Computer systems that can autonomously work on menial tasks have been the promise of technologists – and science fiction authors – for decades. While we’ve dabbled with the likes of robotic process automation and machine learning in the past, the arrival of advanced AI software has put these lofty ambitions back on the table.

According to AI developers, new tools known as AI agents will free up workers as never before, with the ability to autonomously complete tasks based on pre-approved instructions and by contextually processing new data. 

What does all this mean for businesses, and how far can AI agents really go?

In this episode, Rory is joined by Paul O’Sullivan, UKI CTO at Salesforce, to discuss the potential of AI agents in the workplace.

How much has your company invested in AI? Are you finding it a revolutionary technology, or still waiting for the promised gains to materialize?

As businesses seek to unlock productivity gains from AI, investment in the technology has continued to rise. All across the world, firms are buying AI products, undergoing digital transformation in preparation, or even fine-tuning AI to suit their bespoke use cases.

But how much of this is going to pay off? And what do you do if your AI project fails on its own terms?

In this episode, Jane speaks to James Hodge, chief strategy advisor, EMEA at Splunk, to explore where we’re going wrong with AI.

International Women’s Day is here, a time for all those who care about women’s equality to celebrate the achievements of women both contemporary and historical and to focus on gender equality in our society.

The tech sector still has a sizable gender divide, with only around one quarter of all tech roles held by women. Tech leaders need to enter into open dialogue over how to make tech careers more attractive to women and to empower women within their workforce.

In this episode, Rory speaks to Elizabeth Barr, head of the Cisco Networking Academy in the UK, Ireland, and Nordics, to explore what International Women’s Day means in 2025 and how young women are entering tech.

• Women in tech think the industry has changed for the better, but there’s still more work to be done
• Women in tech are being forced out of work by the ‘motherhood penalty’
• The women returning to tech – and why they left
• “We are influencing generations to come”: Improving the picture for women in tech through cultural changes
• Supporting female founders in tech
• The company-wide benefits of mentorship in tech

February is the shortest month of the year – but that hasn’t stopped this month from being packed full of dramatic tech news.

Microsoft has made waves with Majorana 1, a first of its kind quantum chip that the tech giant says could open the door to usable quantum computers in years, not decades as previously thought.

Elsewhere this month, Sam Altman made a series of public rebukes of Elon Musk, following an offer by a Musk-led consortium to purchase OpenAI for over $97 billion. And could the tech sector be staring down the barrel of widespread ‘revenge quitting?

In this episode, Rory is joined once again by Ross Kelly, ITPro’s news and analysis editor, to discuss some of the biggest news for February 2025.

The cybersecurity landscape gets more complicated every year, with emerging technologies such as AI and the shifting geopolitical landscape bringing extra chaos to any CISO’s desk.

Though automated defense systems are a welcome feather in cap for any company, it’s not just the good guys who have access to the latest tools. Off-the-shelf frameworks to launch attacks are becoming more common and businesses can’t rely on any single service to be a silver bullet.

What are the individual forces at play here? And how can security teams keep up?

In this episode, Rory speaks with Kevin Mandia, founder and former CEO at Mandiant and current board member at cybersecurity firm Expel, and Dave ‘Merk’ Merkel, co-founder and CEO at Expel, to learn more about the current global cybersecurity landscape and what the future holds for security teams.

Read more:

• State-sponsored cyber attacks: The new frontier
• The new ransomware groups worrying security researchers in 2025
• Stopping cyber attackers from targeting the weakest links in security
• Stealthy malware: The threats hiding in plain sight
• Why attacks against critical national infrastructure (CNI) are such a threat – and how governments are responding
• Why vendor breaches still haunt enterprise IT leaders
• London council claims it faces 20,000 cyber attacks per day
• I love magic links – why aren’t more services using them?
• How to create a secure password policy
• Majority of firms using generative AI experience related security incidents – even as it empowers security teams

Years after first identifying the potential risks of AI systems, world leaders are having to balance concerns with an acknowledgment of the gains achievable through certain AI systems and nowhere is this more true than the EU.

The Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in Paris has seen a number of high-profile announcements made on EU AI investments, on both a continental and regional basis. But it’s also highlighted the distance the EU has yet to go for true international AI competition – up against the likes of the US and China, can it continue to stand out? 

In this episode, Jane and Rory welcome Nader Henein, Gartner VP Analyst, Data Protection and AI Governance, to discuss the finer details of EU AI and how public-private partnerships balance with its strong legal requirements for the technology.

Read more:

• UK and US reject Paris AI summit agreement as “Atlantic rift” on regulation grows
• Unraveling the EU AI Act
• The EU just shelved its AI liability directive
• A big enforcement deadline for the EU AI Act just passed – here's what you need to know
• Looking to use DeepSeek R1 in the EU? This new study shows it’s missing key criteria to comply with the EU AI Act
• How the EU AI Act compares to other international regulatory approaches
• UK regions invited to apply for ‘AI Growth Zone’ status

As the dust settles on DeepSeek, we’ve had the chance to see who walked away from the impact it had on the stock market unscathed.

Apple and Meta did not undergo the same rapid stock shocks as Nvidia, Microsoft, and others in the immediate aftermath of the DeepSeek R1 launch – the latter has actually seen a healthy surge in the past few weeks. 

Why is this? And who actually wins thanks to DeepSeek?

In this episode, Rory speaks once again to ITPro’s news and analysis editor Ross Kelly to analyze who stands to benefit the most from DeepSeek.

Read more:

• Chinese AI firm DeepSeek has Silicon Valley flustered
• The DeepSeek bombshell has been a wakeup call for US tech giants
• DeepSeek R1 has taken the world by storm, but security experts claim it has 'critical safety flaws' that you need to know about
• Looking to use DeepSeek R1 in the EU? This new study shows it’s missing key criteria to comply with the EU AI Act
• Apple’s generative AI slumber is ending – Microsoft and Google should be on alert
• Meta Quest Pro preview: Meet Meta's 'laptop killer'

• What is a sovereign cloud?

There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen, so the saying goes, and that is certainly true of the final week of January 2025 with the widespread impact of DeepSeek.

To say the Chinese large language model has caused an upset in the market would be an understatement. Within days of its release, it wiped more than a trillion dollars off the US stock market, and sent big tech into a public spiral.

But where did DeepSeek come from? And what does it mean for the future of the AI sector?

In this episode Jane and Rory are once again joined by Ross Kelly, ITPro's news and analysis editor, to explore the profound implications of DeepSeek.

Read more:

• Chinese AI firm DeepSeek has Silicon Valley flustered
• The DeepSeek bombshell has been a wakeup call for US tech giants
• DeepSeek accused of training its models on OpenAI’s content
• Stargate project: OpenAI, Oracle pledge support for $500 billion AI infrastructure drive

• Why 'psychological safety' is so important for building a robust security culture
• Building an incident response strategy in 2024
• The hidden cost of ransomware is more painful than many realize
• Why ransomware attacks happen to small businesses – and how to stop them
• The end of ransomware payments: How businesses fit into the fight
• UK firms are failing miserably at data breach responses
• Data breach response: How to react when your business gets hit
• Dell hacker claims they had access to systems for nearly three weeks