Salesforce is one of the fastest innovators in the SaaS AI space. They started with a prompt builder early in 2024. During Dreamforce they launched Agentforce to build your own automated AI Agents.  In February of 2025 major expansions are planned, adding voice capabilities to agents, coaching your sales team with an agent and the expansion to many more countries. How can Salesforce move so fast and make sure its AI doesn't hallucinate?

For this episode of Techzine Talks on Tour, we talk to Adam Evans, SVP of Product for the Salesforce AI Platform. Salesforce combines many data sources with the Salesforce Data Cloud. He explains how the data is being used and how the reasoning engine loops through the data and AI queries to ensure the best consistent outcome is served to the end-user. 

Salesforce has built a reasoning engine that handles data and AI queries. When a query is sent to an AI modal, it doesn't always give back the right answer. Sometimes, it needs more information. The reasoning engine acts like a human to catch that. It will then search for more relevant information and feed it to the AI model. When you ask a question to a Salesforce AI Agent it may go back and forth several times to an AI model before you get an answer. Just to make sure you get the best possible answer.

Salesforce creates prompts on the fly and uses RAG to feed the most relevant information to the AI models. The reasoning engine works together with the AI Trust Layer to stay compliant and mask customer data. The reasoning engine keeps the AI on a leash. 

The reasoning engine and the AI Trust Layer are all agnostic. With new AI models being released daily and the LLMs making giant steps forward every few months, it's hard to tell which AI model will dominate the industry in 12 or 24 months. Salesforce is taking that into account with how it has built its AI framework; they can switch to different LLMs very easily. 

Evans also addresses critical issues in AI data privacy, emphasizing the importance of data residency and localized computing to comply with international regulations. This episode is a must-listen for anyone looking to understand the future of AI technology in SaaS and how it can improve your business.

NetApp is all in on what it calls its Intelligent Data Infrastructure. More than just a fancy sounding name, it includes various fundamental components that are necessary to have to support the latest AI workloads and to combat the data silos that continue to plague organizations. Creating a robust platform approach is the way forward for all data and storage vendors. What makes NetApp's platform special? And why should NetApp be in a good position to be successful in this market? Hear all about it in this new episode of Techzine Talks on Tour.

For this episode, we sit down with Krish Vitaldevara. Krish is the SVP and GM for Platform at NetApp. The concept of the platform plays a crucial role in NetApp's approach to data and storage infrastructure. Without it, much of what is needed to stay relevant as a storage vendor is simply impossible. On top of that, NetApp also recently announced that its architecture will become fully disaggregated. That is a major and fundamental change for the company that also impacts its platform story. 

Besides the changes in the architecture, AI also has a big effect on data management and storage. Especially when it comes to vectorizing data and the database bloat that comes with it, organizations can run into some issues. It is up to vendors like NetApp to figure out how to help companies limit vectorized data growth as much as possible. 

All in all, there is enough to talk about with Krish, that is for sure. Together with his team, he is responsible for the development of the platform at NetApp, and the platform is where virtually all innovations converge. Listen to the conversation we had with him during the most recent edition of NetApp Insight now.

AI is rapidly transforming SaaS solutions. We talked to Brian Chess, the AI lead at NetSuite, about leveraging AI technology to improve the NetSuite platform. We discussed creating models, using RAG, prompting and the challenges of using AI models. We talk about the AI features they have developed and the challenges they encoured.

In this episode of Techzine Talks on Tour we talk to Brian Chess, SVP Technology and AI at Oracle NetSuite, who went through a remarkable journey from a software developer in 1999 to leading AI initiatives today. Brian shares his firsthand experiences and insights into the advancements in AI and how NetSuite is developing AI features for its customers. He talks about multilingual capabilities, customer-specific models, Math in AI and much more. This episode promises to uncover the intricate challenges and incredible opportunities of integrating AI into financial products, making it a must-listen for AI enthusiasts and developers alike.

We explore NetSuite's current AI projects, including text, image, and chart generation, as well as anomaly detection in financial reports. Exciting developments in agentic AI, Prompt Studio, and SuiteScript AI are also on the horizon. Plus, discover how NetSuite's platform, powered by a diverse customer base of 40,000, fosters unprecedented creativity and innovation. This episode is packed with valuable insights that you won't want to miss!

During this year's edition of .conf, Splunk's annual conference, we sat down with James Hodge, Chief Strategic Advisor for #Splunk EMEA. One of the main themes of #splunkconf24 was 'The SOC of the future'. That message shone through in many topics of conversation during the show. So we thought it would be interesting to have a conversation with James about this, to try and get beyond the slick marketing messages and get some insights into what this SOC of the future actually is, and what that means for organizations.

In our chat, we talk about a variety of themes associated with the SOC of the future. Do we need to redefine the concept of a SOC? What are the technical prerequisites to move towards a new, more modern SOC. How should organizations prepare themselves for it? 

One of the key tenets in what James tells us is that a data-informed approach is the way forward. Without it, mitigating #risks and streamlining #compliance is and will always be a pipe dream. That in itself isn't very shocking, basically everybody says that nowadays. Splunk (and Cisco) claim they can actually deliver on that too. Obviously AI plays a part in this, but also the integrations between the two players. Integrating IT operations with security also bolsters digital resilience.

A SOC of the future enables #cybersecurity to transition from an insurance policy to a key business enabler. James shares his vision of how organizations can leverage data-driven strategies to not only enhance security but also drive innovation and maintain robust governance. We delve into practical ways CISOs can meet dual expectations and the significance of shared KPIs to measure the ROI of security investments, promoting a collaborative and flexible approach across all organizational levels.

Listen to this new episode of Techzine Talks on Tour to learn more about the SOC of the future, and the role it plays in innovation and security operations. Don't miss this insightful conversation on shaping the future of cybersecurity and operational resilience.

Both junior and senior security analysts encounter frustrating challenges with threat hunting, making it hard to really make it an integral part of daily SOC operations. How can we make things easier and less ad hoc for them? We sit down with Albert Caballero and Adriana Corona from SentinelOne to discuss this in depth.

At its recent OneConnect event in the Benelux, representatives from #SentinelOne gave keynotes on different topics that relate to each other in different ways. On the one hand there was a keynote from Albert Caballero, Field CISO at SentinelOne, about #threathunting. On the other, there was a keynote about (among other things) Purple AI, by Adriana Corona, Director of Products for AI at the same company. As it turns out, AI can and will have fundamental implications for threat hunting, and for #cybersecurity as a whole. 
 
Besides the somewhat conceptual impact of AI on threat hunting, Adriana and Albert delve into the emerging use of Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG). It's not only AI that helps humans, but also the other way around. Expert-created threat intelligence enhances AI effectiveness and accuracy. 

Another big topic in the conversation is the pivotal importance of #transparency and #trust in #AI systems. We contrast the contextual precision of specialized AI with more generic platforms. Transparency of how AI works is absolutely vital for cybersecurity purposes. That's the only way to reach reliable decision-making in cybersecurity. There are challenges too, for sure, so we also talk about how to tackle those.

All in all this is another must-listen for people and organizations looking to optimize their #security posture and stack, by using AI or in other ways. And let's be honest, who isn't in 2024. 

The title of this episode of Techzine Talks on Tour is a (perhaps somewhat rhetorical) question Don Schuerman, the CTO of #Pegasystems asks the audience during #PegaWorld Inspire, Pega's annual flagship event. Sander sat down with him at the show to discuss how statistical AI and GenAI can help find an answer.

During this conversation, Don and Sander discuss many facets of what drives #innovation. For example, the outcome of some research suggests that GenAI not only helps generate hype for #GenAI, but also causes an increase in adoption for 'good old-fashioned' statistical AI. In other words, innovation in one part can have unintended but good side-effects on other parts.

Other topics that they discuss is how companies like Pega, but also others in the industry can and should help organizations build innovation around use-cases that haven't even been properly defined yet. That's one of the key issues that needs to be addressed today. We're at a stage where a lot of it is about pragmatic and practical use of AI, but that's only possible if you have a good idea of what is pragmatic and practical. 

Apart from the general AI discussion, Don and Sander also get into some of the new developments at Pega. They talk about things like KnowledgeBuddy, an example of #RAG, or Retrieval-Augmented Generation), but also Pega GenAI #Blueprint. The latter of the two has the potential to up-end the development of specific apps in organizations. You just tell it to build you an application for, say, loan applications, and it does so in a couple of steps. 

Give this new episode a listen right now, and get valuable insights into innovations in software development in general, and in Pega's platform in particular. 

Keeping bad guys out is always better than trying to detect breaches after they have happened. Many security vendors seem to have given up on that idea, however. That is, there's a lot of focus on an 'assume breach' attitude nowadays, not so much on 'assume our defenses will hold'. There are a lot of reasons why this is the case, reasons we have gone into at length in earlier episodes of this podcast series. But what does a prevention-first mindset look like in 2024? Listen to this episode of Techzine Talks on Tour to find out.

 To better understand a prevention-first approach, Check Point is one of the obvious vendors to chat with. It's one of a very select group of security suppliers that still holds this position. As one of the inventors of the firewall around 30 years ago, this position makes perfect sense of course. Still, it's quite rare nowadays to hear a company take this stance so clearly, without losing sight of the necessity of things like EDR and XDR in its platform too.  

For this episode of Techzine Talks on Tour, Sander sits down with Itai Greenberg, Chief Strategy Officer at Check Point, at RSA Conference in San Francisco. They discuss in depth what it means to have a prevention-first approach, not only from the point of view of Check Point, but also what it means for its customers. Especially in a world in which AI-driven cyber threats are on the rise and will continue to be on the rise for some time, (AI-driven) prevention is more important than ever, he states.

Besides a prevention-first approach, Itai and Sander discuss many more things. The challenge for customers of how to integrate various security solutions into one security stack is one. More collaboration between security vendors is absolutely crucial to achieve this. Another interesting discussion in this episode is the one on the risks posed by vulnerabilities in open-source and third-party software. 

All in all, there are quite a few interesting nuggets of information on the security landscape as a whole, Check Point's role in it and organizations' approaches to cybersecurity in this episode.

Organizations invest $200 billion globally in IT security. However, data breaches and ransomware attacks are still rampant. How can that be? What does this say about the impact of all those investments? We discuss these and other topics with Filip Verloy, Field CTO at Rubrik, one of the big players in this space. 

At RSA Conference earlier this year, we recorded a number of episodes for our relatively new Techzine Talks on Tour podcast series. Data security is without a doubt one of the big themes for organizations to get right. As is the case for virtually all other components of cyber security, it turns out to be quite a daunting task to do so.  
 
According to Verloy, one of the key things to do as an organization is to assume a so-called 'assume breach' attitude. This is especially important when it comes to the data of an organization, as that usually is very valuable. One of the trends Verloy signals in this respect is that attackers are shifting from traditional encryption methods to sophisticated data exfiltration techniques. That fundamentally changes the game. It shifts the focus from prevention to resilience, among other things. 

Tune in to this new episode of Techzine Talks on Tour to hear much more about what's happening in data security. It's a very important topic that should be near the top of the list of priorities for organizations. Especially with AI and new regulations like NIS2 being added to the equation, effective security posture management is of paramount importance.    

Every software company globally is focusing on integrating AI into its solutions. ServiceNow has built one of the biggest platforms and workflow engines today. We talked to Pat Casey, Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President of DevOps at ServiceNow, to learn how ServiceNow is building AI into its platform.

ServiceNow has chosen to unify its AI team into a single technology group, ensuring AI will not be the next add-on but a core component of the ServiceNow platform. Casey takes us through the transformative impact of this alignment and how organisations can enhance workflows and deliver superior customer experiences. Dive deep into the Generative AI Controller and understand how it empowers customers to build AI solutions using various large language models, emphasizing the critical role of data in AI training and deployment.

We talk about many ServiceNow platform AI features like playbook generation and prompt engineering that are designed to save time and empower users. Learn about the text-to-playbook feature, which allows even less experienced users to create effective workflows, and a customizable prompt builder that enhances engagement across various applications. 

We even discuss ServiceNow's switch from MariaDB to Postgres and modern database management. This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in ServiceNow and AI integration into platforms. Whether you are a ServiceNow customer or not, it is packed with expert knowledge. Listen now to this latest Techzine Talks on Tour.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) can be very complex and time-consuming. A lot will change with the introduction of generative AI; processes can be easily automated and made more efficient. We see the introduction of LLMs for analyzing data and processes and even offering solutions for upcoming problems. In this Techzine Talks episode, we talk to Nicky Tozer, vice president of Oracle NetSuite.

Tozer gives insights into NetSuite's innovations, like text-enhance, which streamlines the creation of sales orders, customer campaigns, and support reports, offering substantial time savings. Learn from real-world implementations like Bloom and Wild, who leverage AI to minimize waste and bolster sustainability. Customer feedback is a crucial driver in refining AI for future ERP applications.

Our conversation also delves into the critical aspects of AI integration within NetSuite, focusing on data security and privacy. Additionally, we underscore the pivotal role of NetSuite partners in crafting AI solutions specifically tailored for small to medium-sized businesses with limited IT resources. Looking ahead, there’s exciting potential for these partners to introduce their own models. Listen to this episode where we explore AI’s future in ERP with Nicky Tozer.