The Tech Blog Writer Podcast - Inspired Tech Startup Stories & Interviews With Tech Leaders, Entrepreneurs And Innovators

Have you ever wondered what it takes to run technology for one of the largest commercial real estate companies in the world? That question shapes my conversation with Yao Morin, Global CTO at JLL, as we look at how AI is changing the places where we work, shop, and gather. Real estate may seem traditional from the outside, yet inside JLL the pace is intense. With more than 5 billion square feet under management and huge volumes of daily activity, the pressure on property teams is real and the limits of manual work are easy to see. Yao explains how this reality led to the creation of Property Assistant, JLL's new AI solution built on JLL Falcon. Falcon acts as the company's enterprise AI foundation, giving teams a secure and scalable way to use data across global operations. She describes how the platform hides complexity so developers and property teams can work with AI without thinking about which model sits behind it. We talk through everyday examples, like overcrowded meeting rooms and confusing layouts, t

Did you ever stop and wonder how many hours you lose each week hunting for files, tabs, links, or half-written ideas scattered across your apps? It is a familiar frustration, and it sits at the center of today's conversation with Dropbox VP of Engineering, Josh Clemm. Josh has spent two decades building products shaped around scale, personalisation, and clarity, and he brings that mix of experience to Dropbox's push into AI and knowledge management. In this episode, Josh shares stories from his time at LinkedIn and Uber, including the surprising Krispy Kreme promotion that took down Uber Eats across the globe and triggered a major rethink of architecture and resiliency. That experience shaped his belief that chaos often teaches the most. It also sets the stage for why he sees AI fluency as a leadership requirement rather than a trend.  You will hear how Dropbox is approaching internal experimentation, why context rot and work slop are real problems inside companies, and why the empty chat box often creates mo

What does learning look like when technology shifts faster than most university systems can adapt? That question shaped my conversation with Rob Telfer, who leads education strategy for D2L across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Rob returned to the show with a clear view of how AI is transforming higher education and why so many institutions are struggling to keep pace with expectations from students, employers, and society. Rob opened by laying out the reality universities face today. Financial strain, fluctuating enrolment, employer demands changing at speed, and a generation of learners preparing for roles that may not even exist yet. Against that backdrop, he described AI as the biggest catalyst the sector has seen in decades and explained how it has already reshaped academic policy, assessment models, and daily teaching practice. We explored practical examples of where AI is already creating meaningful change. Rob shared how D2L is helping institutions introduce adaptive learning, on demand student

How do you guide a workforce through the fastest shift in technology most of us have seen in our careers? That question shaped my conversation with David Martin from BCG, who works at the intersection of talent, culture, and AI. He joined me from New York and quickly painted a clear picture of what is really happening inside global enterprises right now. We started with the widening split between AI fluent teams and those stuck in endless pilots. David explained why the organizations getting results are the ones doing fewer things with far greater ambition. Many others scatter energy across small use cases, save minutes instead of hours, and never reach a scale where value becomes visible. Training surfaced early as one of the biggest gaps. Not surface level workshops, but the deeper hands-on learning that helps people change how they work. David described why frontline teams lag behind, why engineers still miss major capabilities, and how leadership behaviour dramatically affects adoption. Curiosity a

Did you know that when many people hear "Orange," they still ask if it involves SIM cards? That was the perfect place to begin my conversation with Sahem Azzam, President for IMEA and Inner Asia at Orange Business. Once we cleared that up, it opened the door to a much richer story about what enterprise innovation looks like across one of the fastest-moving regions on the planet. Sahem joined me from Dubai, a city that has become a living case study for what happens when a region refuses to think small. As we compared notes from Gitex Global, it became clear that what is happening across the Middle East is not a short burst of enthusiasm. It is a deliberate long-term shift driven by young populations, bold government ambition, and a willingness to adopt new technologies before anyone else. Sahem explained how this appetite for speed is shaping the region's digital transformation and how Orange Business is supporting it through cloud, connectivity, cybersecurity, digital integration, and large-scale smart city

Did you ever walk into a conference session thinking you were ready for the week, only to realise the announcements were coming so fast that you almost needed an agent of your own to keep up? That was the mood across Las Vegas, and it was the backdrop for my conversation with Madhu Parthasarathy, the general manager for Agent Core at AWS. He has spent the week at the centre of AWS's wave of agentic AI news, working on the ideas that are already moving from keynotes and demos into the hands of real enterprise teams. Sitting down with him offered a rare moment of clarity among the noise, and his calm take on what actually matters helped bring the bigger picture into focus. Madhu talked through the thinking behind Agent Core and why he believes 2026 will be the year enterprises finally begin shifting from prototypes to production-scale agents. He walked me through the two areas customers keep coming back to, trust and performance, and why the new policy framework and agent evaluations could remove long-standing

Have you ever wondered how an idea that begins with two friends in a pub ends up shaping conversations about health all over the world? That was on my mind as I met  Graham Link & Timothy Gnaneswaran from Movember on the show floor at AWS re:Invent. Their story has grown far beyond the mustache that everyone recognises. What started with a simple gesture of support has become a movement that now reaches millions, raises vast sums through a global fundraising platform, and backs projects focused on prostate cancer, testicular cancer, mental health, and suicide prevention. Hearing them describe how that original spark grew into something this wide and long lasting gave the conversation a real sense of depth. Recording in the middle of re:Invent added its own flavour. AI news filled the halls, yet Timothy and Graham were there speaking with engineers and builders about something deeply human. Their booth stopped people in their tracks, offered barbershop shaves, and created space for personal stories. They t

Did you know a single Formula 1 car produces 1.1 million data points every second from hundreds of sensors? That number alone sets the tone for this conversation with Ruth Buscombe, an F1 strategist, analyst, and F1TV presenter whose work sits at the meeting point of engineering precision and real time storytelling. We met at AWS re:Invent in Las Vegas, and her insights into how much pressure, judgment, and creativity are wrapped inside each decision brought the sport to life in a fresh way for anyone who has ever stared at a dashboard of metrics and wondered what really matters. This discussion goes far deeper than split times and tyre choices. Ruth explains how AWS and F1 are rethinking race strategy through real time insights and cloud compute, from TrackPulse and root-cause analysis all the way to predictive graphics that let commentary teams spot a race-defining moment before it happens. She also reflects on the sport's changing culture, the growth of new fan communities, and the shift from old telemetry

Have you ever wondered how a company with nearly a million associates across continents keeps everyone learning, aligned, and prepared for constant change? That question sat at the heart of my conversation with Victor Arguelles, the VP of Global Learning Design and Development at Marriott International. Victor began his career as a high-school educator, and it is clear that this early experience shapes his entire approach to enterprise learning. He brings the empathy and discipline of the classroom into a global operation where cultural nuance, business complexity, and operational scale collide every day. Across our conversation, Victor opens up about what digital transformation in learning actually looks like behind the curtain at Marriott. Rather than focusing on tools alone, he explains how mindset, process, and cultural confidence dictate success. He talks about the delicate balance between global standardization and local relevance, and how Marriott validates learning experiences to understand how change

Have you ever wondered how an industry known for delays and uncertainty suddenly starts operating with the pace of a tech company? That thought stayed with me as I spoke with Eppie Vojt, the Chief Digital and AI Officer at West Shore Home. His team is bringing applied AI into home remodeling in a way that feels practical, grounded, and surprisingly human. Eppie explains how a strong data foundation allowed them to introduce agentic systems without the usual chaos. Those systems now handle scheduling, permitting, forecasting, and communication in the background. The result is a level of certainty that customers rarely experience in remodeling. When someone signs a project, they already know the installation date. Hours of operational work happen silently, and that alone changes the entire experience. We also talk about the culture that made this possible. Instead of forcing new tools onto teams, leadership encouraged small experiments and curiosity. That simple move flipped the mood internally. Departments beg

What does it really mean to run a company that aims to be "good" before it ever thinks about becoming "great"? That was the question sitting with me as I sat down with Appfire's CEO, Matt Dircks. The conversation took us straight into the heart of modern leadership, purpose, and the realities of running a global SaaS business during a period of change. Matt has led organisations through rapid growth, mergers, cultural resets, and shifting market expectations. What stood out in our discussion was how open he is about the parts of leadership that are messy. He talked about transparency, dealing with hard decisions, and the challenge of building a culture where people feel safe enough to be honest without losing accountability. His philosophy is grounded in something simple. You cannot scale trust unless you behave in ways that earn it every day. We explored how Appfire is evolving beyond its acquisition roots, expanding from Atlassian aligned tools into cross platform solutions that support enterprises across M

What happens when AI adoption surges inside companies faster than anyone can track, and the data that fuels those systems quietly slips out of sight? That question sat at the front of my mind as I spoke with Cyberhaven CEO Nishant Doshi, fresh from publishing one of the most detailed looks at real-world AI usage I have seen. This wasn't a report built on opinions or surveys. It was built on billions of actual data flows across live enterprise environments, which made our conversation feel urgent from the very first moment. Nishant explained how AI has moved out of the experimental phase and into everyday workflows at a speed few anticipated. Employees across every department are turning to AI tools not as a novelty but as a core part of how they work. That shift has delivered huge productivity gains, yet it has also created a new breed of hidden risk. Sensitive material isn't just being uploaded through deliberate actions. It is being blended, remixed, and moved in ways that older security models cannot under

Why does it feel as though every headline about the future of work points to AI pushing entry-level roles off a cliff? That question stayed with me as I sat down with Robin Adda, a long-time learning and development leader, bestselling author, and one of the most balanced voices I have heard on skills, technology, and the workplace. Robin argues that AI can protect white-collar roles rather than erode them, and hearing him explain why immediately shifted the tone of the conversation. From the start, Robin talks about how traditional training models have failed to keep pace with reality. Companies know the skills gap is widening, yet many still rely on broad, generic programmes that miss what people actually need. His journey toward building SkillsAssess grew out of that frustration. He realised that training without insight only scratches the surface, and employees end up going through motions instead of growing in ways that matter. Inside organisations, the picture is even more complicated. Robin describes t

Have you ever wondered what it looks like when an enterprise finally breaks free from spreadsheet-driven decision paralysis and lets AI take the wheel? That was the question at the back of my mind as I sat down with Bianca Anghelina, the founder of Aily Labs.  In our conversation, Bianca explains how her career inside large global enterprises shaped her view of the world. She saw first hand how companies could gather astonishing amounts of data but struggled to translate it into choices that actually mattered.  That friction pushed her to imagine something bolder, a decision intelligence platform that could remove the hand-stitched chaos of manual analysis and replace it with real-time clarity. She shares how she took the leap during an uncertain moment in 2020, trusting the idea that disruption often grows during difficult periods. Hearing her describe that early stage reminded me how many founders take quiet risks long before the public sees any success. What stood out most was the simplicity of her philoso

Is AI quietly pushing us to work alone when creativity has always thrived on collaboration? I'm joined by Joseph "Coop" Cooper, co-founder of Nullshot, to unpack a different vision for how AI should support creators, builders, and teams. And before any Interstellar fans get too excited, this is not the cinematic space explorer navigating wormholes; this is a serial entrepreneur building something very real on Earth, where conversations turn into working applications in real time. Coop shares how his journey from modding video games as a child to launching multiple ventures across crypto and developer tools shaped his belief that current AI tools lean too heavily towards individual productivity. He explains the thinking behind Nullshot's jam rooms, where multiple people can co-create with AI in a shared space, instead of building in isolation. We explore how this model encourages quieter voices to contribute, removes the pressure of pitching ideas, and replaces it with live prototypes that speak for themselves

Is the UK quietly slipping into the role of a cautious observer while other nations shape the future of AI with greater confidence and intent? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sit down with Rav Hayer, Managing Director at ThoughtWorks and Head of BFSI, to explore why our approach to AI regulation may be slowing progress at a time when momentum matters.  We move beyond the headlines of multi-billion pound investment announcements and look at what is really happening on the ground for business leaders trying to innovate in an environment shaped by uncertainty, shifting guidance, and risk aversion. Throughout our conversation, Rav shares his perspective on how this climate is affecting founders, scaleups, and established enterprises alike. We examine why so much British innovation still finds its way overseas, and what that says about ownership, long-term competitiveness, and the confidence gap holding many organisations back.  I also ask Rav to compare the UK's position with regions such as Singapore, Bra

What happens when a seasoned finance leader steps into the world of enterprise software and decides to rebuild the financial close with AI at its core? In my conversation with Darren Heffernan, CEO of Trintech, we look at the shifts taking place inside the office of the CFO and how automation is reshaping a discipline that has relied on spreadsheets and manual routines for generations. Darren's story spans public practice, GE Capital, and twenty years inside Trintech, which gives him a rare view of both the pressure inside finance teams and the opportunities created when workflow, data, and intelligence finally come together. Across our discussion, Darren explains how Trintech has spent decades refining the financial close by embedding intelligence directly inside the workflow rather than bolting it on. He talks through real examples of AI identifying exceptions, writing rules, scanning volumes of transactions, and reaching back to a human for review so the outcome remains transparent and traceable. His point

What happens when a leader realises that the success of every major initiative, from AI projects to return to office plans, rests on something far deeper than strategy or tools? In my conversation with Phil Gilbert of Irresistible Change, we look at why culture is the deciding factor behind whether transformation takes root or quietly falls apart. Phil has spent a career inside some of the most complex organisations on the planet, and his work at IBM showed that change only becomes real when people want it, when they feel part of it, and when they see its value in their daily work. Across our conversation, Phil explains how he approached transformation inside a company with nearly four hundred thousand employees without forcing anyone into compliance. Instead of relying on memos or mandates, he treated change like a young startup that needed to earn believers. He focused on proof rather than persuasion, clarity rather than slogans, and an understanding that people respond to meaning, autonomy, and trust. It i

What happens when your entire market disappears overnight? That was the reality facing LoopUp when the pandemic transformed the way the world communicates. In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sit down with Steve Flavell, co-CEO of LoopUp, to talk about how his company turned disruption into a defining moment of reinvention. LoopUp began in 2003 with a mission to make conference calls less painful. For over a decade, the company grew steadily, even going public on the London Stock Exchange in 2016. But when Teams and Zoom became household names during the pandemic, LoopUp's core business all but vanished. Faced with that challenge, Steve and his team made a bold pivot, moving into global cloud telephony for Microsoft Teams. That shift didn't just save the company, it transformed it into what Steve now calls the world's most multinational telco, providing enterprise voice services in 136 countries. Steve shares what it took to steer through that transformation, from managing fivefold surges in traffic to bui

What happens inside a transformation program when every decision must withstand scrutiny, every dependency carries weight, and every undocumented rule inside a legacy system can change the outcome of an entire initiative? That was the starting point for my conversation with Adebimpe Ibosiola, a specialist who has spent her career working in regulated industries where nothing is ever as simple as it looks on paper. In a space where leaders often feel pressure to modernize at speed, she argues that the real progress comes from slowing down long enough to understand the truth of the systems, people, and cultures already in place. During the discussion, Adebimpe shared how many organisations walk straight into failure because they begin with visions instead of diagnosis. She explained how hidden logic in old systems, variations in compliance interpretation, and the invisible labour teams carry out daily can derail the best-intentioned roadmap.  Her view is that transformation only becomes possible when leaders co