Tech Disruptors

“The bottleneck isn't really having ideas; the bottleneck is execution,” Gautier Cloix, CEO of H Company, tells Bloomberg Intelligence Senior Technology Analyst Anurag Rana. “What we do is basically [make] execution infinite so we can focus on intention and ideas and strategy.” In this episode of Tech Disruptors, the pair discuss how computer-use agents can operate enterprise software through existing user interfaces, enabling companies to automate workflows without first rebuilding, migrating or integrating their technology stacks. Cloix also explains why H Company combines specialized, lower-cost models with forward-deployed engineers to target measurable ROI, turning legacy software into an asset and creating an execution layer across disconnected enterprise systems.

Faster AI code generation is increasing the need for governance, security and control across the software-development life cycle, says Bill Staples, GitLab's CEO. Staples joins Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Mandeep Singh on this episode of the Tech Disruptors podcast to discuss GitLab's position as a cloud- and model-neutral orchestration layer for coding agents, as well as the shift from seat-based subscriptions toward a hybrid model that includes consumption pricing for agentic workloads.

“Ninety percent of all of our proofs of concept convert to long-term contracts because the ROI case is so clear,” Clay Bavor, co-founder of Sierra, tells Bloomberg Intelligence senior technology analyst Anurag Rana. The pair discuss the evolution from single-interaction service bots to long-horizon agents that can reason across weeks or months, coordinate conversations across multiple channels and pursue high-value outcomes such as mortgage origination, customer retention and sales. Bavor explains why the context layer could become a critical source of competitive advantage, enabling agents to build memory from each customer interaction and use those insights to deliver increasingly personalized and productive experiences.

AI is reshaping enterprise technology spending, expanding infrastructure demand beyond graphics processing units into servers, storage and networking while raising new questions about cloud economics and on-premises deployments. TD SYNNEX CEO Patrick Zammit joins Bloomberg Intelligence senior technology analyst Woo Jin Ho on this episode of the Tech Disruptors podcast to discuss enterprise demand, supply-chain dynamics, AI adoption and why the next phase of AI could broaden the opportunity across the technology stack.

“60% of the bank's code is AI generated,” Leigh-Ann Russell, Chief Information Officer and Global Head of Engineering at BNY, tells Bloomberg Intelligence Senior Analysts Paul Gulberg and Anurag Rana. In this episode, the group discusses how BNY built Eliza as a model-agnostic AI platform and governance layer to expand access to AI while maintaining control over data, spending and risk. Russell explains how AI is increasing engineering capacity, supporting digital employees and cybersecurity, and helping BNY modernize systems and prepare for always-on financial markets.

Okta President and COO Eric Kelleher discusses the growing importance of agent identity security as open-source models narrow the gap with frontier LLMs. Kelleher joins Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Mandeep Singh on this episode of the Tech Disruptors podcast to discuss how Okta is adapting to the rise of agentic identities and the industry's shift from a seat-based to a token-consumption business model.

Workday is transforming “from Workday.com to Workday.ai,” Gerrit Kazmaier, president of product and technology, tells Bloomberg Intelligence senior technology analyst Anurag Rana in this episode of the Tech Disruptors podcast. They discuss how cognitive computing is reshaping enterprise software, why deterministic systems such as payroll remain essential and how AI agents could transform recruiting, travel, expenses and employee services. Kazmaier explains how Workday is combining trusted HR and finance data, outcome-based pricing and a fleet of specialized models to deliver accurate automation while reducing deployment complexity and expanding further into the midmarket.

The application software industry is facing a mega restructuring with the arrival of AI agents in enterprise workflows. On this episode of the Tech Disruptors podcast, HubSpot Chief Product and Technology Officer Duncan Lennox discusses AI's effect on marketing, sales and service applications. He joins Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Niraj Patel to explore how HubSpot is leveraging AI across its software portfolio for small and medium-sized businesses. Duncan dives into the company's proprietary data stack, the changing landscape for customer relationship management, AI's impact on software buying, managing LLM inference costs, HubSpot's new agent-builder solution and more.

Artificial intelligence is moving beyond chatbots and into the cab, helping trucking fleets improve safety, efficiency and asset utilization. In this special crossover episode of Talking Transports and Bloomberg Intelligence's Tech Disruptors podcast, Samsara co-founder and CEO Sanjit Biswas joins BI senior transportation and logistics analyst Lee Klaskow and senior software analyst Niraj Patel to discuss how AI is transforming physical operations. Biswas explains how Samsara's platform combines Internet-of-Things devices, AI-powered cameras, telematics and workflow software to help transportation companies optimize routing, automate maintenance, improve shipment visibility and reduce risk. He also discusses why proprietary operational data is becoming a key competitive advantage and how AI agents are evolving from analytics tools into real-time operational assistants across the logistics industry.

Co-CEO of Solidigm Xin Guo joins Bloomberg Intelligence's Jake Silverman on this episode of the Tech Disruptors podcast to discuss how AI is reshaping data-center storage as NAND flash-memory prices continue their unprecedented rise. They explore the technologies driving greater solid-state-drive adoption, including KV cache, which stores AI models' working memory during inference, and why the shift to agentic AI could lift NAND content to as much as 25 exabytes (25 million terabytes) per gigawatt of deployed compute. The conversation also examines how longer-term supply contracts may reshape memory cyclicality, creating a different industry cycle over time.

“We literally have CEOs on public earnings calls saying that their revenue is lower than it would have been because they couldn't serve all of the demand that they have,” says Adam Selipsky, co-founder and CEO of Helix Digital Infrastructure and former AWS CEO. In this episode of Tech Disruptors, Selipsky and co-founder Waldemar Szlezak, global head of Digital Infrastructure at KKR, speak with Bloomberg Intelligence associate director of research Alexandra Davidov and senior technology analyst Anurag Rana to discuss how Helix is addressing the bottleneck in physical AI scaffolding. They explain why traditional, uncoordinated data-center projects fail, how strategic partnerships with Vistra and Nvidia provide a single-counterparty solution and what it takes to build repeatable, long-term compute capacity at scale.

“For what we call our essential services, that's what supports critical infrastructure, we have to be able to apply a change within 24 hours. Now, think about the implications of that to how you build and deliver, build, package, deliver software,” says Lori Beer, JPMorgan Chase global CIO. In this episode of Tech Disruptors, Beer and Alison Williams, Bloomberg Intelligence director of research, global strategy, explore the double-edged sword of AI in cybersecurity, from offensive model threats to automated vulnerability detection. Beer outlines the bank's proactive posture, the importance of open-source hygiene, and how AI-driven speed is transforming defenses for global financial systems.

“The searches that you're doing on Claude require the consumption of energy and at some point the system should hit a breaking point,” says George Bilicic, Lazard vice chairman of investment banking and global head of power, energy and infrastructure. Bilicic joins Bloomberg Intelligence's Alexandra Davidov and Rob Barnett on this episode of the Tech Disruptors podcast to discuss why AI and data-center demand are reshaping the outlook for utilities, power markets and infrastructure investment. They also explore why the next phase of the build-out will require more than simply adding generation wherever demand appears. The conversation covers financing, M&A, grid constraints, gas, renewables, storage, nuclear, permitting and Lazard's latest work on the levelized cost of energy (LCOE).

“One of the things that's been universally true ... is the human desire to travel is really strong. It's very consistent,” says James Waters, chief business officer of Booking.com. Waters joins Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Nicole D'Souza on this episode of the Tech Disruptors podcast to discuss the outlook for global travel demand. They also explore the effect of macroeconomic and geopolitical trends on the industry and how Booking.com is using AI to enhance trip planning, customer service and marketing. The conversation examines the company's competitive positioning, loyalty strategy and growth in alternative accommodations and experiences, as well as how Booking is preparing for an AI-driven future in travel.

The chip design industry continues to push the frontier of semiconductor power, performance and area. On this episode of the Tech Disruptors podcast, Synopsys Vice President of AI and Machine Learning Thomas Andersen discusses the evolution of the company's AI portfolio. He joins Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Niraj Patel to explain how Synopsys progressed from leveraging AI through reinforcement learning across design, verification and test workflows to introducing AgentEngineer, a multi-agent AI-orchestrated workflow. Andersen also discusses the intersection of simulation and electronic design automation (EDA), the role of humans in the loop for chip design, AI's current shortcomings, the pace of AI-tool adoption, the industry's path beyond Moore's law and much more.

In this episode IOWN Global Forum board members Chris Wright (Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice President of Global Engineering, Red Hat) and Jefferson Wang (Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer, Cloud, Accenture) talk through the accelerating shift towards photonics-based networks and how this next-generation technology can help unlock the full potential of the AI economy. Replacing electrical-based connectivity with optics promises to drastically increase processing speeds, reduce latency, and lower power consumption for high-demand AI, cloud computing, and financial networks.

Uniphore CEO Umesh Sachdev joins Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Mandeep Singh on this episode of the Tech Disruptors podcast to discuss his company's platform for developing ontologies compared with the use of forward-deployed engineers (FDEs) by hyperscalers and frontier large-language-model companies. He explores Uniphore's approach to leveraging small language models for use cases such as claims and billing, as well as the trade-offs with frontier models used for cybersecurity and coding agents.

“So, there are plenty of failure points, and when you have hundreds of thousands or millions of something, something will eventually fail,” Peter Salanki, co-founder and CTO of CoreWeave, tells Bloomberg Intelligence Senior Technology Analyst Anurag Rana. “Instead of throwing out half the potential capacity, we say that we expect some of these to fail. Then we build systems, automation and processes around handling those failures gracefully.” In this episode of Tech Disruptors, the pair discuss why AI infrastructure requires a fundamentally different architecture to traditional CPU-based cloud. Salanki also explains how CoreWeave is addressing training, inference and agentic workloads while navigating token costs, Nvidia chip demand and power constraints.

The governance landscape for AI agents is evolving amid new developments around agentic workflows, says SailPoint President Matt Mills. He joins Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Mandeep Singh on this episode of the Tech Disruptors podcast. The conversation also explores how agentic AI could reshape identity governance, from internal functions and product capabilities to potential shifts in pricing models and customer adoption.

“Source code became almost free, like cheap and not important. And binaries became king because this is the outcome,” says Shlomi Ben Haim, co-founder and CEO of JFrog. Ben Haim joins Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Mandeep Singh in this episode of the Tech Disruptors podcast to discuss the impact of large-language-model coding agents, the challenges of keeping up with model guardrails, and why software supply-chain security and governance are top of mind for modern enterprises. Ben Haim explains how JFrog acts as the infrastructure and control plane for developer workflows, using JFrog Boost, a Model Context Protocol registry and JFrog Curation to help customers optimize token consumption, block malicious packages and automate software governance without compromising speed.

“The minute it worked, we actually started to use smaller models for the things we knew that it worked and see what they could accomplish at a fraction of the price,” says Matt Hicks, CEO of Red Hat, in a discussion with Bloomberg Intelligence Senior Technology Analyst Anurag Rana. In this episode of the Tech Disruptors podcast, the pair discuss Red Hat's role inside IBM, the durability of hybrid cloud and why OpenShift, virtualization and AI are becoming key growth drivers. Hicks explains how Red Hat is applying AI across engineering and business operations, using smaller models, containers and OpenShift to help customers build more flexible, cost-efficient AI infrastructure.

“Data centers are here to stay, and the world is going to need them as AI adoption accelerates,” says Steven Siesser, partner at Lowenstein Sandler, chair of the firm's private equity practice and co-lead of its data center practice, in conversation with Bloomberg Intelligence's Associate Director of Research Alexandra Davidov and Senior Technology Analyst Anurag Rana. In this episode of Tech Disruptors, they discuss how AI data centers are reshaping infrastructure finance, from hyperscaler-backed leases and neo-cloud credit risk to private equity, private credit and sovereign capital. Siesser explains why power, community acceptance and supply-chain constraints remain key bottlenecks, while long-term leases and hyperscaler demand are reshaping how lenders underwrite the build-out.

The cybersecurity industry is facing unprecedented challenges as AI models become more capable. On this episode of Tech Disruptors, SentinelOne co-founder and CEO Tomer Weingarten talks about deploying security for AI agents and the evolution of the security operations center (SOC) with LLMs. He joins Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Mandeep Singh to discuss the impact of Anthropic Mythos, M&A in cybersecurity and the changing nature of attacks as tools become more sophisticated.

Matt Fitzpatrick, CEO of Invisible Technologies, joins Bloomberg Intelligence's Mandeep Singh on this episode of the Tech Disruptors podcast to discuss the use of reinforcement learning by frontier model providers for training, as well as the company's enterprise business. They explore reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF), agentic AI and self-improvement, the evolution of large language models, coding agents and contact centers.

Artificial intelligence is reshaping banking infrastructure, from accelerating core migrations to enabling agentic experiences that can automate complex workflows. In this episode of Bloomberg Intelligence's Tech Disruptors podcast, Vishal Dalal, chief product officer of financial solutions at Fiserv, joins BI fintech and payments analyst Diksha Gera to discuss how banks are using AI to modernize legacy systems and improve data quality while managing security, compliance and governance risks. The conversation explores Fiserv's vision for AgentOS, an intelligence layer that sits on top of bank data and applications, enabling agents to interact dynamically across platforms.

As AI infrastructure scales up, the conversation is moving beyond graphic processing units (GPUs). Faster compute creates new pressure on the data layer, and companies are increasingly focused on whether their infrastructure can move, manage, protect and deliver data fast enough to keep AI systems productive. In this episode of Tech Disruptors, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Woo Jin Ho speaks with Alex Bouzari, CEO of DDN, about the company's role in AI data infrastructure, the shift from storage to broader data platforms, DDN's high-performance computing heritage, its work with Nvidia and the business-model changes taking shape as AI moves from experimentation to production.

“It's clear to us that the world is short compute right now, and the industry is racing to catch up,” Rob Bittencourt, partner and head of thematic investing at Apollo, tells Bloomberg Intelligence's Alexandra Davidov and Paul Gulberg on this episode of the Tech Disruptors podcast. Bittencourt discusses why AI is becoming a private-credit story, with trillions of dollars of data-center, power, chip and infrastructure investment needed to support the next phase of adoption. He also explains how Apollo underwrites AI infrastructure risk, why hyperscaler demand and investment-grade financing matter, and how investors should separate temporary software valuation resets from true business-model disruption.

“This year is a much more radical technology shift and the most consequential, I believe, ever. But still, you need all foundations of the house to be in order,” Sebastian Steinhaeuser, Chief Operating Officer at SAP, tells Bloomberg Intelligence Senior Technology Analyst Anurag Rana. In this episode of Tech Disruptors, the pair discuss SAP's autonomous enterprise vision, the rise of Joule assistants and agents, and why AI may strengthen the case for cloud migration, data modernization, and application consolidation. Steinhaeuser explains how SAP is embedding business process context, governance, and industry-specific knowledge into its agentic layer while navigating shifts in software pricing, model strategy, and customer demand for measurable AI adoption.

“Every data center will need some part of AI capabilities to run workloads like inference, because it's just becoming such a fundamental part of all of this cloud technology,” says Alistair Speirs, general manager of Microsoft's Azure Infrastructure. Speirs joins Bloomberg Intelligence Senior Technology Analyst Anurag Rana on this episode of the Tech Disruptors podcast to discuss how AI infrastructure is reshaping the modern data center, from liquid cooling and dense networking to custom silicon and distributed supercomputing. Speirs explains how Azure is preparing for a world where training, inference and traditional workloads increasingly converge, making software-defined infrastructure, power availability and global scale central to Microsoft's cloud strategy.

Bloomberg Intelligence Head of Technology Research Mandeep Singh is joined by Nicole Hu, a Silicon Valley technology veteran and GLG expert, to explore the implications of Google's TurboQuant paper and the evolving economics of AI infrastructure. As hyperscalers look to improve the efficiency of AI workloads, advances in quantization are redefining the tradeoffs between memory and compute, with far-reaching implications for cost, latency, and datacenter architecture. They examine how new approaches to model optimization and inference could reshape hardware requirements, deployment strategies, and the next wave of AI investment.

“OpenAI has only two AI accelerator compute vendors in production today, Cerebras and Nvidia,” Cerebras CEO Andrew Feldman says. Four days after Cerebras went public, Feldman joined Bloomberg Intelligence's Kunjan Sobhani to discuss the company's next chapter and the rapidly shifting AI infrastructure landscape. Feldman breaks down the OpenAI deal, the strategic AWS partnership around disaggregated inference and why Cerebras believes fast inference is becoming the industry's defining battleground. He explains how Cerebras evolved from building the world's largest chip to operating one of the fastest inference platforms, why disaggregated inference could reshape hyperscale AI deployments and how the company is navigating power, memory and data-center constraints. The episode also explores the competitive landscape beyond GPUs and Feldman's broader perspective on the next phase of AI compute.

Younger users of dating apps want “lower pressure” and “more authentic ways of connecting,” and Tinder's new products aimed at meeting those needs appear to be aiding Match Group's turnaround, CFO Steve Bailey says. Bailey joins Bloomberg Intelligence's Nicole D'Souza on this episode of the Tech Disruptors podcast to discuss how dating-app behavior is changing after the pandemic, why Gen Z women are central to Tinder's strategy, and how AI, product updates and helping users connect in real life could reshape growth.

“The more microservices that you have, the more agent-ready you are because you can at least start taking these components, and convert them into agent infrastructure,” says Asa Kalavade, vice president of AWS Transform to Bloomberg Intelligence senior technology analyst Anurag Rana. The pair discuss how agentic AI is accelerating legacy modernization across mainframe, NET, VMware and other enterprise workloads. Kalavade explains how AWS Transform combines deterministic methods with AI to understand old systems, generate modern code and shrink projects that once took years into far shorter timelines, while also making applications more cloud- and agent-ready. She notes that in just one year, AWS Transform has helped customers save more than 1.6 million hours of manual effort and analyze 4.5 billion lines of code as they migrate and modernize applications in the cloud.

Quantum computing is approaching an inflection point, with dozens of companies racing to be the first to achieve widespread commercialization. In this episode of the Tech Disruptors podcast, QuEra Computing Chief Commercial Officer Yuval Boger joins Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Jake Silverman to discuss why neutral atom quantum computing could prove the most successful among a variety of approaches and unlock scalable, lower-cost quantum systems. They also explore what quantum computing is, technological hurdles that exist today and the applications where quantum is likely to have the largest impact — potentially in just a few years — including drug discovery, logistics and AI.

As companies shift from one-way customer notifications to AI-powered, personalized conversations at scale, developers need advanced communications infrastructure to build omnichannel digital messages. Twilio — which powers B2C SMS, two-factor authentication, customer alerts and reminders alongside other digital interactions — has positioned itself as critical infrastructure for the AI era. Growth is accelerating and new products are poised to offer an added lift to revenue. In this episode of the Tech Disruptors podcast, CEO Khozema Shipchandler joins Bloomberg Intelligence senior telecom analyst John Butler to discuss Twilio's turnaround, its new Conversations suite, digital messaging tools, and the rising importance of identity, governance and observability amid the rise of AI agents. They also explore voice and self-serve trends, carrier fees, competition and investment priorities.

AI agents are reshaping enterprise workflows, increasing the importance of organizational context and connected data. Atlassian CEO and co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes joins Bloomberg Intelligence senior software analyst Sunil Rajgopal to discuss how Atlassian is embedding AI across Jira, Confluence and service-management tools through its Rovo platform and Teamwork Graph. “The future is about human and agent collaboration,” Cannon-Brookes says. The discussion also covers enterprise AI adoption, developer productivity and API-driven software infrastructure.

Seagate has become a critical enabler of hyperscale and AI-driven data infrastructure. In this episode of the Tech Disruptors podcast, CEO Dave Mosley tells Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Woo Jin Ho how storage demand is evolving with cloud and AI workloads, from nearline hard-disk-drive adoption to next-generation technologies such as HAMR. The podcast also explores how AI is reshaping storage architecture and data growth, Seagate's approach to supply discipline and margin expansion and how competitive positioning influences its longer-term growth trajectory.

Enabling mid-market businesses to ramp up customer support and employee experience is Freshworks' primary focus. The company is expanding its AI suite — AI Agents, AI Copilot and AI Insights — to handle a range of business tasks, from password resets to product returns, for its 75,000 customers. In this Tech Disruptors podcast episode, Freshworks CEO Dennis Woodside speaks with Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Niraj Patel about the company's evolution from a small-business software provider to serving mid-market (500-5,000 employees) and enterprise clients. Tune in as Woodside discusses the SaaSpocalypse, opportunities beyond the IT service desk such as asset and operations management, evolving buyer behavior with AI tools, AI pricing and more.

“For commercial companies trying to operate in this space, they have to be willing to understand that what they're building is fundamentally different, and if they're not willing to invest in this way, they can struggle with adoption,” said Skyler Onken, co-founder of Twenty, an offensive-cyber company seeking to reshape cyber warfare. On this episode of the Tech Disruptors podcast, Onken joins Bloomberg Intelligence senior defense weapons analyst Wayne Sanders to discuss the speed, scaling and complexity of cyberspace operations in a new age of warfare. Offensive cyberspace operations were once a cloak-and-dagger domain reserved for top defense primes and the military. That has shifted in the US, where offensive cyber is becoming more scalable and commercialized, with strong results. 

Stablecoins are emerging as the core plumbing of on-chain finance, pulling payments, reserves and eventually broader capital markets onto blockchain rails. In this episode of the Tech Disruptors podcast, Charles Cascarilla, CEO and co-founder of Paxos, joins BI analyst Diksha Gera to discuss how this shift can improve access, speed and efficiency across financial markets, with PayPal and Schwab as early proof points in payments and brokerage channels. Listen to hear why bringing assets on-chain could become a natural next step for financial institutions.

Zscaler CEO Jay Chaudhry discusses Anthropic's Mythos and its implications for AI agent deployments in a wide-ranging conversation with Bloomberg Intelligence's Mandeep Singh in this episode of the Tech Disruptors podcast. They explore the changing nature of the cybersecurity landscape, from securing AI agent identities to zero-day attacks enabled by AI coding agents.

To solve the employee-support problem, “you actually have to solve the automation problem,” Serval co-founder and CEO Jake Stauch tells Bloomberg Intelligence senior technology analyst Anurag Rana on the Tech Disruptors podcast. In this episode, they discuss why Jake believes IT service-management (ITSM) providers such as ServiceNow are being disrupted by AI-native automation rather than better ticketing systems. They examine Serval's approach to turning natural-language requests into deterministic workflows, why large enterprises are willing to replace entrenched ITSM platforms despite long migration cycles and how AI could reshape employee support, automation and the economics of internal service teams.