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.

Artificial intelligence is reshaping business faster than any technology in history. But while employees are already using AI daily, enterprises are struggling to capture value at scale. In this episode of the AI Proving Ground Podcast, WWT Co-Founder and CEO Jim Kavanaugh explains why executive leadership is the critical factor in moving beyond pilots, how companies should build the right foundations for AI and why waiting on the sidelines may be the biggest risk of all.

More about this week's guest:

Jim Kavanaugh is a visionary and inspiring leader, who co-founded World Wide Technology in 1990 and serves as CEO — steering the company from its roots as a small startup into a global technology solution provider that helps organizations conquer the speed and complexity of technology, harness the power of digital transformation, and make a new world happen.

Jim'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.

In this episode of the AI Proving Ground Podcast, we talk with Jordan Wilson, host of the popular Everyday AI Podcast, to unpack the realities of enterprise artificial intelligence (AI) adoption. From tool sprawl and failed pilots to executive sponsorship and agentic models, Jordan shares lessons from thousands of conversations with enterprise leaders — and reveals why soft skills and unlearning old habits may be the ultimate keys to success.

Support for this episode provided by: Cyera

Jordan Wilson is a seasoned digital strategist, a 'Top AI Voice' on LinkedIn, a top-rated Generative AI Instructor on Coursera and AI keynote speaker. He hosts the Everyday AI podcast, a fast-growing media and consulting company helping professionals grow their companies with Generative AI. Everyday AI fills the AI knowledge gap between the demand for GenAI skills and the lack of business trainings.

Check out Jordan's podcast: Everyday 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.

Millions of employees now have Microsoft Copilot at their fingertips, but only a small fraction of organizations have scaled it successfully. In this episode of the AI Proving Ground Podcast, World Wide Technology's Mike Davis and Softchoice's Craig McQueen share hard-won lessons on driving artificial intelligence adoption, overcoming change management challenges and moving from pilots to measurable ROI. If your Copilot rollout has stalled, this conversation could be your roadmap forward.

Support for this episode provided by: Logitech

More about this week's guests:

Craig McQueen, Vice President for Digital Acceleration provides strategic direction and leadership in driving the creation of highly differentiated, customer-centric service capabilities and offerings for Softchoice. Craig and his team bring to life Softchoice strategy by painting a vision for technologies we take to customers, lead the development of the services required to help our customers adopt the most secure solutions across cloud, data center, collaboration and the digital workplace.

Craig's top pick: Microsoft 365 Copilot Wave 2: Spring 2025 Release Overview

Mike Davis has more than 20 years of experience in the IT services industry, specializing in voice and video technologies from Microsoft, Cisco, Zoom, Poly, and Pexip. With a business-driven approach, he possesses extensive knowledge of professional services to guide cross functional teams in diverse projects from execution to completion and is recognized as a trusted advisor for public and private sector customers throughout the technology life cycle.

Mike's top pick: Digital Trends Spotlight: Key Insights on Workforce Productivity Tools

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 transforming higher education — from classrooms to research labs — but with innovation comes risk. How can universities protect sensitive data, meet compliance obligations, and still foster discovery? In this episode of the AI Proving Ground Podcast, WWT Higher Ed Principal Advisor Janet and Principal Cybersecurity Consultant for AI Bryan Fite share how one leading university is tackling AI governance and building guardrails that empower rather than restrict. Their insights reveal why higher ed is a proving ground for responsible AI adoption — and why every industry should be paying attention.

Support for this episode provided by: Infoblox

More about this week's guests:

Bryan Fite is a committed security practitioner and serial entrepreneur, who uses Facilitated Innovation to solve "Wicked Business Problems". Having spent over 25 years in mission-critical environments, Bryan is uniquely qualified to advise organizations on what works and what doesn't. He has worked with organizations in every major vertical throughout the world and has established himself as a trusted advisor. "The challenges facing organizations today require a business reasonable approach to managing risk, trust and limited resources, while protecting what matters."

Bryan's top pick: Shadow AI: The Threat You Didn't See Coming

Janet McIllece serves as a Principal Advisor for World Wide Technology with a focus on higher education. Her specialties include strategy design and aligning technology solutions with business architecture, institutional priorities, processes and operations. She uses human-centered innovation approaches to help stakeholders align on a vision and successful implementation path forward by advising, guiding and collaborating on how various paths do - and don't - translate to WWT's technology solutions.

Janet's top pick: Using AI to Elevate the Student Experience in Higher Education 

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.