Sales enablement has come a long way from slide decks and one-size-fits-all training. In this episode of Business Technology Perspectives, I’m joined by Bill Dwoinen, Chief Revenue Officer at Mural, to explore how AI and visual collaboration are changing the way teams sell, learn, and align around outcomes.

Bill brings a wealth of experience from Salesforce and LinkedIn, but what makes this conversation special is how openly he shares the lessons Mural has learned from its own transformation. Once known purely as a visual collaboration tool, Mural is now evolving into a platform that helps organizations accelerate deal velocity, strengthen customer retention, and align teams through what he calls “collaborative selling.” For Bill, the goal is simple: help people spend less time managing tools and more time solving real customer problems.

He talks about the growing disconnect between sales strategy and enablement, explaining that many teams today have lost touch with foundational skills such as discovery and negotiation. The solution, he says, lies in a three-part framework of training, enablement, and execution, each powered by technology and reinforced through timing and alignment with the business strategy. This isn’t about piling on new software but understanding what problem each tool actually solves and how it supports human performance.

We also explore how AI is reshaping the sales process in ways that are both practical and profound. From generating account insights in minutes to surfacing hidden “Trojan horse” contacts, AI is helping sales teams work smarter without replacing the human element. Bill shares how simple AI prompts have turned Mural’s own teams into experts on their target accounts, driving consistency, efficiency, and confidence across the field.

Our discussion also touches on the cultural side of enablement, breaking down silos, moving back to more synchronous communication, and bringing inclusivity into decision-making. As Bill puts it, great enablement mirrors great product design: if you build it without the user’s feedback, it doesn’t matter how good it looks.

By the end of this episode, it’s clear that Mural’s next chapter isn’t about whiteboards or sticky notes. It’s about empowering teams to think together, act faster, and use AI to bring clarity to the chaos of modern sales.

Listen now to hear how Bill and his team are redefining enablement in an AI-driven world and why sometimes, the smartest sales strategy starts with asking better questions.

AI conversations often center on coders, designers, and office-based teams, but what about the people who keep goods moving, shelves stocked, patients cared for, and factories running? They make up almost 80 percent of the global workforce, yet much of the technology talk overlooks them. In this episode of Business Technology Perspectives, I sit down with Tom Bianculli, Chief Technology Officer at Zebra Technologies, to explore how AI is being designed for the shop floor, the warehouse aisle, and the hospital corridor.

Tom outlines Zebra’s long-standing mission to “deliver productivity at the point of activity,” and explains how AI fits into that vision. The company’s approach is not about replacing people but augmenting their capabilities, reducing repetitive tasks, and enabling faster, more accurate decision-making. We discuss Zebra Companion, the company’s AI-powered assistant for frontline teams, which features four dedicated agents for knowledge, sales, merchandising, and device support. Early pilots have shown strong adoption, with workers reporting greater empowerment and employers seeing reduced attrition.

We also dive into the role of machine vision, 3D scanning, and RFID in driving efficiency across retail, logistics, and manufacturing. Tom shares examples ranging from automated shelf checks to high-speed industrial inspection, and from wearable cameras that guide item picking to omniscient store concepts that combine real-time inventory awareness with operational intelligence.

The conversation goes beyond features and functions to focus on human-centered automation — the belief that AI works best when it collaborates with people, adapts to their experience level, and integrates seamlessly into their daily tools. For business leaders seeking ROI, we talk about where AI delivers measurable impact today, the infrastructure needed to support it, and the opportunities on the horizon for physical workplaces.

If you’ve been wondering what AI can really do for the teams who keep everything moving, this episode offers a clear and practical perspective.

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This week, I sat down with Craig Burnham, Vice President of Product Marketing for Cisco’s Collaboration business, to go beyond the headlines and unpack what Cisco’s AI evolution actually means for business leaders.

Recorded live at Cisco Live, this episode dives into how Cisco is unifying employee and customer experiences across voice, video, and virtual agents, while keeping humans in the loop where it matters most.

Craig and I explore:

• The rise of Webex AI Agent and Webex AI Assistant, and how they’re reducing agent burnout, shortening call resolution times, and delivering truly autonomous voice and text experiences
• Why Cisco is uniquely positioned to bring cloud-based AI to on-prem environments and hybrid deployments without forcing disruptive migrations
• How Control Hub is evolving into a single pane of glass for AI visibility, governance, and ROI tracking
• What the move toward agentic AI means for IT leaders, and why the long-term impact may be greater than we expect
• How Cisco’s cinematic camera tech and AI-powered meeting features are quietly redefining hybrid work, one room at a time

We also discuss the shifting expectations around AI, from productivity hype to measurable business value, and how Cisco’s platform-first approach enables it to scale new features across contact center, meetings, calling, and more.

For more than 160 years, the Red Cross emblem has protected humanitarian organizations in times of war. But as conflict increasingly moves into cyberspace, new protections are needed for digital infrastructure.

In this episode of Business Technology Perspectives, I speak with Samit D'Cunha, legal advisor at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), about the groundbreaking Digital Emblem Project.

Samit explains how this modern emblem uses cryptographic certificates and DNS protocols to designate digital assets as protected under international humanitarian law. We explore the rise in cyberattacks on hospitals and humanitarian networks during armed conflict, and why creating a recognized, trustworthy signal of digital neutrality is now a moral and legal imperative.

We discuss:

• How the Digital Emblem mirrors the protections of its physical counterpart
• The technical infrastructure behind the project and how it ensures global applicability
• Legal, political, and diplomatic challenges in gaining global adoption
• The need for collaboration across governments, tech companies, and humanitarian actors
• What comes next as cyberwarfare becomes a greater threat to humanitarian operations

As the nature of conflict evolves, so too must the symbols that protect those who help others. This conversation is essential listening for anyone working at the intersection of cybersecurity, ethics, and international law.

In this episode of Business Technology Perspectives, host Neil C. Hughes speaks with Bulent Cinarkaya, General Manager of Field Service Management at ServiceNow, to explore how AI is transforming one of the most overlooked but essential areas of enterprise operations: field service.

Bulent shares how technologies like agentic and generative AI are reshaping frontline work in real time, giving technicians the tools to anticipate what they’ll need before arriving on site, surface answers during complex tasks, and close out jobs faster with intelligent automation. These innovations are no longer on the horizon. They are already being used to improve scheduling accuracy, reduce mean time to resolution, and capture decades of expert knowledge before it disappears.

Drawing on real examples from companies like Bell Canada, Coursera, and British Telecom, Bulent breaks down how ServiceNow is helping field teams not only boost productivity but also improve job satisfaction and customer loyalty. He also highlights how unified platforms, data-driven workflows, and strong change management are critical to scaling these gains sustainably.

If your organization still sees AI as a back-office tool, this conversation is a wake-up call. AI is now embedded in the physical world of work, helping solve operational bottlenecks while empowering people to do their best work under pressure.

Whether you're leading a service team or looking to bridge the gap between digital innovation and human impact, this episode offers a clear look at the future of field service.

In this episode of Business Technology Perspectives, I sit down with Anoop Joshi, Chief Trust Officer at Trustpilot, to explore how the fight against fake reviews is changing in an AI-driven world.

We discuss the impact of new rules like the FTC’s ban on fake reviews, which makes trust a boardroom topic rather than just a marketing concern. Anoop explains how Trustpilot combines machine learning, deep metadata checks and human moderation to protect review integrity across a community of millions.

He shares how his background as an IP lawyer shapes his view of today’s intellectual property debates in AI, why pattern detection beats content checks, and how Trustpilot has won multiple legal cases against bad actors in the past two years.

We also look ahead at trends that will test businesses, from deepfakes to crypto scams, and why human oversight still matters alongside smarter technology. Anoop’s insights offer a candid look at what it really takes to keep online reviews trustworthy at scale.

Search Tech Talks Network for more shows that connect business strategy and digital innovation.

Mobile gaming isn’t just entertainment. It’s quickly becoming one of the most valuable and overlooked channels for digital advertisers. In this episode, Cerisse Velasco, Director of Brand Partnerships at Zynga, joins Neil to lift the lid on how the gaming giant is helping brands connect with highly engaged, predominantly female audiences through in-game experiences that balance fun, relevance, and performance.

• Why the stereotypical “gamer” image is outdated, and how Zynga’s audience trends toward Gen Z and millennial women
• How brands are using rewarded video, custom playable, and deep integrations to build emotional connections with players
• What made partnerships like the Real Housewives collaboration such a perfect fit, and how authenticity drives engagement
• Why mobile gaming is outperforming other digital channels in attention and conversion
• How Zynga is adapting to a privacy-first future through persona-based planning and contextual targeting

She also gives us a glimpse into what’s next for mobile gaming as a marketing platform, from value exchange experiences to retail media integration and gamified brand storytelling.

If your brand still views gaming as a niche space, this conversation will provide you with a completely different perspective.

In this episode, Dr. Chris Austin, Senior Vice President of Research Technologies at GSK, joins Neil to share how artificial intelligence, genetics, and vast clinical datasets are radically reshaping the pharmaceutical landscape. A neurologist by training with experience across the NIH, biotech startups, and now GSK, Chris explains how drug development is finally moving beyond trial-and-error toward predictive, precision-based approaches.

He reveals how GSK is:

• Using AI and genomics to map disease “circuits” and prioritize drug targets with greater accuracy
• Designing novel molecules like oligonucleotides to reach previously “undruggable” targets
• Streamlining clinical trials through deep phenotyping and biomarker-based patient selection
• Leveraging generative AI to model disease biology, simulate clinical outcomes, and accelerate antibody design by 90 percent

Chris also reflects on the journey from the Human Genome Project to today’s AI-powered medicine and why he believes GSK has the right mix of data generation, scientific expertise, and computing infrastructure to lead the next wave of medical breakthroughs.

If you’ve ever wondered how AI is moving from hype to real-world health impact, this conversation offers a rare inside look at the front lines of biopharma innovation.

Listen now to discover how technology is not just speeding up drug discovery, it’s rewriting the rules entirely.