Enterprise Technology Podcast Episodes

How Can Non-Engineering Teams Adopt AI at Scale?

In this episode of Enterprise Tech Talk, host Saumitra Kalikar speaks with Ohad Ronen, AI transformation leader at Amdocs, about what it really takes to embed AI into non-engineering work at enterprise scale.
The conversation explores why AI pilots often fail to move into production, why business teams need confidence and enablement rather than generic tool rollouts, and how enterprises can design operating models that combine local business ownership with central governance.
Ohad also shares practical insights on AI domain builders, business outcome leads, hub-and-spoke models, AI economics, task-level ROI, and the rise of digital employees and AI agents as part of the future workforce.

Why Enterprise Integration Still Fails and How AI Can Fix It

Host Saumitra Kalikar speaks with Madhav Sivadas about the evolution of enterprise integration and automation, the limitations of traditional standards and point-to-point solutions, and the potential for an AI-powered mediation layer to connect disparate systems without repeatedly modifying them.
The conversation explores why departmental automation often fails to improve end-to-end customer outcomes, what enterprises should learn from RPA, and why deterministic workflows augmented by AI may deliver better results than deploying autonomous agents everywhere.
They also examine the next frontier of business-to-business integration: connecting organisations, systems and counterparties across complex processes involving banks, insurers, logistics companies and government agencies.

Leading Under Pressure : Burnout, AI Anxiety and Executive Performance

Enterprise leaders often talk about technology resilience, cyber resilience and business resilience. But what about the resilience of the human operating system? In this episode, host Saumitra Kalikar speaks with Dr. Pat Boulogne about burnout, AI anxiety and sustainable executive performance. They explore:
* Why burnout affects decision quality and leadership behaviour
* How chronic stress impacts clarity, energy and resilience
* Why AI uncertainty is increasing anxiety across the workforce
* How leaders can build adaptability without operating from fear
* Practical habits around sleep, hydration, recovery, nutrition and boundaries
* Why organisations need healthier performance cultures, not just wellness programs

Linking Strategy to Execution: Why Great Strategies Fail and How Leaders Deliver Results

In this episode, host Saumitra Kalikar is joined by strategy and innovation advisor Noel Sobelman to explore one of the biggest challenges facing executive leadership today: connecting strategy, investment decisions and execution. Drawing on more than 25 years of experience advising global organisations, Noel shares practical insights into why execution breaks down, how portfolio management shapes strategic success, why organisations struggle to stop low-value initiatives, and how leaders should think about AI-enabled investment planning.

Listen for insights on:
- Why strategy execution fails
- Portfolio management and investment prioritisation
- Eliminating "zombie projects"
- Resource allocation and organisational capacity
- Measuring strategic outcomes instead of project outputs
- AI's role in strategic planning and portfolio management

AI Engineering Beyond the Hype: Harnesses, Guardrails and Production Reality

LLMs have made it easier than ever to build impressive prototypes. But turning those prototypes into secure, reliable and cost-effective enterprise systems is a very different challenge. In this episode, Saumitra Kalikar speaks with Adam Witanowski, joining from Sydney, about the emerging discipline of AI Engineering and what it takes to move from prototype hype to production reality.
The conversation explores:
✅ Harness engineering and meta-harnesses
✅ Runtime controls and enterprise guardrails
✅ Vibe coding vs spec-driven development
✅ Loop engineering, token cost and context drift
✅ Testing, evals and the changing role of QA
✅ RAG, knowledge graphs and enterprise memory
✅ AI governance, FinOps and responsible adoption

The Future of Healthcare: AI, Prevention and the Rise of Consumer-Driven Care

Healthcare is undergoing one of the most significant transformations in its history. Ageing populations, clinician shortages, rising costs and increasing consumer expectations are placing enormous pressure on healthcare systems globally. At the same time, advances in AI, virtual care, wearable technology, interoperability and digital health platforms are creating entirely new possibilities for healthcare delivery.
In this episode, host Saumitra Kalikar speaks with Matt Young, Lead Enterprise Architect at Medibank, about the future of healthcare technology in Australia and around the world.

The Agentic Enterprise : Scaling AI, Controlling Costs and Redesigning Work

In this episode, host Saumitra Kalikar is joined by Amit Mudgal, Founder and CEO of ClearWays AI, to explore the next phase of enterprise AI adoption. While many organisations have successfully experimented with Generative AI, far fewer have industrialised Agentic AI at scale. This discussion examines what it takes to move beyond pilots and build production-grade agentic systems that deliver measurable business value.
Key topics include:
✅ Engineering foundations for agentic systems
✅ Context, memory and orchestration architectures
✅ Harness Engineering and why it may matter more than models
✅ AI bill shock and AI FinOps
✅ Measuring Agentic AI ROI
✅ Governance, risk and control frameworks
✅ Workforce transformation and operating model impacts
✅ The future of the Agentic Enterprise

Agentic Governance : Why Enterprise AI Changes the Rules of Governance

In this episode, host Saumitra Kalikar speaks with Jesper Lowgren to unpack how organisations should govern agentic systems, multi-agent ecosystems, and autonomous enterprise AI.
The conversation explores:
▪ What defines agentic systems
▪ Why traditional governance models are insufficient
▪ Runtime governance and emergent behaviour
▪ Agentic middleware and contextual architectures
▪ Goal-based governance and policy engines
▪ Explainability, trust, and provenance
▪ Enterprise architecture’s evolving role in AI governance

From Systems to Agents : Rethinking Enterprise Architecture in the Age of AI - with Gautam Nadkarni

In this episode, Saumitra Kalikar speaks with Gautam Nadkarni (Chief Technologist & Head of Tech Advisory & Architecture Services at Wipro) about how agentic systems are reshaping the fundamentals of enterprise architecture. From deterministic systems to autonomous decision-making ecosystems, this conversation explores what it really means to architect in the age of AI.

Reimagining Data Functions in the AI Era: Fixing Ownership, Governance, and Trust

How should enterprises redesign data functions for the AI era? Saumitra Kalikar and senior technology executive Surit Sethi explain why clear data ownership, embedded governance and outcome-led operating models are essential to turn data investment into trusted business results. They cover executive accountability, data as both asset and liability, federated delivery, data literacy, measurable value and the controls needed to support responsible AI. A practical discussion for CIOs, CDOs, data leaders and governance teams modernising enterprise data operations.

Beyond ITSM: The Rise of Enterprise Service Management - with Rakesh Kumar

In this episode, host Saumitra Kalikar speaks with Rakesh Kumar, Head of Advisory at InMorphis, about how Enterprise Service Management (ESM) is transforming modern enterprise operations. They explore how organisations are moving beyond traditional IT Service Management to unify services across HR, finance, and other business functions — creating a single, seamless service experience for employees.
This episode covers:
- What Enterprise Service Management really means
- Why organisations are breaking down functional silos
- The business case: productivity, cost optimisation, compliance
- ESM as a platform for enterprise-wide workflows and data
- Challenges in adoption and organisational change
- The role of AI in shaping the future of service management

Beyond the MarTech Stack : How Leaders Should Rethink MarTech Strategy - with Jon Goh

In this episode, host Saumitra Kalikar speaks with Jon Goh, Head of MarTech at Medibank, about the evolving discipline of MarTech Operations. The conversation explores:
• What MarTech Operations really means today
• Why many organisations struggle to realise ROI from their MarTech investments
• The leadership and cultural capabilities required to make MarTech work
• How AI is reshaping marketing technology ecosystems
• How organisations can manage stack complexity, integration challenges and data silos

Jon also shares insights from his white paper “Thinking Beyond the Stack,” which argues that the biggest barrier to MarTech success is not technology — but leadership.
https://themartechweekly.com/tmw-236-guest-white-paper-thinking-beyond-the-stack/

Data Governance in the Age of AI : From Compliance Burden to Strategic Enabler - with Nicola Askham

Saumitra Kalikar sits down with internationally recognised data governance expert Nicola Askham, author of Effective Data Governance: Design a Framework That Works for Your Organisation.
As enterprises accelerate AI adoption, data governance is back on the executive agenda. But this time, it’s not about compliance checklists. In this conversation, we explore:

- Why past governance initiatives failed
- How AI is forcing organisations to rethink data foundations
- The shift from centralised governance to federated ownership models
- AI governance vs data governance — should they be separate?
- Designing guardrails instead of governance gates
- Measuring governance success beyond maturity models

AI Sovereignty: Who Controls the Intelligence Layer of Australia’s Digital Future?

In this solo episode, Saumitra Kalikar explores one of the most critical questions facing Australian enterprises and policymakers in 2026: Under whose control does our AI operate? This episode covers:
• Why AI is now critical infrastructure
• The four pillars of Sovereign AI
• Geopolitical concentration risk and hyperscaler dependency
• Sectoral priorities: Defence, Healthcare, Financial Services & Critical Infrastructure
• The concept of “Sovereign Inferencing”
• Practical guidance for boards and executive leaders

Digital Sovereignty for Australian Enterprises : From Compliance to Enterprise Resilience

In this episode, host Saumitra Kalikar unpacks what digital sovereignty really means for Australian enterprises, cutting through common misconceptions around data residency and explaining where sovereignty expectations are explicit, implicit, and increasingly unavoidable. This episode covers:

- Why digital supply chains are no longer insulated from geopolitics
- The difference between data residency and true digital sovereignty
- The three layers of sovereignty: legal, operational, and technical control
- What Australian law does — and does not — mandate
- How sovereignty becomes enforceable in critical infrastructure, financial services, govt supply chains
- Why Indigenous Data Sovereignty is a uniquely Australian governance consideration
- The architectural patterns enterprises are using to balance innovation with control
- Why organisations are shifting from “cloud first” to “cloud smart”
- A practical roadmap for CIOs and enterprise leaders to strengthen sovereignty and resilience

Weaponisation of AI - A New Battlefield for Enterprise Risk

In this episode, host Saumitra Kalikar is joined by David Luchi, Head of Information Security at Flybuys, for a deep, practical conversation on how AI is being weaponised by global actors — and what this means for modern enterprises. Together, they explore why organisations are no longer bystanders in geopolitical and cyber conflict, but increasingly the battlefield itself.
In this episode, we cover:
- What “weaponisation of AI” really means — beyond autonomous weapons and hype
- How AI is transforming cyberattacks, social engineering, and disinformation
- Why enterprises are becoming proxy targets in global and economic conflict
- The growing risks to identity, trust, and executive credibility
- Where organisations are most exposed: data, AI models, platforms, and supply chains
- Why traditional security and governance models are struggling to keep up
- What CISOs, CIOs, architects, and boards must do to prepare for a hostile AI environment

Rethinking Enterprise Architecture Through the Customer Lens - with Hareesh Karra

In this episode of Enterprise Tech Talk, host Saumitra Kalikar is joined by Hareesh Karra, Senior Enterprise Architect, to explore what customer-centric enterprise architecture really means — and why so many organisations struggle to achieve it despite years of investment. In this conversation, we cover:
- Why most organisations think they are customer-centric — and why their architecture tells a different story
- The shift enterprise architects must make from technology standards to customer outcomes
- How customer journeys and value streams turn capability models into actionable investment decisions
- The role of customer data platforms and API-led architectures in enabling omnichannel experiences
- Moving beyond NPS: the metrics that actually reflect customer effort, trust, and resolution
- How AI and agent-based automation can improve customer experience and frontline productivity

Cultivating Security Culture across the Enterprise - with Daisy Wong

In this episode, Saumitra Kalikar speaks with Daisy Wong, Head of Security Culture and Awareness at Medibank, about what it really takes to cultivate security culture across an enterprise. They explore why cybersecurity is as much a people and culture challenge as it is a technical one, how organisations can move beyond checkbox training to meaningful behavior change, and why executive leadership, psychological safety, and risk-aligned awareness programs are critical to building a more resilient organisation.

Strategic Imperatives for Australian Technology Industry - 2026

What should Australian CIOs prioritise in 2026? Saumitra Kalikar identifies four strategic imperatives for enterprise technology leaders: industrialise agentic AI with measurable outcomes; design sovereign, resilient hybrid and multi-cloud platforms; shift cybersecurity toward Zero Trust, identity-first controls and AI-enabled defence; and strengthen responsible AI, data governance and regulatory compliance. A practical executive briefing on technology strategy, investment, talent, risk and resilience for Australian enterprises.

Enterprise Automation : The New Strategic Differentiator - with Richard Davies

How can enterprise automation create strategic advantage? Saumitra Kalikar and Richard Davies, APAC CTO at OutSystems, explain why automation must move beyond isolated scripts and bots to become an AI-enabled operating capability. They separate hype from value and examine intelligent automation, agentic AI, low-code delivery, governance, customer experience, operational resilience, compliance and workforce redesign. A practical guide for CIOs and transformation leaders deciding where to automate, how to scale safely and how to measure business outcomes.

Strategic AI Investment for the Enterprise — with Apurv Baviskar

How should enterprises invest in AI without wasting capital or increasing risk? Saumitra Kalikar and Apurv Baviskar explain how to connect AI investment to business outcomes, justify ROI, prevent duplicated pilots and build scalable data and technology foundations. The discussion covers enterprise AI strategy, responsible AI, model and data governance, security, workforce skills, operating roles and the shift toward agentic AI and multi-agent orchestration. A practical guide for CIOs, CDOs and AI leaders moving from experimentation to governed enterprise adoption.

Composable Enterprise - A new business paradigm

In this episode, we discuss adopting modern architecture practices to transition to composable business. we attempt to explain this paradigm, its building blocks, key benefits and the shifts required to transition to a composable business.

Safe and Scalable AI Adoption for the Enterprise

In this episode, we unpack the RoI framework, architectural, and governance mandates required to transition from GenAI pilots to trusted, autonomous Agentic AI systems.