Tech Disruptors

“We are more than 10x safer on many key safety metrics than an average human driver” says Saswat Panigrahi, Waymo chief product officer. Saswat joins Bloomberg Intelligence's Mandeep Singh to talk about the inflection in autonomous driving and how Waymo plans to scale across more cities. From the sensors used in Waymo's AVs, the evolution of its driver system and expansion of its partnerships, the discussion focuses on opportunities and remaining challenges around the rollout of AVs.

“We are moving beyond simple query-response to task completion.” AWS's Swami Sivasubramanian joins Bloomberg Intelligence Software and Technology Analyst Anurag Rana to contrast consumer chatbots with enterprise agents and the controls they require. Topics include Agent Core for secure deployment (identity, tool use, memory, observability), QuickSuite for business users, Kero for developer workflows, and Transform for code modernization. Their conversation extends into data access across silos, model choice on Bedrock, and why production agents demand governance, connectors, and context. 

Emerging AI-hardware technologies are poised to reshape data centers. Penguin Solutions CTO Phil Pokorny joins Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Woo Jin Ho to discuss how the company's bespoke engineering approach, which blends deep technical expertise with differentiated hardware and software, helps enterprises, neo-clouds and sovereign entities tackle the complexity of AI deployments across markets. The conversation also explores what it will take to stay ahead in the next phase of AI-infrastructure growth.

AI infrastructure is becoming central to enterprise innovation as companies seek faster app delivery and efficient use of computing resources. In this episode of the Tech Disruptors podcast, Rafay Systems CEO Haseeb Budhani joins Bloomberg Intelligence senior software analyst Sunil Rajgopal to discuss how Rafay helps enterprises and emerging cloud providers simplify AI deployment, optimize infrastructure costs and deliver scalable, developer-friendly experiences. The conversation highlights Rafay's consumption-based model and focus on orchestration and automation, as well as its growing role in enabling enterprises to build and monetize AI-driven platforms.

How will agentic AI change the way we shop and reshape retailers' go-to-market strategies? AWS's David Dorf joins Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Poonam Goyal and Anurag Rana on this episode of the Tech Disruptors podcast to discuss intelligent agents' growing impact on retail. Dorf explains how these AI “interns” can reason, use tools, act autonomously and even collaborate, unlocking new possibilities across retail operations. From multi-agent pricing systems and associated task automation to smarter supply chains, retailers are already beginning to apply this next wave of AI. The conversation also explores shopper-facing shifts such as agent-led checkout; answer engines like Rufus, Perplexity, OpenAI and Google; and the ripple effects on advertising, loyalty and answer-engine optimization.

“We're the only vendor that really provides that end-to-end suite and the scale and reach that Docusign has — we're able to do this across an incredibly large customer universe.” Docusign CEO Allan Thygesen tells Anurag Rana, Bloomberg Intelligence senior technology analyst. “We're passing 100 million customer contracts uploaded and extracted with AI.” On Thygesen's second visit to the Tech Disruptors podcast, the two recap the advancements Docusign has made since he was last on in 2023. The discussion covers a broad set of growth initiatives for Docusign including its Intelligent Agreement Management (IAM) and AI products, international and US Federal. Thygesen and Rana also debate the fate of the broad software industry and the seat-based pricing model in the age of AI.

“The line between AI workload and non-AI workload is getting blurrier by the day.” Prasad Kalyanaraman, VP of AWS Infrastructure Services, talks with Anurag Rana, Senior Technology Analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, about what actually changes as AI scales. Prasad lays out the realities behind “AI data centers”: denser accelerators, non-blocking training networks, and modular in-chip liquid cooling. Underneath, the data-center basic priorities hold -— security as job zero, plus availability, performance, and cost. He also explains why clusters must be fungible between training and inference so accelerators and power never sit idle, and how AWS retrofits existing regions rather than treating AI as a separate build. 

“In this world of AI, there's going to be more software, not less — and design and craft will matter more than ever,” Figma CFO Praveer Melwani says. On this episode of the Bloomberg Intelligence Tech Disruptors podcast hosted by BI technology analyst Anurag Rana, Melwani adds that Figma is a web-native, multiplayer platform for moving from idea to design to developer handoff, noting it complements rather than replaces Adobe. Melwani outlines the freemium-to-enterprise model and bundled seats (Viewer, Collab, Dev, Full). The discussion spans core Design, FigJam, Dev Mode and new Figma Make, plus integrations of third-party AI tools using model context protocol (MCP). Melwani also covers recent pricing and packaging changes, as well as how AI alters costs, usage and expectations.

“We're in the first inning right now. In the second inning, you'll see companies really adopting agents, building their own models for consumption within the organization and outward looking to their customers,” Check Point CEO Nadav Zafrir tells Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Mandeep Singh in this episode of the Tech Disruptors podcast. The two discuss the open-platform concept and runtime security as AI reshapes how cybersecurity is deployed. Zafrir also explains his rationale for acquiring Lakera and how consolidation could unfold in SASE and browser security as enterprises look to deploy more AI agents.

“I think we're at this really seminal moment from an industry where we clearly have a major inflection shaping the end-markets. Adobe is not new to inflections. In fact, the arc of time and history of the company and the ability to reinvent ourselves each and every time one of these major inflections happen, to cement our leadership position...it's a part of our heritage,” Adobe CFO Dan Durn explains to Anurag Rana, senior technology analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. The two explore each of Adobe's product clouds, customer groups and cross-cloud workflows. Durn also outlines a monetization playbook—price x quantity + value—backed by brand-safe Firefly and native model choice (first- and third-party) via generative credits. Additionally, the two cover the enterprise go-to-market, Acrobat and Express upselling, AI-influence in products and capital allocation.

“AI has become the new UI,” says Amit Zavery, ServiceNow's president, chief product officer and COO, referring to the user interface as he explains why the company is building an agentic operating system, an AI control tower to govern models and agents and end-to-end orchestration that goes beyond chat to complete work across human resources, IT, customer-service and customer-relationship management. In this episode of the Tech Disruptors podcast, Zavery and Anurag Rana, senior technology analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, dig into platform strategy, the emerging ServiceNow CRM push and what “autonomous IT” looks like in practice.

Pure Storage is disrupting a hard-disk-dominated market by solving the price, power and performance puzzle. Pure Storage CEO Charlie Giancarlo joins Bloomberg Intelligence hardware analyst Woo Jin Ho on this episode of the Tech Disruptors podcast to discuss the company's flash innovations powering enterprise AI and cloud-scale storage. 

In a rapidly evolving battery-technology landscape, Enovix stands out as a leader in advanced silicon anodes. Enovix's disruptive architecture enables a battery with high energy density and capacity, without compromising on safety, CEO Dr. Raj Talluri said. He joins Bloomberg Intelligence senior chemicals analyst Sean Gilmartin on this episode of the Tech Disruptors podcast to explain why silicon beats graphite on performance, how Enovix's unique cell architecture combats thermal runaway and the positive outlook for consumer electronics. The company is expanding its manufacturing capabilities in silicon-anode lithium-ion batteries to meet customer demand, primarily for smartphones. 

Powering brands to boost customer acquisition, retention and monetization by effectively leveraging consumer data is Zeta Global's core mission. In this Tech Disruptors podcast episode, Zeta CEO and cofounder of David Steinberg speaks with Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Niraj Patel about the company's evolution and its key differentiator: being a data- and AI-native platform. He also delves into Zeta's AI agents, the transformation of marketing communication channels and the company's ambitious revenue goals for 2028. Steinberg highlights the importance of its proprietary data cloud, which includes 550 million active users and over 1 trillion ingested signals, the multiplier impact of AI agents and the competitive landscape in the marketing industry. Listen in to hear the challenges and opportunities for growth in an AI-driven world.

“We are investing significantly in dating features right now because that's a really big item people want,” says George Arison, CEO of Grindr, noting that half of users under 35 want to be married. That contrasts with older generations, giving Grindr an opportunity to emphasize long-term relationships as well as casual connections. In this episode of the Tech Disruptors podcast, Arison speaks with Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Nicole D'Souza about how Grindr has avoided the headwinds rivals face from shifting Gen Z dating habits by catering to younger, more affluent users. They also discuss Grindr's ad strategy as the company raises ad load while keeping pricing steady, with plans to boost it through differentiated products and more direct-response advertising.

Pure Lithium aims to push the boundaries of energy storage with proprietary technology that unlocks lithium metal for the first time, disrupting both the lithium extraction and battery industries, CEO Emilie Bodoin said. The company makes a pure lithium metal anode directly from brine using its Brine-to-Battery process, producing what it says is a safer, affordable alternative to today's lithium-ion cells. Bodoin joins Bloomberg Intelligence Senior Chemicals Analyst Sean Gilmartin on this episode of the Tech Disruptors podcast to explain why she calls the lithium metal anode the “holy grail” of energy storage, how its technology can improve quality and cut costs and what's needed to build a North American battery supply chain.

“Whether or not you're changing your job, your job is changing,” says LinkedIn Chief Product Officer Tomer Cohen, who joins Anurag Rana, senior technology analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, on this episode of the Tech Disruptors podcast. Cohen discusses how LinkedIn is shifting from a simple matchmaker to a professional companion. They also explore AI that understands career aspirations, assistants that help recruiters, marketers and sellers work smarter, and learning tools that turn the skills reset into an advantage.

“What we are really focused on here is building an end-to-end space company,” says Sir Peter Beck, founder and CEO of Rocket Lab. “You can just come to one company that has all of their equipment, at scale and, and just say, look, I need this capability on orbit and we just pull all the things we need to pull off the shelf, put it together, put a spacecraft together and then go and launch it, and can even operate it for customers.” Beck talks with Bloomberg Intelligence's Wayne Sanders about Rocket Lab's vertical-integration structure and soon-to-be-featured medium-launch vehicle, Neutron. The latter comes at a critical time as space-launch cadence increases, demand for on-orbit ca

May Mobility has launched a robotaxi fleet in Atlanta through a partnership with Lyft, with standby operators included to help ease riders into the technology, Founder and CEO Edwin Olson said. Passengers booking through Lyft can opt in or out of an autonomous ride. Olson discussed May Mobility's strategy with Bloomberg Intelligence Global Head of Technology Research Mandeep Singh on this episode of the Tech Disruptors podcast, highlighting its decision to build its own hardware and algorithms rather than rely on third parties like Google's Waymo or Tesla. He also addressed how the company chooses new cities and the variable costs involved in scaling operations.

Data and identity security continues to grow in importance as enterprises face more sophisticated cyberattacks from expanding AI agents that are expanding their reach and tools. Bloomberg Intelligence's Global Head of Technology Research Mandeep Singh speaks with Cyera cofounder and CEO Yotam Segev about his company's position in the evolving cybersecurity space, especially with more consolidation on the horizon following Palo Alto Network's announced deal for CyberArk and Google's acquisition of Wiz.

NetApp has evolved into a leader in intelligent-data infrastructure from a storage pioneer, helping enterprises unify, secure and optimize their data across on-premise and the cloud environments. Bloomberg Intelligence hardware analyst Woo Jin Ho hosts NetApp CEO George Kurian to discuss how he is positioning the company's flagship data-management platform, ONTAP, along with its deep cloud partnerships, to meet the emerging demands of AI workloads and the next wave of enterprise storage growth.

Visa processes more than 65,000 transactions per second across 200-plus countries, but behind those numbers lies a tech story that's often overlooked. In this episode of the Tech Disruptors podcast, Rajat Taneja, Visa's president of technology, joins Bloomberg Intelligence global fintech and payments analyst Diksha Gera to discuss how AI has been embedded in Visa's DNA for decades, and how the company is now pushing into new frontiers — from Visa Intelligent Commerce to secure agentic payments, identity innovation and stablecoins. With $12 billion invested in technology over the past five years, Visa is building not just a payment network, but the orchestration layer for the future of global commerce.

“You need to manage your labor force now of humans and AI agents very differently”,  says Kishan Chetan, EVP & General Manager of Service Cloud at Salesforce, who argues service now means managing a blended workforce. In conversation with Anurag Rana, senior technology analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence in this episode of Tech Disruptors, he notes productivity gains of about 30% for some customers adopting agents in customer-service workflows, increasing reliance on the platform to orchestrate them. He also outlines the importance of command-center visibility for coordinating human-and-AI work, side-by-side agents that lift rep productivity, autonomous resolution across channels, and why a single platform matters as companies replace stitched-together stacks.

Databases are shifting from passive engines to reasoning tools for artificial intelligence, according to Google Cloud's Yasmeen Ahmad. She joined Bloomberg Intelligence senior technology analyst Mandeep Singh to discuss how AI agents are reshaping the market, citing production use cases involving retrieval-augmented generation and tokenization. Ahmad pointed to rising demand for databases and said Google's infrastructure — including its in-house chips and large language models — gives the company an edge in addressing return-on-investment concerns tied to AI adoption.

Enabling brands to activate their data in selling across multiple channels with a targeted message is Klaviyo's mission. The company's customer-relationship-management technology lets users scale up with a personalized approach to millions of consumers. In this Tech Disruptors podcast episode, Klaviyo Chief Product Officer Adil Wali sits down with Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Niraj Patel to discuss how the company is expanding customer reach across email, SMS, mobile and other communication channels. He dives into some emerging trends in marketing-tech automation, consumer engagement with AI agents and the industry evolution beyond batch and blast marketing. Listen in to learn about Klaviyo's opportunity beyond e-commerce and newer offerings like Customer Hub.

PayPal is betting that artificial intelligence will drive the next wave of fintech innovation — from boosting developer productivity to fighting fraud and personalizing user experiences. In this episode of Bloomberg Intelligence's Tech Disruptors podcast, Prakhar Mehrotra, PayPal's global head of AI, joins BI global fintech and payments analyst Diksha Gera to discuss how the company is preparing for “agentic commerce,” where AI agents may soon shop, decide negotiate and pay on users' behalf. The conversation explores the trust and identity frameworks needed to support autonomous digital transactions, and PayPal's view on what gives it the right to win.

Generative AI is transforming how enterprises and consultants create value, and on this episode of Tech Disruptors, Matt Wood, PwC's global and US commercial technology and innovation officer, explains how it's doing so. Wood tells Bloomberg Intelligence senior technology analyst Anurag Rana that it's a “golden era” for professional services, where the scale and impact of work could grow exponentially. He shares insights from PwC's Agent OS platform, AI adoption in regulated industries and new data on how upskilling boosts revenue per worker. The discussion also explores cloud strategy, cultural inertia in software teams and AI's role as a human amplifier.

“AI and agentic marketing is at the top of the list” as the next growth catalyst for customer engagement, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Chief Steve Hammond tells Bloomberg Intelligence, flagging the company's move to deploy autonomous, context-aware agents that personalize outreach in milliseconds. In this Tech Disruptors episode, Hammond sits down with BI senior technology analyst Anurag Rana to explore how Salesforce's Marketing Cloud unifies data across sales, service and commerce. He also discusses the role of AI-powered agents and real-time personalization, and why integrated, trust-centric customer data positions marketers for resilience through economic cycles.

AT&T aims to maintain a lead in the US fiber market to sustain growth as its core wireless business slows. In this episode of Tech Disruptors, Jeff McElfresh, Chief Operating Officer of AT&T, speaks with Bloomberg Intelligence analyst John Butler about the company's plan to expand its base to more than 60 million locations by 2030, from just over 30 million today. They also discuss how solid planning and execution have helped the company to sustain steady subscriber gains in its wireless business amid rising competition and fierce pricing pressure.

AI “is about aligning the semantics of the data, and that's again why I believe a suite of applications has advantages. If not, the customer has to do it themselves,” Jan Gilg, SAP's chief revenue officer for the Americas and Global Business Suite, tells Anurag Rana, senior technology analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. In this Tech Disruptors episode, the two discuss SAP's Business Data Cloud, its open multi-large-language-model approach, the Joule digital assistant's cross-application orchestration and how these advances reshape cloud enterprise resource planning and enterprise-scale AI adoption.

Quantum computing remains an area of high interest as use cases hinge on improving qubits and making them less error-prone for calculations. According to Professor Lene Oddershede, chief scientific officer for Planetary Science & Technology at the Novo Nordisk Foundation, the field is on the cusp of exponential growth in the coming years. She joins Bloomberg Intelligence's analysts Mandeep Singh and Sam Fazeli on this episode of the Tech Disruptors podcast to discuss the applications of quantum computing, its adoption timeline, key roadblocks, standards, benchmarks and its convergence with classical computing.

Work-management platforms are being redefined by AI, new pricing models and intensifying competition. In this Tech Disruptors episode, Smartsheet CEO Mark Mader joins Bloomberg Intelligence senior software analyst Sunil Rajgopal to discuss how technology evaluation is changing in the AI era, with companies balancing “buy vs. build” decisions, and Smartsheet's evolution from seat-based pricing to more flexible, consumption-driven models. The conversation highlights Smartsheet's focus on specialized AI solutions to avoid commoditization, the strategic role of M&A, its vision for future product and business growth and how the company is evolving under the private ownership of Blackstone and Vista.

HP Enterprise has leveraged its deep supercomputing roots to play a leading role in the AI-infrastructure revolution. Bloomberg Intelligence hardware analyst Woo Jin Ho hosts HPE Senior Vice President of High Performance Computing & AI Trish Damkroger to discuss how the company's rich supercomputing technology portfolio, such as fanless liquid cooling, AI networking and clustering compute, puts it in good position to steer the next generation of AI compute.

Roblox CEO Dave Baszucki said an immersive 3D co-experience is going to form the future foundation for how people communicate, connect, shop, learn and play together — even how they experience entertainment. Gaming has always been at the forefront of 3D communication. Baszucki joins Bloomberg Intelligence's head of technology research, Mandeep Singh, to discuss the use of AI in gaming, infrastructure, engagement and content safety among other topics. They also cover changes to the Roblox platform and the evolution of the virtual economy, including the adoption of stablecoins.

“AI is a distributed system — and the network is the computer,” says Ram Velaga, senior vice president of Broadcom's Core Switching Group. In this episode of Tech Disruptors, Velaga joins Bloomberg Intelligence's Kunjan Sobhani to explain how Ethernet is expanding from scale-out AI networking into the scale-up domain, challenging proprietary solutions like NVLink and Infiniband. The discussion covers Broadcom's Tomahawk 6 and Ultra product lines, its open SUE spec, and why simplicity, bandwidth and vendor neutrality may shape the next generation of AI infrastructure.

The current phase of software development is probably the most insecure era ever — there's so much more application and code that's vulnerable, according to Snyk CEO Peter McKay. “It was a struggle for security teams to keep up with the pace of software development prior to generative AI, and now with generative and copilot and Windsurf and all the tools that are out there, you know, they're moving even faster and security is struggling to keep up.” McKay joins Bloomberg Intelligence's head of technology research, Mandeep Singh, to discuss the application of large-language models for securing the use of tools, including Cursor and Github copilots. He also talks about the addressable market for DevSecOps (the development, security and operations approach), potential automation driven by AI and Snyk's acquisitions for both talent and product features as the attack surface expands in cybersecurity.

Helping knowledge workers and businesses connect in a work marketplace is Upwork's central mission. A new wave of freelance workers is disrupting typical hiring channels and helping enterprises fill their talent and skills gaps. In this Tech Disruptors podcast episode, Upwork CEO and President Hayden Brown sits down with Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Niraj Patel to outline the company's product suite, approach to over 830,000 customers and changing dynamics of work. She discusses its core offering, investments for the enterprise segment and recently launched AI agent, UMA. Listen in to learn about the movement of global freelancers, which number over 250,000 globally, and the sea changes underway in filling the demand for AI talent.

The tech DNA is what's missing in the power industry, according to Intersect Power CEO Sheldon Kimber. “The fastest-growing technology the world has ever seen is now basically stuck behind one of the most boring and least innovative industries in the world.” In this episode of the Tech Disruptors podcast, Kimber joins Bloomberg Intelligence's head of technology research, Mandeep Singh, to discuss power needs tied to AI data centers and the infrastructure build-out by hyperscalers. They also cover power needs for training vs. inferencing, the various sources of power and how it's stored for maximum efficiency, and being a disruptor in a field that can't always wait for the government to upgrade the transmission system.  

Front-end development is rapidly evolving, driven by large-language models, agentic workflows and serverless architecture — enabling smarter, scalable apps and blurring front- and back-end boundaries. In this episode of the Tech Disruptors podcast, Vercel's Chief Operating Officer Jeanne DeWitt Grosser joins Bloomberg Intelligence senior analyst Sunil Rajgopal to discuss the company's go-to-market strategy, enterprise growth and revenue expansion. They also explore Vercel's core offerings — ranging from managed infrastructure to developer collaboration tools and AI-native application development. The conversation highlights how Vercel is powering AI workloads through custom code-correction models, infrastructure upgrades and rapid prototyping with v0, while expanding globally to support both technical and non-technical users.

While the tech world watches Hewlett Packard Enterprise's proposed acquisition of Juniper Networks unfold, Juniper is still moving ahead. CEO Rami Rahim joins Bloomberg Intelligence's Woo Jin Ho to unpack how Juniper is seizing the AI moment and driving market-share gains with cutting-edge innovations like 800G AI switching and Mist AI. From cloud data centers to campus networks, discover how Juniper is redefining leadership in AI infrastructure and network automation.

Data centers that are being designed today will need to accommodate IT technology of the future and remain viable during their 15-20-year life cycle. In this episode of Tech Disruptors, Vertiv CEO Giordano Albertazzi and Bloomberg Intelligence's senior industrials analyst Mustafa Okur talk about the evolving power and cooling needs of data centers and whether a changing use case from training AI models to inference may reduce infrastructure equipment demand. They also discuss the next wave for data-center infrastructure demand, how the next upgrade cycle could be different and when liquid cooling might become the dominant category in heat rejection.

Stack Overflow has long been the go-to platform for developers to learn, collaborate and solve coding challenges. In this Tech Disruptors episode, Bloomberg Intelligence senior analyst Sunil Rajgopal speaks with Stack Overflow CEO Prashanth Chandrasekar on how generative AI is reshaping developer workflows and platform strategy. They discuss the company's pivot toward enterprise use cases, including private knowledge sharing, agentic AI integration and data licensing. The conversation also explores major partnerships with AI and cloud providers and Stack Overflow's evolving role in a rapidly changing developer ecosystem.