The GuideLine

Many organizations are waiting for their data to be perfect before making meaningful progress with AI. John Young’s message: Start moving. 

In this episode of The GuideLine, the Global Managing Director at Databricks joins Stuart Brown to explain how leaders can put existing data to work while continuing to strengthen the foundation beneath it. 

Their conversation explores the evolution of the data lakehouse, the growing importance of data sovereignty, and emerging approaches to AI-driven decision-making, from operational twins to personalized AI agents. John also shares how organizations that feel left behind in the AI race can “skip the line,” plus why the accelerating pace of technical debt makes waiting its own risk. It’s a practical look at how to move beyond perpetual preparation for AI and begin creating value now.  

For federal chief information officers, this is a moment of pressure, but also possibility. Today’s government tech leaders are being asked to move faster, deliver better services, and roll out AI responsibly, all at once. In this episode of The GuideLine, Stuart Brown talks with Nancy Sieger, former Chief Information Officer of the IRS and former Chief Technology Officer at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, about what this triple mandate means for CIOs working within U.S. federal agencies. 
 
Together, Stu and Nancy examine the growing tension between innovation and governance, and why user experience is becoming a defining responsibility of the CIO role. They discuss what practical AI adoption looks like in government, why experimentation within guardrails builds momentum, and how citizen developers help turn ideas into action. The conversation also explores the future of tech talent within government, and why federal agencies may be uniquely positioned to leapfrog into new ways of working in the AI era. 

AI value doesn’t start with tools. It starts with a clear ambition for how work should change. In this episode of The GuideLine, recorded at the Microsoft Government BizApps + Copilot Summit, Stuart Brown sits down with Ryan Cunningham, Corporate Vice President of Power Platform at Microsoft, to explore why the biggest blocker to AI impact is often not technical at all. It’s organizational. 

 

Stu and Ryan unpack what it takes to turn AI ambition into operational value. They discuss why the best starting point is a concrete problem worth solving, rather than the next shiny technology, why culture can often be the biggest barrier to progress, and why AI can be especially powerful in regulated industries as a force for greater consistency and lower risk. Along the way, they make the case that AI can’t sit with one specialized team anymore and why, for most organizations, this is still the beginning of the AI journey. 

Agentic AI is rewriting the rules of work—and not in the way most organizations are talking about it. In this inaugural episode of The GuideLine, Stuart Brown (Stu) speaks with Microsoft Corporate Vice President Ulrich Homann (Uli) about why the agentic shift is bigger than a technology upgrade or even a change-management effort. At its core, Uli argues, it reshapes how decisions get made, how work gets done, and what an enterprise really is. 

Stu and Uli map the foundations behind AI, share a three part framework for understanding agentic systems, and explain what Microsoft calls the “frontier firm.” Along the way, they dig into the practical realities that leaders can’t ignore: data sovereignty, the enterprise memory layer, and the line between automating tasks and building truly intelligent workflows. They wrap with a candid look at what’s next for organizations, and for a workforce stepping into a world where AI agents are part of the team. 

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