Shift AI

In this episode of the Shift AI Podcast, Adam Alfano, Global Head of SMB at Salesforce, joins host Boaz Ashkenazy for a wide-ranging conversation on how AI agents are fundamentally reshaping small and medium-sized businesses.Adam shares his unconventional career journey—from growing up in a steel town outside Toronto to building a global sales career and now leading Salesforce’s SMB organization. From there, the discussion dives deep into how today’s SMBs are navigating constant macro change with resilience, optimism, and an increasingly innovative mindset.The conversation explores how agentic AI is enabling small...

In this episode of the Shift AI Podcast, Arnab Bose, Chief Product Officer at Asana, joins host Boaz Ashkenazy to explore how artificial intelligence is transforming the way teams collaborate and get work done. Bose shares his journey to becoming CPO at Asana and the company's ambitious vision for human-AI collaboration, including their groundbreaking AI Teammates and AI Studio products.From the early days of smartphones reshaping work behavior to today's AI agents that can automate the "toil aspects" of project management, Bose offers a compelling look at where workplace productivity is heading. The conversation dives...

In this episode of the Shift AI Podcast, Eilon Reshef, Co-founder and Chief Product Officer at Gong, joins host Boaz Ashkenazy to explore how artificial intelligence is revolutionizing revenue operations and transforming the future of sales teams. Reshef shares the decade-long journey of building Gong from a data-driven conversation platform into what they call an "AI OS for Revenue Teams," serving Fortune 10 companies and pioneering the use of AI in go-to-market workflows.From capturing customer conversations to deploying AI agents that can automate mundane tasks, Reshef offers a compelling vision of where sales productivity is heading. The...

In this episode of the Shift AI Podcast, Rob Lloyd, Chief Technology Officer of the City of Seattle, joins host Boaz Ashkenazy to discuss Seattle's groundbreaking approach to implementing artificial intelligence in municipal government. Lloyd shares his journey from serving multiple cities across America to spearheading one of the nation's most progressive urban AI initiatives, revealing how Seattle is transforming public services through thoughtful technology adoption.From traffic safety innovations to permitting process overhauls, Lloyd offers a candid look at the successes and failures of Seattle's AI pilots, including the surprising revelation that 80% of initial experiments didn't...

In this episode of the Shift AI Podcast, Yash Wagh, Co-Founder and CEO of Gone, joins host Boaz Ashkenazy to explore how reverse logistics and AI are transforming the secondhand goods market into a sustainable circular economy. With a background as a rocket engineer, supply chain leadership at Amazon and A.T. Kearney, and a passion for sustainability, Yosh is building autonomous local commerce infrastructure that keeps valuable goods out of landfills and in circulation.From his journey as a mechanical engineer designing rocket propulsion systems to pioneering AI-powered reverse logistics, Yosh shares how...

In this episode of the Shift AI Podcast, Christian Lund, Co-Founder of Templafy, joins host Boaz Ashkenazy to explore how cognitive collaboration between humans and AI is transforming enterprise document creation. Broadcasting from Copenhagen, Christian shares his unique journey from newspaper sales to building one of the leading document automation platforms serving over 800 enterprise clients worldwide, including KPMG and IKEA.From navigating technology shifts spanning on-premise to cloud to AI, Christian offers invaluable insights on what separates successful AI implementations from the 40% of projects that fail. The conversation dives deep into why purpose trumps...

In this episode of the Shift AI Podcast, Michael Domanic, Head of AI at UserTesting, joins host Boaz Ashkenazy to explore how companies can successfully transform their organizations with AI. With over 800 custom GPTs built across UserTesting and nearly every employee actively using AI tools, Michael shares the framework behind one of the most successful enterprise AI transformations happening today.From his early days designing chatbots during the first AI hype cycle to leading transformation at scale today, Michael offers invaluable insights into why AI transformation is fundamentally a change management and creative challenge—no...

In this episode of the Shift AI Podcast, Jeff Reihl, Technology Chairman at LexisNexis and former CTO, joins host Boaz Ashkenazy to discuss how one of the world's largest legal information companies executed a dramatic pivot to generative AI. Jeff shares the remarkable story of how LexisNexis transformed their entire 2023 strategy in response to ChatGPT's emergence, leveraging their 160 billion document repository to solve AI hallucination problems that plague the legal profession.From modernizing mainframe systems written in IBM assembly language to implementing multi-model AI strategies using GPT and Claude, Jeff provides a masterclass in enterprise AI adoption...

In this episode of the Shift AI Podcast, Alvin Graylin, Digital Fellow at Stanford’s Institute for Human-Centered AI and creator of the Abundantism framework, joins host Boaz Ashkenazy for a bold and wide-ranging conversation on the future of AI and humanity. With a background that spans investing, international leadership, and advanced academic research, Alvin offers a rare, global lens on how we can — and must — steer AI toward positive societal outcomes.Together, Boaz and Alvin explore three potential AI futures — from Mad Max to Star Trek — and discuss how we can avoid a descent in...

In this episode of the Shift AI Podcast, Court Lorenzini, the founding CEO of DocuSign and now founder of Founder Nexus, joins host Boaz Ashkenazy for a thought-provoking conversation about entrepreneurship, AI, and building a more balanced future for humanity. As a five-time entrepreneur who has experienced both spectacular success and instructive failure, Court brings a unique perspective on how artificial intelligence is fundamentally changing what it takes to build and scale companies today.From the isolation of the founder's journey to reimagining education systems for an AI-driven world, Court shares his vision for creating abundance rather...

In this special live episode of the Shift AI Podcast recorded at Seattle AI Week, Dr. Andre Alfred, who leads threat operations and security for Google Cloud's Fortune 500 customers, joins host Boaz Ashkenazy for an eye-opening conversation about the intersection of AI and cybersecurity. With his remarkable journey from high school help desk operator to earning his PhD and leading security operations at Microsoft, Oracle, and Google, Andre brings a unique perspective on protecting critical infrastructure in an era where adversaries have access to the same powerful AI tools as defenders.From data poisoning...

In this episode of the Shift AI Podcast, Will Jung, Chief Technology Officer at nCino, joins host Boaz Ashkenazy to explore how artificial intelligence is revolutionizing the traditionally conservative banking and financial services sector. Jung brings a distinctive perspective from his extensive experience helping financial institutions transition from viewing technology as a cost center to embracing it as a strategic innovation driver, particularly in the highly regulated world of banking.From fraud prevention using AI agents that actively lure scammers to context engineering that personalizes banking experiences, Jung offers compelling insights into how banks are deploying cutting-edge...

In this episode of the Shift AI Podcast, Venky Veeraraghavan, Chief Product Officer at DataRobot, joins host Boaz Ashkenazy to explore the fascinating evolution from predictive AI to today's agentic workflows. With 20 years of experience at Microsoft working on everything from Azure Machine Learning to the early days of Azure OpenAI, Venky brings a unique perspective on how AI is truly transforming the enterprise landscape.The conversation delves into the fundamental differences between predictive and generative AI, how agents will orchestrate complex business processes using multiple AI tools, and what the future holds for the agentic workforce...

In this episode of the Shift AI Podcast, Vik Bajaj, CEO and Co-founder of Foresite Labs and Interim President at Xaira Therapeutics, joins host Boaz Ashkenazy to explore how AI is revolutionizing life sciences and healthcare. With a distinguished background spanning physics, structural biology, radiology at Stanford, and pioneering work at Google, Vik brings a unique perspective on the intersection of AI and medicine.The conversation delves into the stark realities of drug discovery—where 2 million researchers globally struggle against success rates so low that most will be lucky to contribute to one or two successful drugs in...

Shift AI is brought to you by Clause, a legal AI platform, and is syndicated by GeekWire.In this episode of the Shift AI Podcast, Shalini Agarwal, VP of Product at Salesforce overseeing Slack's AI and search capabilities, joins host Boaz Ashkenazy to explore how AI is transforming workplace collaboration from the inside out. With 17 years of experience at Google and now leading AI innovation at one of the world's most widely used workplace platforms, Shalini offers unique insights into how billions of weekly messages are being augmented with intelligent agents and contextual AI.<...

In this episode of the Shift AI Podcast, Sanjna Parulekar, SVP of Product Marketing at Salesforce, joins host Boaz Ashkenazy to explore the reality of enterprise AI adoption beyond the media hype. With her psychology background and eight years at one of the world's leading enterprise software companies, Parulekar offers a grounded perspective on how large organizations are actually implementing AI agents and what the human side of AI transformation really looks like.From discussing the courage required to transform workflows to the importance of data strategy foundations, Parulekar shares insights on why some companies are succeeding...

In this episode of the Shift AI Podcast, Dr. Vanja Josifovski, CEO of Kumo and former CTO of Airbnb and Pinterest, joins host Boaz Ashkenazy to explore how artificial intelligence is transforming the way businesses unlock value from their structured data. Josifovski shares his journey from building recommendation systems for millions of users to founding Sequoia-backed Kumo, which is tackling one of AI's biggest challenges: turning business data into actionable insights.From his early days witnessing the evolution of embeddings and vector representations to today's transformer revolution, Josifovski offers a unique perspective on the...

In this episode of the Shift AI Podcast, host Boaz Ashkenazy is joined by Taylor Black, Director of AI and Venture Ecosystems in Microsoft’s CTO Office. With a background as a B2B SaaS founder and deep tech venture studio leader, Taylor brings a rare blend of startup vision and enterprise expertise to the AI conversation.Together, they explore the rise of agentic workflows, protocols like MCP, and the shifting interface of software in the age of AI. Taylor also reflects on the philosophical and economic implications of AI’s rapid evolution—from abundant intelligence to human...

In this episode of the Shift AI Podcast, host Boaz Ashkenazy sits down with Patrick Jarvis, President and Chief Innovation Officer at Acumino, to explore the cutting edge of roboticstechnology. After two decades building one of the world's most advanced AI labs, helping companies like Apple, Samsung, and major automotive manufacturers solve critical data problems, Jarvis saw an opportunity to revolutionize how robotsinteract with the physical world. He reveals how Acumino is achieving unprecedented reliability in robotic manipulation tasks – from threading screws to fine assembly work – by combining advanced AI with revolutionary force-sensing technology.The conversation delves into...

In this episode of the Shift AI Podcast, Boaz welcomes Prem Kumar, CEO of Humanly and GeekWire Award winner for CEO of the Year. With his unique background as both a buyer of HR solutions at Microsoft and a startup leader at TINYpulse, Prem shares how his company is revolutionizing the hiring process through AI-powered solutions that create more human-centered experiences.Prem dives into the challenges facing today's job seekers and recruiters, revealing how Humanly's technology enables meaningful two-way conversations for every candidate within 24 hours of application. The discussion explores how AI can reduce bias in hiring...