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Each business has its unique challenges, but one commonality today is that AI is poised to disrupt almost every business everywhere. Organizations arent the only ones rapidly shifting to adopt AIattackers are too, and theyre doing it faster. The implications of this AI arms race are alarming for legitimate businesses around the world. Security teams must rapidly evolve their cyber strategy to meet these new threats, moving away from a reactive posture that detects and then responds after an incident happens. To outpace attackers, organizations will need to be preemptive insteaddeterring, neutralizing, and preventing threats before they happen. HOW AI IS CHANGING THE GAME Anthropic recently revealed that a threat actor group was able to use AI (Claude) to perform 80-90% of an espionage campaign, with only sporadic human intervention, to attack 30 enterprises around the globe. The AI made thousands of requests per second, something even a team of highly skilled human attackers couldnt do. Anthropic concluded that less experienced and resourced groups can now potentially perform large-scale attacks of this nature with the help of AI. That means the barrier to entry for cybercrime has dropped dramatically. Individuals who previously lacked the technical skills to code can now leverage AI tools to create and execute complex attacks. This will inevitability lead to a surge in the number of sophisticated attacks unleashed on business and governments worldwide. Most enterprises and cybersecurity vendors are responding to this change by taking legacy, reactive security approaches and trying to add AI on top of them. The idea is that you should fight AI-powered attackers with AI-powered defenses. However, this is akin to taking a tank and adding AI to it to battle a fleet of drones. Yes, the AI-enabled tank will get better, but it is fundamentally too slow and too expensive to meet the new threat and win. As AI makes large-scale attacks accessible to anyone, its not just the volume of threats that will explode, its their uniqueness. Attackers are no longer limited to reusing the same malware, they can now target specific infrastructure vulnerabilities with single-use attacks. MASS PERSONALIZATION: A NEW FRONTIER FOR ATTACKERS Before AI, attackers built and then reused malicious software (i.e. malware) to attack as many enterprises as possible, but AI changes that entirely. It enables mass personalization: the ability to generate custom, one-off attacks for each target, at scale. As more and more attackers use these types of specialized, single-use malware to target their victims, businesses relying on legacy approaches will experience an exponential increase in breaches. They will face a never-ending battle to contain breaches before they can cause millions or even billions of dollars in damage. The traditional security model, and thus your business, relies on identifying patient zerospotting the first instance of a new threat, then blocking it everywhere else. However, when every attack is unique, there is no patient zero. In a world where even unskilled attackers can use AI to perform thousands of tasks a second, novel threats can be created and evolve faster than legacy, reactive security systems’ ability to observe and respond. This is not a future problem; this is a problem today. Last year, Infoblox classified over 25 million new domains as malicious. Ninety-five percent of them, or about 24 million, were unique to one enterprise, meaning the domains were made to specifically attack a singular organization. Last year, attackers personalized 24 million attacks for enterprises all over the world, each able to initially evade most legacy, reactive security tools. If your executive team and boardroom are not already discussing this, they need to start now. THE FUTURE OF YOUR CYBERSECURITY IS PREEMPTIVE AI has changed the nature of attacks, so now, it must change the nature of our defenses. To combat these threats, its no longer enough to be reactive. Instead, the cybersecurity industry and enterprises must urgently undergo huge changes to become more preemptive in their approaches to security. Gartner analysts are saying the same, predicting that preemptive cybersecurity will make up 50% of IT security spending by 2030, up from almost 5% in 2024. The firm specifically cites AI-enabled attacks as the force behind this change. Its time for a mindset shift. Leaders must see the security fight with a higher-level view. Instead of just focusing on using AI to speed up how fast they can detect and respond to individual fires, they must focus more of their energy and investment on using new approaches to stop the fires from ever starting. By developing strategies to preempt threats, teams can beat attackers to the punch, stopping threats before they can wreak havoc on their businesses. Scott Harrell is CEO of Infoblox.
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E-Commerce
CIOs are grappling with how to leverage AI, but most are asking the wrong question. Its not about an AI strategy. Its about a business strategy powered by AI. At Samsara, when we focused AI on clear business problems, we cut support chat volume by 59% with virtual agents, our IT help assistant auto-resolved 27% of tickets during the pilot, and engineers accepted about 40% of suggested code from AI code-assist, freeing teams to ship faster and tackle harder work. My takeaway is that if you treat AI as a separate initiative, youll chase tools. If you treat it as leverage on a business KPI, youll create impact. The VC Mindset: Investing in AI My philosophy on AI investment mirrors how a Venture Capital firm manages its portfolio. While every investment should strive for success, organizations must adopt a portfolio mindset: expecting only 10% of AI pilots to yield a high return. This crucial insight is what drives a VC firm, and what should drive your AI funnel. This means maintaining an active, well-fed funnel of AI investments. Working diligently to narrow this funnel through rapid pilots and experimentation allows businesses to move fast and fail quickly on small, contained experiments to find the few truly transformative applications. This approach is crucial given the sheer volume of AI solutions available. The typical vendor evaluation process might involve vetting three or four key solutions. In the AI space, that number can balloon into the thousands. Applying a VC mindset allows us to efficiently triage and prioritize, focusing our resources where the potential business impact is highest. Scaling AI Through Change Management Investment is only half the battle. The most sophisticated AI tool is worthless if employees don’t use it effectively. Success demands a robust AI change management program that builds new organizational muscles. 1. Driving Adoption: A Top-Down and Bottom-Up Engine True organizational change requires synchronized effort from the C-suite to the front lines. This is the top-down and bottom-up mandate for AI adoption. Top-Down Commitment: This begins with the CEO and C-suite making AI a core business priority. At Samsara, two of our four company priorities are explicitly AI-relatedone focused on internal efficiency, and the other on product innovation. This executive mandate, championed by leaders like our CEO and reinforced through my partnership with our CFO, ensures AI initiatives are treated as strategic imperatives, not discretionary projects. Bottom-Up Application: While CIO organizations are natural early adopters, the people best positioned to apply AI are those who live with the business problems dailyin supply chain, finance, sales, and operations. These colleagues have a nuanced, first-hand understanding of where AI tools can create the most value. And they can bridge this gap by empowering those teams to identify and lead implementation. 2. Scale Literacy with an AI Champions Network To connect the top-level vision with bottom-up execution, businesses must actively cultivate AI literacy. At Samsara, weve implemented a two-pronged approach to ensuring that AI skills and uses are being scaled across our business. AI Champions Network: Our AI Champions are a bridge to realizing our AI ambitions. We identify individuals across every function with a strong understanding of technologythe natural thought leadersand designate them as AI Champions. We give them concrete roadmaps for how to use AI in their specific function, making them evangelists who drive enablement and comfort within their teams. General Education: We use channels like our daily Slack digest to deliver short, 5-minute to 10-minute lessons to provide general AI education and demystify the technology for all employees. 3. Frame AI as Partnership, Not Replacement Any companys ethos on AI should be clear: AI wont replace people who embrace it. They should position these tools to their staff as partners that will better their teams and outputs, freeing them up for higher-value work. As I alluded to above, for our R&D and BizTech teams, weve implemented AI Code Generator tools. Our teams accept, on average, over 40% of the prebuilt code suggested, accelerating development cycles and allowing them to focus on complex, innovative challenges. On the service side, our use of AI chat agents has driven a 59% reduction in chat ticket volume in customer support, allowing staff to focus on complex issues. Similarly, our internal Generative AI-powered help assistant for the IT Help Desk resolved 27% of tickets with no human touch during the pilot, freeing up IT staff for strategic work. The CIOs Evolving Role In this new era, the CIO’s job is to stay intensely agile. They must mirror the companys need for external innovation with a commensurate drive for internal modernization. The path to AI success is not paved with technology alone, but with strategic discipline and cultural transformation. The new CIO mandate is simple: Stay intensely agile. Mirror the companys need for external innovation with an equivalent drive for internal modernization. The path to AI success is not paved with technology alone, but with strategic discipline and cultural transformation. Stop chasing the latest platform and start asking: What is the core business problem we need to solve? Anchor your investments in quantifiable business value, embrace a venture-style portfolio approach to experimentation, and aggressively equip your employees to be partners of AI, not its victims. This shift from technology buyer to strategic portfolio manager is the key to enduring competitive advantage.
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E-Commerce
Across America, a new generation of farmers is reimagining what it means to work the land. They are engineers, ecologists, and entrepreneurspeople who see farming not only as a way to grow food, but as a form of innovation. In fields across the country, these farmers are harnessing soil science, biodiversity, and technology to restore what decades of extractive agriculture have depleted. Their work represents one of the most powerful opportunities of our time: The opportunity to regenerate our planet from the ground up. Yet, the odds they face are immense. Land prices have soared, access to capital is limited, and isolation comes with choosing a career path few understand. Farmland continues to disappear, and for those eager to farm differently, access to resources and mentorship remains limited. These farmers are proving that the next era of agriculture can be both economically viable and ecologically sound. They are experimenting with cover crops to build soil health, integrating renewable energy into operations, and rethinking distribution through community-based models. Their work underscores a truth we must all recognize: The future of farming depends on our ability to empower the people willing to reinvent it. THE FUTURE OF REGENERATIVE FARMING At Rodale Institute, weve seen firsthand how supporting beginning farmers can accelerate this transformation. Through training, mentorship, and research, weve helped growers adopt regenerative organic methods that improve soil biology, reduce chemical dependence, and restore carbon to the earth. But the broader movement must go further, requiring not only scientific innovation but cultural and corporate partnerships. Thats why Rodale Institute and Davines Group have partnered to launch the second annual U.S. Good Farmer Award, a program recognizing beginning farmers and ranchers who have been in operation for 10 years or less and who embody environmentally responsible, community-focused, and forward-thinking agricultural practices. The award honors individuals whose work demonstrates a profound respect for nature, fosters biodiversity, and strengthens their local communities. More than an accolade, the award reflects a global mindset shift where innovation is not just about new technology but about regenerating what sustains us. In 2025, our U.S. inaugural winner, Clarenda Farmer Cee Stanley of Green Heffa Farms in North Carolina, showed us what this vision looks like in practice. Her herb and tea farm blends economic impact, education, and equity into a model of regenerative success. Shes a farmer, but also a mentor, an advocate, and a catalyst for change. Her story, and those of farmers who will follow, remind us that progress doesnt always come from technology or policy. Often, it grows quietly in the soil, nurtured by people whose courage to plant seeds in uncertain times defines what regeneration really means. WHY INVESTING IN NEW FARMERS IS ESSENTIAL Investing in beginning farmers is essential to a more resilient and regenerative future worldwide. At first glance, it may seem unlikely that a beauty, skincare, and haircare company like the Davines Group shares our commitment and passion for supporting new farmers. However, Davide Bollati, chairman of Davines Group, like us, sees regeneration as the next evolution of sustainability. It is not enough to minimize harm, but we must actively restore it. In a recent conversation, he shared that the protection and preservation of biodiversity are a cornerstone of our environmental strategy, alongside decarbonization, circularity, and water. Like us, Bollati also sees an energy among young farmers who have the energy and the courage to innovate with an approach that considers the wellbeing of our planet. Through The Good Farmer Award, in both Italy and the U.S., its about empowering the next generation of farmers to lead with empathy, intelligence, and creativity. The path forward must be multigenerational, inclusive, and rooted in community. FINAL THOUGHTS When Bollati and I met to prepare for the upcoming award application, he summarized our shared purpose perfectlyregeneration today is the only possible path to ensure a future for next generations, and for our planet. It is farmers like our inaugural award winner, Clarenda Farmer Cee Stanley, who are embracing agriculture for a different quality, and a different pace of life where they can grow high-quality crops, use sustainable and regenerative practices to protect the soil, and connect others with limited access to farm-fresh products. Jeff Tkach is CEO of Rodale Institute.
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E-Commerce
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