Tech Disruptors

Russia invasion of Ukraine “has completely reframed perceptions of drone utility and value. Where once high-end, exquisite systems dominated the procurement logic, today there's a much clearer recognition that quantity and replaceability are just as critical,” says AV Chief Growth Officer Church Hutton. On this episode of the Tech Disruptors podcast, Hutton tells Bloomberg Intelligence senior defense weapons analyst Wayne Sanders how the landscape of drone technologies and the scalability of platforms must balance between rapid production and programs of record, while maintaining a technological advantage over adversary weapon systems. Critical to this process is reducing “cost per effect” so that we're no longer shooting down $10,000 drones with million-dollar interceptors. AV and other defense tech companies continue to have this as their mission statement.

Ciena is expanding from its telecom optical roots to become a critical enabler of AI-driven data-center infrastructure. In this episode of Bloomberg Intelligence's Tech Disruptors podcast, Ciena Executive Advisor Scott McFeely joins BI analyst Woo Jin Ho to discuss how the company's optical technology has evolved alongside hyperscale cloud and AI workloads, from coherent optics and WaveLogic DSPs to optical pluggables for scale across applications. They also explore how AI is reshaping optical demand around and inside the data center, Ciena's move deeper into the rack through its Nubis acquisition and how its expansion into AI changes its intermediate-term growth trajectory.

‘We've seen an incredible acceleration of true automation, where AI agents were able to fulfill a significant amount of engagement with a consumer, whether it be voice or chat-based,” says Scott Russell, CEO of Nice. He sits down with Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Mandeep Singh to talk about the deployment of AI agents for contact centers. From fine-tuning of large language models to handling a high volume of transactions, the discussion focuses on the various considerations for AI agents related to customer service across a range of industries.

Quantum computing is extending beyond the lab to redefine how we address complex problems. On this episode of Tech Disruptors, IonQ CEO Niccolo de Masi joins Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Jake Silverman and Kunjan Sobhani to explain what quantum computing is and how performance, reliability and cost will determine the winners of the race for fault tolerance. The conversation also explores how quantum computing can complement future AI systems — enabling new breakthroughs in security, networking and high-impact applications like materials and life science — while setting up a “winner-takes-most” competitive dynamic in the industry.

Powering businesses to accomplish their daily work remains Intuit's central mission, using AI and a network of human experts to accomplish a wide range of business tasks for more than 100 million customers, from closing accounting books, processing payroll to preparing taxes. In this Tech Disruptors podcast episode, Intuit CTO Alex Balazs speaks with Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Niraj Patel about the company's evolution from a provider of desktop products to its latest AI agents. Balazs also touches on its data-scale differentiator, how GenAI is reshaping software and Intuit's future position as a financial-operating system.Tech Disruptors: Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

“AI removes the friction from the intent to the implementation,” says Amanda Silver, corporate vice president and head of products, apps and agents at Microsoft. She talks with Bloomberg Intelligence senior technology analyst Anurag Rana about how copilots and agents are collapsing the software lifecycle — from natural-language ideas to code, tests and operations — shifting developers to reviewing and governance from typing, and making “evals” the new testing standard. She cites big-tech technical-debt wins, such as .NET and Java upgrades requiring 70–80% less manual effort, and SRE agents that reduce remediation time. Additionally, the two discuss GitHub Copilot, already among top contributors in key repos and adopted across most large enterprises.

“Internally, we've kind of moved from a model where kind of engineering kind of owned R&D, to a model where everyone is now in R&D” says Canva CTO Brendan Humphreys. On this episode of the Tech Disruptors podcast, Humphreys tells Bloomberg Intelligence senior technology analyst Anurag Rana how the web-native platform is expanding into the enterprise while leaning into AI, including a disciplined API layer to ship quickly, broad use of coding assistants with strict human-in-the-loop review and hiring for “AI-native” skills alongside companywide experimentation. Humphreys also covers how acquisitions like Affinity and Magic Brief fit the road map, and why compliance, governance and brand control are central as Canva targets 1,000-plus employee companies.

Embedded finance — integrating payments and financial services directly into apps and platforms — is entering its next phase, shifting from niche fintech use cases to core infrastructure for global players. In this episode of Tech Disruptors, Marqeta CEO Mike Milotich joins Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Diksha Gera to discuss how embedded finance, buy now, pay later and flexible credentials are reshaping payments at the point of sale, online and in store. They explore Marqeta's competitive positioning, AI-driven personalization, the regulation vs. speed trade-off and why Europe could be an underappreciated growth lever as embedded finance moves upmarket.

Consumer credit may be approaching its foundational AI moment — with buy now, pay later emerging as the first visible act. On this episode of the Tech Disruptors podcast, Max Levchin, CEO and founder of Affirm and co-founder of PayPal, joins Bloomberg Intelligence global fintech and payments analyst Diksha Gera to discuss how machine learning is replacing static underwriting with real-time, transaction-level intelligence. They also explore why this shift could fundamentally reshape the economics of consumer lending over the next decade.

Now an annual tradition on the Bloomberg Intelligence Tech Disruptors podcast, John Chambers, former Cisco CEO and founder of JC2 Ventures, sits down with hardware analyst Woo Jin Ho to kick off 2026 with his latest predictions for the tech sector and the global economy. Chambers argues that AI is entering a phase of rapid adoption — driving enterprise productivity gains, reshaping capital allocation and compressing winner–loser cycles across industries. The conversation explores AI infrastructure investment, enterprise adoption, cybersecurity risks and the implications for labor markets, M&A, IPO activity and market volatility, with Chambers remaining bullish on AI's long-term impact despite near-term disruption.

The private equity marketplace is increasingly competitive, making it difficult to win a seat at the table on hot deals. AT&T's in-house private investment arm, AT&T Ventures, seeks to stand out by making strategic investments via a founder-friendly approach, targeting the companies that are helping to shape the future of communications, such as satellite providers, edge computing firms, AI-RAN developers, security companies and many more. AT&T Ventures Head Vikram Taneja joins Bloomberg Intelligence's senior telecom analyst, John Butler, to discuss the company's approach to investing, his thoughts on where communications technologies are headed and how his group aims to capitalize on current and future trends.

Webtoon pioneered the vertical scrolling format nearly 20 years ago, and has been expanding the genres of its content since. CFO David Lee joins Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Woo Jin Ho on this Tech Disruptors episode to explain how the company is building out its global-content platform using AI-driven creator tools, advanced data infrastructure and high-throughput content workflows. He discusses the economics of paid content, margin impacts from infrastructure modernization and how partnerships with Disney and Warner Bros. expand Webtoon's IP engine. He offers a sharp look at where AI, platform scale, and digital media monetization converge.

Shopping is shifting from keyword-based search toward AI-driven, conversational guidance. Rajiv Mehta, Amazon.com's vice president of Search and Conversational Shopping, joins Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Poonam Goyal on this episode of the Tech Disruptors podcast to discuss Rufus, Amazon's AI shopping assistant that integrates large language models with the company's commerce data and personalization capabilities. Rufus helps customers identify suitable products using natural language, images and even handwritten lists. Mehta outlines how features such as price history, “help me decide,” image upload and agentic tools like price alerts and auto-buy are reshaping product discovery, conversion and customer loyalty on Amazon — and why he expects highly personalized, agent-supported shopping experiences to define the next phase of retail.

Drone technology has had a prolonged evolution, with companies exploring viable use cases for mainstream adoption. Adam Woodworth, CEO of Alphabet's Wing subsidiary, talks to Bloomberg Intelligence tech analyst Mandeep Singh about drone delivery in the US and how he expects it to ramp up for consumer delivery of lighter packages and groceries. The discussion also covers form factor evolution for drones, regulatory framework, regulations and overlap with Waymo's use of sensors for safety in the case of autonomous vehicles.

“…A successful agentic enterprise deployment means each of your departments are fundamentally different,” Salesforce's SVP of Product Marketing for AI Sanjana Parulekar says, as she joins Bloomberg Intelligence Senior Technology Analyst Anurag Rana to unpack what it really takes to scale Agentic AI beyond pilots: getting data AI-ready; adding context and governance; blending deterministic workflows with LLM reasoning via hybrid reasoning and monitoring cost and quality with observability tools. They also cover voice agents, cross-agent orchestration with MuleSoft Agent Fabric, model flexibility, change management, and real deployments.

“Open doesn't mean a free for all, but open will win.” Workday CTO Peter Bailis joins Bloomberg Intelligence Senior Technology Analyst Anurag Rana to explain how the people-and-money system of record is evolving into an open, AI-ready platform — combining zero-copy data access with strict governance and API-first design. He outlines how Sana, Illuminate, Flowise and Paradox fit together as a front door for work, embedded HR and finance agents, open-source agent building and streamlined recruiting.

Search is shifting to intelligent, context-rich answers from static links. You.com CEO Richard Socher joins Bloomberg Intelligence senior software analyst Sunil Rajgopal on this episode of the Tech Disruptors podcast to discuss how You.com powers AI search for companies such as DuckDuckGo, while differentiating from enterprise peers like Glean and Exa through its web indexing, real-time accuracy and privacy-first design. “The biggest factor to get LLMs to give accurate, non-hallucinated answers is the search infrastructure layer,” Socher says. The discussion also covers the market opportunity, competitive landscape and future initiatives.

“We think that for every gigawatt, it's about 25 exabytes of new flash creation,” says Greg Matson, SVP and head of products and marketing at Solidigm. Matson joins Bloomberg Intelligence's Jake Silverman on the Tech Disruptors podcast to discuss how Solidigm is powering AI's growing data demands. The conversation explores the company's evolution into a data-center-focused pure play, its innovations in high-capacity SSDs and how it's positioning to lead in the next era of gigawatt-scale AI infrastructure.

“The world's now flipped to inference — and it's limited by power. With the same energy, we can deliver four times the output of a Blackwell,” says SambaNova CEO Rodrigo Liang. Liang joins Bloomberg Intelligence's Kunjan Sobhani in this episode of the Tech Disruptors podcast to explain how SambaNova's air-cooled, 10-kilowatt racks and “data-center-in-90-days” model are helping enterprises and governments scale up AI faster — and greener. The discussion covers the rise of sovereign-AI deployments in the UK, Europe and Australia, the economics of hybrid data centers and why energy efficiency — not just compute power — might define the next phase of AI infrastructure.

“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.