The excitement around agentic AI is loud, but the real story starts where hype meets accountability. We sit down with Eric Karofsky, CEO of Vector HX, to separate narrow task agents from agentic systems that plan, reason, and negotiate across steps—and to ask the uncomfortable question: who do you trust when your agent starts talking to someone else’s agent?

Eric walks us through the gaps leaders often miss. It’s easy to mandate AI from the top; it’s harder to redesign the workflows that make measurable impact. We explore why trust breaks down when autonomy spreads across tools, teams, and vendors, how hallucinations become career risk inside enterprises, and what guardrails look like in regulated sectors. The conversation stays grounded with two practical wins. First, a pharma literature review pipeline that shrinks from six months and $250,000 to roughly two weeks by structuring extractions, adding human checks where accuracy matters most, and instrumenting the process end to end. Second, a document discovery platform that stitches together siloed repositories with smart metadata, natural language search, and relationship mapping that surfaces parent, child, sibling, and multilingual versions of critical procedures.

If you’re wondering where to start, Eric’s advice is simple and hard: map the jobs to be done, pick a high-friction workflow with measurable outcomes, and redesign it around human needs. Save broad agentic autonomy for bounded domains with clear policies, identity, and audit trails. The best KPI for the next 12 months might be whether your core processes actually change; if you’re doing the same work the same way next year, you probably missed the point.

Ready to rethink your approach to AI beyond better emails? Listen now, subscribe for new episodes, and share this with a teammate who owns process change. Your take: where would agentic AI actually earn trust in your organization?

The future of retail isn’t just about shiny tech on the sales floor; it’s about the unseen engine that makes every experience feel effortless. With Verizon Business’s Katie Riddle, we unpack how sensorized products, unified IoT platforms, and edge AI are transforming inventory accuracy, employee workflows, and the shopper journey—while forcing retailers to rethink bandwidth, security, and the true cost of scale.

We start with the ground game: real‑time visibility. As RFID and low‑cost sensors spread through stores and DCs, managers can spot low stock, recover misplaced items, and treat shelves with the same precision we expect from ecommerce analytics. Katie shares how Verizon’s ThingSpace creates a single pane of glass for devices and environments—HVAC, refrigeration, digital shelf labels, and more—turning disconnected data into actions that cut waste and improve availability.

Then we zoom out to the network layer. Smaller formats benefit from fixed wireless access, larger boxes lean on private 5G, and everyone needs fast, reliable Wi‑Fi. That mix matters because AI tools and retail media networks are hungry. Natural‑language search for associates, computer vision for measurement, and privacy‑safe attention analytics all demand low‑latency compute at the edge. Katie explains how to separate mission‑critical systems from media traffic, prove in‑store ad lift with 5G Video Insights using existing cameras, and fund the initiatives that actually move the brand forward.

None of this works without robust security and a plan that outpaces growth. Every new endpoint expands the attack surface, so zero trust, segmentation, and managed detection become table stakes. Sustainability rounds out the story: sensors that prevent spoilage, energy‑smart operations, and circular programs that align with how customers want to buy. The takeaway is clear—technology is your brand now. Overbuild the right way, measure what matters, and protect the experience end to end.

If this conversation helped you see what’s next, follow the show, share it with a colleague, and leave a quick review so more retail leaders can find it.

What happens when retail stops waiting for shoppers to arrive and starts responding to every signal in real time? We dive into a candid, practical look at how AI is reshaping the entire customer journey—from discovery sparked in chat interfaces to fulfillment choices optimized for margin and sustainability. With SAP Customer Experience leader Balaji Balasubramanian, we unpack the systems, data, and decisions required to turn conversations into commerce and curiosity into profitable growth.

We explore why unified data is the real unlock for AI in retail and how a business data cloud gives models the context they need: customer profiles, orders, invoices, inventory, pricing, and unstructured signals. Balaji explains Joule, SAP’s conversational co-pilot, and how it sits on top of business AI and knowledge graphs to answer questions, trigger actions, and summarize insights for teams in the flow of work. We also talk about WalkMe’s role in accelerating adoption and giving users context-aware guidance and shortcuts. The result is a stack that reduces friction, shortens cycles, and makes bold ideas operational—without replacing the people who bring judgment and brand sense to the table.

The conversation tackles big shifts many leaders feel but haven’t fully mapped: destination shopping becoming instant demand; personalization evolving into proactive orchestration; and loyalty moving from points to trust. We consider how to tie recommendations back to inventory location, margin, and sustainable delivery so that offers are both relevant and responsible. We also address tough realities like a five-point slide in true loyalty and the widening expectation gap, and why AI-driven pilots—margin-aware personalization, proactive service, dynamic bundling—are the fastest path to learning what works at scale. If you’re serious about real-time retail and want a playbook that blends strategy with execution, this conversation delivers clear steps and fresh energy.

If this resonates, follow the show, share it with your team, and leave a quick review so we can keep bringing you practical insights that move the needle.