Putting AI Agents to Work in a High-Stakes Environment

Figuring out what it takes to make agentic AI work in a high-stakes, real-world environment is front and center these days, because for the most part, we’re still figuring that out.At this year’s annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, we get a first-hand look at the shift that’s taking place from agent demos to what a successful deployment looks like.We Meet: Shibani Ahuja is the SVP of Enterprise IT Strategy at SalesforceCredits:This episode of SHIFT was produced by Jennifer Strong with help from Emma Cillekens. It was mixed by Garret Lang, with original music from him and Jacob Gorski. Art by Meg Marco.

How do you feel about the use of artificial intelligence in the hiring process? Whether it sounds like a good way to remove human bias, a bad idea that could bake in machine bias, or something in between, you won't want to miss our deep dive  with author and journalist Hilke Schellmann at the P&T Knitwear Bookstore in Manhattan.This episode was taped in collaboration with All Tech is Human in New York City. Credits:We Meet: Hilke Schellmann is an Emmy award-winning investigative reporter and assistant professor of journalism at New York University. Credits:This episode of SHIFT was produced by Jennifer Strong with help from Emma Cillekens. It was mixed by Garret Lang, with original music from him and Jacob Gorski. Art by Meg Marco.

This week, we bring you an episode of another podcast anchored by our host, Jennifer Strong, called The Next Innovation. In it, we sit down with other prominent tech journalists to discuss the biggest tech trends to watch in 2026 - including how the different iterations of AI, including agentic AI, will shape the future of cybersecurity, finance, healthcare, and defense. We Meet:Freelance journalist Jeff Wilser has written for The New York Times, Wired, Time Magazine and many others. He’s also the author of 8 books.London-based editor Charlotte Jee is the news editor for MIT Tech Review.  The Wall Street Journal’s Robert McMillan writes about computer security, hackers and privacy from San Francisco.Credits:This episode was produced by Situation Room Studios. Christine Baratta is the executive producer, and Sharon Beriro is the senior producer. Layla Charaaoui is the associate producer. Additional production support by Global Situation Room. SHIFT is produced by Jennifer Strong and Emma Cillekens, and mixed by Garret Lang, with original music from him and Jacob Gorski. Art by Meg Marco.

A live conversation about the state of the space industry with serial space entrepreneur Kam Ghaffarian, a co-founder of Axiom Space, Intuitive Machines, Quantum Space, and more, from the mainstage at Collision Conference in Toronto, Canada.This episode first published on June 26th, 2024. We meet: Dr. Kamal "Kam" GhaffarianCredits:This episode of SHIFT was produced by Jennifer Strong and Emma Cillekens, and it was mixed by Garret Lang, with original music from him and Jacob Gorski. Art by Meg Marco.

We meet a founder questioning the wisdom of the Turing Test as he works to address the loneliness epidemic among the elderly, in the latest installment of our oral history project. We Meet: Intuition Robotics Founder Dor Skuler, maker of the ElliQ digital companionCredits:SHIFT is produced by Jennifer Strong and Emma Cillekens. It’s mixed by Garret Lang, with original music from him and Jacob Gorski. Art by Meg Marco.This episode first published in August 2024. 

The application of artificial intelligence to help discover new medicines could become one of the more transformative ways we use this tech in the near term. A key player in this space is Recursion Pharmaceuticals. Its outgoing CEO Chris Gibson takes us on a tour of the world's largest phenomics lab in Salt Lake City, Utah.We Meet: Recursion Co-Founder Chris GibsonCredits:This episode of SHIFT was produced by Jennifer Strong with help from Emma Cillekens. It was mixed by Garret Lang, with original music from him and Jacob Gorski. Art by Meg Marco.

What if voting in a primary could be as simple as reaching for your phone? This week, Bradley Tusk's TED Talk about this topic was named one of the ten essential TED Talks of 2025, and we're revisiting the episode we taped with him about mobile voting for our oral history project. We Meet: Bradley Tusk, Founder & CEO of Tusk Holdings Credits:This episode of SHIFT was produced by Jennifer Strong with help from Emma Cillekens. It was mixed by Garret Lang, with original music from him and Jacob Gorski. Art by Meg Marco.

What happens when machines start telling us what we want to hear—and when users start depending on them for emotional connection? Join us for a live conversation about the psychology and liability of chatbots.We Meet:  Meg Marco is Harvard Berkman Klein Center’s Senior Director of the Applied Social Media Lab.New York Times Tech Reporter Kashmir Hill is also the author of YOUR FACE BELONGS TO US.Jordi Weinstock is a Senior Advisor to Harvard’s Institute for Rebooting Social Media.  Credits:This episode of SHIFT was produced by Jennifer Strong with help from Emma Cillekens. It was mixed by Garret Lang, with original music from him and Jacob Gorski. Art by Meg Marco.

We join the MIT community in New York for an event focused on AI, innovation, and the evolving role of tech in society. SandboxAQ is a Google spinout that combines AI Large Quantitative Models and deep expertise in physics, biology, and chemistry in order to work on a wide range of hard problems, such as the prototyping of new materials and chemicals for manufacturing. Andrew McLaughlin is the company’s chief operating officer. We sat down to chat after he made the case to the room that the future of AI may not be large language models, but quantitative.This episode originally aired in June 2025.We Meet:  Andrew McLaughlin, COO of Sandbox AQ Credits:This episode of SHIFT was produced by Jennifer Strong with help from Emma Cillekens. It was mixed by Garret Lang, with original music from him and Jacob Gorski. Art by Meg Marco.

Join us for a deep dive on the relationship between trust and artificial intelligence as we unpack a flash poll from Edelman, the world's largest PR firm.We Meet:  Margot Edelman, Global Technology Practice Lead for Edelman Credits:This episode of SHIFT was produced by Jennifer Strong with help from Emma Cillekens. It was mixed by Garret Lang, with original music from him and Jacob Gorski. Art by Meg Marco.