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

Enterprise AI is moving out of pilots — and the infrastructure gaps are getting harder to ignore.
In this episode of the AI Proving Ground Podcast, Intel’s Lynn Comp and WWT’s Mike Trojecki break down why treating enterprise AI infrastructure as a single hardware decision is a costly mistake. As agentic systems push AI into real operations, assumptions like “AI = GPUs” start to crack under pressure from power, cost, governance, and scale.
The takeaway from 2025 is clear: performance alone isn’t the advantage. Fit is.
We unpack how agentic AI is reshaping security models and centers of excellence, why disciplined architecture beats oversized builds, and what leaders need to plan for in 2026 to scale AI without locking into brittle, overbuilt systems.
Because driving a Ferrari to run errands looks impressive — until you see the bill.
Support for this episode provided by: Proofpoint
More about this week's guests: 
Lynn Comp has a wide range of experiences spanning her ~30 years in the tech industry, from strategic planning and go to market of RISC SOCs for both communications infrastructure and mobile phones, to software pipelines laying the groundwork for rapid video-based services innovation, to pioneering the foundational libraries that paved the way for 'software defined' networking with telecommunications operators. Lynn has extensive experience in marketing, product management, product planning, and strategy development across software, hardware, cloud, and communications service providers (CoSPs). Lynn has a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from Virginia Tech and an MBA from University of Phoenix
Lynn's top pick: AI Meets the Classroom: Shaping the Future of Learning with Intel
Mike Trojecki brings more than 25 years of experience across technology and leadership. His career began in the U.S. Air Force, supporting missions for the White House and Air Force One, where he developed a foundation of precision and reliability. After transitioning to the private sector, he led emerging technology practices at firms including ePlus and Logicalis. At World Wide Technology, Mike now leads the AI Practice, focusing on high-performance architectures, data, computer vision, and AI data center design to help organizations scale AI with impact.
Mike's top pick: AI and Data Priorities for 2026
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.

Enterprise AI didn’t fail.
It hit the wall.
In 2025, pilots multiplied, copilots spread, and expectations skyrocketed. Then reality caught up. Scaling AI turned out to be less about model quality — and more about data, security, cost visibility, and how organizations actually work.
In this episode of the AI Proving Ground Podcast, Chris Campbell and Jason Campagna break down what enterprises learned the hard way, why most AI initiatives stall between pilot and production, and what leaders must fix to make AI deliver real impact in 2026.
We get practical about:
Why AI breaks when fundamentals aren’t ready
What agentic systems expose at scale
Why focus beats hype when AI becomes infrastructure
How winning teams design, govern, and measure AI like a core system
If your AI strategy looks impressive but hasn’t changed outcomes yet, this conversation explains why — and what to do next.
Support for this episode provided by: Graphiant
More about this week's guests:

Chris Campbell is Senior Director of AI Solutions at World Wide Technology, where he leads strategy and delivery for AIaaS/GPUaaS and data center facilities and infrastructure solutions. He brings deep experience across executive engagement, customer advocacy, and large-scale engineering leadership. Prior to WWT, Chris held senior leadership roles at Forsythe, Red Hat, BEA Systems, and AT&T. He holds a BA from Columbia University and an MBA from the University of Maryland, where he was a Dingman Entrepreneur Scholar.
Chris's top pick:  AI and Data Priorities for 2026
Jason Campagna is a strategic technologist at World Wide Technology, where he leads AI solution strategy and helps enterprises navigate the next wave of intelligent systems, from AI assistants to autonomous agents. With deep experience spanning cloud, automation, and platform architecture, Jason focuses on turning emerging technology into operational reality. He brings a pragmatic, execution-driven approach to scaling AI in complex enterprise environments.
Jason's top pick: AI Agents: Scaling Your Digital Workforce
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.

AI is no longer an experiment — it’s an accountability test.
In this episode of the AI Proving Ground Podcast, Dave DeWalt, Founder and CEO of NightDragon, and Kate Kuehn of WWT unpack what happens when AI systems fail, misfire, or create real-world risk — and who ultimately owns the outcome.
As organizations look toward 2026, boards want visibility, CEOs want measurable impact, and the lines between IT, security, and the business have disappeared. AI accelerates opportunity, but it also accelerates exposure — collapsing decision timelines and reshaping responsibility.
This conversation explores how accountability is shifting to the top of the enterprise, how leaders should think about ownership when AI breaks, and why resilience, governance, and speed now define competitive advantage.
Support for this episode provided by: Graphiant
More about this week's guests:
Dave DeWalt is founder and CEO of NightDragon, a venture and advisory firm focused on building the world's leading SecureTech platform. A four-time CEO, he has led iconic companies including FireEye, McAfee, and Documentum, creating over $20B in shareholder value. A longtime board leader and public servant, DeWalt has advised four U.S. administrations on national security and cybersecurity and is a recognized voice on technology risk and resilience.
Dave's top pick: Infrastructure as a Strategic Target of War
Kate Kuehn joined WWT in 2024, bringing more than 25 years of experience leading and advising cybersecurity, technology, and AI strategy. She has held executive and board roles across the cyber ecosystem — including CISO, CEO, Chief Trust Officer, advisor, and board director — with experience at companies such as Aon, BT, and Verizon. A trusted advisor and award-winning leader, Kate focuses on helping executives and boards align cyber risk, AI, and business strategy in an increasingly complex threat landscape.
Kate's top pick: AI Won't Save You: Easterly, Joyce and CISOs on the Cybersecurity Reality No One Wants to Hear
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.

Cyber risk is changing — and AI is accelerating it.
In this episode of the AI Proving Ground Podcast, former NSA Director Rob Joyce joins WWT’s Madison Horn to explain how nation-state cyber activity has shifted from quiet espionage to strategic pre-positioning inside critical infrastructure.
AI isn’t introducing new tactics — it’s collapsing timelines. Reconnaissance, phishing, and exploitation now move at machine speed, shrinking response windows from weeks to minutes. The result is a fundamentally different threat model.
The conversation focuses on what leaders need to understand now: how agentic AI reshapes cyber risk, why basic discipline still matters but no longer scales on its own, and how AI must become a force multiplier for defenders.
A clear, high-level look at the cyber line that’s already been crossed — and what comes next.
More about this week's guests:
Madison Horn is a cybersecurity executive and national security strategist whose work spans technology, policy, and critical infrastructure. With 15+ years of experience, she has led global incident response, digital risk transformation, and cyber strategy across highly regulated and high-risk environments. Madison has held leadership roles at FusionX, Accenture Security, PwC, and on the founding team of Siemens Energy's Global Security practice. She currently serves as National Security & Critical Infrastructure Advisor at WWT, advising on AI governance, ICS/OT resilience, zero trust, and cyber-informed engineering. A frequent media contributor and advocate for women in technology, Madison is driven by advancing digital trust and national resilience.
Madison's top pick: Infrastructure as a Strategic Target of War
Rob Joyce has more than 30 years of leadership in cybersecurity, cyber operations, and intelligence. He has dedicated his career to advancing national security and cyber resilience. Rob previously served as Director of the Cybersecurity Directorate at the NSA, overseeing defense of the nation's most critical systems, and held senior roles including Acting Homeland Security Advisor and Special Assistant to the President for Cybersecurity. He is the founder of Joyce Cyber LLC and currently advises boards and executives on emerging cyber risks, with advisory and board roles spanning technology, national security, and critical infrastructure.
Rob's top pick: Who Owns AI When It Breaks

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.

Enterprise AI just grew up—and the math has changed.
In this episode of the AI Proving Ground Podcast, Francis deSouza, COO of Google Cloud, breaks down why the era of scattered AI pilots is over—and why the winners are moving fast, focused, and top-down.
We unpack how leading enterprises are shifting from “let a thousand flowers bloom” to a tight portfolio of high-impact AI use cases that actually ship, scale, and deliver ROI. Francis explains why data strategy—not model choice—is the real competitive advantage, how agents need secure access to data where it already lives (no massive migrations required), and why AI is quietly rewriting the enterprise attack surface.
The conversation also gets real about people. The next generation of AI-ready companies won’t just hire specialists—they’ll build AI-fluent teams where every employee is bilingual in their domain and AI.
If you’re building for 2026 and beyond, this episode is your signal:
 less hype, fewer experiments, more execution.
More about this week's guest:
Francis deSouza is Chief Operating Officer and President of Security Products at Google Cloud, where he leads operations to scale the business and oversees Google Cloud's global security portfolio, spanning products, threat intelligence, consulting, and governance. He joined Google in January 2025 after three decades as an engineer, technology executive, entrepreneur, and investor. Previously, Francis served as CEO of Illumina and President at Symantec. He has co-founded three companies and serves on the board of Deel. Francis holds BS and MS degrees from MIT and is driven by technology's power to improve lives.
Francis's top pick: The AI Multiplier: Creating a Sustainable Competitive Advantage with Google Cloud COO Francis deSouza
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.