The New Automation Mindset: AI + Automation + Integration

• Why Trimble’s VP of Technology Innovation Embraces Chaos while Reducing Friction

  In this episode of The New Automation Mindset, Markus Zirn is joined by Aviad Almagor, VP of Technology Innovation at Trimble, to speak about how the nearly 50-year-old company is integrating predictive and generative AI into its global operations. They explore how Trimble went from using ML for infrastructure analysis to deploying GenAI-powered agents across design, product development, and internal workflows. Aviad shares real-world examples of some of the innovations his team leads and discusses what makes AI pilots succeed or fail.—Guest BioAviad Almagor is a product and technology innovation leader with more than 25 years of experience at the intersection of industrial sectors—spanning Architecture, Engineering, Construction & Operations (AECO), transportation, agriculture, and geospatial—and cutting-edge technologies. Trained as an architect, Aviad transitioned early into 3D design and disruptive digital tools, eventually pioneering large-scale adoption of mixed reality, robotics, and AI in these industries.Today, as Vice President of Technology Innovation at Trimble, Aviad leads global initiatives that connect the physical and digital worlds—helping these industries become more productive, efficient, and sustainable.—Guest Quote"The big value is not in doing what we do today more efficiently or faster. The big value is in the redefinition of the work. The way we’re working with an agent, this is something that will evolve, and we need to design for that." – Aviad Almagor—Time Stamps  00:00 Episode Start02:50 The history of Trimble05:00 Setting higher standards for your data08:05 Building trust in your data11:20 Embrace complexity, reduce friction16:00 The importance of IT / Business collaboration20:15 Trimble's journey implementing AI efforts23:55 Overcoming resistance to new tools27:20 Specific examples of AI transformations31:10 What stands in the way of AI adoption38:10 The future for both predictive and generative AI44:45 Aviad's advice for other CIOs—Episode Key TakeawaysCulture accelerates transformation: Trimble's collaborative, innovation-first culture enables bottom-up AI exploration, leading to enterprise-wide adoption. Executive support, psychological safety, and shared outcomes are essential to scale cross-functional AI teams.Think beyond productivity: AI’s value isn’t just in speeding up tasks, it’s in transforming how work gets done. GenAI can open creative workflows, reimagine design collaboration, and personalize user experiences.Predictive AI and GenAI work best together: Predictive models offer consistent, domain-specific analysis where GenAI adds creativity, natural interaction, and automation. When integrated, they can power end-to-end, intelligent workflows. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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• How Barracuda’s CIO Sees Gen AI as a Paradigm Shift for Leadership and Scale

  In this episode of The New Automation Mindset, Markus Zirn speaks with Siroui Mushegian, CIO of Barracuda, about how to scale GenAI across your enterprise without losing control or clarity. Siroui discusses Barracuda’s agent-led transformation efforts, from a customer support bot nearing production, to AI-assisted onboarding tools in HR, to internal frameworks for guiding responsible AI experimentation. The two also address why AI pilots often fail, how to support hesitant departments like finance and legal, and what it means to think with a true “scale mindset.”—Guest BioSiroui Mushegian, CIO, BarracudaSiroui Mushegian is the Chief Information Officer (CIO) at Barracuda. Siroui joined Barracuda most recently from BlackLine, where she was responsible for all aspects of BlackLine’s internal corporate IT. Before BlackLine, she held executive IT leadership roles at PBS’s WNET New York Public Media, the NBA, Ralph Lauren, and Time, Inc. Bringing more than 20 years of executive and IT leadership experience, Siroui has successfully built strong operational environments that eliminate technology silos, elevated the maturity and impact of technology within her enterprises and delivered measurable and scalable business outcomes.—Guest Quote"Every day I ask myself: will this scale? Am I adding snowflakes or standardizing? With GenAI, we have a real chance to democratize scale. But scale isn’t just technical, it’s cultural. We need to make it easy for people to participate in transformation, not gatekeep it behind specialized roles or departments. GenAI gives us the platform to do that if we’re intentional about how we use it." – Siroui Mushegian—Time Stamps  00:00 Episode Start03:20 How Gen AI transformation compares to previous technological evolutions08:00 Enabling AI initiatives across the business12:40 Increasing AI confidence within risk-averse functions20:25 Making sense of the MIT study26:05 Broader implications of democritized Gen AI access29:55 The future of process automation with AI Agents36:30 The scale mindset—Episode Key TakeawaysGenAI is an enterprise transformation, not an IT project: Unlike past tech waves, GenAI is driven from the top and embraced across every function from HR and legal to customer support. This shift requires IT to act as a partner and enabler, not just a solution provider.Governance should actually enable speed: AI pilots often fail due to lack of alignment, tooling chaos, or shadow projects that miss the mark. A clear framework for experimentation and governance helps avoid rework while accelerating safe, scalable deployment.A scale mindset is foundational to AI success: Scaling AI isn’t just about technology, it’s about designing solutions that avoid single points of failure and can be adopted company-wide. GenAI provides a rare opportunity to democratize innovation, but only if systems and processes are built with growth in mind. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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• The Global CIO of IFS on Redefining IT from Infrastructure to Intelligence

  In this episode of The New Automation Mindset, Markus Zirn speaks with Helena Nimmo, CIO of IFS, about the next wave of enterprise transformation. With three decades of experience leading IT across diverse industries, Helena reflects on the evolution of digital transformation from internet and SaaS to today’s AI-powered platforms. The conversation unpacks how AI is redefining workflows, organizational design, and even workplace culture. From AI agents as coworkers to rethinking process outcomes, this episode offers a strategic perspective for IT leaders preparing for AI transformation.—Guest BioHelena brings a wealth of expertise to the technology sector, with a career spanning over three decades across international markets. Her approach integrates technology as a catalyst for business enhancement, focusing on transformative strategies that bolster both revenue and profitability.As CIO of IFS, Helena engages CIOs and tech leaders to help them with their strategic transformation journeys, as well as drives the effective application of technology within IFS to deliver better products and services to customers. Helena's professional narrative includes pivotal roles where she has crafted technology and data blueprints, pioneered new revenue channels within the tech space, and devised comprehensive compliance strategies. Her leadership has been instrumental in orchestrating company-wide transformations, developing core technology infrastructures, and implementing robust security measures.—Guest Quote"We still have it in our language: IT, and the business. The reality is IT is the business. There are no businesses in the world effectively anymore that can operate without IT, and it's disappointing that we’ve ingrained this division so deeply in our thinking." – Helena Nimmo—Time Stamps  00:00 Episode Start02:15 Helena's big learnings over her career05:55 Technology is not soley software12:20 IT and business functions need to find harmony16:05 What will AI transformation look like?19:35 The human side of AI25:20 How to prepare your organization for Agentic AI32:25 Take your first step to AI transformation today35:25 Where Gen AI can have the most impact on your enteprise41:35 Final thoughts—Episode Key TakeawaysIT is no longer a support function: Organizations must move past the outdated language of “IT and the business.” Success with AI requires fully integrated, cross-functional thinking where technology and business outcomes are inseparable.Treat AI as a platform, not a collection of tools: Generative AI isn’t just another productivity tool. CIOs must architect enterprise-wide platforms that enable safe experimentation, scale adoption, and embed AI into workflows across the business.Knowledge sharing is key to agentic success: AI agents can’t operate effectively in siloed organizations. To unlock their full value, enterprises must surface institutional knowledge, foster collaboration, and overcome information hoarding. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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• SNP’s CTO on Accelerating Time to Value Through Automation Innovation

  In this episode, Markus welcomes Dominik Wittenbeck, Group CTO of SNP Group, to explore the company’s multi-decade journey from an SAP consulting service to a global automation software provider. Dominik shares insights into the challenges and inflection points that shaped SNP’s evolution, highlighting how they tackled SAP’s complexity, embraced automation, and empowered both internal teams and external partners with flexible, modular tools.Listeners will learn how SNP scaled its platform by focusing on repeatable patterns, reducing project risk, and enabling non-technical users through intuitive design. Dominik also reflects on how generative AI is influencing the next chapter of transformation by accelerating onboarding, reducing manual tasks, and surfacing new opportunities across the enterprise landscape.Whether you're leading a digital transformation, modernizing legacy systems, or exploring GenAI’s enterprise use cases, this conversation offers actionable guidance and hard-won lessons from a leader who's lived the journey.Timestamps00:00 Episode Start02:50 How SNP Group accelerates time to value07:15 Moving from consultation to transformation16:00 Automation is inevitable18:05 What GenAI unlocks for all enterprises21:40 The importance of human guidance25:45 Why democratizing tool sets should be your highest priority29:45 Reflections from Dominik's career33:10 Don't boil the ocean when automating38:20 Thinking about automation differently41:10 Final thoughtsEpisode Key TakeawaysCulture determines automation success: Without a culture that embraces experimentation and failure, even the best tools will stall. Leaders must encourage learning, iteration, and low-friction change.Let the field drive platform evolution: SNP’s most successful tools were shaped not by top-down requirements but by consultants building on real-world problems. Innovation thrives where freedom and feedback loops exist.Process ownership must be distributed: A single team or department can’t scale automation alone. SNP’s evolution proves that shared ownership enables faster problem-solving and continuous refinement.Top Quotes“In a dream of mine that hasn't come true yet, you're sitting there in a workshop with a customer, they tell you requirements verbally, you note them down, you take the transcript of basically what you have, and it automatically reflects in the software. With agentic behavior and function calling, this is actually quite possible, and it can bring the learning curve down quite a lot.”“You will become the best engineer in automation if you are a subject matter expert. And what we’ve seen is that when we give our consultants the tools and the freedom to experiment, they come up with practical solutions we in R&D would’ve never imagined. That’s why democratizing toolsets should be your highest priority.”“From a culture perspective, you need to build a company where failing and learning is an integrated part of the process, it’s not a flaw. If your thinking is always ‘when will this be delivered’ or ‘when will it be done,’ you miss the chance to find new opportunity. The best improvements come from failures you’ve actually made.” Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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• How Canon’s AI Committee Is Scaling Automation and Driving Organizational Change

  In this episode, Markus sits down with Michael Lebron, Head of Digital Applications and Shared Services at Canon, to discuss how Canon is integrating Generative AI into its operations through a cross-functional committee focused on intelligent automation. Drawing from his experience leading enterprise architecture and innovation initiatives, Michael shares how the committee evolved from addressing AI-related risks to enabling productivity, creativity, and scale across departments. From upskilling employees and securing executive buy-in to deploying AI agents for process automation, this episode provides a practical blueprint for enterprise leaders looking to operationalize AI in a secure, scalable, and value-driven way.Timestamps00:00 Episode Start02:40 Canon's Gen AI Committee06:25 Moving past a fear mindset11:55 A spotlight on technologists14:45 AI Integrated22:20 The massive unlock with unstructured data28:45 Analyzing the ROI of AI implementation32:10 How these tools are democratizing knowledge across organizations39:35 Is fear holding us back?43:25 Michael's adviceEpisode Key TakeawaysExecutive alignment is non-negotiable: Success with GenAI starts at the top. Canon’s committee model shows that broad adoption and cultural change only happen when executive leadership actively champions the vision.Democratization drives enterprise scale: GenAI lowers the barrier to technical innovation, enabling non-technical staff to ideate, experiment, and contribute. This shift is redefining what it means to be “digital ready” in the enterprise.Education eliminates fear: Resistance to AI often stems from a lack of understanding. Canon's emphasis on hands-on training, internal advocacy, and use-case transparency helps mitigate fear and build enterprise readiness.Top Quotes"When we started the AI committee, it wasn’t just to control risks, it was to unlock productivity and creativity while protecting the company. We built policies not to suppress, but to encourage innovation safely. That balance of governance and enablement has been critical to our success.""Generative AI is removing barriers to innovation. You no longer need to be a seasoned developer to build real applications or automate business tasks. It’s democratizing expertise, allowing people with curiosity, not just technical skill, to drive transformation.""This isn’t just about deploying tools. It’s a shift in DNA, in how we work and think. From executive strategy down to individual workflows, every function at Canon is now evaluating how AI can enhance efficiency and customer experience. It’s a complete cultural evolution." Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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