a vision of where business and technology intersect to create better outcomes.

Jon's top pick: Agentic AI Sounds New—But Haven't We Been Doing This Already?

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 artificial intelligence moves from prediction to action, a new security frontier is taking shape. In this episode, Zscaler’s Head of AI Innovation Phil Tee and WWT’s VP of Global Cyber Chris Konrad explore the rise of autonomous agents, the evolution of Zero Trust and what it means to secure AI itself. From poisoned prompts to quantum threats, they warn the biggest risk isn’t just deploying AI — it’s trusting it. A sharp, real-world look at how enterprises can protect their future as machines begin to make decisions of their own.

Support for this episode provided by: Okta

More about this week's guests:

Chris Konrad is a transformative executive in global cybersecurity and has played a pivotal role in building and scaling the company’s cybersecurity capabilities—culminating in the leadership of its $4.5B global security business spanning cyber, land, sea, air, and space domains. He leads global strategy, practice development, and partner engagement across WWT’s Global Solutions & Architecture division. He drives cybersecurity initiatives that are tightly aligned with customer outcomes—enabling resilience, innovation, and growth across public and private sectors.

Chris's top pick: Cyber in 2025: We're No Longer Just Defending Systems — We're Defending Reality

Dr. Phil Tee is responsible for driving AI innovations at Zscaler, leveraging our unique data assets and the latest in AI technology to push forward what’s possible in Sec and DevOps for Zscaler customers. His team’s goal is to generate novel offerings in the cyber market and ensure that our customers benefit from the remarkable pace of AI innovation.

Phil's top pick: Hands-On Lab Workshop: Zscaler Unified Vulnerability Management

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 moving from hype to the heart of enterprise IT. In this episode of the AI Proving Ground Podcast, Eric Jones and Ruben Ambrose — two leading AI experts — explore how intelligent, human-guided systems are transforming IT service management, incident response and operational scale to deliver faster resolutions, stronger security and smarter decisions across the enterprise.

For more about this week's guests:

Ruben Ambrose is a Chief Technology Advisor at World Wide Technology with over 25 years of experience spanning application development, IT operations, infrastructure, and enterprise architecture. He now leads teams focused on prototyping AI-driven solutions that accelerate innovation for global enterprises.

Ruben's top pick: Beyond Chatbots: How Digital Humans Are Transforming Enterprise AI Experiences

Eric Jones is an Area Director of Strategy and Innovation at World Wide Technology. He has been in the software industry for over twelve years. For the last two years, he has been focused on Generative AI and its application to enterprise workflows. This research helps World Wide Technology provide industry-leading services in building Generative AI solutions for customers around the globe.

Eric's top pick: Part 1: Transforming IT Operations with Large Language Models

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.

Artificial intelligence is firmly in the heart of the world’s most critical infrastructure — the massive networks that keep our digital lives running. In this episode of the AI Proving Ground Podcast, two of our top trusted advisors to the world’s largest network operators — Dave Clough and Yohannes Tafesse — break down the high-stakes reality of applying AI at scale, the often-overlooked work of preparing data and building trust, and why the lessons emerging from telecom will shape how every enterprise approaches AI in mission-critical environments.

Support for this episode provided by: WEKA

More about this week's guests:

Dave Clough is a seasoned Mobile Solutions Architect with over 30 years of experience at the intersection of networking, business strategy, and innovation. He has been directly responsible for several billion dollars in sales and is recognized for his rare ability to blend technical expertise, market insight, and leadership to deliver impactful results. A proven leader in designing and deploying breakthrough solutions across 3G, 4G, 5G, Wi-Fi, virtualization, voice and routing, Dave has helped shape the evolution of modern networks.

Dave's top pick: Four Pillars of AI Success for Service Providers

Yohannes Tafesse is a technology enthusiast with more than 12 years of professional experience in the field of mobile telecommunication systems. Prior to joining WWT he worked as a mobile network planning engineer at U.S. Cellular. Prior to that, he worked at AT&T as a specialist RAN engineer. His interests include mobile communications, cognitive radios, machine learning and scalable data centers.

Yohannes's top pick: What NVIDIA AI Aerial Means for Telcos Seeking to Optimize Wireless Networks and Deliver New GenAI Experiences

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.

Welcome to The AI Proving Ground Podcast — where enterprise meets artificial intelligence in action. Each week, industry leaders, technologists and innovators join us to share real-world lessons on scaling AI responsibly, securely and with impact. From strategy to infrastructure to culture, this is where bold ideas meet practical execution — everything AI, all in one place.

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.

Artificial intelligence has pushed cloud into overdrive. In this episode of the AI Proving Ground Podcast, two of our top cloud experts — Jack French and Todd Barron — reset the approach and detail why cloud is the launchpad but portability is the strategy; how to start greenfield with containers and abstraction; what a real FinOps model for AI looks like (unit economics, tagging, token/GPU visibility); where neo clouds fit versus hyperscalers; and how to handle cross-cloud risk and skill gaps; and the governance moves that accelerate—not restrict—innovation.

Support for this episode provided by: Trellix

More about this week's guests:

Jack French brings a depth of experience in public cloud technologies to WWT. As the Senior Director of the Cloud Global Solutions and Architecture team, his responsibilities include leading the Cloud presales, business development and solution development efforts around public cloud. This also includes cloud consumption resell, cost management and marketplace.

Jack's top pick: The Cloud Advantage for AI

Todd Barron is a Technical Solutions Architect at Worldwide Technology (WWT), specializing in cloud and AI technologies. With over 34 years of experience, Todd joined WWT in 2023 after serving as a Partner Management Solution Architect at Amazon Web Services (AWS). In his role at WWT, he supports the pre-sales organization and leverages his expertise to help customers navigate the complexities of cloud and AI, particularly focusing on AWS platforms.

Todd's top pick: Enterprise Cloud Transformation: Practical Approaches to Migration and Modernization with WWT & AWS

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.

Artificial intelligence investment is exploding, but adoption often stalls. In this episode of the AI Proving Ground Podcast, Great Place to Work CEO Michael Bush and WWT CTO Mike Taylor unpack the real reason why: trust. They reveal how culture, leadership and access — not just technology — determine whether AI pilots fail or flourish, and why people-first leadership may be the ultimate competitive advantage in the age of AI.

Support for this episode provided by: Tanium

More about this week's guests:

Michael C. Bush is CEO of Great Place To Work, the global research and analytics firm that produces the annual Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For list, the World's Best Workplaces list, the 100 Best Workplaces for Women list, and dozens of other distinguished workplace rankings around the world. Driven by a love of business and an unwavering commitment to fair and equitable treatment, Michael joined Great Place To Work as CEO in 2015, bringing 30 years of experience leading and growing organizations. Michael is a former member of President Obama's White House Business Council and a founding board member of the private equity seed-fund, Fund Good Jobs, which invests in small inner-city businesses.

Michael's top pick: Cultivating Workplace Excellence with Fortune’s Alan Murray, Great Place to Work’s Michael Bush and WWT’s Jim Kavanaugh

Mike Taylor 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. As business and technology become more complex, it is crucial organizations use technology investments to drive strategic initiatives. Mike is responsible for connecting business strategy into the IT organization, and simplifying the sales and services process to create a more seamless experience for both customers and partners.

Mike's top pick: Building for Success: A CTO's Guide to Generative 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.