AI is no longer just a productivity tool - it is becoming an operational risk, a security layer, and a new kind of business identity. Ben Wilcox, CISO and CTO at ProArc, explains why the old rules for governance, auditing, and trust are breaking fast, and what leaders need to do before agents start making real decisions on their own. Ben and I unpack the shift from clicks to prompts, from deterministic software to probabilistic behavior, and from human-only workflows to environments where machine identities may outnumber people. If you are responsible for security, data, cloud costs, or AI strategy, this conversation shows why visibility and guardrails matter more than ever. You’ll discover:

• Why data governance has suddenly become a board-level priority
• How agent behavior changes the way security, logging, and audit trails must work
• Why “every click is a waste” is reshaping product design and user experience
• The hidden cost of AI usage, token spend, and why sticker shock is coming
• Why some AI use cases should be scaled back, not expanded
• How to choose the right business use case before you pilot anything at scale

Ben shares practical guidance for getting ahead of AI sprawl, including how to identify what AI is already in your environment, how to assign both business and technical ownership to an agent, and how to define the right boundaries before something breaks in production. He also breaks down why security has to enter the conversation earlier, or it becomes friction instead of an enabler. The bigger message: AI adoption is moving too fast for guesswork. If your organization wants to move quickly without creating chaos, you need standards, observability, and a clear model for trust before you scale. Essential listening for CISOs, CTOs, IT leaders, and anyone trying to turn AI from hype into durable business value. I hope you enjoy it!

In this episode I sit down with Faryam Asif, CTO at Shufti, to unpack how identity verification is evolving as agents, deepfakes, and AI-driven attacks accelerate. The conversation focuses on how Shufti verifies individuals, businesses, and transactions, and why layered security is becoming essential in regulated industries. Faryam also explains how the company is adapting to new use cases like agent verification, age estimation, and audit trail requirements.

Faryam explains how Shufti verifies individuals, businesses, and transactions across industries including financial services, healthcare, retail, gambling, social media, and crypto.

We discuss document verification, facial biometrics, live selfie and video checks, address verification, NFC-based passport verification, KYB, and AML workflows.

I raise the growing challenge of AI agents and asks how identity verification adapts when an automated agent, not just a human, is completing a workflow.

Faryam introduces the emerging concept of KYA, know your agent, and explains why the industry is shifting toward verifying the person behind the action.

We discuss how deepfakes and synthetic documents have lowered the cost and speed of fraud, making scalable attacks much easier than before.

Faryam shares how Shufti is responding with layered verification, combining document checks, facial likeness, device intelligence, behavior analysis, risk scoring, media integrity, and database checks.

The conversation explores how behavioral signals are becoming important as attackers learn to mimic human pauses and interaction patterns.

We dig into compliance, auditability, and why regulated industries now need proof of how verification happened, not just who was verified.

Faryam explains Shufti’s own technology stack, including proprietary facial liveness, document verification, OCR, transaction monitoring, KYB, AI, and ML systems.

We cover deployment options and integrations, including on-premises hosting, cloud APIs, SDKs, and plugins for platforms like WordPress, Shopify, and Okta.

Faryam also discusses Shufti’s global footprint, compliance posture, and use cases such as facial age estimation for social media and adult-content restrictions.

I hope you enjoy it!

In this episode of Talking Innovation, I sit down with Walter Haydock, founder and CEO of Stack Aware, to explore the fast-evolving world of AI governance, cybersecurity, privacy, and compliance. Walter shares how his background in Marine Corps intelligence, counterterrorism, and government risk management shaped his approach to building a more quantitative, actionable way to assess and manage enterprise risk.

The conversation covers why so many organizations still rely on outdated, “heat map” style risk assessments, how AI introduces new accountability challenges through its probabilistic nature, and why logging, monitoring, and human oversight matter more than ever. Walter also explains how Stack Aware helps AI-powered companies—especially in regulated industries—prepare for ISO 42001 certification, perform technical assessments, and build practical governance programs that close the gap between policy and reality.

We also discuss the realities of AI adoption inside enterprises, the rise of employee-led tool usage, the tension between innovation and regulation, and what businesses need to do to stay competitive in a world where AI is no longer optional. It’s a wide-ranging, thoughtful discussion about risk, responsibility, and what it takes to govern AI well in the real world. I hope you enjoy it!