The ITPro Podcast

Apple made waves at the start of March with the launch of the MacBook Neo, its first budget laptop.
As RAM prices skyrocket, businesses are under pressure to make device purchases that count and that will future-proof their workers for years to come. Both Apple and manufactures in the Windows ecosystem are vying for enterprise money in the budget and pro segments – even as it becomes more expensive than ever to spec devices to 16GB of memory and beyond.
Where does the latest Apple release fit into the wider business laptop ecosystem?
This week, Rory speaks to Bobby Hellard, ITPro’s reviews editor, to unpack all things MacBook Neo, Windows laptops, and the future of business hardware.
Read more:
MacBook Neo: everything you need to know about Apple's £599 laptop
The MacBook Neo is another Apple master stroke, and it couldn’t have come at a better time
Low-budget devices are the biggest casualty of the RAM crisis
Give businesses more practical AI services and some return on investment before you go selling 6G
Lenovo wows at MWC with concepts for a modular ThinkBook and desktop AI-devices
AMD thinks ‘AI on the PC has crossed an important line’ – the rise of ‘Agent Computers’ will be the next big breakthrough
Are AI PCs becoming the norm?
Nobody asked for AI PCs, but they’ve been thrust upon us – at least Dell realizes it’s probably made a mistake

One of the most commonly-touted benefits of AI is its ability to cut down toil and give workers more time to focus on valuable tasks.
Few professionals could arguably benefit from this more than teachers, who spend many of their evenings and weekend hours completing paperwork and carrying out marking.
How is AI already being used to free up time for teachers, and what can we learn from exemplar organizations leading the way on this path?
In this special edition of the ITPro Podcast, in association with AWS, Jane and Rory are joined by Scott Hayden, head of teaching, learning and digital at Basingstoke College of Technology, to explore how the college has deployed AI to support its teaching staff.
Read more:
Basingstoke College of Technology
Perform Partners
Helping BCoT Secure $25K Credits to Accelerate AI Growth: How OGVA Enables Innovation in Further Education

Fraud has evolved leaps and bounds in the past few years, with new technology and more digitally-native businesses than ever providing the ideal attack surface for fraudsters.
As attackers look to lure in business professionals with new tech such as deepfakes and AI scams, enterprise cybersecurity teams and cybersecurity vendors are faced with the task of combatting cyber fraud more effectively.
How can we combat this new frontier of cyber fraud?
In this episode, Jane is joined by Paul Weathersby, chief product officer, Identity, Fraud & Financial Crime Compliance at Experian, to explore the increasing sophistication of cyber crime and fraud campaigns.

Women are still greatly underrepresented in STEM. The latest figures from the Women Tech Network show women only make up around 26-27% of the STEM workforce and the organization estimates that at the current rate of change, it will be nearly 123 years before the economic gender gap is closed.
It’s International Women’s Day 2026 – and the rate of women hired in tech continues to lag far behind that of men. As hiring teams turn to AI tools to automatically field candidates, we’re at something of a crossroads – do we fix the bias inherent in hiring? Or simply replicate it at scale with similarly biased AI tools?
In this episode, Jane are Rory are joined by Clare Hickie, EMEA CTO at Workday, to discuss how businesses can engage in bias-free talent acquisition in the age of AI.

February is the shortest month, but you wouldn’t know it from the sheer amount of news that’s broken in just the past 26 days.
Amid growing fears of AI stealing jobs, OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman has claimed that firms are simply using the technology as an excuse for mass layoffs. Earlier this month, a series of Anthropic releases drove stocks down at a range of companies – all tied to fears that the SaaS model might be on its way out.
Also this month, Pure Storage has rebranded as Everpure – what’s behind this decision and what does it say about the company’s strategy going forward?
In this episode, Jane and Rory welcome back Ross Kelly, ITPro’s news and analysis editor, to explore some of February’s biggest stories.
Read more:
Sam Altman just said what everyone is thinking about AI layoffs
Why Anthropic sent software stocks into freefall
Anthropic says Claude Code can help streamline 'cost-prohibitive' COBOL modernization, but IBM says it's not that simple
What might cause the 'AI bubble' to burst – and what impact would that have on the business world?
Pure Storage snaps up 1touch in data management pivot