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  • Conference Whispers: Black Hat USA 2026

    Conference Whispers: Black Hat USA 2026

    Las Vegas, NV August 1-6, 2026

    Published: August 9, 2026                                                    ID: TBW2226

    Analyst(s): Dr. Doreen Galli

    Photojournalist(s): Dr. Doreen Galli
    Enjoy the related Computer Talk Radio and Computer Talk Radio.

    ABSTRACT

    Black Hat USA 2026 brought 20,000 cybersecurity professionals to Las Vegas, where researchers, vendors, and practitioners examined the evolving risks introduced by agents, AI, and increasingly complex digital environments. The event held over 100 briefings, 125 tool demonstrations and 120 sponsored sessions. Discussions across sessions and exhibits touched on agent security, threat hunting, governance, infrastructure resilience, device vulnerabilities, fraud prevention, and professional development.

    The Conference

    • A community of 20,000 verified cybersecurity professionals gathered at Black Hat USA. Over 100 briefings, 115 tool demonstrations, 120 sponsored sessions and 425+ Exhibits and vendors gathered across the 6 days.

    Cautions

    • Friendly reminder: this research provides examples of what was shared with us at the event, not an evaluation, validation, or recommendation of the given technology.

    Sessions

    We were given an advance preview of the talk, “Promptward EOD: Skillful Agent Detonation” by Zenity’s CTO and Co-Founder Michael Bargury. Just by visiting the wrong website you could be compromised. They specifically demonstrate how an agent can jump from viewing a web site to gaining control of your bank account. Now that is scary.

    We were also provided an exclusive summary to the session, “Obscurize: Malware for Defense and Counter Offense”. As a response to recent malware, Aaron Beardslee, Manager of Threat Research at Securonix created Obscurize. Sitting above the EDR (Endpoint Detection and Response), it acts as an additional layer. Leveraging the malware’s own fingerprint, its psychology is studied and learned. This tool then makes a sandbox look like a bare metal system or a bare metal system look like a sandbox. This enables the hunter to trick the malware to kill itself or to run thinking it found the goods. The best part? Obscurize is free and publicly available for your to use during your threat hunting!

    Exhibits

    Fast track adoption of agents has organizations trying to keep up and stay safe. Sometimes in the chaos, the best laid plans go astray. Sometimes, guardrails are not enough. We have all read the horror stories of agents gone wild! Meet PointGuard AI the ultimate kill switch for agents. Avepoint aims to be your unifying trust layer for AI. Their focus is cloud security, safe data governance, and resiliency challenges across the AI stack.

    If you are Fortune 2000 and concerned about tracking agents, Zenity was looking to meet you! Softbank and other clients leverage Zenity to understand what data is being touched by agents and what that intent of those agents are. Not only that it will steer agents into the correct direction to help keep them on track. 

    Mission critical infrastructure for sovereign AI that is private to you. Cogl provides a knowledge graph and enables threat hunting and investigation in a transparent and secure manner. As you might expect, this technology is leveraged in environments ranging from the Department of Defence to banking.

    Focusing on the Security Operations Center, BlueVoyant brings what they like to call ‘holistic protections’. Their approach combines internal monitoring and ecosystem oversight. Traditional operating challenges are now assisted by AI driven agentic capabilities. The four risks they aim to mitigate include: data security and leakage, identity vulnerabilities, supply chain and vendor risks, and operational inefficiencies.

    Threat hunting is the ultimate game of cat and mouse in cybersecurity. Securonix was on site to share their tool with fellow threat hunters. Whether you want your sandbox to trap the threat or to let it run to so you may study it’s behavior, Securonix provides both options. They even have their own threat hunting team that regularly leverages the tool as they assist the clients security their own environments.

    One of our favorite areas is at the edge, connected devices and the Internet of Things – IoT. These devices span from connected vehicles to the simple fire alarms in your home. These devices often bring vulnerabilities. Due to the difficulty in updating their firmware, connected device firmware vulnerabilities become your environment’s weakest point and the point of failure. Finite State focuses on assisting companies reduce the noise as they test their products before shipping. This noise reduction enables their clients to find their vulnerabilities before they ship products to their customers. 

    Today, a wire money transfer is frequently still sent in plain text. Thus, it is not surprising it is a huge target of fraud. Introducing InoQlate! A Canadian non-profit providing a solution to your wire transfer security issues. Close that door to fraud and stop sending wire transfer information over plain text communication lines!

    Seeking a boutique penetration firm? Meet the white hats from Black Hills Information Security. They beg you to make their lives harder! They don’t want to succeed when they try to break into your infrastructure! Providing penetration testing, SOC operations, IR (incident response), and training. Perhaps the most unique thing coming out of Black Hills Information Security is their well known communication medium: Comics! Their security comic series titled, “The Future is ***” available at 750 comic book stores. Not only that, their wisdom is available via a game to make training even more approachable. The game Back Doors & Breaches boasts over 150,000 sales to date.

    Finally, the ultimate organization for security professionals, ISC2 was in expo hall. Known as the largest professional organization for cyber security professionals, there is likely a chapter near you! Providing certifications, community and advice with the goal to the make the world a safer place.

    Conference Vibe

    Cybersecurity specialists gathered on the Las Vegas Strip for Black Hat 2026 and it did not disappoint. Over 20,000 verified attendees gathered for over 100 briefings, 115 tool demonstrations, 120 sponsored session and over 425 exhibits and vendors. The only expected thing we didn’t hear much of is organizations preparing for the quantum impact to cybersecurity. You may recall last year we were the first ones given permission to video expo hall at Black Hat USA. This year, enjoy a first ever live Black Hat USA walkabout while expo hall its open. We once again live streamed from on site to share the experience. Be sure to catch coverage on my syndicated segment on the nationally broadcast edition of Computer Talk Radio.

    While at Black Hat, we conducted research for 9 additional forthcoming Whisper Reports. The playlists are unlisted but available with the video version to be distributed via YouTube Whisper Club upper tier membership area on our YouTube Channel first.

    1. Whisper Report: What cyber risk are we all ignoring?
    2. Whisper Report: What security advice is actually wrong?
    3. Whisper Report: If AI attacks get smarter, what fails first?
    4. Whisper Report: What’s broken in identity we still accept?
    5. Whisper Report: What attack will dominate headlines next year?
    6. Whisper Report: What cyber myth needs to die in 2026?
    7. Whisper Report: What security trend is mostly hype?
    8. Whisper Report: What breach changed how you operate?
    9. Whisper Report: What security problem can’t AI solve?

    Readers and viewers wishing to experience the entire event are encouraged to view the Conference Whispers: Black Hat USA 2026 Playlist in its entirety. The playlist will be cited in the end screen, description, and as a pinned comment of the video edition.

    The video edition will conclude with gratitude towards those that contributed and a montage of responses to Bonus Question, “What’s the best part about attending Black Hat USA live in Las Vegas?”.

    Next Year’s Conference  

    The Black Hat USA will once again return to Las Vegas and will be held at the Mandalay Bay on August 3-8, 2027.

    *When vendors’ names are shared as examples in this document, it is to provide a concrete example of what was on display at the conference, not an evaluation or recommendation. Evaluation and recommendation of these vendors are beyond the scope of this specific research document. Other examples products in the same category may have also been on display.

    Corporate Headquarters

    2884 Grand Helios Way

    Henderson, NV 89052

    Downloading, re-uploading, or redistributing this file is not permitted under any license.


    ©2019-2026 TBW Advisors LLC. All rights reserved. TBW, Technical Business Whispers, Fact-based research and Advisory, Conference Whispers, Industry Whispers, Email Whispers, The Answer is always in the Whispers, Whisper Reports, Whisper Studies, Whisper Ranking, Whisper Club, The Answer is always in the Whispers, and One Change a Month, Vegas Convention Library; Leading Professionals, Real Questions, Real Time, are trademarks or registered trademarks of TBW Advisors LLC. This publication may not be reproduced or distributed in any form without TBW’s prior written permission. It consists of the opinions of TBW’s research organization which should not be construed as statements of fact. While the information contained in this publication has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, TBW disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of such information. TBW does not provide legal or investment advice and its research should not be construed or used as such. Your access and use of this publication are governed by the TBW Usage Policy. TBW research is produced independently by its research organization without influence or input from a third party. For further information, see Fact-based research publications on our website for more details.

  • Conference Whispers: Ai4 2026

    Conference Whispers: Ai4 2026


    Las Vegas, NV August 4-6, 2026

    Published: August 9, 2026                                                                            ID: TBW2216

    Analyst(s): Dr. Doreen Galli

    Photojournalist(s): Dr. Doreen Galli

    ABSTRACT

    “Ai4 2026 experiencing over 50% growth and welcomed more than 12,000 in the enterprise AI ecosystem to Las Vegas. Over 100 countries were represented amongst attendees and 400 exhibitors. Vendors, startups, and practitioners discussed what it takes to move artificial intelligence beyond experimentation. Conversations across the show floor touched on governance, deployment, security, agents, data accessibility, software delivery, and business process transformation as organizations continued evaluating paths toward large scale adoption.”

    Enjoy the related Computer Talk Radio and Computer Talk Radio

    The Conference

    • A community of over 12,000 came together in Las Vegas for the 9th annual Ai4 event. Attendance grew by over 50% at the 9th annual event. Vendors grew from 250 in 2025 to 400 in 2026.
    • Start-ups were also present growing from 25 last year to 66 this year.

    Cautions

    • Friendly reminder: this research provides examples of what was shared with us at the event, not an evaluation, validation, or recommendation of the given technology.

    Exhibits

    It’s wonderful when an individual AI pilot works, maybe even delivers business value to a department. Getting that solution to deploy corporate wide is very different. Engineers that have worked in the largest organizations always smile when they see the demos and chuckle inside as looks great but what about at my scale. For those seeking industrialized AI delivery, ModelOp is a delivery engine meant to overcome frictions that occur during integration. It’s purpose is to enable those organizations to take the idea and realize it in production for the entire organization.

    Governance was on the mind of many. Actualyze AI was founded by repeat founders who have spent their careers in large scale infrastructure and transformations. They focused their solution on protecting data, models routing, financial spend, and the type of infrastructure a technology requires to become part of enterprise IT.

    For business work flows that make a difference, Evalueserve wants to remind you, don’t start with the technology to enable scale. Their organization focuses on business workflows that make a difference. They serve life sciences, healthcare, manufacturing and consumer good verticals. While many solutions leverage AI, many metrics such as cost and quality do not require AI. Never approximate when math can get you the precise answer.

    One critical aspect of reliability is the infamous undo button or some method of recovery. There is rule in cybersecurity to assume when not if; as such one must prepare for how to recover when it goes wrong. It may be quite wise to adopt this stance in AI as well. Rubik is all about deploying agents – safely.  They provide capabilities for agent monitoring, control, and something new – rewind agents. As one might suspect this includes the ability to back-up and recover from agent behavior. In their world, no agent permanently wiped out my database or the code we wrote – it can be recovered.

    When you have a complex web of services, models, or agents. Understanding the complex web of dependencies is critical for operations with any type of reliability. The infamous Solar Winds incident let everyone know that the software supply chain and its dependencies are critical for security and stability. The solution turned out to be something in the industry referred to as SBOM for software bill of materials – expanding on the shipping term. Now Lineaje has thought of this problem and created a solution for AI and AI agents. Their solution provides dependency crawler, checks and suggests upgrades for compatibility and provides what they like to call security layer for agent builders.

    Some environments are tougher than your average environment such as those that have required decentralization or compartmentalization of information such as government and military environments and related applications. Axonis was in expo hall to serve you. They also create a trail of decisions. Not about insights but rather save the final decision made by humans and AI. They like to think of it as a creating a feedback loop for audit and training models on past decision. They referred to it as metadata on data; we have shared this approach before. The hash of an image matched against the hash of what is in front of someone for authentication during our coverage of ISC West.

    Not all AI solutions involve Large Language Models or LLMs. Modulate is a voice ai platform that provides all your common conversational understanding requirements for any conversational need. Like the advice provided in Whisper Report: Which spatial computing use case will scale fastest?, Modulate is growing through a pivot to APIs. By leveraging an architecture of highly specialized models, each trained for a narrowly defined purpose, a given application can combine them in a manner that fits its environment. Their architecture leverages these specialized models to monitor conversational tone and provide insight into intent, meaning, emotion, and context. Together they refer to their architecture as an ensemble listening model to understand and identify user behavior. This AI architectural approach of leveraging several specialized machine learning models is one that provides a high degree of success and has a long track record of enterprise results at scale.

    If you have an enterprise software development team and are seeking an AI Powered DevSecOps Platform meet Digital AI. Their environment is specifically focused on regulated industries. They purported clients such as the Top 10 banks in N. America and Europe, and the top 5 Global airlines, top 4 N. American Insurance Companies. Their use of AI is very purposeful, is strictly to enhance delivery and planning capabilities to accelerate delivery. 


    Department strictly focused on marketing and customer data? Kana.ai marketing operating layer was designed for you. Kana provides an agentic End to end solution for marketing that moves to where the customer data’s resides offering a continuous agentic layer across marketing stack. The named elements of the marketing stack they service include: strategy planning, audience building, activation, and measurements such as MTA – multi-touch attribution and MMM Marketing Mix Modeling.

    Two hurdles frequently stand in the way of AI’s success. On one hand, corporations may have their history locked up on physical books. On the other hand, organizations creating models need data to train and a controversial method of scanning physical books is involved. One reason for the controversy is that the organizations are breaking the spines to digitally scan them. Both hurdles can be solved by ARC document solutions. Another hurdle for capturing data, particularly notes are notes on the go. If find yourself want to take notes on the go or for when you are not in front of your computer, Ninja Concepts AI note takers offer you different options to fit your needs.

    Conference Vibe

    This enterprise AI gathering focused on adoption, implementation, governance and business outcomes. This wasn’t about the clouds and sizzle, more about show us real impact. Attendance shot up more than 50% from last year’s crowd of 8,000 to more than 12,000 attendees this year! Over 100 countries were represented and expo hall exploded from 250 exhibitors to 400! Due to their explosive growth there were some growing pains. The registration lines for some attendees was reported in excess of 90 minutes. Navigation was a bit tougher than usual as the convention put the show carpet over a large majority of the navigational booth numbers making finding vendors very very difficult. I had not witnessed this error at other events at that location previously. In addition, perhaps due to the explosive growth, the connectivity was exceptionally challenging at the same level or worse than CES. At that same time, the energy and excitement easily matched and dare I say, exceeded CES this year. At one point I recall literally realizing I could not feel my face from so much smiling. Enjoy the walkabout to and through expo hall. We always try to bring you fresh vendors in our coverage but you will recognize many brands in the walkabout from our coverage of other data related events such as the Informatica World, or our coverage of Put Data First.

    We once again live streamed from on site to share the experience. Be sure to catch coverage on my syndicated segment on the nationally broadcast edition of Computer Talk Radio.

    We conducted research for Six additional forthcoming Whisper Reports for our clients. The playlists are unlisted but available with the video version to be distributed via YouTube Whisper Club upper tier membership area on our YouTube Channel.

    1. Whisper Report: What’s the biggest gap between AI demos and AI in production?
    2. Whisper Report: What AI cost nobody warned you about?
    3. Whisper Report: What’s the most valuable AI use case that isn’t GenAI?
    4. Whisper Report: What AI result surprised your organization most?
    5. Whisper Report: Where will AI agents replace workflows first?
    6. Whisper Report: What AI promise won’t happen soon?
    7. Whisper Report: What AI capability is still mostly hype?
    8. Whisper Report: What AI assumption breaks first at scale?
    9. Whisper Report: What AI problem still needs a human?

    Readers and viewers wishing to experience the entire event are encouraged to view the Conference Whispers: Ai4 2026 Playlist in its entirety. The playlist will be sited in the end screen, description, and as a pinned comment of the video edition.

    The video will conclude with gratitude towards those that contributed and a montage of responses to Bonus Question, “What’s the best part about attending the Ai4 live in Las Vegas?”.

    Next Year’s Conference  

    The Ai4 will once again return to Las Vegas and will be held at the Venetian Expo on August 4-6, 2027.

    *When vendors’ names are shared as examples in this document, it is to provide a concrete example of what was on display at the conference, not an evaluation or recommendation. Evaluation and recommendation of these vendors are beyond the scope of this specific research document. Other examples products in the same category may have also been on display.

    Corporate Headquarters

    2884 Grand Helios Way

    Henderson, NV 89052

    Downloading, re-uploading, or redistributing this file is not permitted under any license.


    ©2019-2026 TBW Advisors LLC. All rights reserved. TBW, Technical Business Whispers, Fact-based research and Advisory, Conference Whispers, Industry Whispers, Email Whispers, The Answer is always in the Whispers, Whisper Reports, Whisper Studies, Whisper Ranking, Whisper Club, The Answer is always in the Whispers, and One Change a Month, Vegas Convention Library; Leading Professionals, Real Questions, Real Time, are trademarks or registered trademarks of TBW Advisors LLC. This publication may not be reproduced or distributed in any form without TBW’s prior written permission. It consists of the opinions of TBW’s research organization which should not be construed as statements of fact. While the information contained in this publication has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, TBW disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of such information. TBW does not provide legal or investment advice and its research should not be construed or used as such. Your access and use of this publication are governed by the TBW Usage Policy. TBW research is produced independently by its research organization without influence or input from a third party. For further information, see Fact-based research publications on our website for more details.

  • Whisper Report: What room problem are you solving right now?

    Whisper Report: What room problem are you solving right now?

    Published to Whisper Club: August 3, 2026                                  ID: TBW2203

    Analyst(s): Dr. Doreen Galli

    Photojournalist(s): Dr. Doreen Galli

    ABSTRACT

    “This Whisper Report investigates what room problem professionals are solving right now as explored at InfoComm 2026 in Las Vegas. Experts highlight challenges across reliability, visibility, and acoustic constraints, revealing that foundational execution still determines experience quality. The most critical improvements may emerge where automation and control meet physical limitations. Cited experts: Claudia Barbiero PTZ Optics, Erik Zaro Crescendo Research, Mike Sullivan-Trainor AVIXA.”

    Analysis available only to Whisper Club at this time. Join the YouTube Whisper Club at the Whisper Club Level to get access to the video edition today.

    Related playlists and Publication

    1. Whisper Report: What room problem are you solving right now?
    2. Whisper Report: What space is your tech making smarter right now?
    3. Whisper Report: What would you fix about hybrid meetings?
    4. Whisper Report: When does your tech work best unnoticed? 
    5. Whisper Report: Where does AI add the most value in a room?
    6. Whisper Report: What do customers love most about your tech?
    7. Whisper Report: What’s your first AI decision this year?
    8. Whisper Report: What accessibility feature should be standard?
    9. Whisper Report: What AV problem still has no good solution?
    10. Whisper Report: What happens when AI runs the room alone?
    11. Whisper Report: What’s the biggest waste in AV budgets today?
    12. Whisper Report: What will meeting rooms look like in five years?
    13. Original Syndicated Publication Conference Whispers: InfoComm 2026 IC26

    Filmed on site at IC26, Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada June 17-18, 2026. TBW Advisors LLC retains full editorial independence. Supporters receive credit acknowledgment only and have no role in editorial decisions, content selection, or production. Special thanks to AVIXA for press credentials.

    Corporate Headquarters

    2884 Grand Helios Way

    Henderson, NV 89052

    ©2019-2026 TBW Advisors LLC. All rights reserved. TBW, Technical Business Whispers, Fact-based research and Advisory, Conference Whispers, Industry Whispers, Email Whispers, The Answer is always in the Whispers, Whisper Reports, Whisper Studies, Whisper Ranking, Whisper Club, The Answer is always in the Whispers, and One Change a Month, Vegas Convention Library; Leading Professionals, Real Questions, Real Time, are trademarks or registered trademarks of TBW Advisors LLC. This publication may not be reproduced or distributed in any form without TBW’s prior written permission. It consists of the opinions of TBW’s research organization which should not be construed as statements of fact. While the information contained in this publication has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, TBW disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of such information. TBW does not provide legal or investment advice and its research should not be construed or used as such. Your access and use of this publication are governed by the TBW Usage Policy. TBW research is produced independently by its research organization without influence or input from a third party. For further information, see Fact-based research publications on our website for more details.

  • What’s the next SolarWinds-level breach waiting to happen?

    What’s the next SolarWinds-level breach waiting to happen?

    Published Whisper Club:     July 27, 2026                                      ID: TBW2092

    Analyst(s): Dr. Doreen Galli

    Photojournalist(s): Dr. Doreen Galli

    ABSTRACT

    “This Whisper Report investigates what the next SolarWinds-level breach waiting to happen may be. Filmed at Black Hat USA 2025 in Las Vegas, it examines how rapidly evolving technologies are introducing new risks that organizations may not yet fully understand. Experts explore where these emerging vulnerabilities could surface at scale. Cited experts: Jonathan Rende Checkmarx, James Spiteri Elastic Security, Alex Lanstein StrikeReady, Brian Mehlman Cyber Innovate, Thomas Roccia Microsoft, Ariful Huq Exaforce, David DellaPelle Dune Security, Saket Bajoria Safe Security.”     

    Analysis available only in the Whisper Club. Join the YouTube Whisper Club at the Whisper Club Level to get access to the video edition today.

    Related playlists and Publications

    1. Whisper Report: How can organizations implement zero-trust security without disrupting user experience?
    2. Conference Whispers: Identiverse 2025
    3. Conference Whispers: Identiverse

    Corporate Headquarters

    2884 Grand Helios Way

    Henderson, NV 89052

    ©2019-2026 TBW Advisors LLC. All rights reserved. TBW, Technical Business Whispers, Fact-based research and Advisory, Conference Whispers, Industry Whispers, Email Whispers, The Answer is always in the Whispers, Whisper Reports, Whisper Studies, Whisper Ranking, Whisper Club, The Answer is always in the Whispers, and One Change a Month, Vegas Convention Library; Leading Professionals, Real Questions, Real Time, are trademarks or registered trademarks of TBW Advisors LLC. This publication may not be reproduced or distributed in any form without TBW’s prior written permission. It consists of the opinions of TBW’s research organization which should not be construed as statements of fact. While the information contained in this publication has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, TBW disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of such information. TBW does not provide legal or investment advice and its research should not be construed or used as such. Your access and use of this publication are governed by the TBW Usage Policy. TBW research is produced independently by its research organization without influence or input from a third party. For further information, see Fact-based research publications on our website for more details.

  • Industry Whispers: Earth Day Technology Panel

    Industry Whispers: Earth Day Technology Panel

    Moderator: Dr. Doreen Galli, TBW Advisors

    Doreen Galli

    Chief of ResearchTBW Advisors LLC

    Dr. Doreen Galli is the Chief of Research at TBW Advisors LLC. She’s led significant and measurable changes as an executive at IBM, DPWN, Dell, ATT, and most recently Microsoft. Dr Galli was Chief Technology and Chief Privacy Officer in Azure’s MCIGET. Gartner recognized Dr. Galli as an expert in data ingestion, quality, governance, integration, management, and all forms and analytics including sensor data.

    Join us on Earth Day for an insightful panel featuring the CEOs of Enerdrape, Storj.io, DigitalBedrock.com, and GraphEnergyTech.com. This event will explore cutting-edge innovations in renewable energy, data storage, and digital preservation. Enerdrape will showcase their pioneering geothermal panels, while Storj.io will discuss decentralized cloud storage solutions. DigitalBedrock.com will highlight advancements in digital preservation, and GraphEnergyTech.com will present their latest in sustainable energy technologies. This panel is tailored for CIOs and CTOs and other technical executives seeking to drive sustainability and innovation within their technical organizations. Don’t miss this opportunity to gain valuable insights and network with industry leaders.

    Research Code TBW2072

    Margaux Peltier is an engineer and science entrepreneur with a MSc. in Civil Engineering from EPFL Lausanne. During her master thesis, she developed a strong interest in renewable geo-energy systems, recognizing the untapped potential of shallow geothermal energy and the need for innovation in this domain. She co-founded Enerdrape, where she serves as CEO, defining and overseeing the startup’s vision and strategy. Before founding Enerdrape, she worked as an engineer on several R&D projects related to BIPV-T and solar-power houses in Canada, and as an HVAC engineer in Geneva. Margaux also worked on various international projects as an engineering consultant in energy geostructures.

    Colby is the Chief Executive Officer at Storj, a seasoned cloud tech executive leading growth initiatives to usher in a new era of cloud computing. Before Storj, he co-founded and served as CEO of CrowdStorage, the world’s largest distributed cloud storage platform, acquired by Storj. He scaled CrowdStorage to serve over 1,000 customers, including Western Digital and Vivint, and managed strategic partnerships for Vivint Smart Home, the leading smart home services provider in North America. Colby is a member of the Fast Company Impact Council and Forbes Technology Leadership Council.

    Linda Tadic is the Founder/CEO of Digital Bedrock, a managed digital preservation service. With over 35 years of experience, she has held positions at HBO, the Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection at the University of Georgia, ARTstor, and Pacific Film Archive. Linda consults and lectures on digital asset management, audiovisual and digital preservation, metadata, and the environmental impact of digital preservation. She received the 2021 SMPTE James A. Lindner Archival Technology Medal for her leadership, research, and work in digital asset management, audiovisual and digital preservation, copyright, metadata, and environmental impact. Linda has taught as an Adjunct Professor at UCLA’s Department of Information Studies and NYU’s Moving Image Archiving and Preservation program.

    Thomas Baumeler is the CEO and founder of GraphEnergyTech, a startup pioneering highly conductive carbon-based (graphene) electrodes for renewable energy applications. He holds a PhD in chemistry from EPFL, where he conducted groundbreaking research on perovskite solar cells under Prof. Michael Graetzel at the Laboratory of Photonics and Interfaces, earning the 2023 EPFL Doctorate Award. Driven by a passion for sustainability, Thomas founded GraphEnergyTech to develop cost-effective, high-performance alternatives to metal electrodes, with applications in solar energy, energy storage, and printed electronics.

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    ©2019-2025 TBW Advisors LLC. All rights reserved. TBW, Technical Business Whispers, Fact-based research and Advisory, Conference Whispers, Industry Whispers, Email Whispers, The Answer is always in the Whispers, Whisper Reports, Whisper Studies, Whisper Ranking , The Answer is always in the Whispers, and One Change a Month, are trademarks or registered trademarks of TBW Advisors LLC. This publication may not be reproduced or distributed in any form without TBW’s prior written permission. It consists of the opinions of TBW’s research organization which should not be construed as statements of fact. While the information contained in this publication has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, TBW disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of such information. TBW does not provide legal or investment advice and its research should not be construed or used as such. Your access and use of this publication are governed by the TBW Usage Policy. TBW research is produced independently by its research organization without influence or input from a third party. For further information, see Fact-based research publications on our website for more details.

  • Industry Whispers: AMA with Founder and CEO of TalkR.AI Katya Lainé

    Analyst: Doreen Galli PhD. MBA

    Register early to submit your questions for this exciting AMA (Ask me Anything) with Katya Lainé  who founded the advanced conversational and Voice GEN AI product known as Talkr.AI

    Katya Lainé is co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of TALKR.ai and world-renowned for her expertise in Conversational AI. Katya has spent over a decade reshaping the way organizations handle customer interactions, playing a pivotal role in modernizing call centers by replacing traditional Interactive Voice Response Systems with Intelligent Voice Conversational AI Assistants. Katya is also a respected expert at the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) contributing to cutting-edge AI research and international cooperation. Beyond her GPAI role, Katya serves on the board of Numeum, where she is President of its AI Commission, championing ethical practices and advancing the adoption of AI technologies. Katya co-founded OpenLLM-France, further exemplifying her dedication to advancing technology and ethical standards in AI. Additionally, she is a Co-founder and Vice President of Le Voice Lab, underscoring her commitment to shaping the future of voice technology in Europe. She holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA), in addition to a Master’s degree in Broadcast Journalism from Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski.

    Research Code TBW2044

  • Industry Whispers: Generative AI in Production Lessons Learned

    This webinar will feature a panel of engineers that have deployed generative AI and their solution is in customers’ hands. You will be able to take away insights on the selection of technology, the process of realizing a solution, pitfalls, nightmares and what the panelists would do differently next time. 

    Research Code 2036.

    Dr. Doreen Galli has 6 degrees including a Waterloo CS Ph.D. in SIMD data storage and 8 patent held by IBM with 2 more pending at Microsoft. She has led significant and measurable changes at IBM, DPWN, Dell, ATT and most recently Microsoft where she was the platform architect for Azure and CTO in Azure’s MCIGET. She was trained as an analyst by Gartner where she was recognized as an expert in all things data from ingestion, quality, governance, integration, management and all forms and analytics including sensor data.

    An All-American Athlete Collegiate Runner, Dr. Galli enhanced her formal education with process improvement certifications of Black Belt, Lean Six Sigma, and Pull Thinking, along with Technology and Network Transformation Certifications from AT&T. She is a Top 25 Women on the Web recipient and a published author with over 200 articles. Her first book, “Distributed Operation Systems” was published by Prentice Hall in English and Chinese. Her second book, “Galli’s Keys to Success: Optimize your College Career” is available via online bookstores. Dr. Galli has been an invited speaker at such distinguished venues as Forbes Executive Summit, CIO Summit, CIO Academy, Grace Hopper, Network+ Interop Las Vegas, Gartner’s Catalyst as well as The Internet Security Conference.

    Ofer is the CEO of Tomato.ai, a speech GenAI startup that’s raised $10M to soften accents on calls in real-time. Previously he led a virtual agent startup within Google’s Area 120 incubator, for which he closed >$500M in Call Center AI deals. Prior to that Ofer led and sold a developer tools startup to Google, and an ad network startup to IAC. He holds a MS/BS in Computer Engineering from the University of Michigan, and an MBA from Cornell.

    Kevin is Cofounder and CEO of BirchAI, a leader in automating complex workflows in healthcare and other high-compliance call centers. BirchAI is a venture-backed spinout from the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, one of the country’s leading AI research organizations.

    Previously in his career, Kevin worked for the Defense Intelligence Agency and the CIA, GE Capital, McKinsey & Company’s global healthcare practice, and as an independent consultant across the healthcare sector. He also led business development in healthcare for the Austin-based AI startup, SparkCognition. Outside of work, Kevin cofounded Start Reading Now, a research-based non-profit that addresses Summer Setback and the Achievement Gap by funding thousands of young kids each year to buy their own personal library of 30 new books.

    Kevin was a German and Political Science major at the University of Nebraska, and completed his MBA at the University of Minnesota.

    Stephan Müller is Co-Founder and CTO of FLOWIT, a Swiss HR-Tech Startup. FLOWIT is a GenAI-powered people development platform that drives employee engagement and reduces employee churn.
    Prior to joining FLOWIT, Stephan Müller obtained a Master’s degree from ETH Zurich in Data Science, with a focus on theoretical Data Science and in particular Generative Networks, and worked in AI consulting, completing various project in the space of Recommender Systems and Natural Language Processing (NLP).

    Raika came to the United States when she was 15 years old and received her Bachelor of Science in Physics from California State University Northridge. She started as a junior system engineer and is currently the lead engineer at Livenation/Ticketmaster Information Security.

    Esha Joshi is the cofounder and Chief Product Officer of Yoodli, an AI powered speech coach. Her dream is to help women become more confident communicators so they get the opportunities they deserve. After struggling with public speaking for many years, Esha’s now a fomer Toastmaster speaking champion and Grace Hopper keynote speaker. She’s passionate about helping others become the best communicators they can be. Prior to Yoodli, Esha worked at Apple in engineering and product management capacities to help launch Apple TV+.