Episode 1: Intro & Interview With LinkedIn Pulse Star John White
Release Date: 07/10/2015
What 40 Million Daily Transactions Taught One Restaurant Chain About AI
Tech Talks Daily
What does real ROI from AI and analytics actually look like in the fast-food industry? At SAS Innovate, I sat down with David Gardner, Senior Director of Analytics at Boddie-Noell Enterprises, the largest franchise operator of Hardee's in the United States, to explore how a 60-year-old family business is transforming itself through data, forecasting, and AI. This is a company processing around 40 million transactional records every single day across more than 300 restaurants, where even shaving a few seconds off a drive-thru experience can have a measurable impact on customer satisfaction and...
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Why Most AI Projects Still Fail And What Businesses Are Getting Wrong
Tech Talks Daily
What happens when the excitement around AI collides with the reality of deploying it inside a business? At SAS Innovate, that question came up repeatedly, and in this episode, I sit down with Manisha Khanna, global product marketing lead for AI at SAS, to unpack why so many organizations are still struggling to move from AI pilots to meaningful business outcomes. While headlines continue to celebrate the rapid rise of generative AI and agentic systems, Manisha brings a far more practical perspective shaped by working directly with enterprises trying to operationalize AI at scale. One of the...
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SentinelOne On Why Traditional Security Models Are Failing In The AI Era
Tech Talks Daily
What happens when cybercrime becomes as easy to access as a subscription service, and what does that mean for every business connected to the internet today? In this episode, I sit down with SentinelOne AI and Cloud Security Evangelist Chris Hosking to unpack a shift that feels both inevitable and deeply unsettling. The rise of what Chris describes as an AI threat market is changing the rules of engagement. Cybercrime is no longer limited to highly skilled operators working in isolation. Instead, it has evolved into a thriving ecosystem where tools, services, and even AI-powered attack kits...
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Inside EY’s 2026 Tech Pulse Poll The Hidden Risks Of AI Adoption
Tech Talks Daily
What happens when the race to deploy AI starts to outpace the ability to control it? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sit down with Ken Englund from EY to unpack findings from the latest 2026 Technology Pulse Poll, and the conversation quickly moves beyond theory into something many leaders will recognize from their own organizations. There is a growing tension between speed and oversight, a “velocity paradox” Ken describes, in which businesses are accelerating AI adoption while governance struggles to keep up. The numbers behind that story are hard to ignore. A large majority of...
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Citi Wealth Unveils “Citi Sky” – An AI-Powered Member of the Citi Wealth Team, Built Using Google Cloud and Google DeepMind Technologies
Tech Talks Daily
What happens when your financial advisor is no longer limited by time, availability, or even geography, but is always there when you need them, ready to listen, respond, and guide you in real time? At Citi’s announcement at Google Cloud Next 2026, I sat down with Joe Bonanno, Head of Wealth Intelligence, and Karolina Belwal, Global Head of Data Intelligence and Automation for Citi Wealth, to unpack what could become a defining shift in how wealth management is delivered. The launch of Citi Sky, built in partnership with Google Cloud and powered by Google DeepMind, is not another digital...
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How Alison Kay Sees AWS Driving The Move From AI Adoption To Transformation
Tech Talks Daily
Are businesses really making progress with AI, or are many still stuck using it for the digital equivalent of making phone calls on a smartphone? In this episode, I sit down with Alison Kay, VP / Managing Director AWS UKI, to unpack what is actually happening behind the headlines of AI adoption across the UK. On paper, the numbers look strong. Around 64% of UK businesses are now using AI, a sharp rise from the previous year. But when you look closer, the story shifts. Only one in four organizations have moved into more advanced use cases, where real productivity gains, efficiency...
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Inside AWS At 20: Werner Vogels On The Moment Everything Changed
Tech Talks Daily
What if one of the most influential figures in modern technology had almost ignored the opportunity that would define his career? In this episode, I sit down with Werner Vogels, Chief Technology Officer at Amazon, to explore the story behind Amazon Web Services as it marks its 20th anniversary, and how a near-dismissed phone call turned into a front-row seat to one of the biggest shifts in computing history. Werner takes me back to the early days when Amazon was still seen as “just a bookstore,” and shares what he discovered when he first stepped inside what he calls Amazon’s...
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SAS Innovate: Turning Messy Data Into Meaningful Decisions With AI In Healthcare
Tech Talks Daily
Can faster access to real-world data actually change patient outcomes, or are we still too reliant on controlled clinical trials to see the full picture? In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Alex Asiimwe, Executive Director of Epidemiology at Gilead Sciences, to explore a topic that doesn’t get enough attention in the AI conversation, real-world evidence. While much of the industry focuses on AI in drug discovery or diagnostics, Alex brings a different perspective, one rooted in what happens after treatments reach real patients in the real world. As he explains, clinical trials may be the...
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Freshworks CEO On The SaaS-pocalypse And What Comes Next For Software
Tech Talks Daily
In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I welcome back Dennis Woodside, CEO of Freshworks, to unpack the growing conversation around the so-called SaaS-pocalypse and what it really means for the future of software businesses. There is no shortage of dramatic headlines suggesting SaaS is under threat, but Dennis offers a far more practical perspective. He explains that this is less about the collapse of software and more about a major reset in how software is judged, bought, and valued. As AI changes customer expectations, businesses are no longer willing to pay for incremental features or vague...
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Google Cloud Next 2026: How Workspace Intelligence Is Redefining The Future Of Work
Tech Talks Daily
How much of your working day is actually spent doing meaningful work, and how much is lost chasing emails, searching for documents, sitting in meetings, and trying to remember where that one important conversation happened? At Google Cloud Next in Las Vegas, I sat down with Yulie Kwon Kim, Vice President of Product for Google Workspace at Google, to talk about how AI is changing the way billions of people work every day. Yulie leads the products many of us rely on constantly, Gmail, Google Calendar, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, and newer tools like Google Vids. At this year’s event, she...
info_outlineIn this first episode, Neil talks about his blogging journey on the LinkedIn Publishing platform and interviews John White who shares his experiences and success with blogging on LinkedIn.
Show Notes
Exactly 12 months ago today, I was given access to contribute my professional insights on the LinkedIn publishing platform that was being rolled out to its members. One Year later, I have published 83 blog posts that have reached nearly 1 million article views and somehow amassed over 7,000 followers along the way.
The greatest reward I have received from writing on LinkedIn is developing real friendships with like-minded individuals on a similar journey.
There is a long list of real friendships with fellow writers such as John White, Dustin McKissen and Paul Drury along with many others who inspire me to improve. On a recent holiday to New York, I even met with another LinkedIn friend and mentor Tom Ziegler at the White Horse Tavern where Dylan Thomas famously enjoyed his last whiskey.
There are many discussions of how technology is separating us rather than uniting us all. However, my experience of the last 12 months has proved that engaging with your audience and genuine networking that is not used for some kind of cynical self-gain is the essence of how humans learn from each other and move forward.
What Next?
Now that my fear of hitting the publish on a blog post is a distant memory combined with the knowledge that engagement is about conversations rather than dialogue, a new idea was born. On average there are around 66,000 people reading my blog posts each month, rather than this remain a one-way conversation, I want to engage with every reader.
The same fear of hitting publish has returned as my first Podcast became available oniTunes, RSS and Web, where I interview the prolific John White about his similar journey on LinkedIn long-form posting.
Podcasting allows me to open up this new communications channel and broadcast your thoughts that I am hoping might even challenge my thought process too. My plan is to offer an open invite to anyone that would like to feature in an interview. You could even just message me from your phone with a recording of a few words with your view on of the latest tech trend posts that I publish here on LinkedIn.
This idea was born out of a moment of madness and a genuine desire to connect with each and every one of my readers. Maybe, John Lennon said it best with the lyrics ‘You may say I'm a dreamer. But I'm not the only one. I hope someday you'll join us’.