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

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.

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.