Advertise on podcast: AI Proving Ground Podcast: Exploring Artificial Intelligence & Enterprise AI with World Wide Technology

OpenAI is giving AI agents more work to do. Meta is making a bigger push into enterprise AI. And the industry is racing to connect those systems to company data — and control what they do next. In this episode, World Wide Technology CTO Mike Taylor unpacks the stream of news coming out of the White House regarding AI policy and regulation, OpenAI’s DevDay announcements, Meta’s new enterprise business, Microsoft and Google’s push for shared business definitions, and agent security efforts from NVIDIA and Okta.  Plus: why companies are turning to open-weight models to manage costs, and what AI providers’ enormous infrastructure commitments could mean for their customers. 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 consuming more tokens than humans, and Jeetu Patel thinks we’re only at the beginning. The Cisco president and chief product officer joins the AI Proving Ground Podcast to explore what changes when AI stops waiting for prompts and starts taking on the work itself. Suddenly, using AI well becomes an exercise in judgment: knowing what to hand over, what it’s worth and where human oversight still matters. Patel also makes the case for a different measure of AI productivity. The goal isn’t simply to generate more or move faster. It’s to use AI to produce better thinking, tackle harder problems and do things that weren’t possible before. Support for this week's episode provided by: Eaton More about this week's guest: Jeetu Patel is Cisco’s President and Chief Product Officer, leading the company’s product vision across networking, security, computing, Splunk, silicon and more. A recognized expert in AI and product strategy, he oversees several multibillion-dollar businesses and is helping shape the infrastructure powering the AI era. Before Cisco, Patel held senior leadership roles at Box, EMC and Doculabs. 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 was on the agenda for world leaders this week as OpenAI and Anthropic released cheaper models and NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang called for stronger testing and verification before developers release systems they cannot safely evaluate. Meanwhile, a specialist model called Jev is drawing attention for making fast decisions inside software, and established software companies are discounting or bundling AI as customers weigh what these tools are worth.   On this week’s AI Proving Ground Podcast, World Wide Technology CTO Mike Taylor breaks down the headlines and what they mean for enterprise AI leaders deciding where — and how — to put AI to work. Taylor unpacks Huang’s case for open-weight AI, the hidden “evaluation tax” of keeping up with new models and the rise of specialized AI designed to make decisions inside software. He also examines what buyers should watch as AI pricing shifts across models, platforms and familiar software suites. 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.

The AI Proving Ground podcast teamed up with Great Place to Work’s Better podcast for a conversation that puts the technology in the background and the people navigating it front and center. Every leader talks about change. Few talk about what it actually feels like. In this episode of Better, Roula Amire and guest co-host Brian Feldt sit down with World Wide Technology CIO Kevin Dana to talk about the human side of AI adoption. While many organizations are focused on the technology, Kevin argues that trust is what determines whether people embrace change or resist it. Drawing on World Wide Technology's experience, he shares practical lessons on creating space for experimentation, learning from failure, building peer-to-peer support, and helping employees navigate uncertainty. One powerful takeaway: AI can help with the work, but people still own the outcome More about this week's guest: Kevin Dana has held significant roles at Accenture, Avanade, and Deloitte before joining WWT in 2018. His extensive background in IT and cybersecurity has positioned him as a leader in guiding WWT's digital transformation efforts. At WWT, Kevin leads the Information Technology organization, focusing on establishing and growing joint business and technology partnerships. His approach is centered on delivering outcomes through innovation, starting with process design and followed by technology implementation. Kevin's leadership has been instrumental in driving WWT's technology strategy, ensuring secure, resilient, and innovative technology solutions. 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 safety warnings are intensifying, frontier labs are calling for a slowdown and businesses face growing pressure to keep agent security and spending under control. What should enterprise leaders make of it all? WWT Chief Technology Officer Mike Taylor unpacks the debate over AI’s pace, the risks of agents acting without authorization and Salesforce’s latest push to connect AI to enterprise workflows. He also examines a mounting challenge: determining which AI spending delivers value as token bills climb. More about this week's guest: 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. 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 investment is rising fast, but figuring out what actually creates value is still a work in progress. For WWT CEO Jim Kavanaugh, that uncertainty isn't a reason to slow down. It's a reason to get closer to the work. In this episode of the AI Proving Ground Podcast, Jim shares what WWT is learning by putting AI to work inside its own business. That means experimenting aggressively, seeing what holds up in a real enterprise environment and giving people across the organization room to learn, adapt and rethink how work gets done. The bigger lesson: AI transformation is business transformation. The companies that pull ahead won't be the ones that get every decision right. They'll be the ones that learn quickly, course-correct and turn individual breakthroughs into capabilities the entire organization can use. And as AI gets more capable, human expertise doesn't become less valuable. It becomes the thing that connects the technology to the business: knowing what matters, where to apply it and how to turn what you're learning into growth. More about this week's guest: Jim Kavanaugh is globally recognized as an innovative business executive and is renowned for his inclusive, people-first leadership style. His emphasis on promoting a healthy, vibrant workplace has anchored WWT's award-winning culture, while his savvy business acumen has propelled the company's substantial growth from a small startup to 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. 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 is changing by the week. Most companies are still planning by the quarter. Softchoice CEO Andrew Caprara joins the AI Proving Ground Podcast with a refreshingly practical take on what it actually takes to keep up. Forget starting with the latest tool or another sprawling AI transformation plan. Start with a broken workflow, put the right people around it and build something in days, not months. Andrew talks openly about Softchoice’s own experience. The first year brought a lot of activity without much to show for it. Since then, they’ve changed how the work gets done, moving AI projects faster, getting the right people closer to the problem and building a weekly rhythm around AI. And it’s translating into real business results, including more capacity without adding headcount. Because when the technology moves weekly, a 12-week project plan starts to look a little suspicious. More about this week's guest:  Andrew Caprara is President and CEO of Softchoice, where he’s leading the company through the same AI transformation challenges facing its customers. Since joining Softchoice in 2014, he has led across sales, services, operations and strategy, giving him a firsthand view of what it takes to turn new technology into real business results. Before Softchoice, Andrew worked in management consulting at McKinsey & Company and earned his MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. 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 spending is climbing fast. But the number itself may be less important than what it reveals about how an organization is actually using AI. WWT CFO Tom Strunk and CIO Kevin Dana are watching that shift firsthand. As token consumption moves from thousands to millions, the spend becomes a signal: where people are experimenting, which use cases are gaining traction and where it may be worth looking more closely for value. They also get into a challenge traditional IT budgets weren't built for. AI usage can scale quickly and unpredictably, making transparency between finance and technology critical. The goal isn't simply to control the cost. It's to understand what's driving it, where it's creating value and how the business can make smarter decisions as adoption grows. Support for this episode provided by: Snowflake More about this week's guests: Tom Strunk is Chief Financial Officer and Chief Data Officer at World Wide Technology, where he helps shape the company’s financial, data and investment strategy. Since joining WWT as its 21st employee in 1994, he has helped guide its growth into a global technology solutions provider. Tom brings a CFO’s perspective to AI investment, rising consumption and the challenge of connecting AI spend to real business value. Kevin Dana is Senior Vice President of IT and Cybersecurity and CIO at World Wide Technology, where he leads the company’s technology strategy and digital transformation efforts. With more than 28 years of IT experience, Kevin focuses on using technology to drive meaningful business outcomes. He brings a CIO’s perspective to AI adoption, rapidly growing token consumption and what AI spend can reveal about usage, opportunity and business value. 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.

What changes when scientists stop thinking about how much compute they can afford to use and start thinking about what they could discover with more of it? That question sits behind LillyPod, Eli Lilly & Company’s on-prem AI supercomputer. Chief AI Officer Dr. Thomas Fuchs sees compute less as infrastructure and more as a scientific instrument, something that allows researchers to work at a scale that changes not only the answers they can find, but the questions they’re willing to ask.   It’s a philosophy that runs counter to much of the current enterprise AI conversation. While companies wrestle with token costs, cloud economics and how tightly to ration increasingly expensive AI, Lilly is exploring what happens when some of those constraints begin to disappear. Fuchs calls it a move from scarcity to abundance. And when the underlying economics change, so does the ambition.  But Fuchs is no AI maximalist. After two decades in machine learning, he is remarkably unsentimental about the hype. AI, in his view, becomes far more interesting when you stop asking it to be magic and start getting serious about what it can actually do. Support for this episode provided by: Infoblox Thomas Fuchs, Dr.sc., is Eli Lilly& Company’s first Chief AI Officer and a machine learning scientist who has spent two decades pushing AI into places where the stakes are real. His career spans NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Mount Sinai and founding Paige AI. He holds a doctorate in machine learning from ETH Zurich and now leads Lilly’s use of AI across science, medicine and the enterprise. 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.

Most organizations don't fail because they aren't working hard enough. They fail because they spend too long preparing for yesterday's problems.​ Retired General Mike Minihan has spent a career leading organizations where the cost of being unprepared is measured in lives, not quarterly results. That experience shaped the Mobility Manifesto, a leadership philosophy built on a simple belief: readiness isn't something you create in the moment. It's something you build long before the moment arrives. ​ In his conversation with Brian Feldt, Minihan challenges one of leadership’s most comfortable assumptions: that caution is inherently safer. He makes the case for clear priorities, deliberate risk and leaders who stay close enough to the work to own the consequences when they ask teams to move. ​The conversation begins with military leadership but quickly becomes something much broader. It's about preparing people for a future they can't fully predict, building cultures that learn faster than circumstances change, and remembering that technology may accelerate transformation, but leadership is what makes it possible.​ Support for this episode provided by: Red Hat More about this week's guest: Mike Minihan is a distinguished military leader with over three decades of service in the United States Air Force. Rising to the rank of General, Minihan served in several key positions within the Air Force and Joint Force, including his most recent role as the Commander of Air Mobility Command. Throughout his career, General Minihan has demonstrated exceptional leadership, strategic vision, and a deep commitment to enhancing the capabilities and readiness of the military, especially mobility forces. 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.

For the past few years, enterprise AI had an open tab. Experiment. Build. Give teams access. Put agents to work. Now those agents are running 24/7 and someone has finally looked at the bill. In this episode of the AI Proving Ground Podcast, AMD’s John Hampton and WWT’s Mike Trojecki dig into what happens when AI moves from experimentation to a real operating expense. Scaling it doesn’t mean simply spending more on compute. It means knowing when a workload needs a frontier model, when it doesn’t and where that work should run in the first place. AMD has already put that thinking to work internally, cutting its token costs by 43% while improving response speeds by 2.9x for workloads it rerouted. The next AI advantage may have less to do with who can consume the most compute and more to do with who can use it intelligently. Support for this episode provided by: Lenovo More about this week's guests: John Hampton is Corporate Vice President of AMD Global Pre-Sales, leading the technical sales organization working with enterprise customers across AI, data center, high-performance computing and commercial technology. With decades of experience in the semiconductor industry, he brings a firsthand view of how organizations are making the infrastructure and investment decisions required to scale AI. Mike Trojecki leads the AI Practice at World Wide Technology, helping organizations turn AI ambition into infrastructure that can actually scale. With more than 25 years in technology, his work spans AI architecture, data, computer vision and data center design, giving him a practical view into the decisions enterprises face as AI moves from experimentation into everyday operations. 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.

Humanoid robots have become the poster child for AI. They're dancing, running, stocking shelves and making headlines almost weekly. It's easy to look at them and think the future has finally arrived. But that's not the hard part. Long before a robot can navigate a warehouse, inspect a factory floor or assist in a hospital, it has to understand the world around it. That begins with trusted data, an accurate understanding of its environment and infrastructure capable of making safe, real-time decisions. In this episode of the AI Proving Ground Podcast, WWT's Paige Reiter and Wes Long separate the hype from the reality of physical AI. They explore why the conversation extends far beyond robotics, how physical AI changes the way organizations think about risk and what leaders can do today to prepare for what's next. The robot may capture the attention. The foundation will determine who succeeds. Support for this episode provided by: Weka More about this week's guests:  Paige Reiter spends less time talking about robots and more time helping organizations prepare for them. As a Technical Solutions Architect at WWT, she works with enterprises deploying physical AI through robotics, computer vision and digital twins, translating emerging technology into real-world execution. Wes Long focuses on the work that happens long before a robot ever moves. As a Technical Solutions Architect at WWT, he helps organizations build the data, infrastructure and security foundations that allow physical AI, computer vision and automation to operate safely and at scale. 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.

For the last two years, the conversation has been about getting AI into the enterprise. That chapter is starting to close. Now comes the harder part. Where should AI go first? Which problems are actually worth solving? And how do you build enough trust that people are willing to let AI move from answering questions to taking action? In this episode of the AI Proving Ground Podcast, Brian Feldt is joined by WWT's Walton Smith, Google's Ahmed Ali and Dell's Suri Durvasula for a thoughtful conversation about what comes after adoption. They explore why organizations get stuck chasing possibilities instead of outcomes, how agentic AI is reshaping security and governance, and why the strongest AI strategies start with a clear understanding of the work that matters most. Along the way, they challenge the idea that AI success comes from choosing the right model. Instead, they make the case that success depends on connecting data, infrastructure, governance and people into a system that works together. AI can make almost anything faster. Deciding what deserves AI in the first place is still a leadership decision. Support for this episode provided by: Nutanix More about this week's guests: Walton Smith leads AI and technology strategy for public sector customers at World Wide Technology, helping government organizations translate emerging technologies into real-world outcomes. With decades of experience at the intersection of federal IT, cybersecurity and infrastructure, he works with agencies to build AI strategies that are secure, practical and built to scale.  Ahmed Ali helps government organizations navigate the intersection of AI, national security and cloud transformation at Google Public Sector. Drawing on a career spanning cybersecurity, enterprise technology and executive strategy, he works with leaders to turn complex AI capabilities into practical, trusted solutions for some of the world's most demanding environments. Suri Durvasula helps government organizations turn AI strategy into real-world outcomes. As a technology leader at Dell Technologies, he works with federal agencies to navigate AI adoption, data strategy and secure infrastructure, with a focus on building trusted systems that deliver measurable impact. 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 July, OpenAI disclosed that models undergoing a cybersecurity evaluation escaped their testing environment, exploited a zero-day vulnerability and ultimately reached Hugging Face’s production infrastructure. The incident raised a difficult question for every organization deploying autonomous AI: What happens when an agent crosses a boundary — not because it was instructed to attack, but because doing so helps it complete the objective it was given? Recorded before the incident became public, this conversation from Cisco Live! features WWT's Istvan Berko, Cisco's Vikram Varakantum and NVIDIA's Trevor Caulder, who discuss what it takes to secure AI at machine speed. They examine the security challenges it has now made impossible to ignore, and discuss why enterprises must secure AI from the silicon and network to the workload, model and identity of every agent. Support for this episode provided by: VAST Data More about this week's guests: Istvan Berko leads AI Cyber and Innovation at World Wide Technology, where he works with organizations building secure AI systems for production. With more than 25 years in cybersecurity, risk and governance, he brings a practical perspective on the identity, infrastructure and operational challenges shaping the next generation of AI. Istvan's top pick: Everyone Sees the Risk. Nobody Owns It. Vikram Varakantam is Senior Director of Product Management at Cisco, where he leads the strategy behind the company's AI security portfolio. With experience across AI, cloud and application security, he works at the intersection of product, infrastructure and enterprise AI, helping organizations secure AI as it moves into production. Vikram's top pick: Securing AI When Agents Move Faster Than Humans Can Respond Trevor Caulder is a Principal Technologist at NVIDIA, where he works with partners across the AI ecosystem to advance the infrastructure behind secure AI. With more than 25 years of experience spanning silicon, networking and enterprise systems, he brings a hardware-first perspective to securing AI at scale. Trevor's top pick: Breaking Data Silos: How Private Inference Unlocks GPU ROI on Sensitive Data 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 is forcing enterprises to reconsider what their data infrastructure was built to do. Everpure GM Enterprise Maciej Kranz and WWT Principal Solutions Architect Bob Watson discuss why storing data is no longer enough—and what it takes to make information accessible, governed, secure and ready for inference. They examine the shift toward unified data management, whole-stack AI architecture, shorter investment cycles and governance models designed for a world in which applications, employees and autonomous agents all need trusted access to enterprise data. 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.