The ITPro Podcast

It’s long been said that good data is necessary before you can have good AI. But to an increasing degree, AI is also helping businesses manage, analyze, and generate their data too.With AI code generation already well understood, businesses are also leaning on natural language processing and agentic AI to help their experts such as data engineers and data scientists automate their work more effectively.What does all this mean for businesses looking to adopt AI? And how is the UK AI market maturing?In this episode, recorded on the ground at Databricks AI Days London 2026, Rory speaks to Michael Green, UK&I managing director at Databricks and Richard Shaw, AVP Field Engineering at Databricks, to better understand how data and AI are converging.Read more:What is natural language processing?‘A true vote of confidence’: Databricks announces $850m UK investment as firm looks to quadruple London office footprint"We want AI to work for Britain": The UK government wants to upskill 10 million Brits in AI by 2030 – and the courses are free to accessThe UK’s AI ambitions depend on channel partnersMicrosoft says fear of falling behind is driving an AI arms race among UK businesses – and it's fueling record adoption ratesDatabricks wants to train 100,000 people in AI across the UK and Ireland – here's how to get involved

In March the clocks change, Spring begins to show its face, and many companies enter their next financial quarter. But in cybersecurity, no such rays of sunshine are to be found.In the past week, speakers from across the cybersecurity industry came together at RSAC Conference to warn about the latest threats facing businesses. Some warned that just as AI agents are becoming an opportunity for leaders, they’re also becoming a potential threat vector.Also this month, Arm has unveiled its first in-house chip, the Arm AGI CPU. What does it mean, and is this a win for UK tech?In this episode Jane and Rory welcome back Ross Kelly, ITPro’s news and analysis editor, to unpack some of the biggest news items from throughout March.Read more:Safe AI adoption rests on cybersecurity professionals, says RSAC chairmanEnterprises need to think of agents as ‘digital co-workers’ – and that means implementing the same security safeguardsObservability will be key to agentic AI safety, says Microsoft Security execThe key risks security teams face in 2026Tenable co-CEO Stephen Vintz says enterprises need to get serious about tackling the AI “responsibility gap”Systems are deterministic, people are probabilistic – AI is both, and that's a headache for cyber teams

Apple made waves at the start of March with the launch of the MacBook Neo, its first budget laptop. As RAM prices skyrocket, businesses are under pressure to make device purchases that count and that will future-proof their workers for years to come. Both Apple and manufactures in the Windows ecosystem are vying for enterprise money in the budget and pro segments – even as it becomes more expensive than ever to spec devices to 16GB of memory and beyond.Where does the latest Apple release fit into the wider business laptop ecosystem?This week, Rory speaks to Bobby Hellard, ITPro’s reviews editor, to unpack all things MacBook Neo, Windows laptops, and the future of business hardware.Read more:MacBook Neo: everything you need to know about Apple's £599 laptopThe MacBook Neo is another Apple master stroke, and it couldn’t have come at a better timeLow-budget devices are the biggest casualty of the RAM crisisGive businesses more practical AI services and some return on investment before you go selling 6GLenovo wows at MWC with concepts for a modular ThinkBook and desktop AI-devicesAMD thinks ‘AI on the PC has crossed an important line’ – the rise of ‘Agent Computers’ will be the next big breakthroughAre AI PCs becoming the norm?Nobody asked for AI PCs, but they’ve been thrust upon us – at least Dell realizes it’s probably made a mistake

One of the most commonly-touted benefits of AI is its ability to cut down toil and give workers more time to focus on valuable tasks.Few professionals could arguably benefit from this more than teachers, who spend many of their evenings and weekend hours completing paperwork and carrying out marking.How is AI already being used to free up time for teachers, and what can we learn from exemplar organizations leading the way on this path?In this special edition of the ITPro Podcast, in association with AWS, Jane and Rory are joined by Scott Hayden, head of teaching, learning and digital at Basingstoke College of Technology, to explore how the college has deployed AI to support its teaching staff.Read more:Basingstoke College of TechnologyPerform PartnersHelping BCoT Secure $25K Credits to Accelerate AI Growth: How OGVA Enables Innovation in Further Education

Fraud has evolved leaps and bounds in the past few years, with new technology and more digitally-native businesses than ever providing the ideal attack surface for fraudsters.As attackers look to lure in business professionals with new tech such as deepfakes and AI scams, enterprise cybersecurity teams and cybersecurity vendors are faced with the task of combatting cyber fraud more effectively.How can we combat this new frontier of cyber fraud?In this episode, Jane is joined by Paul Weathersby, chief product officer, Identity, Fraud & Financial Crime Compliance at Experian, to explore the increasing sophistication of cyber crime and fraud campaigns.

Women are still greatly underrepresented in STEM. The latest figures from the Women Tech Network show women only make up around 26-27% of the STEM workforce and the organization estimates that at the current rate of change, it will be nearly 123 years before the economic gender gap is closed.It’s International Women’s Day 2026 – and the rate of women hired in tech continues to lag far behind that of men. As hiring teams turn to AI tools to automatically field candidates, we’re at something of a crossroads – do we fix the bias inherent in hiring? Or simply replicate it at scale with similarly biased AI tools?In this episode, Jane are Rory are joined by Clare Hickie, EMEA CTO at Workday, to discuss how businesses can engage in bias-free talent acquisition in the age of AI.

February is the shortest month, but you wouldn’t know it from the sheer amount of news that’s broken in just the past 26 days.Amid growing fears of AI stealing jobs, OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman has claimed that firms are simply using the technology as an excuse for mass layoffs. Earlier this month, a series of Anthropic releases drove stocks down at a range of companies – all tied to fears that the SaaS model might be on its way out.Also this month, Pure Storage has rebranded as Everpure – what’s behind this decision and what does it say about the company’s strategy going forward?In this episode, Jane and Rory welcome back Ross Kelly, ITPro’s news and analysis editor, to explore some of February’s biggest stories.Read more:Sam Altman just said what everyone is thinking about AI layoffsWhy Anthropic sent software stocks into freefallAnthropic says Claude Code can help streamline 'cost-prohibitive' COBOL modernization, but IBM says it's not that simpleWhat might cause the 'AI bubble' to burst – and what impact would that have on the business world?Pure Storage snaps up 1touch in data management pivot

Digital sovereignty has quietly become one of the most urgent requirements in the tech sector. Once a matter for policy debate, this is now a critical business issue and as much a matter of resilience as one of compliance.Indeed while we’ve spoken about the need for digital sovereignty before, recent geopolitical developments have cast the debate in far starker light. With European governments and businesses leaning heavily into digital sovereignty, it’s clear there’s an emerging race to secure critical workloads.Just how important will digital sovereignty be in 2026?In this episode, Jane and Rory discuss all things digital sovereignty – how it’s being realized, the scale of the transformation, and how we could see things play out.Read more:Sovereign infrastructure spend to triple in Europe as fifth of workloads stay localWhat is a sovereign cloud?Sovereign cloud services are now the “bare minimum” expected by customers, and hyperscalers are scrambling to meet demandWhat the new AWS European Sovereign Cloud means for enterprisesWhat the new Microsoft Sovereign Cloud push means for European customersCIOs wrestle with Europe's new digital sovereignty approachCan the UK achieve AI sovereignty?

Risk management is a constant point of concern in the modern enterprise, with cybersecurity threats, compliance pressures, and financial leaps of faith all piling pressure on the teams who are forced to manage them. But risk management can’t always be about bailing out the sinking ship. Sooner or later, businesses need to integrate their risk management systems and connect teams together via a centralized framework.What are the benefits of overhauling risk management in this manner? And how can it be achieved?In this special edition of the ITPro Podcast, in association with Qualys, Rory is joined by Ivan Milenkovic, VP Risk Technology EMEA at Qualys, to explore how businesses can reduce the burden on C-suite executives and improve their overall resilience by restructuring their approach to risk management.Read more:Risk Operations Center (ROC) | Qualys

This episode was first published on 18 July 2025.Cyber attacks can feel a layer detached from the real world. Yes, businesses frequently see IP stolen, get frozen out of systems, or have data wiped by malicious actors. But if you haven’t got your finger on the pulse, cyber attacks can also fail to register in your day to day.But there are instances where cyber attacks come crashing into the lives of everyday people, and become impossible to ignore: when attackers go after critical infrastructure and operational technology. Breaches and malware attacks at power and water plants, against core supply chain organizations, or against transport networks can all cause catastrophic damage, enormous financial losses – and even lead to deaths.In this episode, Rory speaks with Magpie Graham, technical director of intel and services at Dragos, to discuss attacks on operational technology, critical infrastructure, and the future of large-scale cyber attacks.Read more:What is operational technology – and why is it at risk?Manufacturing firms are struggling to handle rising OT security threatsWhen everything connects, everything’s at riskFormer NCSC head says the Jaguar Land Rover attack was the 'single most financially damaging cyber event ever to hit the UK' as impact laid bareCISA shares lessons learned from Polish power grid hack – and how to prevent disaster striking again

Identity controls in the enterprise have only become more complicated over the last few years.Initially, the focus was on IoT devices, which were exploding in the enterprise environment. But recent years have brought an onslaught of AI tools and AI agents, all of which come with security and governance complications.How can business leaders get a grip on the adoption of AI agents, particularly as these tools begin to communicate with one another and with third-party enterprise tools?In this episode, Rory speaks to Shiven Ramji, president, Auth0 at Okta, to discuss the future of identity, security and governance in the face of AI agents.

January is supposed to be a month full of new starts and potential, in which we try to embrace resolutions or set out our plans for the year ahead.But in the tech sector, it’s become something of an ominous month – the start of layoff season. January 2026 has been no different, with Amazon announcing 16,000 jobs cut in a plan that could see up to 30,000 cut by the end of May according to Reuters.Earlier in the month, Dell made waves at CES 2026 with the news that it’s reviving the XPS laptop line, just one year on from its announcement that the brand would be deprecated. What can we make of the job cuts and of Dell's reversal?In this episode, Rory welcomes back Ross Kelly, ITPro's news and analysis editor, to explore some of January's biggest stories.Read more:Amazon is cutting 14,000 roles in a bid to ‘operate like the world's largest startup’‘Lean into it’: Amazon CEO Andy Jassy thinks enterprises need to embrace AI to avoid being left behind – even if that means fewer jobs in the futureFresh Microsoft layoffs hit software engineering roles, documents showReturn of the XPS: Dell resurrects iconic brand at CES after customer demandDell kills off XPS and other brands for PC simplicity

Every business wants its payments to process smoothly. Simply put, if you’re introducing friction into your payment processes, you’re making it harder to drive revenue and dissuading users from becoming return customers.One sector that knows this better than most is iGaming, which has to meet the demands of users around the world including mobile payments, virtual wallets, and cross-border social gaming payouts.Delivering all this in near real-time, with adequate security and reliable infrastructure, is no small feat. How are these payment systems possible?In this special edition of the ITPro Podcast, in association with Paysafe, Rory is joined by Bob Legters, chief product officer at Paysafe, to discuss the best practices for building a payments strategy – and how this can be applied to iGaming.

One of the major challenges of today’s environments is the rising tide of bots, with generative AI driving a new era of the technology.Bots have been a part of the internet since at least the 1990s but recent technological advancements have swollen their number exponentially. Some of these net dwellers are benign, others are malicious, and some sit somewhere in between. But no matter what category they fall into, they can all cause problems for businesses. How much of an issue is this for businesses and what can they do to mitigate it? In this special discussion, in association with Fastly, Jane speaks to Marshall Irwin, chief information security officer (CISO) at Fastly, to discover more about how organizations can protect themselves from the risks of bots.

The environmental impact of AI is a growing area of study and one that businesses must begin to seriously consider.When you power a data center with coal, it’s obvious that it’s having a detrimental impact on the environment. But is a ‘green’ data center really green? And to what extent might the benefits of AI outweigh potential environmental negatives?In this episode, Jane and Rory discuss the shifting sustainability targets of the world’s public cloud giants, as caused by AI, and what they’re doing to get back on track.Read more:Microsoft Environmental Sustainability Report 2025Amazon 2024 Sustainability ReportGoogle 2025 Environmental ReportGoogle emissions have surged 51% in five years – but it’s making solid progress in data center efficiencyData center carbon emissions are set to skyrocket by 2030, with hyperscalers producing 2.5 billion tons of carbonSmall businesses are ‘flying blind’ on carbon emissions and struggling to meet sustainability goals – and the blame lies with big tech vendorsBig tech’s solution for AI-related carbon emissions could be more AIMicrosoft wants to drastically cut carbon emissions, so it’s building data centers with woodCan small modular reactors meet data center power demand?Google just confirmed the location of its first small modular reactorHyperscalers go nuclearGas-powered data centers: what's behind the boom?Could all data centers go solar?TPUs: Google's home advantageWhat is a tensor processing unit (TPU)?AI’s thirsty secret

The tech sector started this year with a bang at CES 2026, the annual event that brings together over 140,000 attendees to share the latest innovations in consumer and business technology.Unsurprisingly, at this year’s event AI was a primary focus – with more details on Nvidia and AMD’s latest hardware, alongside AI PC innovations by brands like Lenovo.Alongside these headlines, however, we also saw a return to form by companies such as Dell, with the resurrection of the XPS laptop range.What did we learn from CES about what to expect in business hardware over the coming year?In this episode, Jane and Rory are joined by Mike Moore, deputy editor at TechRadar Pro, to discuss the biggest moments from CES 2026.