Cxotalk: Leadership, Innovation, Disruption

Marie Myers, Chief Financial Officer of HPE, explains how she measures business value while deploying agentic AI across a 3,600-person finance organization. Her framework separates direct ROI from indirect value (speed, accuracy, fewer errors) and the operating requirements that make finance AI trustworthy at scale.YOU'LL DISCOVER✅ How Myers separates direct ROI from indirect value, including speed, accuracy, and lower error rates✅ Why determinism was "foundational" for finance AI, and why HPE co-engineered with Nvidia NIMs to achieve consistent answers across half a million data elements✅ What "human in the loop" means in practice, and why accountability stays with finance leaders✅ How Alfred (built on Deloitte's Zora platform) moved from transactional workflows to core finance operating rhythms like HPE's weekly ops call✅ Why clean, reconciled data and a strong data layer are prerequisites for enterprise AI✅ How HPE redesigned FP&A workflows, centralized the team, and pus

Pradeep Mannakkara (CIO) and Ben Mayrides (CISO) of Cvent explain how they govern AI agents at scale across their 5,500-person organization, which now has over 6,000 agents in production. In this fireside chat recorded at a Glean event in NYC, they walk through the AWARE framework developed by Glean's Work AI Institute with Databricks and Palo Alto Networks, and describe the practical tradeoffs of moving fast while managing risk. The conversation covers agent identity, observability, cultural adoption, CIO/CISO dynamics, and what enterprise-grade AI governance looks like in practice.You'll discover:✅ Why traditional IAM and observability controls fail in agentic architectures where agents reason, delegate, and act autonomously✅ How Cvent deliberately encouraged 6,000 agent creations to build AI fluency before layering in moderation and metrics✅ The AWARE framework's five pillars: identity, context, guardrails, risk scoring, and ecosystem observability✅ Why "risk is too high" is never the final answer, only "r

Bill Briggs, CTO of Deloitte, shares findings and advice for Chief Information Officers (CIOs) from the 2026 TechTrends report: 93% of enterprise AI spending goes to technology and tooling, while only 7% of funding goes to culture, change management, and learning. Briggs explains why this imbalance drives failed pilots and runaway costs, and what leaders should do about it.

A healthcare CEO once told former CDC Director, Dr. Tom Frieden, he had "a fiduciary responsibility not to provide good diabetes care" because the ROI takes 7 years and patients leave after 4. That's not a villain talking. That's our system working exactly as designed, without preventive medicine.Dr. Tom Frieden ran the CDC under President Obama, served as New York City Health Commissioner, and now leads Resolve to Save Lives, a global nonprofit working in 50+ countries. His new book, The Formula for Better Health, lays out why the U.S. spends $4.5 trillion a year on healthcare, gets the most basic things right less than half the time, and what it takes to fix it.You'll discover:✅ Why preventing heart attacks actually costs providers money, and the one system (Kaiser Permanente) where that's flipped✅ How 100 million Americans lack primary care, and why tripling primary care spending could reduce total Medicare costs✅ The "See, Believe, Create" formula that has already saved

Cyberattacks that used to take months now take minutes. And your defenders still can't keep up.Rob T. Lee, Chief AI Officer of the SANS Institute, and David A. Bray, Chair of the Accelerator at the Stimson Center, explain why AI gives attackers a structural advantage. Attackers don't care if their AI breaks something. Your security team can't take that risk. That asymmetry changes everything.✅ You'll discover:✅ Why attackers will always remove the human in the loop faster than defenders can, and the risk calculus that creates✅ How "death by 1,000 cuts" works: $300 per person times 10,000 targets via SIM farms equals a single ransomware payout✅ The federated learning approach that lets organizations share threat intelligence without exposing their own data or vulnerabilities✅ Why hackers are exploiting AI hallucinations by writing real code libraries for packages that models reliably hallucinate✅ How to identify the right cybersecurity talent: hire for learning velocity and the "

Tim Crawford and Isaac Sacolick, both former Chief Information Officers and world-class CIO advisors, join Michael Krigsman on CXOTalk episode 909 to break down why enterprise AI strategies are failing, what separates transformational CIOs from those who are drowning, and why earning your seat at the table matters more than ever in 2026.You'll discover:✅ Why Tim says both AI strategy AND IT execution are failing, and what CIOs are focused on instead of outcomes✅ The "three-legged race" framework: how CIO behavior, IT culture, and external perception must align for strategic credibility✅ Why most CIOs have only a "layperson's understanding" of their own business, and how that kills AI value✅ Tim's two swim lanes of AI success: invisible integration or robust training (there is no middle ground)✅ Why Isaac says AI is "reshaping" business but not yet "transforming" it, and the product management shift that changes everything✅ How to evaluate agentic AI: the human-in-the-loop vs. human-out-of-the-loop decision fr

MIT and Stanford professor Alex "Sandy" Pentland, one of the most cited researchers in the world with over 165,000 citations, explains why the real AI advantage isn't smarter models but collective intelligence. It's smarter humans working together with AI as the connective tissue. Drawing from his latest book Shared Wisdom, Pentland reveals the frameworks behind community intelligence and why data ownership, not frontier AI, will determine who wins the next decade.You'll discover:✅ Why "people plus AI" consistently beats AI alone, and the hedge fund evidence that proves it✅ How "AI buddies" are replacing corporate manuals, newsletters, and hallway conversations to keep distributed teams aligned✅ The Deliberation.io tool that makes meetings more than twice as effective by neutralizing power dynamics and keeping groups focused✅ Why a 350,000-person multinational is cutting in-house staff to 150,000 while hiring 100,000 more project-based workers, and how AI enables that

AI coding tools are writing more code than ever, but your software isn't shipping any faster. Welcome to the AI Paradox and the solution, intelligent orchestration.Bill Staples, CEO of GitLab, explains why AI-accelerated coding is actually creating massive downstream bottlenecks in code reviews, security checks, and deployment, and why adding more AI tools only makes the problem worse. GitLab's solution: intelligent orchestration across the entire software development lifecycle.You'll discover:✅ The "AI Paradox:" why faster coding isn't translating into faster software delivery✅ How tool fragmentation and context-switching are killing developer productivity✅ Why agents that thrive on context fail when your tools are siloed✅ The "inner loop architecture" that makes AI agents 40% more accurate and 25% faster✅ How GitLab's intelligent orchestration approach combines workflows, context, and guardrails✅ Why mid-level developers are about to become strategic orchestrators (no

Prashant Mehrotra, Chief AI Officer at US Bank, discusses how the bank evaluates AI initiatives and scales projects from pilot to production. He explains how to build customer trust through responsible AI design and prepare for the future of autonomous banking in CXOTalk episode 906. This conversation covers key aspects of AI in business and AI implementation within a large banking institution.=======Please support our sponsor Emeritus: Explore executive education programs from Emeritus, in collaboration with top universities: https://cxotalk.partner.emeritus.org/=======Key topics discussed:→ Why AI should transform processes, not simply make them more efficient→ How U.S. Bank cut governance approval times in half by engaging risk partners early→ The critical role of baselines in determining whether AI pilots scale or fail→ Why "AI without data is a hallucination" and how the bank organizes Digital, Data, and AI under one leader→ Building AI literacy across the entire workforce, from executives to frontline a

An AI chatbot that hallucinates is annoying. A robot or physical AI that hallucinates can cause injury or death. Burkhard Boeckem, CTO of Hexagon, explains why the bar for physical AI is fundamentally higher than digital AI, and what it takes to deploy robots that actually work in the real world. All this in CXOTalk episode 905.\In this conversation, we cover:→ What physical AI actually means (and why it's different from the AI you use every day)→ Why digital twins are the foundation for training robots safely→ The gap between impressive YouTube demos and robots that create economic value→ Functional safety: the "big theme" coming in 2026→ Cloud vs. edge computing for autonomous systems→ Where robotics deployments fail (hint: it's not the technology)→ What boards get wrong about robotics investments→ Timeline: when will we see real autonomy?Key insight: "Many boards overestimate the speed and underestimate the system work. It's not a software rollout—it's a complex engineering system."Burkhard's prediction: A

Nation-states are already harvesting your encrypted data, betting they'll crack it when quantum computers mature. It's happening now. In CXOTalk episode 904, Anand Oswal, Executive Vice President of Network Security at Palo Alto Networks, explains what business leaders need to understand about quantum security and how to address it. The impact of quantum computing on cybersecurity will be huge.Key timelines discussed:-- Cryptographically relevant quantum computers expected by end of this decade-- RSA and ECC algorithms deprecated by 2030, disallowed by 2035-- Enterprise cryptographic migrations typically take 5-10 years

Most enterprises aren't ready for agentic AI, but ChristianKleinerman, Snowflake's EVP of Product, shares practical advice on what it takes to succeed: data readiness, governance, AI economics, and workforcestrategy.In this episode of CXOTalk, Kleinerman draws on 25 years ofenterprise technology experience to give leaders a realistic roadmap for AI adoption. He explains how to evaluate AI vendors in hours instead of months, which use cases deliver measurable ROI today, and how to build the data foundation that makes AI agents effective.

Can a digital replica of your heart save your life? In CXOTalk episode 902, Michael Krigsman talks with Dr. Joe Alexander, Director of the Medical and Health Informatics Lab at NTT Research, to explore the revolutionary world of Bio-Digital Twins.Discover how researchers are using mathematical modeling to build "computational replicas" of the human cardiovascular system. Dr. Alexander explains how these digital twins can predict heart failure, automate critical care in the ICU through closed-loop intervention systems, and pave the way for a future where personalized medicine is accessible to everyone.We dive deep into the science of treating the heart as an electrical circuit, the ethics of AI in medicine, and the "moonshot" goal of eliminating cardiovascular disease..

How do you turn a 150-year-old industrial giant into an agile, AI-first organization?=======Please support our sponsor Emeritus:Explore executive education programs from Emeritus, in collaboration with top universities: https://cxotalk.partner.emeritus.org/=======For Hexion CEO Michael Lefenfeld, the answer isn't just about technology, but about culture, safety, and rethinking value. In episode 901 of CXOTalk, Lefenfeld details his strategy for integrating AI across every level of a billion-dollar manufacturing enterprise, from the R&D lab to the factory floor.Michael Krigsman and Michael Lefenfeld discuss the practical realities of moving beyond "pilot purgatory." They dive into how to manage workforce anxiety (the "carrot vs. stick" approach), leverage Private Equity for long-term innovation, and maintain strict safety guardrails while moving fast.If you are a leader navigating the complexities of digital transformation, this interview offers a concrete roadmap for driving growth without sacrificing you

Microsoft invested $13 billion in OpenAI. Amazon poured billions into Anthropic. The AI oligopoly is here. Lord Tim Clement-Jones and Lord Chris Holmes, architects of UK AI policy, reveal what business leaders must know about Big Tech's grip on AI - from vendor lock-in risks to circular funding patterns signaling bubble collapse.

Is your organization stuck in AI pilot purgatory? CIO strategic advisor Tim Crawford reveals how enterprise AI is fundamentally transforming the CIO role, and why the decisions you make today will determine which IT leaders succeed tomorrow.=======Please support our sponsor Emeritus: Explore executive education programs from Emeritus, in collaboration with top universities: https://cxotalk.partner.emeritus.org/=======In CXOTalk episode 898, Tim breaks down the massive multi-dimensional impact AI is having on CIOs: from daily operations and decision-making to board-level relationships and business transformation. You'll discover why efficiency gains are just the beginning, and how strategic CIOs are leveraging AI to drive real business outcomes—not just run technology projects.

Please support our sponsor Emeritus:Explore executive education programs from Emeritus, in collaboration with top universities:https://cxotalk.partner.emeritus.org/=======Will Grannis, Chief Technology Officer of Google Cloud, explains Google's vision for agentic AI and multimodel LLMs, including these key topics on CXOTalk #897:-- The latest AI news from Google-- Why "AI as judge" determines whether your agent deployment scales or stalls-- How regulated industries have an unexpected advantage in agent adoption-- The hidden organizational rules that break agent workflows-- Why generic AI models alone provide zero competitive differentiation-- How multimodal AI changes customer support from chat to visual problem-solving-- The evaluation architecture behind successful agent deployments-- Why CEOs must participate directly in AI experimentation

Is your AI built on quicksand? Learn how bad data, poisoned datasets, and deep fakes threaten your AI systems, and what to do about it.In this episode of CXOTalk (#896), AI luminaries Dr. David Bray and Dr. Anthony Scriffignano reveal the hidden dangers lurking in your AI foundations. They share practical strategies for building trustworthy AI systems and escaping the "AI quicksand" that traps countless organizations.

AI luminary and former Group CEO of Technology at Accenture, author Paul Daugherty, offers a hard-hitting take on enterprise AI and consumer-grade artificial intelligence on CXOTalk episode 895.He examines what's working, where companies stall with their AI transformation, and what new technology trends leaders should monitor. Peer into the future of AI and see the importance of responsible AI development.