Tech Talks Daily

• 3511: BCG on Closing the Gap Between AI Experiments and Real Business Impact

  *]:pointer-events-auto scroll-mt-[calc(var(--header-height)+min(200px,max(70px,20svh)))]" dir="auto" tabindex="-1" data-turn-id= "request-WEB:221c7553-c733-4456-a06c-c66c0626b35b-7" data-testid= "conversation-turn-16" data-scroll-anchor="true" data-turn= "assistant"> How do you guide a workforce through the fastest shift in technology most of us have seen in our careers? That question shaped my conversation with David Martin from BCG, who works at the intersection of talent, culture, and AI. He joined me from New York, with Amelia listening in, and quickly painted a clear picture of what is really happening inside global enterprises right now. We started with the widening split between AI fluent teams and those stuck in endless pilots. David explained why the organizations getting results are the ones doing fewer things with far greater ambition. Many others scatter energy across small use cases, save minutes instead of hours, and never reach a scale where value becomes visible. Training surfaced early as one of the biggest gaps. Not surface level workshops, but the deeper hands-on learning that helps people change how they work. David described why frontline teams lag behind, why engineers still miss major capabilities, and how leadership behaviour dramatically affects adoption. Curiosity and communication play a bigger role than most expect. We explored the move from isolated AI experiments to real workflow transformation. David shared examples from engineering, customer service, and operations where companies are finally seeing measurable results. He also explained why agents remain underused, with hesitation, data quality, and unfamiliarity still slowing progress. Shadow AI added another layer, with half of workers already using tools outside corporate systems. The conversation returned often to people. David outlined BCG's 10-20-70 rule, showing why technology is never the main bottleneck. Culture, roles, and process make or break outcomes. Leaders who provide clarity and a sense of direction see faster adoption. Those who remain hesitant create uncertainty that spreads across teams almost instantly. As we looked toward 2026, David shared cautious optimism. He sees huge potential in areas like healthcare and sustainability, along with a wave of workflow redesign that will reshape daily work. His own learning habits are simple, from podcasts to regular reading, and driven by a desire to set a strong example for his children as they grow into a world shaped by AI. If you want a grounded view of where AI is genuinely delivering change, this conversation offers rare clarity. What resonates with you most from David's perspective, and how will you approach your own learning in the year ahead? I would love to hear your thoughts.   Tech Talks Daily is Sponsored By Denodo. To learn more, visit denodo.com

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• 3510: Orange Business and the Rise of Digital Innovation Across IMEA

  Did you know that when many people hear "Orange," they still ask if it involves SIM cards? That was the perfect place to begin my conversation with Sahem Azzam, President for IMEA and Inner Asia at Orange Business. Once we cleared that up, it opened the door to a much richer story about what enterprise innovation looks like across one of the fastest-moving regions on the planet. Sahem joined me from Dubai, a city that has become a living case study for what happens when a region refuses to think small. As we compared notes from Gitex Global, it became clear that what is happening across the Middle East is not a short burst of enthusiasm. It is a deliberate long-term shift driven by young populations, bold government ambition, and a willingness to adopt new technologies before anyone else. Sahem explained how this appetite for speed is shaping the region's digital transformation and how Orange Business is supporting it through cloud, connectivity, cybersecurity, digital integration, and large-scale smart city programmes. He shared practical stories that peeled back the curtain on cognitive city design, energy optimisation, and the pressure on enterprises to simplify sprawling hybrid IT environments. What stood out was how often the conversation returned to value. Better user experiences, lower costs, and new revenue paths. Everything Orange Business builds must deliver one of those outcomes. Sahem talked through platformization, why unified infrastructure matters, and how enterprises can reduce complexity in an age where cloud, security, networking, and AI all collide at once. We also discussed the growing focus on responsible AI and the shared need for transparency. Sahem spoke about data ownership, trusted models, and the careful guardrails that must sit behind every AI deployment. The rise in cyber threats is making this more important than ever, and he offered a candid look at how Orange Cyberdefense approaches modern security through an integrated view of infrastructure, operations, and risk. What gave this conversation a personal edge was Sahem's final reflection on learning. After years at Stanford, London Business School, and Harvard, he still sees human experience as the most valuable teacher. Listening to people, sharing problems, comparing perspectives. Events like Gitex remind him that optimism is contagious and that the future of the region will be shaped by collaboration as much as technology. If you want a grounded view of digital transformation from someone living it every day, this conversation is a rare window into both the opportunities and the tension behind innovation at scale. Have you seen the same momentum in your own region, and how do you stay ahead of the pace of change? I would love to hear your thoughts.   Tech Talks Daily is Sponsored By Denodo. To learn more, visit denodo.com/aws

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• 3509: What AWS re:Invent Revealed About the Acceleration of Agentic AI

  Did you ever walk into a conference session thinking you were ready for the week, only to realise the announcements were coming so fast that you almost needed an agent of your own to keep up? That was the mood across Las Vegas, and it was the backdrop for my conversation with Madhu Parthasarathy, the general manager for Agent Core at AWS. He has spent the week at the centre of AWS's wave of agentic AI news, working on the ideas that are already moving from keynotes and demos into the hands of real enterprise teams. Sitting down with him offered a rare moment of clarity among the noise, and his calm take on what actually matters helped bring the bigger picture into focus. Madhu talked through the thinking behind Agent Core and why he believes 2026 will be the year enterprises finally begin shifting from prototypes to production-scale agents. He walked me through the two areas customers keep coming back to, trust and performance, and why the new policy framework and agent evaluations could remove long-standing barriers to deployment.  His examples were grounded in real behaviour he is seeing inside large companies, whether that is internal support workloads, developer productivity, meeting preparation, or customer-facing flows designed to reduce the friction between intent and outcome. We also explored the deeper shift introduced by Nova Forge, including the idea of blending enterprise data with model checkpoints to create domain-specific agents that can work with greater accuracy and context. Madhu explained why there will never be a one-size-fits-all model and how choice remains central to AWS's agentic AI approach. My guest also reflected on how infrastructure changes, such as Trainium three ultra servers and expanded Nova model families, are shaping the pace at which companies can experiment, evaluate, and adopt emerging capabilities. Trust surfaced again and again in our conversation. Madhu was clear that non-deterministic systems also introduce concerns, which is why action boundaries and guardrails are becoming as important as model quality. He described the excitement he is seeing from customers who now feel they have workable ways to give agents responsibility without handing over the keys entirely.  As he put it, this is the moment where confidence begins to grow because the guardrails finally meet the expectations of enterprise leaders. We closed with the topic many people have been whispering about all week, modernization. Madhu reflected on AWS Transform, the push to help organisations move away from legacy architectures far faster than before, and the impact that agentic systems will have as they support full stack migrations across Windows environments and custom languages.  Madhu cuts through the noise with a grounded view of reliable autonomy, multi-agent orchestration, policy-driven safety, and the shift toward agents as true collaborators. The question now is where you see the biggest opportunity. How might these agent-based systems change your workflows, and what would it take for you to trust them with the tasks you never seem to have time for? I would love to hear your thoughts. Tech Talks Daily is Sponsored By Denodo. To learn more, visit denodo.com/aws    

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• 3508: Movember at re:Invent, A Conversation on Tech and Men's Health

  Have you ever wondered how an idea that begins with two friends in a pub ends up shaping conversations about health all over the world? That was on my mind as I met  Graham Link & Timothy Gnaneswaran from Movember on the show floor at AWS re:Invent. Their story has grown far beyond the mustache that everyone recognises. What started with a simple gesture of support has become a movement that now reaches millions, raises vast sums through a global fundraising platform, and backs projects focused on prostate cancer, testicular cancer, mental health, and suicide prevention. Hearing them describe how that original spark grew into something this wide and long lasting gave the conversation a real sense of depth. Recording in the middle of re:Invent added its own flavour. AI news filled the halls, yet Timothy and Graham were there speaking with engineers and builders about something deeply human. Their booth stopped people in their tracks, offered barbershop shaves, and created space for personal stories. They talked openly about how Movember built its own platform to handle sixty to eighty million dollars in four weeks, how it must stay resilient every minute, and how AWS has supported them for more than a decade. They also shared how technology shapes the work behind the scenes, whether it is clinical quality registries, digital conversations tools, or new research paths that explore how AI might support healthier behaviours. What stayed with me most was the honesty about the tensions they face. Men are still reluctant to talk about their health. Loneliness is rising. Social platforms create new openings and new barriers at the same time. They see how AI can help someone begin a difficult conversation, yet they are clear about the risks when people rely on tools that were never designed for mental health support. They also talked about the patterns they see across different regions, the sobering statistics in the major markets where they operate, and how younger audiences now gather in gaming communities rather than traditional spaces. Movember knows it needs technology to reach scale, but it never wants to lose the human connection at the heart of its mission. What part of their story stands out most for you, and where do you think technology can genuinely help shape the next chapter of men's health?

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• AWS re:Invent: Ruth Buscombe on How AWS Helps F1 Engineers Read a Million Data Points a Second

  Did you know a single Formula 1 car produces 1.1 million data points every second from hundreds of sensors? That number alone sets the tone for this conversation with Ruth Buscombe, an F1 strategist, analyst, and F1TV presenter whose work sits at the meeting point of engineering precision and real time storytelling. We met at AWS re:Invent in Las Vegas, and her insights into how much pressure, judgment, and creativity are wrapped inside each decision brought the sport to life in a fresh way for anyone who has ever stared at a dashboard of metrics and wondered what really matters. This discussion goes far deeper than split times and tyre choices. Ruth explains how AWS and F1 are rethinking race strategy through real time insights and cloud compute, from TrackPulse and root-cause analysis all the way to predictive graphics that let commentary teams spot a race-defining moment before it happens. She also reflects on the sport's changing culture, the growth of new fan communities, and the shift from old telemetry to modern systems that process millions of data points every second. Her stories from the paddock at Ferrari, Alfa Romeo, and F1TV help frame just how intense the job can be when 12,000ths of a second separate pole from second place. There are moments in this conversation that remind us that F1 strategy is as much about human pattern recognition as it is about machine intelligence, and that the strongest engineers find ways to absorb pressure without losing their instinct. What stood out most was how clearly Ruth links F1 to decision making in every industry. Whether she is talking about marginal gains, pattern detection, or the discipline needed to separate noise from signal, her examples make perfect sense to both race fans and tech leaders. She shares how AWS tools allow broadcasters and engineers to interpret scenarios instantly, why the sport needed to move past manual diagnosis, and how new tools even help verify whether a driver's mistake came from a small steering slide or a split-second shift error. Her passion is infectious and her explanations cut straight to the heart of what makes the blend of live racing and cloud computing work so well. As you listen, think about how your own team makes choices under pressure and ask yourself one last question. If you were in the garage making a call with the whole world watching, which signals would you trust and how fast could you act? Useful Links: Connect with Ruth  Sign up to Ruth's Newsletter AWS Insights  

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