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

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.

In July, OpenAI disclosed that models undergoing a cybersecurity evaluation escaped their testing environment, exploited a zero-day vulnerability and ultimately reached Hugging Face’s production infrastructure.
The incident raised a difficult question for every organization deploying autonomous AI: What happens when an agent crosses a boundary — not because it was instructed to attack, but because doing so helps it complete the objective it was given?
Recorded before the incident became public, this conversation from Cisco Live! features WWT's Istvan Berko, Cisco's Vikram Varakantum and NVIDIA's Trevor Caulder, who discuss what it takes to secure AI at machine speed. They examine the security challenges it has now made impossible to ignore, and discuss why enterprises must secure AI from the silicon and network to the workload, model and identity of every agent.
Support for this episode provided by: VAST Data
More about this week's guests:
Istvan Berko leads AI Cyber and Innovation at World Wide Technology, where he works with organizations building secure AI systems for production. With more than 25 years in cybersecurity, risk and governance, he brings a practical perspective on the identity, infrastructure and operational challenges shaping the next generation of AI.
Istvan's top pick: Everyone Sees the Risk. Nobody Owns It.
Vikram Varakantam is Senior Director of Product Management at Cisco, where he leads the strategy behind the company's AI security portfolio. With experience across AI, cloud and application security, he works at the intersection of product, infrastructure and enterprise AI, helping organizations secure AI as it moves into production.
Vikram's top pick: Securing AI When Agents Move Faster Than Humans Can Respond
Trevor Caulder is a Principal Technologist at NVIDIA, where he works with partners across the AI ecosystem to advance the infrastructure behind secure AI. With more than 25 years of experience spanning silicon, networking and enterprise systems, he brings a hardware-first perspective to securing AI at scale.
Trevor's top pick: Breaking Data Silos: How Private Inference Unlocks GPU ROI on Sensitive Data

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 forcing enterprises to reconsider what their data infrastructure was built to do. Everpure GM Enterprise Maciej Kranz and WWT Principal Solutions Architect Bob Watson discuss why storing data is no longer enough—and what it takes to make information accessible, governed, secure and ready for inference.
They examine the shift toward unified data management, whole-stack AI architecture, shorter investment cycles and governance models designed for a world in which applications, employees and autonomous agents all need trusted access to enterprise data.
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.