In this episode of Software Leaders Uncensored, Steve Taplin sits down with Edward Calvesbert, VP of Product Management for IBM WatsonX, to discuss what’s real, what’s hype, and what’s breaking inside enterprise AI today. Edward explains how Watson evolved into WatsonX, why 95% of enterprise AI projects are failing, and why strong data foundations and semantic layers matter more than the model itself. He breaks down the difference between demos and production AI, the emerging reality of agentic voice systems, and how text-to-SQL and conversational BI are the current innovation frontier. Edward also shares candid insights on governance, legacy data, vendor lock-in, productivity with GenAI coding tools, and what it really takes to go from prototype to enterprise-ready at global scale.

In this episode of Software Leaders Uncensored, host Steve Taplin sits down with Peter Horadan, CEO of Vouched, and one of the few tech leaders who has helped scale multiple “boring” backend automation companies into multi-billion-dollar giants. Peter walks through his journey from Microsoft in the pre-internet era to leading engineering at Concur, Avalara, and launching Lockstep before its acquisition by Sage. He reveals why digital identity is on the verge of a massive transformation, how mobile driver’s licenses and cryptographic IDs will replace today’s broken verification, and why AI agents logging in as humans is the next huge security nightmare. Peter also shares candid lessons on remote culture, AI coding limits, leadership, and why anyone with the itch to found a company should stop waiting and start building.

In this episode of Software Leaders Uncensored, Steve Taplin talks with Behnam Bastani, CEO and co-founder of OpenInfer, and former AI executive at Meta, Roblox, Google, HP, and Kodak. Behnam breaks down why the future of AI will live at the edge—not the cloud—and how his team is building a fully integrated hardware–software ecosystem that delivers low-cost, private, on-device AI inference. He explains OpenInfer’s breakthrough “Mementos” technology that lets engineers move between Claude, Copilot, Gemini, and other tools without losing context or history. Behnam also discusses Bay Area culture, talent retention, global instability, hardware regulations, AI adoption failures, and why innovation requires embracing chaos instead of fearing it.

In this episode of Software Leaders Uncensored, host Steve Taplin talks with Jimi Li, CTO of ALM, whose career spans startups, GE, L’Oreal, Coach, News Corp, consulting, and now leading a fully digital legal-industry intelligence company. Jimi shares how he evolved from a two-person startup engineer to global technology leader, and why transformation is 80% psychology and communication—not architecture. He breaks down AI’s real value, the productivity leakage problem, the rise of human-in-the-loop systems, and why every tech leader must build an AI-powered second brain. Jimi also explains how ALM moved from publishing to data and intelligence, how to lead globally distributed engineering teams, and why asking the right questions will matter more than knowledge itself.

In this episode of Software Leaders Uncensored, host Steve Taplin speaks with Tanner Hackett, CEO of Counterpart, about his entrepreneurial journey, the pivot to insurance technology, and the innovative approach of agentic insurance. They discuss the challenges of tech adoption in the insurance industry, the importance of building a remote engineering team, and insights on fundraising and capital efficiency. Tanner shares his thoughts on maximizing team utility, leveraging AI, and the value of learning from failures, as well as advice for tech leaders navigating a rapidly changing landscape.

In this episode of Software Leaders Uncensored, host Steve Taplin talks with Mathias Herzog, CEO of Korn Ferry Digital Business and President of Global Technology Industries at Korn Ferry. Mathias shares his journey from consulting in San Francisco to executive roles at Salesforce, Automation Anywhere, and now leading a $400M SaaS division inside a $3B global firm. He breaks down the challenge of unifying IP, data, and tech stacks from 20 acquisitions, and explains how Korn Ferry is productizing decades of talent science into a unified platform. Mathias also discusses agentic AI, the future of talent development, the difficulty of vetting AI-assisted candidates, and why leaders must focus, listen first, and avoid shiny-object distractions.

In this episode of Software Leaders Uncensored, Steve Taplin interviews Jim Sullivan, Founder & CEO of eDiscovery AI, whose rare background as both a technologist and an attorney gives him a unique advantage in transforming the legal industry. Jim shares how AI now outperforms humans in document classification, why 40,000 doc-review attorney roles are at risk, and how blurry scans, handwriting, foreign languages, and spreadsheets are no longer barriers for machine intelligence. He breaks down the hiring crisis caused by AI-assisted interviews, the rising cost of SOC 2 compliance, and the security pressures forcing his engineering team back into an office. Jim also explains why most AI pilots fail, why fun is the real founder superpower, and how embracing failure—not avoiding it—is the fastest path to breakthrough innovation.

In this episode of Software Leaders Uncensored, Steve Taplin sits down with Corey Ercanbrack, Chief Product & Technology Officer at Vasion, to unpack his 30-year journey from Intel → Landesk → InsideSales → Vasion. Corey explains how he scaled Vasion from 3 engineers to 150+, transitioned from on-prem to a cloud-native SaaS platform, and unified product + engineering under the CPTO role. He breaks down the realities of remote-first engineering, why nearshore LATAM talent is a game changer, and how AI agents will redefine print automation, document workflows, and the future of UI. Corey also shares candid lessons on acquisitions, leadership, engineering culture, and the race to upskill teams for the AI era.