Disambiguation

Michael Fauscette
  • 5.0 (1)
  • TECHNOLOGY
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

"Disambiguation is the process of removing confusion around terms that express more than one meaning and can lead to different interpretations of the same string of text." Host Michael Fauscette of Arion Research; a leading technology analyst, tech startup advisor, consultant, board member, and storyteller; and his guests "remove the confusion around" artificial intelligence (AI), generative AI and business automation by looking at the business solutions available today to improve business outcomes and gain competitive advantage. 

  1. The Missing Layer: Why Your AI Agents Need a Governance Plane

    APR 1

    The Missing Layer: Why Your AI Agents Need a Governance Plane

    Your AI agents are running. But can you go to sleep at night knowing they won't send 3,000 emails to the same person, run up a $3,000 bill overnight, or give away refunds your business can't afford?In this episode, Michael Fauscette sits down with Logan Kelly, CEO of Waxell AI, to explore why governance for agentic systems is not observability, not guardrails, and not something you bolt on after deployment. It's a dedicated plane that has to be there from the start.TIMESTAMPS:00:00 - Introduction00:45 - Logan's journey from CallSine (autonomous sales agents) to Waxell AI03:55 - What a governance plane actually does and why the distinction matters07:06 - Why "we'll deal with governance later" is a dangerous bet09:34 - 26 governance categories and 200-300 policies per agent fleet10:20 - Deterministic observability vs. probabilistic agent governance13:14 - Failure modes don't have to be terminal: the manager-employee model14:05 - The Gong analogy: why agents need real-time coaching, not post-game review16:42 - Making governance accessible to non-engineers18:12 - Real-time semantic interception: filtering outputs before they reach the customer21:17 - The air traffic controller analogy: governing upstream, not at the gate23:11 - Business operations teams setting agent policies without writing code25:43 - Digital employees: why business leaders need to be in the governance loop28:00 - "Go to sleep at night" as the real value proposition of governance29:47 - MCP layer security vulnerabilities and the rug pull attack31:16 - Governance by design: building it into infrastructure from day one34:07 - How governance actually makes agents faster and more creative35:31 - Protecting customer experience and brand at machine speed39:29 - The next 12-18 months: autonomy at scale vs. co-work at scale43:02 - Thought leader recommendation: Dharmesh Shah (HubSpot)ABOUT THE GUEST:Logan Kelly is the CEO of Waxell AI, a governance plane for agentic systems. Previously, he founded CallSine, an AI-driven sales engagement platform that deployed fully autonomous agents, where he experienced firsthand the cost, quality, and security challenges that emerge when agents operate without a governance layer. That experience drove him to build the infrastructure that lets organizations run agents safely at scale.CONNECT WITH LOGAN:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/logankkelly/Company: https://www.waxell.ai/ABOUT DISAMBIGUATION:AI clarity for business leaders. New episodes every Wednesday.Host: Michael Fauscette, CEO & Chief Analyst at Arion ResearchAuthor of "Building the Digital Workforce"SUBSCRIBE & follow for weekly episodes on AI strategy, agentic AI, and enterprise technology.Website: https://www.disambiguationpod.com/Arion Research: https://www.arionresearch.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mfauscette/#AI #ArtificialIntelligence #AgenticAI #AIGovernance #EnterpriseAI #AIStrategy #AIAgents #Podcast

    45 min
  2. March 2026 AI Pulse

    MAR 26

    March 2026 AI Pulse

    A US AI company designated a supply chain risk by its own government. An executive order to override state AI regulation. A paper that stunned the math world. March was one of the most consequential months in AI yet.In this episode, Michael Fauscette and co-host Tom Pringle break down the biggest AI stories of March 2026, from the Anthropic-DoD standoff and its fallout, to OpenAI's GPT-5.4, NVIDIA's Vera Rubin platform, Yann LeCun's world models startup, Gemini's Apple partnership, the state of AI regulation on both sides of the Atlantic, and why governance by design isn't optional anymore.TIMESTAMPS:00:00 - Introduction01:05 - Anthropic vs. the Department of Defense: Supply Chain Risk Designation06:15 - The #UninstallChatGPT Movement and Claude's Surge08:20 - Red Lines: Autonomous Weapons and Mass Surveillance14:45 - OpenAI GPT-5.4 and Autonomous Multi-Step Workflows17:50 - Governance by Design: Why After-the-Fact Doesn't Work at Machine Speed23:20 - Rethinking Corporate Structure for a Hybrid Workforce25:15 - NVIDIA Vera Rubin: 10x Performance Per Watt Over Blackwell28:10 - Yann LeCun Leaves Meta, Launches World Models Startup33:48 - Gemini 3.1 Pro, Apple Intelligence, and the Model Race43:25 - Donald Knuth's "Cloud Cycles" Paper: Claude Opus 4.6 Stuns Mathematicians45:55 - AI Regulation: Trump's Executive Order vs. EU AI Act Delays53:00 - Cool Tech: Lego's AI-Powered Smart Brick57:35 - Wrap-UpABOUT THE CO-HOST:Tom Pringle is Director of Pilot Research, bringing a sharp, skeptical perspective on AI hype and a deep background in enterprise technology.ABOUT DISAMBIGUATION:AI clarity for business leaders. New episodes every Wednesday.Host: Michael Fauscette, CEO & Chief Analyst at Arion ResearchAuthor of "Building the Digital Workforce"SUBSCRIBE & follow for weekly episodes on AI strategy, agentic AI, and enterprise technology.Website: https://www.disambiguationpod.com/Arion Research: https://www.arionresearch.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mfauscette/

    58 min
  3. The Human Operating System: Why People Infrastructure Is the Missing AI Investment

    MAR 25

    The Human Operating System: Why People Infrastructure Is the Missing AI Investment

    We spend millions upgrading our technology infrastructure. We budget for servers, software, security. But what if the most critical infrastructure in your organization has no line item at all?In this episode, Michael Fauscette sits down with Barbara Wittmann, Founder of Digital Wisdom Collective, to explore why "human infrastructure" should be on every CIO's budget, why change management is an outdated concept, and what it actually takes to prepare people for AI at the speed the technology demands.TIMESTAMPS:00:00 - Introduction00:48 - Barbara's 25 years rescuing broken digital transformations02:46 - The moment she decided to flip the equation03:54 - Human infrastructure: what it includes and why it belongs on the IT budget05:23 - Why AI failures are almost always human failures06:10 - Change management is dead; continuous upgrade is what works07:15 - Lessons from SAP's Business Process Renovation team and Hasso Plattner10:03 - Why workers still keep Excel backups next to their enterprise systems11:39 - Survival of the wisest: wisdom vs. knowledge in the AI era14:58 - Wayfinding artifacts: shared maps that give organizations a compass17:52 - Adaptive agency: the skill nobody is training for20:58 - Human in the lead, not human in the loop22:26 - Values-based AI governance and the ego problem25:17 - The biggest breaking point is on the human side, not the tech side28:44 - What 5,000+ IT leaders say about their AI adoption struggles31:36 - Continuous upgrade: why one-and-done transformation is broken34:12 - Judgment as the fastest-eroding human capability37:09 - Thought leader recommendation: Unreasonable Hospitality by Will GuidaraABOUT THE GUEST:Barbara Wittmann is the Founder of Digital Wisdom Collective, where she helps organizations upgrade their human infrastructure for the AI era. With 25 years of experience rescuing broken digital transformation projects, including work on SAP's Business Process Renovation team alongside Hasso Plattner, Barbara brings a practitioner's perspective on why technology is rarely the problem and people always are.CONNECT WITH BARBARA:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/barbarawittmann/Company: Digital Wisdom CollectiveABOUT DISAMBIGUATION:AI clarity for business leaders. New episodes every Wednesday.Host: Michael Fauscette, CEO & Chief Analyst at Arion ResearchAuthor of "Building the Digital Workforce"SUBSCRIBE & follow for weekly episodes on AI strategy, agentic AI, and enterprise technology.Website: https://www.disambiguationpod.com/Arion Research: https://www.arionresearch.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mfauscette/#AI #ArtificialIntelligence #HumanInfrastructure #ChangeManagement #AIGovernance #DigitalTransformation #Leadership #EnterpriseAI #Podcast

    40 min
  4. From SEO to AEO: Preparing Your Content for AI Discovery

    MAR 18

    From SEO to AEO: Preparing Your Content for AI Discovery

    Your website traffic is dropping, your click-through rates are falling, and your PDF lead magnets are dying in email inboxes. The way people search has changed, and if your content isn't structured for AI discovery, you're becoming invisible.In this episode, Michael Fauscette sits down with Jenna Nelson, Founder of Her Agency, to explore the shift from SEO to AEO and GEO, why static content strategies are failing, and how to structure your brand for the way people actually search in 2026.TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 - Introduction 00:46 - Jenna's background in digital marketing and AI implementation 01:58 - The AI adoption timeline: why two years from now is too late 04:01 - The leveling effect: small businesses can leapfrog right now 05:45 - Change management: why AI breaks bad processes faster 07:09 - The shift from keyword search to query-and-answer content 10:17 - Zero-click search and why the top three results are all that matter 11:39 - Writing for machines and humans: structured schemas and FAQs 13:36 - AEO vs GEO: answer engines vs generative engines explained 15:53 - The generational shift: LLM-first search is already here 17:21 - Tools for testing your AI visibility: Squarespace, Search Atlas 18:55 - Static lead magnets are dead: what replaces the PDF 22:38 - Michael's readiness assessment tool as a live example 24:30 - How AI-powered qualification tools transformed Jenna's sales process 26:29 - Speed to market: test offers in an hour, not six months 27:54 - Brand-trained AI vs out-of-the-box: the difference is night and day 30:29 - Reinforcement learning: feed your edits back into the system 32:40 - Hyper-personalized lead gen: segmentation at the individual level 35:43 - Advice for SMBs: start with visibility, then internal tools, then client-facing 38:23 - Leadership and AI adoption: it should come from the top 40:42 - Thought leader recommendation: vibe coding tools like Lovable and CursorABOUT THE GUEST: Jenna Nelson is the Founder of Her Agency, a digital marketing and AI implementation firm that helps businesses optimize their visibility for the AI-driven search landscape. With a background in brand strategy and digital marketing, Jenna specializes in AEO/GEO optimization, AI-powered lead generation tools, and helping companies train AI on their brand voice.CONNECT WITH JENNA: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennalnelson/ Company: Her AgencyABOUT DISAMBIGUATION: AI clarity for business leaders. New episodes every Wednesday. Host: Michael Fauscette, CEO & Chief Analyst at Arion Research Author of "Building the Digital Workforce"SUBSCRIBE & follow for weekly episodes on AI strategy, agentic AI, and enterprise technology.Website: https://www.disambiguationpod.com/ Arion Research: https://www.arionresearch.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mfauscette/

    43 min
  5. MCP, AI Agents, and the Future of Network Infrastructure

    MAR 11

    MCP, AI Agents, and the Future of Network Infrastructure

    What happens when a 25-year network engineer discovers that AI agents can talk directly to infrastructure? The answer is reshaping how we think about network operations, governance, and the future of IT.In this episode, Michael Fauscette sits down with John Capobianco, Head of AI and Developer Relations at Itential, to explore how Model Context Protocol (MCP) is becoming the connective tissue between AI agents and enterprise systems, why network infrastructure needs a governance layer before autonomy, and what happens when you let 500 engineers loose on an AI agent in Slack.TIMESTAMPS:00:00 - Introduction00:47 - John's journey from aluminum factory to network engineering03:08 - MCP explained: why it's as significant as SMTP or HTTP07:37 - Why business leaders should care about MCP10:06 - Michael's personal MCP use case: content retrieval bot12:40 - Democratizing access: you don't need a CS degree to start14:03 - Web MCP: the future of agent-driven web interaction16:12 - The Pyats MCP server: agents talking to Cisco devices19:44 - How natural language changes network troubleshooting22:01 - Itential's Flow AI and Flow MCP Gateway: the governance control layer25:52 - Human in the loop, on the loop, and in the lead26:34 - Governance by design: baking in guardrails, not bolting them on30:10 - The digital workforce paradigm for agent deployment33:28 - Open Claude bot: 1.5 million agents in six weeks35:04 - MCP security: shadow AI, vetting tools, and common sense39:02 - The Open Claude bot story: 30 social engineering attacks defeated43:42 - Advice for IT leaders who feel they're falling behind45:48 - The NOC in two years: Gartner's 70% augmentation prediction50:30 - Thought leader recommendation: Damon LightfootABOUT THE GUEST:John Capobianco is Head of AI and Developer Relations at Itential, with 25 years of network engineering experience spanning public and private sector roles, including senior network architect at the Parliament of Canada. He's authored two books on network automation, including a Cisco Press title on Pyats, and is a leading voice on blending AI agents with infrastructure management.CONNECT WITH JOHN:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-capobianco-644a1515/Company: https://www.itential.com/ABOUT DISAMBIGUATION:AI clarity for business leaders. New episodes every Wednesday.Host: Michael Fauscette, CEO & Chief Analyst at Arion ResearchAuthor of "Building the Digital Workforce"SUBSCRIBE & follow for weekly episodes on AI strategy, agentic AI, and enterprise technology.Website: https://www.disambiguationpod.com/Arion Research: https://www.arionresearch.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mfauscette/

    52 min
  6. Building Visibility: How Personal Brand Drives Business Growth

    MAR 4

    Building Visibility: How Personal Brand Drives Business Growth

    Jimi Gibson, VP of Brand Communication at Thrive Internet Marketing Agency, joins the show to explain why executives and subject matter experts need to build personal brands in the age of AI-driven search, and how a professional magician's framework for capturing attention translates directly into business communication strategy.Jimi shares his Magic Script framework (connectivity, curiosity, conversion) with a live card trick demonstration that breaks down the neuroscience of engagement: oxytocin for trust, dopamine for curiosity, serotonin for satisfaction. He walks through his first 90 days of building personal visibility for Thrive and shares research showing that executives who post on LinkedIn just 10 times a year see 30% more referrals and larger deal sizes. The conversation dives into how the shift from SEO to generative engine optimization (GEO) and answer engine optimization (AEO) is changing how companies get found, with 37% of searches now originating in LLM platforms and AI-driven traffic converting at 3.5 to 4 times the rate of traditional search traffic.Guest: Jimi Gibson, VP of Brand Communication, Thrive Internet Marketing AgencyTimestamps: 00:00  Intro 00:32  Welcome Jimi Gibson 01:13  From professional magician to marketing strategist 03:57  How a performer mindset shapes brand visibility 08:18  The Magic Script: connectivity, curiosity, conversion 08:29  Live card trick demonstration 15:42  The neuroscience behind the Magic Script 21:49  Why storytelling beats data dumps 23:44  Becoming the face of Thrive: the first 90 days 30:44  How personal brand drives company growth 34:45  From SEO to GEO and AEO: how AI changed search 42:46 Finding answers vs. finding a way to find answers 44:39 Activating subject matter experts as thought leaders 47:41  Book recommendation: "Story Worthy" by Matthew DixDisambiguation is an Arion Research production. New episodes weekly.Website: https://arionresearch.com Host: Michael Fauscette

    49 min
  7. AI in the Back Office: Where the Real Enterprise Value Is Hiding

    FEB 25

    AI in the Back Office: Where the Real Enterprise Value Is Hiding

    The biggest AI opportunity in enterprise isn't in your sales team or your chatbot. It's buried in the back office, where inefficiencies have been hiding for decades. What happens when seed-stage startups start solving those problems with 35 people instead of 35,000?In this episode, Michael Fauscette sits down with Matt Ober, Managing Partner at Social Leverage, to discuss where the real enterprise value is hiding in AI, why go-to-market matters more than ever, and what separates the founders who break through from those who stall.TIMESTAMPS:00:00 - Introduction00:52 - Matt's background and Social Leverage's 17-year investing journey01:53 - How AI changed what matters at the seed stage04:41 - What AI capabilities are actually delivering results vs. hype06:58 - Why outbound sales automation is working again08:52 - Slash Experts and the power of verified client references in B2B12:40 - Middle and back office AI: where the biggest inefficiencies live15:06 - Voice AI in recruiting and why Ribbon AI is changing hiring17:21 - Leah AI and document intelligence for wealth management21:01 - Data moats, data pipes, and the opportunity in information services24:34 - Common mistakes AI-native founders make28:09 - Social Leverage's $85M fund and where the big bets are going32:21 - Why vertical-first beats horizontal in AI33:24 - Advice for prospective founders building in the AI era36:04 - Matt's recommendation: Patrick O'Shaughnessy's Invest Like the BestABOUT THE GUEST:Matt Ober is Managing Partner at Social Leverage, a seed-stage venture capital firm focused on fintech and vertical AI. Founded 17 years ago by Howard Lindzon (creator of StockTwits) and Tom Peterson, Social Leverage has invested across six funds, most recently closing an $85 million seed fund. Matt spent most of his career in public markets on the hedge fund side before joining Social Leverage.CONNECT WITH MATT:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/obermattj/Company: https://www.socialleverage.com/ABOUT DISAMBIGUATION:AI clarity for business leaders. New episodes every Wednesday.Host: Michael Fauscette, CEO & Chief Analyst at Arion ResearchAuthor of "Building the Digital Workforce"SUBSCRIBE & follow for weekly episodes on AI strategy, agentic AI, and enterprise technology.Website: https://www.disambiguationpod.com/Arion Research: https://www.arionresearch.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mfauscette/#AI #ArtificialIntelligence #Fintech #VentureCapital #EnterpriseAI #VerticalAI #BackOffice #AIStrategy #Podcast

    37 min
  8. The Human Blind Spot: Why Trust Is Your Biggest Cybersecurity Vulnerability

    FEB 18

    The Human Blind Spot: Why Trust Is Your Biggest Cybersecurity Vulnerability

    Most cybersecurity breaches aren't caused by bad technology. They're caused by humans doing what humans are biologically wired to do: trust. Robert Siciliano explains why your biggest security vulnerability isn't in your firewall, it's in your people's wetware.In this episode, Michael Fauscette sits down with Robert Siciliano, bestselling author and cybersecurity expert, to discuss why traditional security awareness training is failing and how organizations can close the "security appreciation gap" by making cybersecurity personal.TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 - Introduction 01:04 - Robert's origin story: getting hacked in 1995 03:19 - The wetware vulnerability: what leaders miss about human security 05:06 - The human blindspot: why we're biologically wired to trust 07:32 - Why distrust is harder than trust 08:56 - The home security question that changes everything 12:13 - Security awareness vs. security appreciation 14:40 - The shift from knowing to caring 16:28 - The kitchen table effect: when security goes home with the employee 18:07 - Arms crossed to hands up: how body language reveals the shift 20:27 - "The only way to change minds is to change hearts" 21:26 - Making the case to the C-suite that all security is personal 24:39 - How AI, deepfakes, and voice cloning are reshaping the threat landscape 28:29 - The strategic human firewall: from passive targets to active detection 33:12 - Parenting, empathy, and what security training can learn from raising kids 35:22 - The 97/3 rule: good versus evil by the numbers 37:34 - Why compliance training is failing and what to do instead 47:26 - First steps for building a culture of security appreciation 51:41 - Robert's recommendation and closing thoughtsABOUT THE GUEST: Robert Siciliano is a #1 bestselling Amazon author, CEO of Safr.Me, and Head of Cyber Security Employee Training at Protect Now. With 30+ years in security, he is the architect of the Strategic Human Firewall and the CSI Protection certification, and has appeared on Good Morning America, CNN, Today Show, and Howard Stern.CONNECT WITH ROBERT: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertsiciliano Website: https://safr.me Protect Now: https://protectnowllc.comABOUT DISAMBIGUATION: AI clarity for business leaders. New episodes every Wednesday. Host: Michael Fauscette, CEO & Chief Analyst at Arion Research Author of "Building the Digital Workforce"SUBSCRIBE & follow for weekly episodes on AI strategy, agentic AI, and enterprise technology.Website: https://www.disambiguationpod.com/ Arion Research: https://www.arionresearch.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mfauscette/

    56 min
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"Disambiguation is the process of removing confusion around terms that express more than one meaning and can lead to different interpretations of the same string of text." Host Michael Fauscette of Arion Research; a leading technology analyst, tech startup advisor, consultant, board member, and storyteller; and his guests "remove the confusion around" artificial intelligence (AI), generative AI and business automation by looking at the business solutions available today to improve business outcomes and gain competitive advantage. 

Information

  • Creator
    Michael Fauscette
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    130
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    ©️All Rights Reserved
  • Show Website
    Disambiguation