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Smarter Spend, Smarter AI - How Smart IT Modernization Is Quietly Funding the Enterprise AI Revolution · Connectivity Without Chaos - The Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Hidden IT Tax Podcast from Provision Networks,
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: where we uncover the costs,
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: risks,
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: and inefficiencies quietly draining your IT budget.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: In each episode,
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: we break down how to replace reactive decisions with engineered,
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: accountable systems.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: Today, we're diving into funding AI initiatives through smarter IT spend.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: And,
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
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  the craziest part of the industry interview we're analyzing
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  today is that the
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  SPEAKER_00: budget you need to build your company's AI future is,
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: well,
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  it's likely just sitting in a forgotten folder of unused cloud
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  licenses right now.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, exactly.
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  SPEAKER_01: And that's really our mission for this deep dive.
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  We are looking at how IT leaders are squeezing double digit
• 0:36
  savings out of their
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  existing technology stack and using those exact dollars to fund
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  critical AI
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_01: modernization.
• 0:44
  OK,
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  let's unpack this because the macro pressure on businesses
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  right now is just intense.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: I mean,
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  SPEAKER_00: executives are being told to slash budgets by like 10 to 20 percent,
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: but somehow still deliver cutting edge innovation.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
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  SPEAKER_01: It's a massive contradiction.
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  SPEAKER_01: Cut costs, but also, you know, build the future.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
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  SPEAKER_00: But I have to ask,
• 1:01
  are companies actually reinvesting this money or are they just
• 1:04
  hoarding the cash in
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  SPEAKER_00: a war chest to weather an economic storm?
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it's a fair question.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: But the data shows they aren't just padding the bottom line.
• 1:14
  They're redirecting those savings into modernization because
• 1:18
  you absolutely have to
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  SPEAKER_01: fix your IT plumbing before you can even think about adding AI.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: Ah, okay, so fixing the plumbing.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
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  SPEAKER_01: If you look at legacy telephony,
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  SPEAKER_01: network infrastructure,
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  SPEAKER_01: and wireless spend,
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  SPEAKER_01: there are massive,
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  SPEAKER_01: like,
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  SPEAKER_01: double-digit savings just hiding in plain sight.
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  SPEAKER_00: And it's not just the old school plumbing.
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  SPEAKER_00: The biggest hiding spot seems to be in the cloud.
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  Cloud spending is kind of like an all-you-can-eat buffet where
• 1:43
  you pay by the
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  SPEAKER_00: pound,
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  SPEAKER_00: but you just leave half the food on your plate.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, that is a perfect way to look at it.
• 1:48
  Right,
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  because cloud platforms are built for scale,
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  not cost optimization.
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  SPEAKER_00: So you're paying for all this capacity you aren't even using.
• 1:55
  Yeah,
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  and what's fascinating here is that this is where Cloud Fine
• 1:57
  Ops comes in.
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  SPEAKER_01: And it's not just some accounting trick.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_01: Fine Ops is about finding that zombie infrastructure.
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  SPEAKER_01: Say a developer spins up a massive server for a two-day testing project,
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  SPEAKER_01: forgets to turn it off,
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  SPEAKER_01: and then the company pays for it for six months.
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  SPEAKER_00: Oh man, that happens all the time.
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  SPEAKER_01: All the time.
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  So Fine Ops uses automated tagging to hunt down and kill those
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  idle resources.
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  SPEAKER_00: Wait, I have to push back on one stat from the sources though.
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  It claims you can extract double-digit savings in 60 to 90 days
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  without migrating a
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  SPEAKER_00: single workload.
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  Anyone who has ever dealt with enterprise cloud knows
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  absolutely nothing happens in 60 days.
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  SPEAKER_00: What's the actual mechanism there?
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: Well, the catch is that you aren't re-architecting your applications.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_01: You aren't moving databases from one provider to another.
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  You are simply utilizing automated tools to right-size what you
• 2:45
  already have running.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: Got it.
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  So it's basically just turning off the lights in the empty
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  rooms of your house.
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  SPEAKER_01: Precisely.
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  SPEAKER_01: That's why the turnaround is so fast and the savings are so immediate.
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  SPEAKER_00: So you optimize your cloud,
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  SPEAKER_00: you harvest these hidden savings,
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  SPEAKER_00: and you finally have the budget for AI.
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  SPEAKER_00: But once you fund that AI plumbing,
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: what happens when your employees refuse to wait for the official rollout?
• 3:05
  Yeah,
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  that brings us to the operational reality everyone is facing
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  right now,
• 3:09
  shadow AI.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: Shadow AI.
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  Which is just terrifying,
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  like that anecdote from the source about the medical device
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  engineer.
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  SPEAKER_01: Oh, that was a wild story.
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  SPEAKER_00: It really was.
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  He unknowingly dumped highly sensitive pre-patent IP directly
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  into public chat GPT
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  SPEAKER_00: just to help structure his code.
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  SPEAKER_01: Right, and he wasn't being malicious.
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  SPEAKER_00: No, exactly.
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  SPEAKER_00: But because public AI models actively train on user inputs,
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  he was basically feeding his company's future patents into an
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  open machine.
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  SPEAKER_01: And that highlights the tightrope IT leaders are walking right now.
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  Because AI isn't causing a jobpocalypse,
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  it's a force multiplier used for headcount avoidance.
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  SPEAKER_00: Meaning existing teams can handle more volume without hiring.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
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  SPEAKER_01: Employees know this, so they want the tools now.
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  SPEAKER_01: If you just act as a roadblock, they will bypass you.
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  You have to educate your teams on the risk of public models
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  while actively working
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  SPEAKER_01: to provide secure internal alternatives.
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  But you can't just unleash these internal tools on existing
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  workflows without
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  SPEAKER_00: evaluating the processes themselves.
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  I love the golden rule mentioned in the source automating a
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  broken process just
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  SPEAKER_00: makes you faster at bad.
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  SPEAKER_01: Faster at bad, exactly.
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  If we connect this to the bigger picture,
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  AI is a catalyst for business process improvement.
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  SPEAKER_01: You have to clean up the workflow first.
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  SPEAKER_01: Right.
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  SPEAKER_00: Because if you feed a messy,
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  SPEAKER_00: undocumented process into a large language model,
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  SPEAKER_00: you are just scaling your inefficiencies at the speed of light.
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  SPEAKER_01: Totally.
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  SPEAKER_01: You just create a much faster mess.
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  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that is almost a guarantee at this point.
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  SPEAKER_00: Definitely something to invest in.
• 4:57
  If you found this useful,
• 4:58
  you can find more at Connectivity Without Chaos on Substack.
• 5:02
  We publish weekly insights on eliminating the hidden IT tax and
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  building more
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  SPEAKER_00: predictable,
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  SPEAKER_00: high-performing infrastructure.
• 5:08
  And if there's a challenge you're dealing with right now,
• 5:10
  feel free to reach out.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: Those often become future episodes.