Utilizing AI: The Podcast about the Practical Applications of Artificial Intelligence | The Futurum Group Podcast Network

Learn more about AI Field Day 9 here. 
AI is rewriting the rules of IT, but succeeding in this new landscape requires more than just memorizing prompts and syntax.
Recorded live from AI Field Day 9, this episode of Utilizing AI features Stephen Foskett talking with industry veterans Dave Graham, Dave Nicholson, Jim Czuprynski, Ray Lucchesi, Claudia de Luna, and Thomas LaRock to deliver candid career advice for entering the workforce amid AI disruption.
The panel breaks down why curiosity and a humanities-driven mindset beat hyper-specialization, the danger of becoming a "reverse centaur" by blindly trusting AI tools, and why foundational engineering principles, critical verification, and human relationships remain irreplaceable assets.
This and more on Utilizing AI, part of the Futurum Media Podcast Network.
 

Learn more about AI Field Day 9 here. 
Is NVIDIA destined to become the enterprise AI equivalent of IBM, or is the illusion of an unbreakable hardware monopoly already beginning to crack?
Recorded live from AI Field Day 9, this episode of Utilizing AI features host Stephen Foskett and an expert delegate panel of Scott Robohn, Keith Townsend, John Willis, Mitch Ashley, Ron Pagani Jr, Frederic Van Haren, Dave Graham, Jim Czuprynski, Ray Lucchesi, Claudia de Luna, and Thomas LaRock debating whether NVIDIA’s dominance across data center infrastructure and CUDA mirrors IBM’s historic mainframe lock-in.
The panel breaks down the pivotal transition from model training to distributed enterprise inference, examines emerging power and budget constraints, interrogates the defensibility of software moats, and evaluates whether open ecosystems, neo-clouds, or alternative XPUs will disrupt the reigning AI juggernaut.
This and more on Utilizing AI, part of the Futurum Media Podcast Network.

Learn more about AI Field Day 9 here.
AI is inescapable, but many uses are too big, too often, and too much.
This episode of Utilizing AI considers just how much AI we should be using and features Alan Shimel, Guy Currier, and Stephen Foskett from Futurum Media. Although most attention is focused on the biggest, most-capable frontier models, we are seeing a real stratification and differentiation between them.
We are also seeing special-purpose models increasingly being used in conventional business processes, taking on tasks like transcription, data formatting, simple decision-making, and so on.
We tend to pick the largest, most-capable model every time since it seems more likely to solve the problem, but it would be better if we picked the right tool for the job. No one is married to an AI solution, and it is incredibly easy to switch to a different model, a different implementation, or abandon the solution entirely.
Over time, the cost of AI will drive users to adopt a cheaper solution and this will naturally drive them away from the big foundation models. Users should focus on productivity rather than continually experimenting with the newest solutions.
This and more on Utilizing AI, part of the Futurum Media Podcast Network.
Buy Alan's Book, The Indispensability Trap, available on Amazon and wherever books are sold.

Society is pouring over $1.5 trillion into artificial intelligence, but are we taking a massive leap of faith on a promise that may never deliver?
In this episode of Utilizing AI, Stephen Foskett, Olivier Blanchard, and Guy Currier of The Futurum Group to pull back the curtain on the true cost of the AI boom. Moving beyond financial ROI metrics and tech hype, the panel dives into how massive investments in hardware and data centers are outpacing real-world value for everyday people.
From the psychological illusion of LLM accuracy to the massive opportunity costs in healthcare, education, and infrastructure, the team tackles the critical societal and political questions that tech executives and Wall Street are ignoring.
This and more on Utilizing AI, part of the Futurum Media Podcast Network.

We are surrounded by new AI-powered devices, many of which seem to have been designed without much thought given to their impact on society.
This episode of Utilizing AI features host Stephen Foskett, Olivier Blanchard, and Guy Currier of The Futurum Group discussing the way companies are bringing AI to market.
Product design seems to have gone off course, with new features being designed to take advantage of technical capabilities rather than user needs. Given that we are in the early stages of the AI rollout, it might seem to be a good idea to experiment with a wide variety of features.
But these can also damage the reputation of the companies that roll out poorly-defined capabilities. On the flip-side, such features could bring incredible value to the consumer and the producer if they serve a real need.
This and more on Utilizing AI, part of Futurum Media and the Futurum Podcast Network.

Standard AI benchmarks measure speed and raw token throughput, but how do you measure whether artificial intelligence is actually completing enterprise work correctly?
In this episode of Utilizing AI, co-hosts Stephen Foskett and Brad Shimmin welcome Ryan Shrout, President and GM of Signal 65, to introduce "Pinnacle"—a new benchmark designed to evaluate real-world, agentic workflows.
Ryan breaks down why traditional hardware and model metrics miss the mark on business value, how Pinnacle evaluates performance across clean "governed" versus messy "as-found" data environments, and what recent test runs reveal about token efficiency, hallucination resistance, and hardware scaling.
From comparing frontier models to exposing the hidden costs of max-reasoning modes, this discussion offers a grounded look at quantifying true enterprise AI performance.
This and more on Utilizing AI, part of Futurum Media and the Futurum Podcast Network.

When cutting-edge AI capabilities shift overnight from exclusive enterprise clouds to permissive open-weights models accessible to anyone, IT leaders are left navigating a chaotic landscape of unprecedented power and heightened security risks.
In this episode of Utilizing AI, hosts Stephen Foskett, Brad Shimmin, and Olivier Blanchard unpack the realities of today’s expanding AI toolset—from high-performing open-source models coming out of China to Stripe's acquisition of OpenRouter.
The panel explores the stark tradeoffs between affordable accessibility, data privacy, and AI supply chain security. They also debate the rise of local hardware powerhouses for on-premise execution, the volatile "tokenomics" of reasoning models, and why the enterprise world desperately needs stable, Long-Term Support (LTS) release channels for AI software.
This and more on Utilizing AI, part of The Futurum Group Podcast Network.

Enterprise IT is currently facing a dizzying explosion of new AI models, frameworks, and platforms—making integration, rather than security or governance, the primary roadblock to actual business success.
In this episode of Utilizing AI, host Stephen Foskett is joined by Futurum Group analysts Brad Shimmin and Guy Currier to explore how organizations can effectively navigate this overwhelming "embarrassment of riches."
The panel breaks down the real-world friction of non-deterministic model behavior, sudden API performance shifts, and hidden tokenomics costs, evaluating whether emerging tools like model routers offer a true fix or merely add complexity.
Ultimately, they offer practical guidance for enterprise architects: double down on precise scope management, prioritize output quality and consistency over pure speed, consider open-source models for stability, and manage AI as a grounded IT asset rather than an all-knowing solution.
This and more on Utilizing AI, part of The Futurum Group Podcast Network.

What if the key to stripping away apocalyptic hyperbole and demystifying artificial intelligence lies in putting open-weights models directly into the hands of everyday creators worldwide?
In this episode of Utilizing AI, host Stephen Foskett and guest Guy Currier explore how the shift toward open-weights models and lower hardware requirements is breaking down the geographical and economic barriers of AI development.
Drawing parallels to historic industry shifts, they analyze how moving away from centralized, proprietary systems empowers students, global developers, and edge users to experiment without exorbitant costs.
By moving past "doomsday marketing" and embracing smaller, function-specific tools, widespread access allows society to better understand AI’s real capabilities, puncture the hype, and foster grassroots innovation.
This and more on Utilizing AI, part of The Futurum Group Podcast Network.

Although we are bombarded by headlines suggesting that AI will decimate the global workforce, the likely scenario is far more nuanced.
This episode of Utilizing AI brings Nick Patience, AI Platforms Practice Lead, and Olivier Blanchard, Devices Research Director, of the Futurum Group to discuss the latest data on the impact of AI on the job market.
When we look at the history of industrialization and technology, we see the value of investing in people and improving their skills rather than simply automating their tasks. We see the same effect as AI comes to software development and other aspects of business, reducing hiring of junior engineers and risking de-skilling senior developers as well.
Still, history suggests that society will adapt and new jobs will emerge, allowing the next generation to flourish and be productive in new ways.
This and more on Utilizing AI, part of The Futurum Group Podcast Network.