Tech Talks

Harvey Nash

Welcome to Tech Talks (A Podcast about Technology Leaders and Leadership).

We explore the stories behind the most recognisable names in industry and the startups you’re yet to hear from. The innovation, cultural transformation and investment stories driving technology with host David Savage.

If you’re interested in the latest ideas on AI, data, cyber-security this is the show for you. Follow and join the conversation.

Tech Talks is powered by Harvey Nash, the leading global provider of technology and talent solutions. Find out more about our solutions at https://www.harveynash.co.uk/

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S1 · E1032
Today · 15 min
The Truth About AI Launches: "Is This Real?"
The question Salesforce hears most on the conference floor isn't about features. It's three words from the technical crowd: "Is this real?" Vendors announce strategic direction; the product sometimes lands weeks later. Meanwhile, buyers have budgets to set and a six-month roadmap to defend. Go all in on an autonomous sales agent today, or spend that time fixing the data it will depend on? Recorded at Dreamforce in San Francisco, away from the polished keynote messaging, David Savage talks to Dan Blackmore, Principal Solution Engineer at Salesforce. They unpack why "data is hard" opens every customer best-practice session, why regulated firms still hesitate when zero data retention comes with US processing, and why smaller, less glamorous use cases build the skills that matter. WhatsApp us your comments and questions on +447392087344 Tech Talks is powered by Harvey Nash, the leading global provider of technology and talent solutions. Click here to learn more about our services. The music on Tech Talks is created by London artist Lemzi.
S1 · E1031
Yesterday · 27 min
Is Your AI Strategy Just a Science Project With a Budget?
Most AI programmes begin with the exciting part. Prashant Hinge, Chief Information and Transformation Officer at MSIG USA, argues that is exactly why so many aren't delivering value. He describes how the specialty insurer took a different route, the first transformation of his career to start with data: consolidating 15 insurance systems into a single data model in 12 months before building on top of it. We hear why he warned leadership the work could slow the business for the first 18 months, why a wrong number on a dashboard usually has to be fixed in the source system rather than the reporting layer, and why he believes the industry is jumping straight to AI while data, process and integration are still missing. He also makes the case that most basic process problems do not need a frontier model at all. WhatsApp us your comments and questions on +447392087344 Tech Talks is powered by Harvey Nash, the leading global provider of technology and talent solutions. Click here to learn more about our services. The music on Tech Talks is created by London artist Lemzi.
S1 · E1030
Wednesday · 29 min
From Trafficking Survivor to AI Engineer: Rethinking Who Belongs in Tech
Too often, the story of human trafficking ends at the rescue. The survivor leaders Laura Hackney worked with wanted something different: a job, stability, a career. So who gets to build the technology the rest of us use? Laura is co-founder and CEO of AnnieCannons, a US nonprofit that trains survivors of human trafficking to become software and AI engineers. Students join a 12-month paid programme with health benefits and work on production code while they learn. Many don't arrive wanting to be coders. They arrive wanting a career that supports their family. David and Laura discuss why financial independence is a critical part of the healing journey, and where the "rescue" narrative falls short. The biases companies bring about who "makes it" in tech, and how investor attitudes have shifted. How apprenticeships at growth-stage companies are converting at around 80% into full-time hires. WhatsApp us your comments and questions on +447392087344 Tech Talks is powered by Harvey Nash, the leading global provider of technology and talent solutions. Click here to learn more about our services. The music on Tech Talks is created by London artist Lemzi.
S1 · E1029
Tuesday · 33 min
Can You Afford Two Transformations at Once? Productivity Leakage and the 20% AI Reality Check
If AI promises 20x gains, then why are most enterprises seeing only 20%? In this episode of Tech Talks, David Savage sits down with Andrew Daniels, Group CIO of Betfred. Together, they unpack the reality of managing AI alongside ongoing digital transformations, tackling "productivity leakage", navigating player safety regulations, and confronting the hidden tokenomics of enterprise AI. David would love you to complete our Digital Leadership Report. To do that, just click here. WhatsApp us your comments and questions on +447392087344 Tech Talks is powered by Harvey Nash, the leading global provider of technology and talent solutions. Click here to learn more about our services. The music on Tech Talks is created by London artist Lemzi.
S1 · E1028
Monday · 28 min
What Elastic’s CISO Wants You to Fix Before Deploying Autonomous AI
How do you secure autonomous AI agents when zero-trust fundamentals are still lacking? Mandy Andress, CISO at Elastic, joins David Savage to break down the reality of securing AI-driven enterprise data. From Elastic’s "Customer Zero" framework to grounding AI in context to prevent hallucinations, Mandy shares why tightly scoping permissions and deploying deception strategies are essential for modern resilience. As we mention in today's show, we'd love you to complete( our Digital Leadership Report. Just click here. WhatsApp us your comments and questions on +447392087344 Tech Talks is powered by Harvey Nash, the leading global provider of technology and talent solutions. Click here to learn more about our services. The music on Tech Talks is created by London artist Lemzi.
S1 · E1027
September 18 · 26 min
Language Still a Barrier? Not for Much Longer.
DeepL's Gonçalo Gaiolas is building the Babel Fish for real: voice translation that captures tone, emotion, even your own vocal fingerprint, live and at near-zero latency. He explains why DeepL isn't racing the frontier labs, shares a story about a silent colleague who finally spoke up once a language barrier disappeared, and makes an unusually candid case for talking more openly about what constant technological change is doing to our heads. As we mention in today's show, we'd love you to complete( our Digital Leadership Report. Just click here. WhatsApp us your comments and questions on +447392087344 Tech Talks is powered by Harvey Nash, the leading global provider of technology and talent solutions. Click here to learn more about our services. The music on Tech Talks is created by London artist Lemzi.
S1 · E1026
September 17 · 27 min
What Do You Need to Sacrifice to Succeed?
Stuart Fenton, CEO of Ingentive, joins David to discuss why the AI cost conversation is broken. Everyone asks "how much will the tokens cost, Stuart says that's the wrong question; the right one is how much you'll save. He unpacks the real economics of AI transformation, the relentless discipline it takes to stay current, and the personal sacrifice behind every entrepreneurial bet. A blunt reframe of cost, risk, and what building something real actually demands. As we mention in today's show, we'd love you to complete( our Digital Leadership Report. Just click here. WhatsApp us your comments and questions on +447392087344 Tech Talks is powered by Harvey Nash, the leading global provider of technology and talent solutions. Click here to learn more about our services. The music on Tech Talks is created by London artist Lemzi.
S1 · E1025
September 16 · 29 min
Can Governance Actually Keep AI's Toddler Phase in Check?
General Mills' Sanchit Srivastava (Senior Manager Data Analytics) joins the podcast to talk about why unstructured data isn't the hard part of implementation, governance is. He compares AI to a toddler ("it'll get there, but a lot happens on the way"), unpacks why token costs are about to explode, and makes the case that AI should be sold as an amplifier, not a replacer. Today's episode is a sharp, practical look at where enterprise AI actually breaks-down. As we mention in today's show, we'd love you to complete our Digital Leadership Report. Just click here. WhatsApp us your comments and questions on +447392087344 Tech Talks is powered by Harvey Nash, the leading global provider of technology and talent solutions. Click here to learn more about our services. The music on Tech Talks is created by London artist Lemzi.
S1 · E1024
September 15 · 23 min
The Borehole That Built a Rocket
Moletsane Mophethe grew up walking to boreholes for drinking water in Lesotho. Now he's founded Metal Morph, recovering critical minerals like aluminium and iron straight from wastewater instead of landfill, cutting reliance on a global supply chain split between mines in Africa, Australia and Russia, and manufacturing concentrated in China. From childhood scarcity to a £700k pre-seed raise and deals covering 56% of UK water, this is what happens when you've lived the problem you're solving. WhatsApp us your comments and questions on +447392087344 Tech Talks is powered by Harvey Nash, the leading global provider of technology and talent solutions. Click ⁠here⁠ to learn more about our services. The music on Tech Talks is created by London artist ⁠Lemzi⁠.
S1 · E1023
September 14 · 41 min
AI Broke the Career Ladder. Did It Build a Replacement?
AI is thinning out the bottom rungs of the corporate ladder. There are fewer entry-level roles, fewer easy starts inside big organizations. OpenAI's Global Head of Founder Experience, Laura Modiano, doesn't dispute that. But she thinks the conversation stops one step too early... On this episode, David pushes her on the trade-off directly: if AI is closing doors inside large companies, is "just start your own business" a genuine answer, or a convenient one? Laura argues young, digitally fluent builders aren't consolation-prize founders , they're better equipped to build and launch than any generation before them. Whether that's a real opportunity or a reframe of a real loss is the question the episode leaves open. What do you think? As David and Michelle discuss, our annual Digital Leadership Survey is open for submissions, and we'd love you to add your voice to the report: ⁠Just click here⁠. WhatsApp us your comments and questions on +447392087344 Tech Talks is powered by Harvey Nash, the leading global provider of technology and talent solutions. Click ⁠here⁠ to learn more about our services. The music on Tech Talks is created by London artist ⁠Lemzi⁠.
S1 · E1022
September 11 · 25 min
Is the UK Crippling Talent with a Funding Crisis?
Patrick Smith, the founder and CEO of Zally, returns to Tech Talks with an update on building the world's first foundational model for human behaviour. Zally is a business that's grown from a Manchester ambition into a San Francisco-headquartered company with a research lab still rooted in the North of England. David and Patrick talk continuous authentication, the ethics of training AI on consented human behaviour, why the UK keeps losing founders to the US ecosystem (and what it could do differently), and Patrick's own hard-won view that technology should adapt to humans, not the other way around. If you're in San Francisco next week, get in touch with David! WhatsApp us your comments and questions on +447392087344 Tech Talks is powered by Harvey Nash, the leading global provider of technology and talent solutions. Click here to learn more about our services. The music on Tech Talks is created by London artist Lemzi.
S1 · E1021
September 10 · 34 min
Forget the Regulation: Why the EU AI Act is an Operational Maturity Test
Is the EU AI Act keeping you up at night? Box's Global Head of Public Policy, Leah Perry, argues that organizations are looking at AI governance all wrong. It’s not a legal hurdle; it’s an operational maturity test. In this episode, we unpack why regulated industries are ahead, the real threat of ignoring employee upskilling, and how to build a cross-functional framework that keeps your business agile. We are also discussing a press release sent to us on the 9th of September, it's a statement by ControlAI in repsonse to concerns over the threat posed by superintelligence AI. Here is the statement by Connor Leahy, US Executive Director of ControlAI: “The leading AI companies are explicitly racing to develop superintelligence, fully autonomous AI systems powerful enough to completely outcompete humanity, and which we have no ability to control. Unless governments step in to stop the creation of superintelligence, the industry’s dangerous arms race will surpass the limits of human understanding and lead to human extinction. “Jacob Coxon’s resignation must be a wake-up call about the danger superintelligent AI poses to humanity. There is still time to act to address this threat, and the bipartisan political coalition is growing. The only way forward is for governments to negotiate an international “trust but verify” regime prohibiting superintelligence now, while we still have time. Human life depends on it.” WhatsApp us your comments and questions on +447392087344 Tech Talks is powered by Harvey Nash, the leading global provider of technology and talent solutions. Click here to learn more about our services. The music on Tech Talks is created by London artist Lemzi.
S1 · E1020
September 9 · 29 min
Managing the Hyper-Confident Machine: The Reality of AI Code
AI agents write code faster than we can review it, shifting software developers from builders to managers of virtual colleagues. Chris Plowman, Director of Enterprise Architecture, Data and AI at Slalom, joins David to unpack this existential shift. Why are we returning to the age of the generalist? And why are CIOs discarding business fundamentals in a rush to implement AI? As we mention in today's show, we'd love you to complete our Digital Leadership Report. Just click here. WhatsApp us your comments and questions on +447392087344 Tech Talks is powered by Harvey Nash, the leading global provider of technology and talent solutions. Click here to learn more about our services. The music on Tech Talks is created by London artist Lemzi.
S1 · E1019
September 8 · 36 min
Is Your Period Data Already Being Sold?
Amber Vodegel built Pregnancy+ to 150 million users before selling to Philips. Now, she's back with 28x, a women’s health tracker tackling a massive risk: the monetization and exploitation of intimate health data. In this episode, Amber shares why she's ditching cloud servers and central databases entirely for an on-device architecture, the reality of 'return on mission' funding, and why AI-driven hiring platforms make data privacy a matter of survival. WhatsApp us your comments and questions on +447392087344 Tech Talks is powered by Harvey Nash, the leading global provider of technology and talent solutions. Click here to learn more about our services. The music on Tech Talks is created by London artist Lemzi.
S1 · E1018
September 7 · 25 min
The "Silent Sabotage" of AI Adoption (And the Industry Lies We Tell Our Teams)
AI adoption isn't a tech problem; it's a profound organisational shift. Wesley ter Haar, co-founder of Monks, joins David Savage to expose the uncomfortable realities of AI: the "silent sabotage" from teams on the fence, the paternalistic industry lies about job losses, and why most enterprises are set to fail the transition. It’s a raw, honest look at what it actually takes to rebuild an organization at the speed of Silicon Valley. WhatsApp us your comments and questions on +447392087344 Tech Talks is powered by Harvey Nash, the leading global provider of technology and talent solutions. Click here to learn more about our services. The music on Tech Talks is created by London artist Lemzi.
S1 · E1017
September 4 · 29 min
Why Your AI Strategy Belongs in Business Ops (And the ROI We're Too Scared to Measure)
Everyone is pitching enterprise AI, but why is the CFO missing from the room? ShipStation Global’s Arjun Srinivasan joins David Savage to challenge the fluff. He explains why AI leadership belongs in Business Operations, not IT. From red-teaming AI at his dinner table to coaching pre-teens to build safely, Arjun shares how to move from framework to code and tackle the one metric everyone avoids: real, quantifiable business ROI. WhatsApp us your comments and questions on +447392087344 Tech Talks is powered by Harvey Nash, the leading global provider of technology and talent solutions. Click here to learn more about our services. The music on Tech Talks is created by London artist Lemzi.
S1 · E1016
September 3 · 21 min
Six Hundred Million Decisions a Day. Zero Trust in the Room.
Six hundred million automated decisions are made daily at Optimum, but what happens when the human agents go rogue? Today's episode features a conversation with Sundar Krishnan, who reveals why customer service agents override AI recommendations, the long-term cost of short-term customer "credits," and why enterprise AI is guaranteed to hallucinate without a critical, context-driven semantic layer. Todays show underscores why it is so important to bridge the human-AI trust gap. WhatsApp us your comments and questions on +447392087344 Tech Talks is powered by Harvey Nash, the leading global provider of technology and talent solutions. Click here to learn more about our services. The music on Tech Talks is created by London artist Lemzi.
S1 · E1015
September 2 · 24 min
Is Your AI Strategy Actually Working Backwards?
Most companies chasing AI ROI are solving the maze from the outside in. Stephen Henn, Managing Director of AI Innovation at DLA Piper, joins David Savage to explain why "AI-ifying" a broken human process just gives you an automated, expensive mess. From the token economics of scaling AI to the compliance risk of shadow "vibe coding," Stephen shares what it actually takes to work backward from real impact and get to deterministic, fiduciary-grade results. WhatsApp us your comments and questions on +447392087344 Tech Talks is powered by Harvey Nash, the leading global provider of technology and talent solutions. Click here to learn more about our services. The music on Tech Talks is created by London artist Lemzi.
S1 · E1014
September 1 · 26 min
The Price of Inaction: Why Novant Health's Chief AI Officer Rejects the 'Shiny Object' Graveyard
We often hear about the latest, shiniest AI models, but what is the real cost of doing nothing? Vijay Sankararaman, Chief AI Officer at Novant Health, joins David Savage to explain why he rejects the "pilot graveyard" of tech for tech's sake. Discover how AI is being deployed inside a secure, agentic walled garden to break constraints, eliminate administrative inertia, and return the clinic to its most sacred interaction: the doctor-patient conversation. Read the article David and Sam discuss at the start of the episode here. WhatsApp us your comments and questions on +447392087344 Tech Talks is powered by Harvey Nash, the leading global provider of technology and talent solutions. Click here to learn more about our services. The music on Tech Talks is created by London artist Lemzi.
S1 · E1013
August 31 · 19 min
The Death of the Enterprise: Why the Best AI Model Won't Save You
If everyone has access to the same AI model, what's actually left to compete on? AES Chief Digital Strategy and AI Officer Erin Boyd argues it's not the model, it's the data, and knowing exactly where to reinsert human friction. She explains why she told a room of executives their companies would "wither" if they don't reimagine how they work, and why burning down institutional baggage isn't about cutting jobs. This is AI leadership, unfiltered. WhatsApp us your comments and questions on +447392087344 Tech Talks is powered by Harvey Nash, the leading global provider of technology and talent solutions. Click here to learn more about our services. The music on Tech Talks is created by London artist Lemzi.

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