The AI Report

In this episode, recorded at Dreamforce 2026, Nia Samady, VP of Global Partner Success at Salesforce, joins Kyle to discuss what it takes for AI agent projects to succeed with customers. Nia has spent 22 years at Salesforce, starting as a college graduate on a developer support team, and now leads a technical team that works alongside consulting partners like Accenture and Deloitte across the full customer lifecycle.

Nia explains how AIforce and Claudeforce are bringing Salesforce into the interfaces customers already use, and how Salesforce's network of 84 forward deployed engineering partner firms is tackling data readiness and customer readiness from the earliest stages of a deal.

They also get into where AI is delivering real ROI today, from service use cases seeing 70%+ case deflection to regulated industries like health and financial services, the rise of AI native partners, and how hiring is changing as companies look for new grads who blend technical skills with business acumen.

Key Topics Covered

How Dreamforce 2026 announcements translate into partner success

What Claudeforce and the Anthropic partnership mean for customers

How Salesforce's FDE Partner Network supports Agentforce delivery

Why data readiness is the foundation for AI agents

Where AI agents are delivering ROI, including 70%+ case deflection in service

Why regulated industries are a litmus test for AI

The rise of AI native partners in the Salesforce ecosystem

How AI is changing hiring for new grads and builders

Mentorship, sponsorship and career growth in the AI era

Episode Timestamps

00:00 - Introduction and Nia's 22 years at Salesforce

00:26 - What Nia didn't see coming in the agentic era

01:21 - From the Dreamforce keynote to partner success

02:52 - Claudeforce and the Anthropic partnership

04:15 - Early signals from customers using Salesforce in Claude

05:05 - How forward deployed engineers support Agentforce delivery

07:36 - What forward deployed engineers look at first

09:08 - Why partners value early engagement

09:53 - Where AI is delivering ROI today

11:32 - The rise of AI native partners

12:32 - Marc Benioff, the beginner's mind and a chance elevator ride

14:58 - How hiring has changed for new grads and builders

16:59 - How technical grads can build business skills

18:35 - How Salesforce keeps employees ahead of AI

20:09 - Mentorship, sponsorship and career growth

21:20 - What will be obvious to partners by Dreamforce 2027

Where to find Nia:

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nia-samady-48b99a46/

Salesforce - https://www.salesforce.com/

Partner Links

Join The AI Report Pro: https://community.theaireport.ai/checkout/the-ai-report-pro

Join our free live Claude session, every Tuesday: https://community.theaireport.ai/forms/497be10c

Subscribe to our free newsletter: https://newsletter.theaireport.ai/subscribe

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, recorded at Dreamforce 2026, Denis Machuel, CEO of The Adecco Group, joins Kyle to discuss how AI agents are changing recruitment, workforce strategy, and the day-to-day work of recruiters. Denis explains how Adecco is moving from isolated AI pilots to scaled deployment across its business, with a focus on keeping people at the center of the transformation.

They discuss Ada, Adecco's recruitment agent in the UK, why roughly half of its candidate conversations initially happened outside working hours, and how agents can take over repetitive outreach and first-level screening so recruiters can spend more time on higher-value human conversations.

Denis also breaks down Adecco's work with Salesforce, the rollout of Agentforce Coworker to 27,000 sales professionals and recruiters, the importance of responsible AI and secure data, and why the next challenge is orchestrating multiple agents while bringing humans into the process at the moments where they add the most value.

Key Topics Covered

How AI is changing recruitment at The Adecco Group

Why Adecco moved from broad AI pilots to scaling agents in core workflows

How Ada supports candidate outreach and first-level screening

Why recruiters can spend more time on higher-value human conversations

Adecco's rollout of Agentforce Coworker

Responsible AI, guardrails and secure candidate data

How AI can make recruitment more proactive for candidates and clients

Why agent orchestration and human-in-the-loop design matter

Episode Timestamps

00:00 - Denis' background in computer science and AI

01:50 - The scale of Adecco and the future of work

03:33 - How Ada, Adecco's recruitment agent, works

05:22 - Scaling AI agents across languages and geographies

06:19 - Adecco's partnership with Salesforce and Agentforce

09:05 - Moving from individual AI use to enterprise deployment

10:54 - How a recruiter's workflow is changing with AI agents

13:34 - From reactive recruitment to proactive career support

15:18 - How Adecco measures the success of a hire

16:53 - AI adoption in Europe versus the US

19:15 - Regulation, responsibility and human-centric AI

20:12 - What drives Denis as CEO of The Adecco Group

22:02 - Why agent orchestration is the next big challenge

Where to find Denis:

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/denismachuel/

The Adecco Group - https://www.adeccogroup.com/

Partner Links

Upgrade your AI toolkit: https://www.theaireport.ai/ai-executive-pass

Subscribe to our free newsletter: https://newsletter.theaireport.ai/subscribe

Join the community: https://community.theaireport.ai/checkout/the-ai-report-welcome-gift?coupon_code=WRTH

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, Ian Kahn, PwC partner and global leader for its Customer and Commercial Excellence platform, joins Liam to discuss what AI adoption actually looks like inside large organizations. Ian has spent 27 years at PwC and leads a global team of almost 10,000 practitioners focused on helping clients build stronger customer relationships and drive growth.

Ian explains why the biggest challenge with AI is not access to the technology, but getting people and business models to change with it. He shares why PwC sees a small group of companies capturing most of the value from AI, how leaders can reduce resistance to change, and why the number of agents deployed matters less than how the business itself evolves.

They also get into how Ian uses his own portfolio of AI agents, the shift toward voice-based interaction, and how agents can take over routine administrative work so teams can spend more time on higher-value customer relationships.

Key Topics Covered

Why Ian calls AI the biggest change of his 27-year career

Why 20% of companies are capturing 75% of the value from AI deployment

How leaders can overcome resistance to AI adoption

How PwC is embedding AI into its business model

How Ian uses his own portfolio of AI agents

Why AI agents should free people for higher-value work

The role of voice in the future of work

Why leaders need to explain the "why" behind AI transformation

Episode Timestamps

00:00 - Introduction and Ian's 27 years at PwC

02:15 - Why AI is the biggest change Ian has seen in his career

02:56 - Ian's role leading almost 10,000 practitioners at PwC

04:44 - Why continuous learning matters in a 175-year-old firm

06:08 - Why 20% of companies are capturing 75% of AI's value

07:57 - The role of culture and leadership in AI adoption

10:08 - Why Ian spends most of his time with clients and teams

11:06 - How PwC is embedding AI into its business model

12:55 - Using agents to free up higher-value capacity

14:17 - How Ian uses his own portfolio of AI agents

16:29 - Why leaders need to explain the "why" behind AI

18:28 - Career advice, mentorship and leading high-performing teams

Where to find Ian:

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ianwkahn/

Partner Links

Upgrade your AI toolkit: https://www.theaireport.ai/ai-executive-pass

Subscribe to our free newsletter: https://newsletter.theaireport.ai/subscribe

Join the community: https://community.theaireport.ai/checkout/the-ai-report-welcome-gift?coupon_code=WRTH

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, Mike Flynn joins Liam to break down how companies are moving from AI experimentation to measurable business value. Mike has spent more than 20 years in consulting, including nearly a decade at EY, nine years at PwC, and now leads the technology sector for EY's consulting business.

They discuss why businesses need to redesign workflows around AI instead of simply adding AI to existing processes, how EY's "Design for Zero" approach works, and why AI agents are changing the economics of software.

Mike also explains the real costs behind AI agents, what enterprises want from AI vendors, how AI is reshaping consulting, and why EY is investing in forward-deployed engineering.

Key Topics Covered

Moving from AI experiments to measurable ROI

EY's "Design for Zero" approach to AI-first workflows

Why per-seat software budgets break with AI agents

The real cost of an AI agent task

What enterprises want from AI vendors

How AI is changing consulting and forward-deployed engineering

Episode Timestamps

00:00 - Introduction and Mike's path from the Air Force to EY and PwC

01:58 - What Mike's role at EY looks like today

03:57 - Why point solutions create "trapped work"

04:29 - From AI experiments to end-to-end transformation

07:47 - Where AI-first redesign is working today

10:00 - Why AI is breaking the per-seat software model

13:01 - The real costs behind running an AI agent

16:00 - Measuring AI spend versus business value

18:28 - How much work will AI actually take over?

20:52 - Why companies need more granular AI cost controls

25:53 - Building automated control loops for AI

31:21 - Experimenting with enterprise AI tools at scale

36:02 - Why enterprise AI adoption moves slower than personal AI

39:37 - CIOs shift from adoption to process redesign

41:29 - What enterprises want from AI vendors

45:24 - Consulting versus AI deployment at EY

46:36 - Why AI may create more consulting work, not less

49:00 - EY's forward-deployed engineering strategy

52:16 - The two qualities Mike looks for when hiring

55:33 - Why Mike does what he does

Where to find Mike:

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelbernardflynn/

EY - https://www.ey.com/

Partner Links

Upgrade your AI toolkit: https://www.theaireport.ai/ai-executive-pass

Subscribe to our free newsletter: https://newsletter.theaireport.ai/subscribe

Join the community: https://community.theaireport.ai/checkout/the-ai-report-welcome-gift?coupon_code=WRTH

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, Cillian Kieran, CEO and founder of Ethyca, joins Liam to talk about why data privacy and AI governance need to be treated as engineering problems, not just legal and compliance challenges.

Cillian explains how a consulting project for Heineken ahead of the GDPR pushed him to rethink privacy from an engineer's perspective and eventually build Ethyca. He breaks down how the company's product suite works, why Fides has become a widely adopted open-source privacy standard, and what changes when AI agents are given read and write access to tools like Stripe, QuickBooks or a CRM.

They also get into what foundation model providers may be missing on governance, why AI needs a harness that directs its capabilities without slowing it down, the responsibility engineers have when building AI systems, and why he thinks much of what we call AI is still statistical math wrapped in a marketing label.

Later, Cillian and Liam discuss where AI startups may consolidate, Yann LeCun's work on world models, the human impact of increasingly agent-driven work, and how growing up around art shaped Cillian's view of software as a creative pursuit.

Key Topics Covered

Why privacy and AI governance are engineering problems

How Fides became a widely adopted open-source privacy standard

The risk of giving AI agents read and write access to business systems

Why AI needs a harness that directs its capabilities without slowing it down

What foundation model providers may be missing on governance

Why engineers, not just users, carry responsibility for AI safety

Why Cillian calls AI "statistical math" with a marketing label

World models, startup consolidation and the future of AI infrastructure

Episode Timestamps
00:00 - Introduction and welcome
00:58 - From a physics dropout to a data consultancy for Fortune 500 brands
03:17 - The Six Problems of Privacy and becoming the world's most trusted technology company
07:20 - Inside the product suite: Fides, Helios, Janus, Lethe and Astralis
11:29 - How Fides became a widely adopted open-source privacy standard
14:20 - What Cillian believes foundation model providers are missing on governance
16:08 - Why AI needs a harness, not just guardrails
18:19 - Ethyca's business model and the rise in demand for consulting
23:07 - Why Ethyca went after enterprise customers first
24:50 - Testing Grok's agent tools
27:34 - MCP proliferation, OpenClaw and the risk of "permissive access"
31:11 - The seatbelt analogy for building safe AI systems
34:28 - Why AI governance isn't getting the coverage it deserves
36:26 - AI as "statistical math" and Ted Chiang's take on the label
38:43 - Foundation model economics and the future of AI startups
39:49 - Yann LeCun, world models and where Cillian would place his next bet
50:12 - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: classical versus romantic thinking
56:05 - Why Cillian still does what he does
01:03:34 - Where to find Cillian and closing thoughts

Where to find Cillian:
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/cilliankieran
Ethyca - https://ethyca.com

Partner Links
Upgrade your AI toolkit: https://www.theaireport.ai/ai-executive-pass
Subscribe to our free newsletter: https://newsletter.theaireport.ai/subscribe
Join the community: https://community.theaireport.ai/checkout/the-ai-report-welcome-gift?coupon_code=WRTH

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices