07x03: Benchmarking AI Data Infrastructure with MLCommons

Agentic AI is an autonomous system that learns, adapts, and uses tools on the behalf of its users. This final episode of Season 9 of Utilizing Tech brings hosts Stephen Foskett, Frederic Van Haren, and Guy Currier together to reflect on the lessons we've learned over the last few months. AI keeps advancing incredibly rapidly, and we timed this season with the emergence of practical agentic AI platforms, AI Field Day 7, and a report on enterprise AI from The Futurum Group. During the conversation, the panel references Kamiwaza, Articul8, ApertureData, NetApp, Perplexity, OpenAI, and more. Agents have to be personal, focused yet flexible, and capable of integrating with each other, data, and tools. We also discussed the need for platforms, with companies like OpenAI and Microsoft positioning themselves to be the platform for AI applications even as enterprise software companies like ServiceNow and Salesforce are trying to do the same. We also have many companies developing platforms for orchestration and operation of AI, and data platforms designed to support agents. Ultimately, agentic AI will be a core capability of next-generation applications, with autonomous agents interacting with tools and helping us perform daily tasks. Hosts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Stephen Foskett⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, President of the Tech Field Day Business Unit and Organizer of the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Tech Field Day Event Series⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Frederic Van Haren⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Founder and CTO of HighFens, Inc. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Guy Currier⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Chief Analyst at Visible Impact, The Futurum Group. For more episodes of Utilizing Tech, head to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠the dedicated website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and follow the show ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠on X/Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠on Bluesky⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠on Mastodon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

As customers try to figure out how to present data to Agentic AI applications, many of them are realizing that it’s time for the storage infrastructure team to step up and take a seat at the table. In this episode of Utilizing Tech, recorded live at NetApp Insight in Las Vegas, hosts Stephen Foskett and Guy Currier from The Futurum Group sit down with Ingo Fuchs, Chief Technologist for AI at NetApp, to explore the critical role of data infrastructure in supporting enterprise AI and agentic AI applications. As organizations move AI workloads into production, traditional infrastructures—especially storage teams—must take a more active role in enabling performance, efficiency, and governance. Ingo emphasizes the emerging needs for data quality, control, compliance, and currency, particularly as AI agents begin making decisions and interacting with sensitive enterprise data. The conversation highlights how NetApp’s capabilities, such as AI Data Engine and native infrastructure integrations, enable real-time data pipeline management, enforce guardrails, and ensure consistent and secure data delivery. This shift represents a transformative intersection of storage, infrastructure, and AI operations, paving the way for scalable and reliable enterprise AI solutions.

Although there's a lot of skepticism around generative AI, companies are finding incredible practical uses for these new capabilities. This episode of Utilizing Tech brings Luke Norris of Kamiwaza to discuss business outcomes that can be achieved by AI applications with hosts Guy Currier and Stephen Foskett. Agentic AI is an autonomous system that has a schedule, and action, or an interface to interact with it. Apps should represent the data rather than vice versa, so a dashboard should reconfigure and recompute to serve the needs of a user. Kamiwaza recently announced a capability to make applications accessible to people with disabilities, and this represents the kind of real-world benefit that can be delivered by AI. They previously worked with NOAA to make historic data more accessible to modern users.

We are surrounded by intelligent devices and these increasingly use various AI interfaces and processing capabilities to support the needs of users. This episode of Utilizing Tech focuses on edge AI and AI assistants and agents with Olivier Blanchard of The Futurum Group along with Frederic Van Haren and Stephen Foskett. We have all used so-called intelligent assistants, starting with Apple Siri and Amazon Alexa and continuing with Google, Microsoft, and many others. These voice interfaces are increasingly functioning as agents, connecting with various data sources and tools to perform tasks on the behalf of the user. AI assistants have arrived at the same overall paradigm as AI agents, and there is an inevitable crossover between these technologies, as the best of breed components are adopted. The needs of AI assistants has also lead to an increase in availability of specialized processing on PCs and even personal devices, and this helps offload the tremendous need for power and space of AI applications. Guest: Olivier Blanchard, Research Director at The Futurum Group Hosts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Stephen Foskett⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, President of the Tech Field Day Business Unit and Organizer of the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Tech Field Day Event Series⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Frederic Van Haren⁠⁠⁠, Founder and CTO of HighFens, Inc. ⁠⁠⁠Guy Currier⁠⁠⁠, Chief Analyst at Visible Impact, The Futurum Group. For more episodes of Utilizing Tech, head to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠the dedicated website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and follow the show ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠on X/Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠on Bluesky⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠on Mastodon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

As customers try to figure out how to present data to Agentic AI applications, many of them are realizing that it’s time for the storage infrastructure team to step up and take a seat at the table. In this episode of Utilizing Tech, recorded live at NetApp Insight in Las Vegas, hosts Stephen Foskett and Guy Currier from The Futurum Group sit down with Ingo Fuchs, Chief Technologist for AI at NetApp, to explore the critical role of data infrastructure in supporting enterprise AI and agentic AI applications. As organizations move AI workloads into production, traditional infrastructures—especially storage teams—must take a more active role in enabling performance, efficiency, and governance. Ingo emphasizes the emerging needs for data quality, control, compliance, and currency, particularly as AI agents begin making decisions and interacting with sensitive enterprise data. The conversation highlights how NetApp’s capabilities, such as AI Data Engine and native infrastructure integrations, enable real-time data pipeline management, enforce guardrails, and ensure consistent and secure data delivery. This shift represents a transformative intersection of storage, infrastructure, and AI operations, paving the way for scalable and reliable enterprise AI solutions.' Guest: Ingo Fuchs, Chief Technologist of AI at NetApp Hosts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Stephen Foskett⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, President of the Tech Field Day Business Unit and Organizer of the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Tech Field Day Event Series⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠Frederic Van Haren⁠⁠⁠⁠, Founder and CTO of HighFens, Inc. ⁠⁠⁠⁠Guy Currier⁠⁠⁠⁠, Chief Analyst at Visible Impact, The Futurum Group. For more episodes of Utilizing Tech, head to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠the dedicated website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and follow the show ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠on X/Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠on Bluesky⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠on Mastodon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.