In this episode of Tech Innovators Spotlight, host Chad Merck is joined by Paul Goldstein, Head of AI Growth at Blackbaud to discuss how AI is transforming the social good sector through a focus on customer needs, simplicity, and measurable outcomes. The conversation explores the rise of agentic AI as virtual teammates, capable of autonomously supporting tasks like donor engagement while maintaining a human-in-the-loop for trust and oversight. Paul emphasizes that successful AI adoption isn’t about the technology itself, but the value it delivers, whether that’s increased fundraising, stronger relationships, or operational efficiency.

In This Episode You Will Learn:

• How agentic AI is being structured and onboarded like a real team member
• What product and leadership shifts are needed to successfully adopt AI at scale
• Why outcome-driven AI matters more than understanding the underlying technology

Some Questions We Ask:

• What do customers actually care about when it comes to AI?
• How do you measure whether your AI strategy is working?
• What future developments in AI are you most excited about?

Resources:

View Paul Goldstein on LinkedIn

View Chad Merck on LinkedIn

Related Microsoft Podcasts:

• Microsoft Threat Intelligence Podcast
• Afternoon Cyber Tea with Ann Johnson
• Microsoft Hybrid Cloud Partners Podcast

Discover and follow other Microsoft podcasts at microsoft.com/podcasts

Produced by Hangar Studios

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of Tech Innovators Spotlight, host Chad Merck is joined by Bryan Harris, CTO of SAS, to explore the current state of AI and where it’s headed next. Bryan shares why AI represents a turning point in how organizations analyze and act on massive amounts of data, and why the real opportunity isn’t replacing people but empowering them to create better outcomes. The conversation covers the rise of agentic AI, the importance of trust and governance in enterprise AI systems, and how technologies like digital twins, synthetic data, and quantum computing are helping organizations solve complex real-world problems, from manufacturing optimization to fraud detection.

In This Episode You Will Learn:

• Why the explosion of enterprise data is driving the rapid adoption of AI
• How AI can shift organizations from gathering data to actually analyzing it
• The difference between AI assistants and agentic AI workflows

Some Questions We Ask:

• Why do you believe this moment in AI should lead companies to invest more in people?
• As AI moves from assistants to agentic workflows, where will enterprises see the biggest impact?
• How do digital twins help organizations bridge the gap between AI insights and real-world outcomes?

Resources:

View Bryan Harris on LinkedIn

View Chad Merck on LinkedIn

Related Microsoft Podcasts:

• Microsoft Threat Intelligence Podcast
• Afternoon Cyber Tea with Ann Johnson
• Microsoft Hybrid Cloud Partners Podcast

Discover and follow other Microsoft podcasts at microsoft.com/podcasts

Produced by Hangar Studios

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of Tech Innovators Spotlight, host Chad Merck and co-host Jennifer Martinez are joined by Paul Walker, Global Solutions Director at iManage, to explore how AI is transforming legal and professional services. Paul discusses how generative AI has shifted iManage’s platform from record-keeping to active intelligence, enabling lawyers to extract value from vast, highly sensitive document repositories while maintaining trust, security, and regulatory compliance. The conversation covers what “AI confidence” means in practice, including explainability, auditability, data containment, and completeness, as well as real-world efficiency gains, unexpected high-impact use cases, and the importance of strong information architecture.

In This Episode You Will Learn:

• How generative AI is changing the way legal teams work with documents
• Why grounding AI responses in source documents improves adoption
• What’s next for AI in legal tech including platform openness and agentic workflows

Some Questions We Ask:

• Why are trust, accuracy, and sensitive data handling so critical in legal AI?
• How does iManage make AI outputs trusted and explainable for users?
• What does the agentic future of AI look like for legal teams?

Resources:

View Paul Walker on LinkedIn

View Jennifer Martinez on LinkedIn

View Chad Merck on LinkedIn

Related Microsoft Podcasts:

• Microsoft Threat Intelligence Podcast
• Afternoon Cyber Tea with Ann Johnson
• Microsoft Hybrid Cloud Partners Podcast

Discover and follow other Microsoft podcasts at microsoft.com/podcasts

Produced by Hangar Studios

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.