Tech Journeys Podcast

In this episode I speak with Jaisal Surana, AI thought leader, STEM advocate and AI solutions architect with 20 years in tech. Jaisal shares her journey from .NET developer to solution architect, and why giving back drives her work on AI risk frameworks, digital literacy and her co-authorship on a United Nations digital literacy programme. We discuss the growing risks of over-reliance on AI, especially for children, and why every user remains responsible for checking AI outputs rather than taking them at face value. Jaisal also explains where she sees governance heading next, from wearable device data to online child safety.

This show is sponsored by The Consulting Launch Method, where I help experienced tech professionals build their own consulting business without spending years figuring out the business side. We've helped clients go from first idea to first clients in 90 days, and 6 figures within a year.

Deepankar Mathur is a product manager at Mapp Digital, where he transitioned from solutions architect by taking ownership of the mobile push and SDK domains long before the title arrived. Alongside his day job he runs Workrush, a side consultancy he started in 2021 that has delivered projects for the UK Ministry of Defence, the University of Bournemouth and the University of Bristol. In this episode Deep explains why customer conversations shaped his career more than any technology choice, and why he wishes someone had told him early on not to fear talking to customers. He also shares his work on AI governance, including an open standard he published at aifeels.org, and his mission to make AI-built software secure and sustainable rather than vibe-coded and vulnerable.

This show is sponsored by The Consulting Launch Method, where I help experienced tech professionals build their own consulting business without spending years figuring out the business side. We've helped clients go from first idea to first clients in 90 days, and 6 figures within a year.

Tudor Stoicescu is Staff Product Manager and Product Line Director for identity management at Entrust, where he handles compliance and audits across the EMEA region. He built his early product career in financial services, spotting a market gap that let him grow a compliance intelligence tool from a $0 business to $2 million in a year and a half. Tudor also runs a side consultancy, working 5 to 10 hours a week with startups on product strategy, while keeping his day job as the priority. He shares his rule for balancing both: disclose the side work, protect your working hours, and budget specific time blocks instead of stealing spare moments. He also explains why product managers and engineers need to get better at selling their ideas, not just building them.

This show is sponsored by The Consulting Launch Method, where I help experienced tech professionals build their own consulting business without spending years figuring out the business side. We've helped clients go from first idea to first clients in 90 days, and 6 figures within a year.

Abhishek Mishra is a Senior Solution Architect at PokerStars (part of Flutter Entertainment), based in Leeds. He moved from India to the UK in 2018 and has spent his career evolving from software engineer to solution architect, most recently leading a cloud migration that delivered ahead of schedule and under budget. In this episode, he talks about that migration project, what made it work, and why he thinks people are too quick to chase AI and buzzwords instead of building solid fundamentals first. His core point: if you don't understand how systems work together, AI won't save you.

This show is sponsored by The Consulting Launch Method, where I help experienced tech professionals build their own consulting business without spending years figuring out the business side. We've helped clients go from first idea to first clients in 90 days, and 6 figures within a year.

Andy Perry is a fractional CTO and solutions architect with over 15 years of freelancing experience across enterprise architecture, M&A integrations, and technology strategy. In this episode, Andy shares how he approaches large-scale system mergers using a simple discovery-first framework, and why most cloud and AI transformations fail for the same reason: organisations replicate mess instead of fixing it. He talks candidly about trusting your instincts earlier in your career, and how he's now making the shift from technical doer to strategic advisor through board advisory roles and fractional CTO work.

This show is sponsored by The Consulting Launch Method, where I help experienced tech professionals build their own consulting business without spending years figuring out the business side. We've helped clients go from first idea to first clients in 90 days, and 6 figures within a year.

Swaraj Verma is a product manager at Calnex Solutions, where he leads a portfolio of network and application assurance products. He started his career as a developer at Accenture, completed a Durham MBA in 2021, and has spent the past decade deliberately moving toward the strategic side of tech. In this episode, he talks about why he stopped chasing promotions and started focusing on craft, what the MBA actually gave him that a tech career didn't, and how his company is racing to keep pace with AI-driven demand for faster network emulation. He also shares why customer conversations are still what drives him, and what he would tell his early-career self.

Arabella Bown is a lead product manager at Hyland, where she focuses on Alfresco's front-end governance and process portfolio. She started her career as a commercial lawyer before moving into tech without any formal IT background, building her way through legal technology startups and eventually into a large enterprise software company. In this episode, she talks about what it actually takes to add value in tech when you don't come from a technical background, how she's positioning herself in the AI governance space, and why confidence is the thing she'd go back and tell her younger self to work on first.

Connect via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/silverrocks/

This show is sponsored by The Consulting Launch Method, where I help experienced tech professionals build their own consulting business without spending years figuring out the business side. We've helped clients go from first idea to first clients in 90 days, and 6 figures within a year.

Stuart Milligan is a solution architect and principal at Midrange Dynamics, a Swiss software company that specialises in DevOps tooling and integration for the IBM i platform. Stuart has been building software for complex legacy business applications since 1987. He co-created XAnalysis, a forensic code analysis tool that became the world leader in its space before being sold in 2013.

In this episode, Stuart reflects on 30+ years of working inside large, complicated enterprise applications at banks, insurance companies, logistics firms, and retailers across Europe, America, and beyond. He shares what he's learned, what he keeps seeing go wrong, and where he believes the industry is heading.

Website: midrangedynamics.com

This show is sponsored by The Consulting Launch Method, where I help experienced tech professionals build their own consulting business without spending years figuring out the business side. We've helped clients go from first idea to first clients in 90 days, and 6 figures within a year.

To learn more connect with and DM Vincent on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vincentuppelschoten/

Sushil Kumar is a Solution Architect at Capgemini with 22 years in the telecom industry. He's worked across India, Israel, China, and the US before settling in the UK 11 years ago. His background spans 3G, WiMAX, IMS, cloud, and AI, with stints at companies including Huawei, Ericsson, IBM, Dell, and Qualcomm.

Vincent asked Sushil about his proudest career moments, the future of AI, and what he'd do differently if starting over today.

Three key takeaways:

1. First principles still matter in an AI world. Sushil's view is that syntax and coding languages come and go, but the fundamentals of design, architecture, and logic don't change. AI helps with the surface layer. It doesn't replace the person who understands the system underneath.

2. AI is not free, and most companies don't treat it that way. He gave a concrete example of businesses burning through their entire AI budget in three months because they didn't understand token costs or when to use a cloud model versus a self-hosted one. His point: if you're not paying for the product, you are the product. That changes once the adoption curve plateaus.

3. Governance is the missing layer. Sushil argues that AI needs the same guardrails any architecture does: security, identity, explainability, and accountability. The question of who owns a fault when AI makes a decision is still unanswered at most organisations. Until it is, experienced people aren't going anywhere.

Sushil Kumar is a Solution Architect at Capgemini with 22 years in the telecom industry. He's worked across India, Israel, China, and the US before settling in the UK 11 years ago. His background spans 3G, WiMAX, IMS, cloud, and AI, with stints at companies including Huawei, Ericsson, IBM, Dell, and Qualcomm.

Vincent asked Sushil about his proudest career moments, the future of AI, and what he'd do differently if starting over today.

Three key takeaways:

1. First principles still matter in an AI world. Sushil's view is that syntax and coding languages come and go, but the fundamentals of design, architecture, and logic don't change. AI helps with the surface layer. It doesn't replace the person who understands the system underneath.

2. AI is not free, and most companies don't treat it that way. He gave a concrete example of businesses burning through their entire AI budget in three months because they didn't understand token costs or when to use a cloud model versus a self-hosted one. His point: if you're not paying for the product, you are the product. That changes once the adoption curve plateaus.

3. Governance is the missing layer. Sushil argues that AI needs the same guardrails any architecture does: security, identity, explainability, and accountability. The question of who owns a fault when AI makes a decision is still unanswered at most organisations. Until it is, experienced people aren't going anywhere.