For years, IT teams have been forced to manage growing complexity with more tools, more dashboards, and more manual effort. What if AI could help bring all of that together? At Cisco Live, I sat down with DJ Sampath, SVP & GM, AI Software and Platform at Cisco The Ravit Show, to discuss Cisco Cloud Control, AI Canvas, and how AI is changing the way IT teams operate. A few key insights from our conversation: - Operational fragmentation continues to be one of the biggest challenges for enterprise IT teams - Cisco Cloud Control is focused on providing a more unified way to manage increasingly complex Cisco environments - AI Canvas is designed to be more than an assistant. It introduces an agentic workspace where people and AI can work together to solve problems - Some IT challenges are too complex for a single tool or a single person. A collaborative, multiplayer approach can help teams move faster and make better decisions - The future of IT operations may be less about navigating dashboards and more about orchestrating outcomes with AI-powered systems One thing that stood out to me: The conversation around AI is shifting from answering questions to helping teams take action. That's a very different future than the one many organizations are planning for today. Great discussion with DJ on what AI-native platforms could mean for enterprise operations over the next few years. #data #cisco #ciscolive #ai #theravitshow

AI agents are not replacing people. They're becoming part of the workforce. At Databricks Data + AI Summit, I spoke to my very good friend, Robin Sutara, Americas AI Capability Leader at Databricks, for a conversation on what it really takes to build an AI-enabled organization. One insight that stood out: AI agents should be treated like interns. They need context. They need clear tasks. They need feedback. Without those three things, even the best AI systems struggle to deliver value. We also discussed: -- How leading organizations are building a builder culture around AI -- Moving beyond simple automation to drive real operational productivity -- Why companies need to rethink workflows instead of automating broken processes -- The balance between governance, security, and innovation -- How tools like Genie and Databricks Assistant are making data and AI accessible to everyone, not just Python developers -- What it takes to scale AI adoption across the enterprise The companies seeing the biggest results are not just deploying AI. They are redesigning how work gets done. The full interview is now live. #Databricks #DataAISummit #AI #GenerativeAI #AgenticAI #DataAndAI #EnterpriseAI #TheRavitShow

Data + AI Summit by Databricks is in full swing!!!! Just finished talking with Steven Touw, CTO at Immuta, on The Ravit Show, about one of the problems nobody is talking about yet but everybody will be talking about in six months. The problem: an AI agent needs access to data inside your Databricks lakehouse. What do most enterprises do right now? They plug in the agent with a user’s OAuth token. The agent inherits everything that user can access. Simple. Done. Here is what actually happens next: the agent now has a user’s full permissions. If the agent gets compromised, your data does too. If the agent runs a query you did not intend, it looks like that user ran it. If you need to revoke access, you have to revoke the whole user. The audit trail tells you a person did the work when a machine did it. Steve calls this the authentication-authorization gap for agents. Everyone is solving for “can the agent prove who it is” and ignoring “can we control what it actually does.” The alternative is what he calls “on behalf of” access. The agent can act on behalf of a user but does not inherit their full permissions. It gets a scoped token. It can only touch the specific tables and columns it needs. It can only do the operations it was designed to do. If it breaks, the damage is bounded. The audit log is honest. Revocation is surgical. This is not an Immuta problem. This is a security architecture problem that every company building production agents needs to solve right now. Watch the full conversation in the video below. This is the kind of problem that separates the companies shipping agents safely from the ones that are going to have a very bad incident next year. #data #ai #access #security #databricks #api #immuta #theravitshow

Everyone wants enterprise AI. Very few are talking about where the data lives, who controls it, and how it stays secure. At Cisco Live, I sat down with Rajeev Khanolkar, Chief Strategy Officer at Gruve, to discuss the launch of PulseAI Platform and why the future of enterprise AI may look very different from the public AI services dominating today's conversation. A few key takeaways: * Many organizations are still struggling to move beyond AI experimentation because security, governance, and data control remain unresolved * Enterprise AI cannot be a one-size-fits-all model. Different workloads require different deployment approaches depending on where data resides * The ability to run AI on-premises, in the cloud, or across hybrid environments is becoming increasingly important as enterprises balance innovation with compliance and risk * Security can no longer be bolted on after deployment. It needs to be part of the AI architecture from the start * Pre-integrated platforms can significantly reduce the time and complexity required to move AI initiatives into production One point that stood out to me: The AI race isn't just about building better models. It's about giving enterprises the confidence to use AI with their most valuable data while maintaining control, security, and flexibility. Great conversation with Rajeev on private AI, enterprise security, and what organizations should be thinking about as they scale AI adoption. #data #ai #ciscolive #gruve #observability #api #agents #theravitshow

Are dashboards becoming irrelevant in the age of Agentic AI? I recently sat down with Clarence Rozario from Zoho on The Ravit Show for an in-depth conversation on one of the biggest shifts happening in Data & AI right now: Agentic Analytics!!!! For years, business intelligence has focused on helping people understand what happened. Now we're entering a new era where analytics can help recommend actions, support decisions, and even automate parts of business workflows. In this conversation, we explored: * How BI has evolved from reporting and dashboards to Agentic Analytics * Why enterprises are shifting from insights to outcomes * Whether dashboards still have a role in the AI era * How Agentic AI is changing decision-making inside organizations * Why Context Engineering may become one of the most important capabilities for enterprise AI * The growing importance of semantic layers, business context, and trusted data foundations * Why Data & Analytics platforms must evolve to support agentic systems One theme stood out throughout our discussion: AI is only as good as the context and data foundation behind it. Without the trusted business context, even the smartest agents will struggle to deliver reliable decisions. What role do you think dashboards will play in a world increasingly driven by AI agents? #data #ai #agentic #ai #dashboards #api #semanticlayer #theravitshow

Most organizations are focused on deploying AI. But is their network ready for it? At Cisco Live, I sat down with Anurag Dhingra, SVP & GM, Enterprise Connectivity and Collaboration at Cisco on The Ravit Show, to discuss what it really takes to build an AI-ready enterprise. A few key themes from our conversation: * AI is increasing the demands on enterprise networks in ways traditional architectures were never designed for. * Organizations need networks that can operate, secure, and adapt at machine speed as AI workloads continue to grow. * Managing infrastructure across data centers, multiple clouds, and edge environments remains a major challenge for enterprise teams. * Simplifying connectivity is becoming just as important as improving performance. * The next evolution of networking is not just supporting AI workloads. It's using AI to operate, optimize, and secure the network itself. One insight that stood out: There's a big difference between adding AI to an existing network and building a network designed for an AI-first world. As AI becomes embedded across the enterprise, networking is moving from being a supporting function to a strategic foundation. Great conversation with Anurag on the future of enterprise connectivity, multicloud networking, and AI-driven operations. #data #cisco #ciscolive #ai #theravitshow