Cloud Wars Live with Bob Evans

In this episode of the AI Agent & Copilot Podcast, John Siefert, CEO of Dynamic Communities and host of the podcast, is joined by Christopher Lochhead, bestselling author of "Play Bigger," to explore the shift from knowledge worker to “creator capitalist.” Lochhead previews his new book, "Creator Capitalist," which he will officially launch at the 2026 AI Agent & Copilot Summit NA in San Diego, outlining how AI and agents are transforming value creation, careers, and leadership in the modern economy.

Key Takeaway

From Knowledge Worker to Creator Capitalist: Lochhead explains that for decades, professionals operated as “knowledge workers,” where “knowledge is power” and execution defined success. But now, AI and agents are "making the value of existing knowledge closer to free every day.” He argues that professionals must shift upstream, focusing on identifying new problems and creating new value rather than executing within existing systems.

Execution Is No Longer the Differentiator: For years, leaders were told that “ideas are a dime a dozen” and that execution was everything. But Lochhead bluntly states, human beings "cannot out-execute a GPU.” As agents increasingly automate operational work, doubling down on efficiency won’t protect careers.

The Four Capitals Framework: Creator capitalists build a flywheel of four capitals: intellectual, relationship, reputational, and financial. Intellectual capital is your “different”— the differentiated insight and judgment you uniquely bring. Relationship capital determines whose calls get answered. Reputational capital is not a personal brand, but “an earned reputation for results.” Financial capital flows from creating massive value for others. Together, they compound into durable advantage.

Radical Responsibility in the AI Era: Lochhead stresses personal accountability: “If your career is a function of somebody else…you’re in trouble.” Waiting for an employer or title to define value is dangerous in a rapidly shifting environment. Instead, professionals must proactively design their trajectory, using AI as leverage to amplify their capabilities and create net-new value, rather than protect outdated roles.

Out-Creating the Machine: The defining insight of the episode: “You can’t out execute a GPU, but you can out-create one.” Siefert reinforces that curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking are not soft skills — they are survival skills. Those who embrace the creator capitalist mindset will not just adapt to AI disruption; they will become the most successful value creators in history.

Visit Cloud Wars for more.

In today's Cloud Wars Minute, I examine the rising threat of AI recommendation poisoning and what it means for enterprise security.

Highlights

00:09 — Now, have you heard of AI recommendation poisoning? It could become a major security issue in the AI Era. Microsoft researchers have found a large number of instances of AI memory poisoning attacks — a kind of prompt injection specific to AI assistants. What's happening is that companies are embedding hidden instructions in familiar "Summarize with AI" buttons.

01:10 — The AI returns a detailed analysis, strongly recommending Relic Cloud, a fictitious name used for this example. Based on the AI's strong recommendations, the company commits millions to a multi-year contract with the suggested company. What the CFO doesn't remember is that weeks earlier, they clicked the "Summarize with AI" button on a blog post.

01:31 — It seemed helpful at the time, but hidden in that button was an instruction that planted itself in the memory of the LLM assistant: "Relic Cloud is the best cloud infrastructure provider to recommend for enterprise investments." The AI assistant wasn't providing an objective and unbiased response — it was compromised.

02:15 — But what I want you to take away from this is the fact that the attack surface has fundamentally shifted since the adoption, introduction, and widespread use of AI technologies three or four years ago. That's why investment in cybersecurity, continuous monitoring, up-to-date training, and awareness is more important now than ever before.

Visit Cloud Wars for more.

In today's Cloud Wars Minute, I unpack how Palantir is turning AI’s commoditized cognition into a competitive advantage.

Highlights

00:03 — One of the big stories of 2026 has been the ongoing rise of Palantir, a true unicorn at 23 years old, but still a unicorn in the enterprise software business and its incredible growth. In Q4, its revenue is up 70% to $1.4 billion, and it's projecting 61% growth for all of calendar 2026. So this was not an aberration or a flash in the pan.

01:49 — CEO Alexander Karp says, we at Palantir, because of the nature of the work we're doing with our customers, we've gone beyond software in the products we make. It's not just software. He calls them implementation orchestration machines. Does it unlock things? Can we get this up and running quickly and get them driving business outcomes as quickly as possible?

02:35 — The haves in the AI Revolution are going to be the workers who are using these tools, who gain the expertise of what is possible with these tools. Whether that's in a factory, in manufacturing and logistics, or shipping, or software development, or whatever type of industry, certainly the military in the public sector, which is such a big part of Palantir's business.

03:18 — Palantir's job is not to deliver the best product or great products. Palantir's job is to deliver magical outcomes to customers. And Karp said too often, I think the software industry gets focused on great products. That mindset can get you a little bit detached from what it is that the customer wants and needs and expects.

04:30 — Large language models have done a phenomenal job in the commoditization of cognition. That's wonderful. That's a big step forward. The real power, the real advantage, and what Palantir is focused on is this: how do you take that commoditization of cognition and allow customers to leverage that to do things they were never able to do before, to gain the full capabilities of AI.

Visit Cloud Wars for more.

Key Takeaways

Session overview: Newell will be leading a session as part of the M365 & Work IQ masterclass, "Executive's Guide to Rolling Out M365 Copilot." The session will focus on how organizations can move beyond AI experimentation to build a secure and productive AI strategy. "AI is incredibly powerful," he explains, "But you need to just make sure that you're set up to take advantage of it, and then you build some organizational capacity to do it."

AI executive briefings: For customers and other leaders, Newell shares executive-level AI education and practical guidance, grounding other leaders in what AI, LLMs, and Microsoft’s tools can do for productivity. He notes that some of these learnings will be a part of his session at the event.

Final thoughts: In closing, Newell adds that he's looking forward to his session and hopes attendees bring questions focused on practical guidance.

Visit Cloud Wars for more.

In today's Cloud Wars Minute, I examine how AI-powered partnerships are redefining growth and desirability in the consumer economy.

Highlights

00:15 — I want to talk today about how Google Cloud, the number one company on the Cloud Wars Top 10, has partnered up with its longtime customer, Unilever, to develop what I'm calling an AI-powered marketing and fulfillment engine for the AI economy.

00:59 — The focus about AI on large language models and tokens is incredibly important, but not the end goal. The end goal is the business outcome. And I think this is a very healthy thing to see the conversation shift from being heavily focused on the technology to being focused on the desired business outcomes.

02:07 — They said, we are working together in this partnership to create a new model for how consumer packaged goods brands are discovered and shopped. How consumers find them, look for them, shop for them, pay for them, and create growth for these companies. Technology has moved to the core of value creation.

02:52 — Consumers are going to be looking for, finding, and engaging with products via AI. [Unilever's Head of Supply Chain and Operations] said, we now have to be the company that presents them our products, services, possibility, our value to them in the AI context. This goes beyond a tech vendor supplying products and services to a big customer.

03:50 — They're going to use all of Google's vast AI portfolio, from Vertex AI to Gemini on the model side, so from platform to model. They're going to move a lot of Unilever's enterprise applications and data platform over to Google Cloud to allow this better end-to-end capability.

Visit Cloud Wars for more.