3534: Agentic AI at Scale: What 120 Million Monthly Conversations Really Mean
Release Date: 12/28/2025
Tech Talks Daily
What happens when decades of clinical research experience collide with a regulatory environment that is changing faster than ever? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sat down with Dr Werner Engelbrecht, Senior Director of Strategy at Veeva Systems, for a wide-ranging conversation that explores how life sciences organizations across Europe are responding to mounting regulatory pressure, rapid advances in AI, and growing expectations around transparency and patient trust. Werner brings a rare perspective to this discussion. His career spans clinical research, pharmaceutical development,...
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What happens when an industry that has barely changed for generations suddenly finds itself at the center of one of the biggest shifts in modern work? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I’m joined by Kate Hayward, UK Managing Director at Xero, for a conversation about how accounting is being reshaped by technology, education, regulation, and changing expectations from clients and talent alike. Kate describes this moment as the largest reorganization of human capital in the history of the profession, and as we talk, it becomes clear why that claim is gaining traction. We explore how AI is...
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What does sales leadership actually look like once the AI experimentation phase is over and real results are the only thing that matters? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sit down with Jason Ambrose, CEO of the Iconiq backed AI data platform People.ai, to unpack why the era of pilots, proofs of concept, and AI theater is fading fast. Jason brings a grounded view from the front lines of enterprise sales, where leaders are no longer impressed by clever demos. They want measurable outcomes, better forecasts, and fewer hours lost to CRM busywork. This conversation goes straight to the...
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In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sat down with Keith Zubchevich, CEO of Conviva, to unpack one of the most honest analogies I have heard about today’s AI rollout. Keith compares modern AI agents to toddlers being sent out to get a job, full of promise, curious, and energetic, yet still lacking the judgment and context required to operate safely in the real world. It is a simple metaphor, but it captures a tension many leaders are feeling as generative AI matures in theory while so many deployments stumble in practice. As ChatGPT approaches its third birthday, the narrative suggests...
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In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sit down with Imran Nino Eškić and Boštjan Kirm from HyperBUNKER to unpack a problem many organisations only discover in their darkest hour. Backups are supposed to be the safety net, yet in real ransomware incidents, they are often the first thing attackers dismantle. Speaking with two people who cut their teeth in data recovery labs across 50,000 real cases gave me a very different perspective on what resilience actually looks like. They explain why so many so-called “air-gapped” or “immutable” backups still depend on identities, APIs, and...
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What happens when the AI race stops being about size and starts being about sense? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sit down with Wade Myers from MythWorx, a company operating quietly while questioning some of the loudest assumptions in artificial intelligence right now. We recorded this conversation during the noise of CES week, when headlines were full of bigger models, more parameters, and ever-growing GPU demand. But instead of chasing scale, this discussion goes in the opposite direction and asks whether brute force intelligence is already running out of road. Wade brings a...
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What happens when we finally admit that stopping every cyberattack was never realistic in the first place? That is the thread running through this conversation, recorded at the start of the year when reflection tends to be more honest and the noise dial is turned down a little. I was joined by returning guest Raghu Nandakumara from Illumio, nearly three years after our last discussion, to pick up a question that has aged far too well. How do organizations talk about cybersecurity value when breaches keep happening anyway? This episode is less about shiny tools and more about uncomfortable...
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What really happens inside an organization when a cyber incident hits and the neat incident response plan starts to fall apart? That question sat at the heart of my return conversation with Max Vetter, VP of Cyber at Immersive. It has been a big year for breaches, public fallout, and eye-watering financial losses, and this episode goes beyond headlines to examine what cyber crisis management actually looks like when pressure, uncertainty, and human behavior collide. Max brings a rare perspective shaped by years in law enforcement, intelligence work, and hands-on cyber defense, and he is...
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What happens when the web browser stops being a passive window to information and starts acting like an intelligent coworker, and why does that suddenly make security everyone’s problem? At the start of 2026, I sat down with Michael Shieh from Mammoth Cyber to unpack a shift that is quietly redefining how work gets done. AI browsers are moving fast from consumer curiosity to enterprise reality, embedding agentic AI directly into the place where most work already happens, the browser. Search, research, comparison, analysis, and decision support are no longer separate steps. They are becoming...
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What happens when engineering teams can finally see the business impact of every technical decision they make? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sat down with Chris Cooney, Director of Advocacy at Coralogix, to unpack why observability is no longer just an engineering concern, but a strategic lever for the entire business. Chris joined me fresh from AWS re:Invent, where he had challenged a long-standing assumption that technical signals such as CPU usage, error rates, and logs belong only in engineering silos. Instead, he argues that these signals, when enriched and interpreted correctly,...
info_outlineWhat does it really mean when AI moves from answering questions to making decisions that affect real people, real money, and real outcomes?
In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I’m joined by Joe Kim, CEO of Druid AI, for a grounded conversation about why agentic AI is becoming the focus for enterprises that have moved beyond experimentation. After years of hype around generative tools, many organizations are now facing a tougher question.
Can AI be trusted to take action inside core business processes, and can it do so with the accuracy, security, and accountability that enterprises expect?
Joe brings a rare perspective shaped by decades leading large-scale enterprise software companies, including his time as CEO of Sumo Logic. He explains why Druid AI deliberately avoids positioning itself as a generative AI company, and instead focuses on systems that can make decisions, trigger workflows, and complete tasks inside regulated, high-stakes environments. We unpack why accuracy thresholds matter when AI touches billing, healthcare, admissions, or compliance, and why security and governance are no longer secondary concerns once AI is allowed to act.
We also talk about scale and proof. Druid AI now supports over 120 million conversations every month, a figure that keeps climbing as enterprises move agentic systems into production. Joe shares how those conversations translate into measurable business outcomes, from operational efficiency to revenue growth, and why many AI initiatives fail to reach this stage. His “5 percent club” philosophy cuts through the noise, focusing on the small number of use cases that actually deliver return while most others stall in pilots.
The conversation also explores why higher education has become a surprising pressure point for AI adoption, how outdated systems contribute to student churn, and how conversational agents can remove friction at moments that decide whether someone enrolls, stays, or leaves. We close by looking ahead at Druid AI’s next chapter, including new platform capabilities designed to make building and deploying agents faster without sacrificing control.
As more enterprises demand results instead of promises, are we ready to judge AI by the decisions it makes and the outcomes it delivers, and what should that accountability look like in your organization?
I’d love to hear your thoughts. Where do you see agentic AI delivering real value today, and where do you think the risks still outweigh the rewards?
What does it really mean when AI moves from answering questions to making decisions that affect real people, real money, and real outcomes?
In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I’m joined by Joe Kim, CEO of Druid AI, for a grounded conversation about why agentic AI is becoming the focus for enterprises that have moved beyond experimentation. After years of hype around generative tools, many organizations are now facing a tougher question. Can AI be trusted to take action inside core business processes, and can it do so with the accuracy, security, and accountability that enterprises expect?
Joe brings a rare perspective shaped by decades leading large-scale enterprise software companies, including his time as CEO of Sumo Logic. He explains why Druid AI deliberately avoids positioning itself as a generative AI company, and instead focuses on systems that can make decisions, trigger workflows, and complete tasks inside regulated, high-stakes environments. We unpack why accuracy thresholds matter when AI touches billing, healthcare, admissions, or compliance, and why security and governance are no longer secondary concerns once AI is allowed to act.
We also talk about scale and proof. Druid AI now supports over 120 million conversations every month, a figure that keeps climbing as enterprises move agentic systems into production. Joe shares how those conversations translate into measurable business outcomes, from operational efficiency to revenue growth, and why many AI initiatives fail to reach this stage. His “5 percent club” philosophy cuts through the noise, focusing on the small number of use cases that actually deliver return while most others stall in pilots.
The conversation also explores why higher education has become a surprising pressure point for AI adoption, how outdated systems contribute to student churn, and how conversational agents can remove friction at moments that decide whether someone enrolls, stays, or leaves. We close by looking ahead at Druid AI’s next chapter, including new platform capabilities designed to make building and deploying agents faster without sacrificing control.
As more enterprises demand results instead of promises, are we ready to judge AI by the decisions it makes and the outcomes it delivers, and what should that accountability look like in your organization?
I’d love to hear your thoughts. Where do you see agentic AI delivering real value today, and where do you think the risks still outweigh the rewards?
Useful Links
Connect with Joe Kim, CEO of Druid AI.
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