AI is no longer an experiment — it’s an accountability test.

In this episode of the AI Proving Ground Podcast, Dave DeWalt, Founder and CEO of NightDragon, and Kate Kuehn of WWT unpack what happens when AI systems fail, misfire, or create real-world risk — and who ultimately owns the outcome.

As organizations look toward 2026, boards want visibility, CEOs want measurable impact, and the lines between IT, security, and the business have disappeared. AI accelerates opportunity, but it also accelerates exposure — collapsing decision timelines and reshaping responsibility.

This conversation explores how accountability is shifting to the top of the enterprise, how leaders should think about ownership when AI breaks, and why resilience, governance, and speed now define competitive advantage.

Support for this episode provided by: Graphiant

More about this week's guests:

Dave DeWalt is founder and CEO of NightDragon, a venture and advisory firm focused on building the world's leading SecureTech platform. A four-time CEO, he has led iconic companies including FireEye, McAfee, and Documentum, creating over $20B in shareholder value. A longtime board leader and public servant, DeWalt has advised four U.S. administrations on national security and cybersecurity and is a recognized voice on technology risk and resilience.

Dave's top pick: Infrastructure as a Strategic Target of War

Kate joined WWT in 2024, bringing more than 25 years of experience leading and advising cybersecurity, technology, and AI strategy. She has held executive and board roles across the cyber ecosystem — including CISO, CEO, Chief Trust Officer, advisor, and board director — with experience at companies such as Aon, BT, and Verizon. A trusted advisor and award-winning leader, Kate focuses on helping executives and boards align cyber risk, AI, and business strategy in an increasingly complex threat landscape.

Kate's top pick: AI Won't Save You: Easterly, Joyce and CISOs on the Cybersecurity Reality No One Wants to Hear

The AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions.

Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.

The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.

Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments.

Cyber risk is changing — and AI is accelerating it.

In this episode of the AI Proving Ground Podcast, former NSA Director Rob Joyce joins WWT’s Madison Horn to explain how nation-state cyber activity has shifted from quiet espionage to strategic pre-positioning inside critical infrastructure.

AI isn’t introducing new tactics — it’s collapsing timelines. Reconnaissance, phishing, and exploitation now move at machine speed, shrinking response windows from weeks to minutes. The result is a fundamentally different threat model.

The conversation focuses on what leaders need to understand now: how agentic AI reshapes cyber risk, why basic discipline still matters but no longer scales on its own, and how AI must become a force multiplier for defenders.

A clear, high-level look at the cyber line that’s already been crossed — and what comes next.

More about this week's guests:

Madison Horn is a cybersecurity executive and national security strategist whose work spans technology, policy, and critical infrastructure. With 15+ years of experience, she has led global incident response, digital risk transformation, and cyber strategy across highly regulated and high-risk environments. Madison has held leadership roles at FusionX, Accenture Security, PwC, and on the founding team of Siemens Energy's Global Security practice. She currently serves as National Security & Critical Infrastructure Advisor at World Wide Technology, advising on AI governance, ICS/OT resilience, zero trust, and cyber-informed engineering. A frequent media contributor and advocate for women in technology, Madison is driven by advancing digital trust and national resilience.

Madison's top pick: Infrastructure as a Strategic Target of War

Rob Joyce has more than 30 years of leadership in cybersecurity, cyber operations, and intelligence. He has dedicated his career to advancing national security and cyber resilience. Rob previously served as Director of the Cybersecurity Directorate at the NSA, overseeing defense of the nation's most critical systems, and held senior roles including Acting Homeland Security Advisor and Special Assistant to the President for Cybersecurity. He is the founder of Joyce Cyber LLC and currently advises boards and executives on emerging cyber risks, with advisory and board roles spanning technology, national security, and critical infrastructure.

Rob's top pick:

The AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions.

Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.

The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.

Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments.

Enterprise AI just grew up—and the math has changed.

In this episode of the AI Proving Ground Podcast, Francis deSouza, COO of Google Cloud, breaks down why the era of scattered AI pilots is over—and why the winners are moving fast, focused, and top-down.

We unpack how leading enterprises are shifting from “let a thousand flowers bloom” to a tight portfolio of high-impact AI use cases that actually ship, scale, and deliver ROI. Francis explains why data strategy—not model choice—is the real competitive advantage, how agents need secure access to data where it already lives (no massive migrations required), and why AI is quietly rewriting the enterprise attack surface.

The conversation also gets real about people. The next generation of AI-ready companies won’t just hire specialists—they’ll build AI-fluent teams where every employee is bilingual in their domain and AI.

If you’re building for 2026 and beyond, this episode is your signal:
less hype, fewer experiments, more execution.

More about this week's guest:

Francis deSouza is Chief Operating Officer and President of Security Products at Google Cloud, where he leads operations to scale the business and oversees Google Cloud's global security portfolio, spanning products, threat intelligence, consulting, and governance. He joined Google in January 2025 after three decades as an engineer, technology executive, entrepreneur, and investor. Previously, Francis served as CEO of Illumina and President at Symantec. He has co-founded three companies and serves on the board of Deel. Francis holds BS and MS degrees from MIT and is driven by technology's power to improve lives.

Francis's top pick: The AI Multiplier: Creating a Sustainable Competitive Advantage with Google Cloud COO Francis deSouza

The AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions.

Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.

The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.

Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments.