Vivek Bharathi Muruganandam

They die in compliance and security review.

• Teams that give governance a seat from the start don’t move slower; they launch faster because nobody has to re-litigate the deal in a security review six months later.
• The alternative is treating compliance as a tax rather than an advantage.

The Secure Physical AI session announcement sets out what deployment requires in a regulated setting.

• A robot in a GxP lab, a surgical assist device or an autonomous inspection system at a utility needs approval from a CISO, a quality or regulatory lead, a safety engineer, procurement and sometimes an insurer.
• Muruganandam contrasts October’s calendar of product, funding and scaling stages with a less-discussed step: earning enough trust to deploy.
• The post describes co-host Deepali Gosain as having led AI and digital platforms in FDA-regulated and GxP environments at Oracle and Thermo Fisher Scientific, framing the session around both governing AI and getting it shipped.

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Nobody can maximise all four, and arguments get loud when the money is large. Muruganandam says governance usually arrives last, turning a design choice into a cleanup job.

The fights Muruganandam names are marketing ones: choosing a new martech platform, generating AI content at brand scale, building personalisation on customer data and running agentic campaigns that act without a human in every loop. They opened the September 19 AI Trust Table with this framing and later reported that discussion widened to AI investment problems across business functions, from startups to large enterprises.

The two posts cover the same model at different points. The first presents it as a marketing decision problem; the follow-up treats it as a broader enterprise pattern after the table conversation moved beyond marketing.

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The problem is organisational.

• Security teams flag the risk, but the people who own the compliance budget are not always in the room.
• That mismatch is where the danger sits.

Muruganandam took the trust-table conversation to Black Hat, a gathering of security researchers and practitioners, and recorded episodes there with Deepali Gosain, continuing the earlier table discussion. The post links the recordings and points readers to the show.

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In the RSA Conference 2026 recap, they grouped senior executives’ comments into six themes: AI as the centre of gravity for attackers and defenders alike; a shift from AI-enabled products to genuinely AI-native security platforms; attackers industrialising cybercrime and compressing the time between discovering a vulnerability and exploiting it; AI agents becoming embedded as digital co-workers, forcing organisations to move from access control to action governance; security becoming a cross-functional team sport; and consolidation into platforms rather than point tools. Their closing claim is that technology is not the differentiator; leadership alignment and cross-functional collaboration are.

The recap names the executives behind those themes: Doug M. of Aviatrix, Nir Greenberg of Reco, Gal Perl of Teramind, Dan Candee of Cork, Dean Teffer of Arctic Wolf, Shashi Kiran of Nile, Andrew Wesie and Jeffrey Martin of Theori, Eran Kinsbruner of Checkmarx, Adam Arellano of Harness, Ahmed Achchak of Qevlar AI, and David Brauchler III of NCC Group. A companion post announces that all twelve RSA interviews are published as a playlist on Muruganandam’s show.

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Set that rule early, Muruganandam says, and the room does the work.

The September 19 trust table had eight participants from biotech, med-tech and enterprise software, with one rule set at the start: the room talks more than the hosts do.

• The Secure Physical AI session was announced for October 10 as a 15-seat event by approval, with a 15-minute opening from a guest leader followed by an hour split into build, prove and transact.
• In the prove stage, participants delivered 90-second trust pitches to a mock buyer panel; the transact stage covered who pays when things break, including liability, insurance and partnerships.

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They describe their role as IBM’s Academic Ambassador to Stanford, sponsoring student work that connects talent, partners and platform adoption: skills programmes develop people, partners build industry solutions on the technology, and integration platforms carry those solutions into use.

Over ten weeks, twelve Stanford Management Science and Engineering students under Professor Riitta Katila worked on three IBM-sponsored projects.

• One team explored how to win more mid-market business through partners, recommending stronger partner technical competency through demo days, hackathons and mentorship from IBM engineers.
• Another developed data-driven cold chain logistics work using real-time streaming architectures such as Kafka-based platforms to detect temperature anomalies early and trigger interventions before product loss.
• The third evaluated IBM SkillsBuild as a talent pipeline.

This post focuses on partner ecosystems and academic collaboration rather than governance, trust or security. It shows the product-management and partner side of the profile, a secondary thread to its central argument.

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A recap of a week at RSA Conference 2026, drawing on conversations Vivek Bharathi Muruganandam recorded for The AI People talkshow with named executives from Aviatrix, Reco, Teramind, Cork, Arctic Wolf, Nile, Theori, Checkmarx, Harness, Qevlar AI and NCC Group.

• The post groups their comments into six themes: AI as the centre of gravity for attackers and defenders; a shift from “AI-enabled” to genuinely AI-native security platforms; attackers industrialising cybercrime with AI and compressing the gap between discovering a vulnerability and exploiting it; AI agents creating a need to govern actions, not just access; security becoming cross-functional; and consolidation into platforms over point tools.
• It closes with the argument that leadership alignment and cross-functional collaboration matter more than the technology itself.

For brands planning a campaign

The six themes make ready-made roundtable prompts. A co-hosted executive session could focus on “action governance” for AI agents—a sharper brief than a generic AI-in-security panel, and one that gives guests something concrete to debate.

Newcomers can scan the guest roster, seniority and topics before deciding whether to watch.

Announces that twelve interviews recorded at RSA Conference are live as a playlist on The AI People show, and names every guest and company.

• The stated subjects are how AI is changing security operations, the practical problems enterprises face, the future of intelligent automation in cybersecurity, and advice the audience can apply.
• The post targets people building, investing in, or following the intersection of AI and security.

For brands planning a campaign

A B2B AI governance company can build on an existing interview format with a security-vendor audience rather than start from scratch. The guest roster also shows which companies already talk to this host.

Frames every enterprise AI investment in marketing as a negotiation among four executives: the CMO, who cares whether the output is good enough to put the brand’s name on; the CIO, who cares whether it integrates and holds up at scale; the CFO, who wants predictable run costs and clear return; and the CISO, who asks where customer data goes and who can see it.

• The post says disputes intensify over large bets such as a new marketing platform, AI content generation at brand scale, personalisation on customer data, or agentic campaigns that act without a human in the loop.
• Its argument: governance usually gets a seat last, after the contract is signed—exactly when marketing AI deals stall in security review.
• Teams that bring the CISO in early launch faster.

For brands planning a campaign

The four-chair frame gives a co-hosted executive roundtable a natural agenda. It gives a governance platform a reason to convene buyers across functions, not just security or marketing, and offers trade-off language to keep the session from becoming a vendor pitch.

This helps assess whether the host is an active convenor, not just someone who posts opinions.

A follow-up to an AI trust session held around 19 September, describing a small table of eight people from biotech, med-tech and enterprise software.

• The hosts set a rule at the outset: the room should talk more than they do.
• The post returns to the four-executive trade-off, names participants who led parts of the conversation, links the recording and opens sign-up for future sessions.
• It also notes that the discussion broadened from marketing to AI investment questions across other business functions, from startups to large enterprises.

For brands planning a campaign

An existing pipeline of future sessions and a recording show the format in action. A co-hosted event could extend this table rather than stand alone, and the cross-industry guest mix suggests invitations need not be limited to marketing buyers.

A Black Hat post argues that an AI system without governance is not just a compliance gap but an attack surface.

• It describes episodes recorded with Deepali Gosain that carry the trust-table conversation onto security’s own turf, and highlights a mismatch: security teams flag the risk, but those holding the compliance budget are not always in the room.
• The post identifies that mismatch as the source of real exposure and links the episode recordings.

For brands planning a campaign

For a governance platform targeting technical buyers, the security-review framing is the sharper hook. A joint episode or panel built around “governance as attack surface” could reach security leaders who would skip a marketing-led AI event.

Buyers considering a co-hosted roundtable can assess the template already in use.

An announcement for a 15-seat, approval-only boardroom discussion on AI in regulated industries, co-hosted by The AI Trust Table and The AI People with Deepali Gosain.

• The examples are concrete: a robot in a GxP lab, a surgical assist device, an autonomous inspection system at a utility—each requiring sign-off from a CISO, a QA or regulatory lead, a safety engineer, procurement and sometimes an insurer.
• The format is a 15-minute opening question from a guest leader, followed by an hour of peer discussion across three stages: build (safety case and threat model in week one), prove (90-second trust pitches judged by a mock buyer panel), and transact (who pays when it breaks, liability, insurance, partnerships).
• The post positions the event between the big October conference stages, where funding and scaling get more airtime than earning trust to deploy.

For brands planning a campaign

This is the closest existing template for an executive roundtable. Regulated-industry AI trust is already the stated theme, the mock buyer panel encourages participation, and a governance platform could contribute to the prove and transact stages, where its subject matter becomes the agenda.

Describes a ten-week collaboration in which twelve Stanford Management Science and Engineering students, under Professor Riitta Katila, worked on three IBM-sponsored projects: mid-market partner go-to-market; data-driven cold chain logistics using real-time streaming architectures such as Kafka-based platforms; and an evaluation of IBM SkillsBuild as a talent pipeline.

• The post names the students and IBM mentors for each project, and identifies the author as IBM's Academic Ambassador to Stanford, working with the SkillsBuild team.
• Its closing idea is a loop: skills programmes develop talent, partners build industry solutions, and integration platforms carry them into real work.

For brands planning a campaign

Relevant to campaigns seeking a talent, skills or partner-ecosystem angle rather than a security one. It also shows a convening style built around structured, time-boxed projects with named participants—a different offering from a moderated discussion.

Vivek describes regulated deployments—a robot in a GxP lab, a surgical assist device, an autonomous inspection system at a utility—each requiring sign-off from a CISO, a QA/RA lead, a safety engineer, procurement and, sometimes, an insurer.

• The proposed fix is to bring governance in at design time: teams that involve the CISO from the start launch faster because the deal is not re-litigated in a security review six months later.
• A Black Hat post makes the same case from the security side: an AI system without governance is an attack surface, and exposure sits in the gap between security teams and whoever owns the compliance budget.

For brands planning a campaign

This is the clearest stated thesis, and it maps directly onto a governance vendor’s message. A co-hosted roundtable could use governance as a design input, not a cleanup step, as its premise rather than defaulting to a generic AI-risk theme.

Examples: Source 1 · Source 2 · Source 3 · Source 4

The CMO wants taste and brand-safe output; the CIO wants performance and stack fit at scale; the CFO wants forecastable run costs and clear ROI; and the CISO wants proof that data handling and controls hold up.

• No one can maximize all four.
• The fiercest debates center on martech platforms, AI content generation at brand scale, personalization built on customer data, and agentic campaigns that act without a human in every loop.
• Vivek’s observation: governance usually gets a seat after the contract is signed, when marketing AI deals can die in security review.

For brands planning a campaign

Offers a ready-made agenda and a natural entry point: a session built around the four seats, with the CMO-versus-CISO tension as its central question. Invite counterparts to fill each chair so the discussion is peer-to-peer, not vendor-to-buyer.

Examples: Source 1 · Source 2

RSA Conference 2026 produced 12 interviews, released as a dedicated playlist, with guests from Aviatrix, Reco, Teramind, Cork, Arctic Wolf, Nile, Theori, Checkmarx, Harness, Qevlar AI, and NCC Group.

• A companion post distills themes from those conversations: AI as the center of gravity for attackers and defenders; the shift from AI-enabled to AI-native security vendors; threats scaling faster than defenders can adapt; AI agents as digital co-workers carrying autonomy risk; security as a cross-functional team sport; and platform consolidation over point tools.
• The interview series continued at Black Hat with a co-host.

For brands planning a campaign

A sponsor could join a conference interview run or a single episode, creating named-leader content to co-brand and reuse. The theme recap also gives a vendor a place in the synthesized takeaway, not just the raw interview.

Examples: Source 1 · Source 2 · Source 3

The Secure Physical AI session on October 10 in the Bay Area used a related format: 15 seats by approval, a guest leader opening with 15 minutes on one unhyped question, then an hour of peer discussion divided into build, prove and transact.

• In the prove segment, a mock-buyer panel judged 90-second trust pitches.
• The transact segment covered who pays when it breaks, liability, insurance and partnerships.

Small, approval-only tables with a single guest opener, most of the time reserved for peer discussion, and structured role-play exercises such as a mock-buyer panel scoring short trust pitches.

For brands planning a campaign

The format is designed to be co-hosted and portable. A mock-buyer trust-pitch exercise gives a sponsor an active role in the session rather than mere logo placement; a vendor’s own customers can sit on the panel judging pitches.

Examples: Source 1 · Source 2 · Source 3

Vivek contrasts the October calendar of product and funding stages—ProductCon, TechCrunch Disrupt, Money20/20—with the less-discussed step in between: earning enough trust to deploy inside a regulated industry.

• The session was co-hosted with Deepali Gosain of Ferendis, whose background is in FDA-regulated and GxP AI and digital platforms at Oracle and Thermo Fisher Scientific.
• The pairing brings both AI governance and deployment into the conversation.

For brands planning a campaign

The strongest fit for a brief aimed at regulated industries. The topic can be tailored to a sponsor’s vertical, and the pairing of a governance-side host with a platform/product host offers a template vendors can use.

Examples: Source 1

Vivek notes that what started as a marketing conversation widened at the table to AI investment problems in other business functions and across the scale spectrum from startups to large enterprises. The stated pattern is that marketing teams which bring the CISO in at the start launch faster, because nobody has to go back and ask where the data went.

For brands planning a campaign

A useful fit when the buyer sits in a marketing organization or a governance vendor is selling into martech budgets. The four-chair framing and marketing use cases provide a ready-made session outline for a marketing audience.

Examples: Source 1 · Source 2

Three teams tackled separate challenges: winning more mid-market business through partners by strengthening partner technical competency with demo days, hackathons and engineer mentorship; optimizing cold chain logistics with data, using real-time streaming and anomaly detection to trigger interventions before product loss; and evaluating SkillsBuild for the talent pipeline. The stated loop runs from education to ecosystem to industry innovation.

Project sponsorship with university teams, named IBM mentors for each project, and published recommendations from the students’ work.

The post focuses on partner ecosystems, talent pipelines and academic collaboration rather than AI governance, trust or security.

For brands planning a campaign

Relevant for a sponsor seeking ecosystem, partner enablement or talent-pipeline programming. For a governance or security brief, it is supporting evidence rather than the main hook.

Examples: Source 1

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Marcel Gradidge's RSAC 2026 recap covers much of the same ground as Vivek Bharathi Muruganandam's: agentic AI as both opportunity and threat, AI-generated phishing and faster exploitation, identity as the new perimeter, and security moving from a CISO problem to a board-level one.

Marcel Gradidge writes from an operator and go-to-market perspective, with a recurring interest in how large organisations separate network engineering from network operations and structure NOCs, SOCs and SRE feedback loops. Vivek Bharathi Muruganandam takes an organisational rather than architectural angle: they host peer tables and interviews and debate who gets a seat at the AI decision, not how the estate is designed.

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Patti Degnan writes about taking a CISO role at Glow as AI EDR moves from a future category to part of the security stack, and about hosting an investor demo day on security in the AI era. That matches the focus on AI security adoption and bringing security leaders together in Vivek Bharathi Muruganandam's trust tables and conference interviews.

Patti Degnan is an in-house security executive who writes about her mandate and investor-facing events. Vivek Bharathi Muruganandam does not sell or run a security function in these posts; they convene and interview others, then synthesise what they say.

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Raghuram Krishnan's CFO summit post argues that AI and technology are rewriting the CFO role, while his board leadership post covers AI governance among the topics boards now have to weigh.

Raghuram Krishnan writes about finance and board governance, with individual accounts of summits and programmes he attended. Vivek Bharathi Muruganandam covers AI trust and security across regulated industries through a recurring table format and an ongoing interview series.

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Marcel Gradidge's RSA Conference 2026 write-up works through five shifts in one pass: agentic AI executing workflows across enterprise systems, shadow agents operating outside any governance framework, an industrialised attack surface where zero-days are produced at scale, identity as the new perimeter, and a move from access control to action control.

• If the brand needs someone to open the session on threat models, control design and what actually breaks, and hold that conversation with CISOs and red teamers rather than policy owners, this material serves the build and prove segments more directly than a compliance-first framing.
• The post separating network engineering from network operations shows the same habit applied to operating models: split the functions, define the handoff and give the CIO a structure to run.

Gradidge's posts show commentary and analysis, not a convening format.

• The two posts here do not document an approval-only table, an interview series, a registration route or a guest roster; the events named are other people's conferences.
• Choosing this direction means the brand supplies the format, guest list and moderation, and absorbs more production risk.
• The subject matter also sits closer to security operations and architecture than to the regulated-industry sign-off chain — quality and regulatory leads, safety engineers, procurement, insurers — for a campaign aimed at those gatekeepers.
• A robot in a GxP lab, a surgical assist device or an autonomous inspection system would still need another voice to cover compliance and liability.

Examples: Source 1 · Source 2

The Andreessen Horowitz AI Security Demo Days announcement describes a curated, invitation-style evening she hosts, with a fireside chat on the state of investing in security in the AI era, demos from five security companies and a founder reception — a co-hosted format with a defined audience, suited to a brand seeking a co-hosted event for that audience.

• The post announcing her move to Glow as Chief Information Security Officer puts current ownership of security and IT for an AI EDR company on the record.
• The argument there is the buyer's problem, stated from inside a security team: AI is moving faster than traditional tooling, with new agents, applications and data flows reaching the endpoint.

The audience is investors, founders and security buyers rather than the regulated-industry gatekeepers — quality and regulatory leads, safety engineers, procurement, insurers.

• A brand co-hosting here is also co-hosting with Patti Degnan's employer, so the arrangement needs company sign-off and the event carries the employer's brand alongside the sponsor's.
• The posts show one company-defined event, not an independently run series.
• Ask for a plan for follow-up sessions and evidence of who would return.

Examples: Source 1 · Source 2

The FICCI CFO Summit 2026 post makes the case an AI governance vendor wants a CFO to hear first-hand: the finance leader is becoming an architect of enterprise strategy and digital transformation, blending financial discipline with technology fluency and risk leadership, while AI will augment rather than replace that role.

• The IIM Bangalore board programme post shows the same agenda landing with company secretaries, independent directors and risk owners, covering enterprise risk, AI governance, executive compensation and board succession, and closing on the judgement exercised when there is no obvious answer.
• For a platform selling into regulated financial services or Indian enterprise, that is a more direct line to the economic buyer than a security-led table.

The posts show speaker and participant roles at institutional programmes rather than a host running a recurring series of their own.

• A co-hosted event would likely route through FICCI, IIM Bangalore or a similar body, adding approvals, lead times and an institutional co-brand the sponsoring platform cannot control.
• The AI content is pitched at the finance function's agenda — where the CFO fits in an AI-shaped enterprise — rather than the deployment mechanics of regulated AI.
• The vendor should bring a technical voice to cover safety cases, threat models and liability.

Examples: Source 1 · Source 2