📰 This is a companion Episode Guide.Read the full digest →
Digital Transformation Podcast — "Strategies for Agentic AI"
Runtime: 27 min | Host: Kevin Craine | Guest: Victor Coimbra (Artefact)
Audience Framing: If you're wrestling with moving your AI initiatives beyond pilot purgatory and into actual ROI, this is for you. Victor Coimbra lays out how to think about AI not as a tool, but as a "synthetic employee" that demands a complete workflow redesign and a new focus on context as your most valuable asset.
Coimbra, CTO at Artefact, dives deep into agentic AI, pushing past the "AI as a tool" mindset to advocate for treating AI as a "synthetic employee" or coworker. He stresses that the real gold mine for AI adoption isn't just data, but meticulously documented business context. This shift requires rethinking workflow design, managing token economics, ensuring AI sovereignty, and, crucially, measuring ROI not just by efficiency gains but by the quality of output.
"Most of the leaders, they think about tools. That's the first thing that comes to mind, right? Like AI as a tool. But we actually need to start thinking about the process itself." — Victor Coimbra
Connects to: The shift from AI as a tool to a "synthetic employee" (Strategies for Agentic AI) directly influences how you approach Operationalizing AI and impacts AI Impact on Organizational Design.
▶ Listen · Apple Podcasts · Apple Podcasts
Technovation with Peter High (CIO, CTO, CDO, CXO Interviews) — "The Infinity Machine: The Untold Story of Demis Hassabis and DeepMind"
Runtime: 69 min | Host: Peter High | Guest: Sebastian Mallaby (Council on Foreign Relations)
Audience Framing: For CEOs and CTOs grappling with long-term vision, talent retention, and the sheer audacity required to build world-changing tech, Sebastian Mallaby's insights into DeepMind's journey are essential listening. It’s a masterclass in how to prioritize scientific discovery over immediate financial gain and what it takes to build an AGI-focused org from the ground up.
Sebastian Mallaby, author of "The Infinity Machine," pulls back the curtain on DeepMind and its co-founder Demis Hassabis. This isn't your typical Silicon Valley founder story. Hassabis consistently prioritized scientific discovery and Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) over quick money, famously turning down massive checks and choosing Google for its computing resources rather than a more lucrative offer from Mark Zuckerberg. The episode also touches on the complex journey of co-founder Mustafa Suleyman and the crucial role of political acumen in navigating the tech giants.
"Demis Hassabis' motivation is fundamentally to do science, not to earn money. Throughout his career he made choices that would have made him less rich but advanced his opportunity to do science." — Sebastian Mallaby
Connects to: Demis Hassabis's unwavering focus on Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) Pursuit demonstrates a long-term strategic vision that contrasts with short-term Enterprise AI Adoption cycles.
▶ Listen · Apple Podcasts · Apple Podcasts
CXOTalk — "Why Your Enterprise AI Pilot Won't Scale (with Nate B. Jones)"
Runtime: 55 min | Host: Michael Krigsman | Guest: Nate B. Jones (AI Analyst and Advisor for Fortune 500 companies and global banks)
Audience Framing: If your AI "pilots" are getting stuck in perpetual demo loops, Nate B. Jones cuts through the hype to explain why. He offers a brutally honest look at how 80% of scaling failures are people problems, not technical ones, and hands you concrete strategies for getting your AI projects to actual production and measurable business impact.
AI analyst Nate B. Jones argues that most enterprise AI pilots fail because they're framed as "pilots"—under-resourced experiments rather than whole-organization transformations. He states plainly that 80% of scaling challenges are people-related, emphasizing the need for leaders to engage directly with AI tools. Jones advocates for selecting high-leverage projects, focusing on a "cost per completed action" metric over "cost per token," and building a proprietary "harness" to encode operational knowledge. Crucially, he stresses assigning single, named owners for AI agents and pushing for production from the start, rather than endless piloting.
"It's about 20% a technology problem and 80% a people problem." — Nate B. Jones
Connects to: Nate B. Jones's focus on the "people problem" in Enterprise AI Adoption and the need for Operationalizing AI underscores the human element often overlooked by tech-focused teams.
CFO THOUGHT LEADER — "Making Strategy—and the Money—Move Together | Laura Miller, CFO, Strata Decision Technology"
Runtime: 44 min | Host: The Future of Finance is Listening | Guest: Laura Miller (CFO, Strata Decision Technology)
Audience Framing: For finance leaders navigating M&A, rapid growth, and the strategic integration of AI, Laura Miller shares her playbook. Her journey from PwC to hotel operations to CFO offers practical lessons on leadership, the realities of crisis management, and how AI is fundamentally reshaping product roadmaps and financial strategy.
Laura Miller, CFO of Strata Decision Technology, shares her diverse career path, from PwC to Starwood Hotels, and her experiences navigating the CFO role during a pandemic-driven boom at Pampered Chef. She highlights Strata Decision Technology's strategic use of AI to create an "intelligent layer" within their products, moving beyond traditional modules to enable faster, more accurate financial decision-making. Miller emphasizes that AI is changing product roadmaps, with customers expecting incumbent software vendors to integrate AI directly, rather than adopting separate tools. Her current priorities include optimizing AI costing and strategic product development.
"We bring financial data, operational data, strategic data all into one platform amongst many modules. So there'll be modules such as budgeting, forecasting, planning, workforce management, all these tools... the leaders utilize this platform to make strategic decisions every day." — Laura Miller
Connects to: Laura Miller's insights on integrating AI into product roadmaps and strategic decision-making directly inform strategies for Operationalizing AI and underscore the AI Impact on Organizational Design within product teams.
▶ Listen · Apple Podcasts · Apple Podcasts
Technovation with Peter High (CIO, CTO, CDO, CXO Interviews) — "Verizon CTO Yago Tenorio on Building the Autonomous Network"
Runtime: 48 min | Host: Peter High | Guest: Yago Tenorio (CTO and Senior Vice President of Strategy and Technology Enablement, Verizon)
Audience Framing: If you're building next-gen infrastructure or wrestling with the future of work, Yago Tenorio provides a blueprint for leveraging AI not just for automation, but for true network autonomy. His discussion on turning 33,000 employees into "software developers" with AI is a must-hear for any leader trying to reskill their workforce and address granular customer experience issues.
Verizon CTO Yago Tenorio discusses the telco giant's move from network automation to "Level 4 network autonomy," where AI agents act as "digital colleagues" under human supervision. This aims to slash incident resolution times from hours to seconds and address micro-level customer experience issues. Notably, Verizon is democratizing software development by empowering 33,000 employees with Claude Code to ask "what they want," rather than "how to code." Tenorio stresses that data and domain expertise are paramount, even more so than the sheer size of the language model, for successful AI deployment.
"We are seeing incidents that previously would have taken us five to eight hours to resolve being resolved within 90 seconds." — Yago Tenorio
Connects to: Yago Tenorio's vision of AI agents as "Synthetic Employees" at Verizon aligns with the broader theme of AI Impact on Organizational Design and the redefinition of roles.
▶ Listen · Apple Podcasts · Apple Podcasts
Run the Numbers — "The Business of Saving Lives: Inside RapidSOS"
Runtime: 50 min | Host: CJ Gustafson | Guest: Richard Haram (VP of Finance, RapidSOS)
Audience Framing: For finance leaders in high-growth, mission-driven companies, Richard Haram offers a masterclass in building a data-driven culture and leveraging AI. Learn how RapidSOS handles monetization, manages data quality, and empowers teams through a “layer cake” strategy that pushes data fluency throughout the organization—and why your finance team shouldn’t scale linearly with headcount.
Richard Haram, VP of Finance at RapidSOS, a public safety AI company, talks about the challenges and strategies of building a data culture. He emphasizes that AI must be seen as a capability and cultural fluency, not merely a tool. Haram shares his experience with data pollution in AI and the importance of a framework for data-driven decision-making, from questions to insights. He highlights the use of AI tools like Claude and Abacum to empower finance teams and advocates for robust Individual Development Plans (IDPs) to transition away from "hero-based systems" to scalable processes.
"If your finance team expands linearly with your headcount, your leverage is broken. Too many CFOs waste incredible talent on low value maintenance, manual reconciliation, chasing missing receipts and policing $30 software subscriptions." — CJ Gustafson
Connects to: Richard Haram's advocacy for AI as a "capability and fluency" within the organization directly ties into AI Impact on Organizational Design, especially regarding the evolution of finance teams and the need for new skills for Enterprise AI Adoption.
▶ Listen · Apple Podcasts · Apple Podcasts
CXOTalk — "Enterprise AI Biggest Opportunities: A Top VC's Take"
Runtime: 55 min | Host: Michael Krigsman | Guest: Ed Sim (Founder and General Partner, boldstart ventures)
Audience Framing: If you're a CEO or COO looking to cut through the noise on AI investment, Ed Sim provides a VC's sober take on where the real money and value are. He unpacks the shift to ROI-driven AI, the critical security risks of agentic AI, and why due diligence for AI acquisitions is more about talent than tech stack. Essential for anyone trying to invest wisely in the AI future.
Ed Sim, a venture investor from boldstart ventures, discusses the third wave of enterprise AI, which is all about ROI and "tokenomics." He notes that rising token costs are driving companies toward open-weight models and in-house infrastructure to optimize expenses. Sim warns about the significant security challenges of agentic AI, advocating for dynamic, runtime access controls to mitigate breaches. He also highlights the importance of evaluating AI vendors based on talent and cultural fit during M&A, rather than just technology, predicting a shift from SaaS models to agentic workflows.
"It turns out that the AI was right 98% of the time and the humans were only right 85% of the time." — Ed Sim
Connects to: Ed Sim's focus on "tokenomics" and open-weight models in Enterprise AI Adoption provides a critical financial lens to Operationalizing AI, while his warnings about AI Security are paramount for all leaders.
CFO THOUGHT LEADER — "When Capital Conviction Matters More Than Market Timing | Andrew Korn, CFO, EliseAI"
Runtime: 41 min | Host: The Future of Finance is Listening | Guest: Andrew Korn (CFO, EliseAI)
Audience Framing: For CFOs in high-growth companies facing challenging capital markets, Andrew Korn’s story of EliseAI’s journey to unicorn status offers practical lessons in capital conviction, disciplined growth, and the evolving role of finance in an AI-first organization. His candor on internal AI adoption is a breath of fresh air.
Andrew Korn, CFO of EliseAI, details the company's path to unicorn status, maintaining over 100% year-on-year growth to $200M+ ARR. He stresses that AI must deliver tangible improvements to operations and performance, not just be "AI for AI's sake" (AI for AI's sake is not valuable). Korn explains how AI is transforming EliseAI's internal finance operations, making revenue projections and accounts receivable faster and more accurate. He also shares his belief in the power of candor for leadership success and the importance of nimbleness in a high-growth environment, even making a bold, long-term commercial real estate commitment in a tough market.
"We announced earlier this year that we're over 200 million of annual recurring revenue. We've continued to grow rapidly since then, continuing to maintain over 100% year on year growth every year since I've joined the company four and a half years ago." — Andrew Korn
Connects to: Andrew Korn's emphasis on Operationalizing AI for tangible business outcomes and his candid take on AI's impact on finance teams provide concrete examples for Enterprise AI Adoption.
Run the Numbers — "A CFO Explains Private Jets"
Runtime: 35 min | Host: CJ Gustafson | Guest: Ben Gustafson (Executive Producer, Run the Numbers)
Audience Framing: For finance professionals, board members, or anyone interested in the often-murky world of corporate perks and investor activism, this episode demystifies the financial and governance implications of private jet usage. Learn how activist investors track executive travel and why a "shadow jet" might be a red flag for poor corporate governance.
CJ and Ben Gustafson dissect the history and financial implications of corporate private jets, from Sam Walton's frugal beginnings to modern-day abuses. They cover the accounting treatment of jets (P&L, balance sheet, bonus depreciation), how executive perks are disclosed under SEC Reg S-K Item 402, and how activist investors use public data to track corporate jet spending. The discussion highlights examples of corporate jet misuse, like the Gulfport Energy and Tyco scandals, and the infamous GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt's 'Shadow Jet', underscoring the correlation between poor governance and executive jet use.
"Bonus depreciation allows you to immediately deduct up to 100% of the purchase price in the first year. So think of that as a cost that you can put on the P and L to increase your cost base and therefore decrease your earnings. Therefore you pay less taxes against it." — Ben Hillman
Connects to: While not directly AI-related, the discussion on corporate governance and transparency serves as a cautionary tale for AI Security and accountability, particularly when dealing with the emergent risks of Agentic AI where one named owner per agent is critical.
