Latest / Connecting the Dots / Enterprise AI Expands and Podcasting Evolves

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Enterprise AI Expands and Podcasting Evolves · Connecting the Dots

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  Today's tech news moves fast, but understanding
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  it shouldn't be hard. That's why Snarful Solutions
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  Group brings you Connecting the Docs, where we
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  break down what's happening in tech and why it
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  matters to you. Now, let's dive in with your
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  hosts. Good morning, everyone. You are listening
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  to Connecting the Docs. I'm Alex. And I'm Morgan.
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  We are coming to you live from the Snarful Solutions
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  Group studios right here in a, well, a slightly
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  breezy Sacramento, California. It is Tuesday,
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  February 17th, 2026, and I have to say the vibe
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  in the studio is high energy today. It really
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  is. We've got a lot to get through, even if the
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  weather map is looking a little intense in some
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  spots. Definitely intense. Let's start there.
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  Quick look at the world outside our window and
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  yours. Right. So if you are listening from the
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  central or southern plains today, please be careful.
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  The National Weather Service is using some pretty
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  strong language. They're flagging extremely critical
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  fire weather conditions. Extremely critical.
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  That's a phrase that, yeah, always makes you
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  sit up a little straighter. Exactly. We're talking
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  gusty winds, very low humidity. It's a dangerous
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  combination. A real tinderbox. So please be incredibly
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  careful with anything that could spark. For sure.
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  Meanwhile, out west, it is the complete opposite
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  problem. Right, two Pacific storms rolling in.
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  Yep. So rain and wind at low elevations, but
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  get ready for some heavy snow up in the mountains.
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  Here at home in Sacramento, hold onto your hats.
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  Literally. We have a wind advisory in effect
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  until 10 .00 p .m. Thursday, so maybe tie down
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  that patio furniture. Good advice. Yeah. Okay,
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  so from a wild weather situation to, well, something
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  a bit more optimistic, the financial markets.
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  A little calmer, yeah. The Dow Jones closed yesterday
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  up about 10 points sitting at 49 ,536. And the
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  S &P 500. Also ticked up. closed at 6 ,835. So,
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  you know, it's not a rocket launch, but green
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  is green. Slow and steady. I do see bitcoins
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  taking a tiny breather, though. Just a small
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  one. It's hovering around 68 ,188. So down about
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  1 % to standard crypto volatility. Right. OK,
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  before we dive into the big tech news today,
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  the promo code SNARFL, that's SNARFL, for 20
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  .com. Love it. Okay, let's get to it. It is time
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  for the morning star. The SNARFL Tech article
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  report. We've got the top three tech stories
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  of the day. First up. A big one. Apple Podcasts
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  is finally, and I mean finally, getting serious
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  about video. Right, which is funny because I
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  feel like I watch half my podcasts on YouTube
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  now. I mean too, and that's exactly why this
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  is happening. Apple basically invented the space.
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  Yeah. Podcasts on iTunes way back in 2005. But
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  they've been losing ground to Spotify and especially
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  YouTube because people, well it turns out we
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  like to see the hosts. We like looking at faces.
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  We do. So launching this spring, Apple Podcasts
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  is getting advanced video capabilities. Okay,
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  advanced. Is that just marketing speak or is
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  there actually some new tech here? No, it's a
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  real technical upgrade. They're using something
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  called HLS. HLS. HTTP live streaming. So why
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  should I care about that? It's all about smooth
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  playback. It basically adapts the video quality
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  to your bandwidth. So if you're on spotty Wi
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  -Fi or you go from 5G to 4G on the train, no
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  buffering, the video just adjusts. Exactly. No
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  more annoying spinning wheel. Yeah. But the user
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  experience is the real game changer here. You
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  can switch between listening and watching right
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  inside the app, seamlessly. Okay. Can be the
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  use case for that. All right. So you're watching
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  a show on the commute home. But then you get
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  in your car, you can't watch anymore. You just
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  switch it to audio only, phone goes in your pocket,
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  and the audio just keeps playing. You don't lose
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  your place. That is huge. I can't tell you how
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  many times I've been watching something on YouTube,
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  I lock my screen to drive, and poof, it's gone.
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  Exactly. Apple is removing that friction. They're
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  also adding a horizontal full display, and this
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  is key, offline video downloads. Oh, lifesaver
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  for flights. But why now? What's the real incentive
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  for Apple? Money. It's always money, right? Ad
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  revenue. Oh, of course. This lets creators dynamically
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  insert video ads. So, host read spots stitched
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  right into the video. It opens up a whole new
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  revenue stream. It really feels like the final
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  dot connecting audio and video. The whole debate
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  of, is it a podcast or is it a show? Apple's
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  just saying. It doesn't matter. It's content.
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  And they've got the big networks on board. Acast,
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  Amazon's ART19, SiriusXM. They're all in. So
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  the industry is standardizing around this hybrid
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  model. It looks that way. Beta testing is starting
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  today in iOS 26 .4. You know, sometimes I just
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  want to listen while I do the dishes. But other
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  times, if they're showing a chart or something,
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  I feel like I'm missing out. This gives you the
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  choice. It puts you in control. OK, speaking
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  of automated systems and processing information,
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  let's move to story number two. This one feels
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  a little more heavy enterprise. It is, but stick
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  with us because it's a huge signal for where
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  AI is really going. So this is the partnership
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  between Infosys, the Indian IT giant, and Anthropic.
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  Anthropic, the company behind the Claude AI models.
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  The ones focused really heavily on safety. Right.
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  And this isn't just about using a chat bot for
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  emails. They're integrating Anthropic's models,
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  specifically one called Claude Code, into their
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  own AI platform, which is called Topaz. Okay,
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  we hear about partnerships all the time. Why
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  does this one actually matter? Because of the
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  goal. They're aiming for something called agentic
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  AI. Agentic AI. I have to say, it sounds like
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  a sci -fi villain. It does, doesn't it? But it's...
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  Actually, really practical. See, right now, most
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  AI is passive. It's a chat bot. You ask a question,
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  it gives an answer. It waits for you to drive.
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  Exactly. Agentic AI means the system has agency.
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  It can handle multi -step workflows all by itself.
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  So instead of me asking, how do I process an
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  insurance claim, and the AI giving me steps?
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  The AI just processes the claim. It does the
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  work. It receives the claim, checks the policy,
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  cross -references photos, flags, compliance issues,
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  and drafts the approval letter. All one workflow.
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  That is a massive leap from, write me a poem
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  about my cat. It's a huge leap. It moves AI from
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  being an assistant to being a digital worker.
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  And that's why they're starting with regulated
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  industries. Telecom is first, then finance and
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  manufacturing. Those seem like the hardest places
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  to start. All the red tape. That's the point.
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  They're high stakes and messy. The CEO of Anthropic,
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  Dario Amadei, said there's a huge gap between
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  an AI that works in a demo. And one that works
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  in the real world. A demo can crash, no big deal.
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  If a bank's AI messes up a loan, you get sued.
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  Precisely. Infosys brings that boring but essential
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  knowledge of how these industries actually work.
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  Anthropic brings the brain. It's about moving
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  AI from a toy to a production engine. And using
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  Claude code specifically suggests they're not
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  just pushing paper, they're writing software.
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  A huge part of it. Generating code, testing code,
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  modernizing networks for these giant telecom
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  companies. It's all about speed and scale. So
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  story one is about how we consume content. Story
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  two is about how the sausage gets made in the
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  corporate world. It's becoming automated. And
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  that leads us perfectly into our third story.
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  Because if Infosys is making this move, what
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  does that tell us about the money? Right. Let's
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  connect the dots to the economy. Story number
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  three. is about the AI Impact Summit and a big
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  shake -up in the stock market. Yeah, let's look
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  at the scoreboard for 2026 so far. It has been
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  a rough start for traditional software stocks.
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  Rough is putting it mildly. Microsoft is down
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  17 % year -to -date. Oracle is down 18%. And
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  Palantir, which is usually an AI darling, is
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  down 26%. Ouch. The market is nervous. But then
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  you look at Infosys yesterday. Up almost 4 %
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  in the US pre -market, about 2 % in Mumbai. And
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  that jump happened specifically because of the
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  Anthropic deal. It tells you investors are looking
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  for implementation. It's not enough to just own
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  the fancy AI model anymore. You have to be the
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  company that actually puts it to work. Exactly.
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  And India is positioning itself to be that implementation
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  engine for the world. Which brings us to the
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  AI Impact Summit happening right now in New Delhi.
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  The guest list for this thing is, it's just insane.
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  You've got Sundar Pichai from Alphabet, Sam Altman
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  from OpenAI, Dario Amode from Anthropic, Metta's
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  chief AI officer. They're all there. It's like
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  the Avengers of AI assembling in India, and it
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  signals a huge shift. For decades, the story
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  was about outsourcing. Right. Cheaper labor,
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  call centers, that kind of thing. That narrative
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  is shifting to transformation. India isn't just
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  maintaining the old systems anymore, they're
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  building the new AI -driven ones. They're moving
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  up the value chain. It makes sense. If you have
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  millions of engineers and you give them a tool
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  like Claude Code, you can upgrade global infrastructure
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  faster than anyone else. And that's the aha moment.
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  The software giants might be stumbling because
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  the market is realizing selling the software
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  isn't the whole game. You need the workforce
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  to apply it. And Infosys has that workforce.
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  It's a fascinating dynamic. It's not just about
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  the code. It's about the people who can wield
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  the code safely. So the market is maturing. We're
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  past the hype phase and into the prove it phase.
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  Exactly. Show me the ROI. Show me the agent that
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  actually does the work. So to recap. Apple wants
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  your eyeballs, Infosys wants to automate the
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  boring stuff, and the stock market is rewarding
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  the companies that can actually deliver. That
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  sums it up perfectly. Well, before we wrap things
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  at scony .com. So looking back at today's stories,
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  what's the big takeaway for you? I think it's
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  that agentic AI piece. I really feel like we're
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  going to look back at 2026 as the year AI stopped
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  just chatting and actually started doing. The
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  idea that a system can handle a compliance review
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  for a bank. on its own, that changes the workforce
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  in a profound way. It does, and it raises the
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  stakes for accuracy and trust, which brings it
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  back to the Apple story. They're betting that
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  better tools build more trust in their platform
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  over, say, YouTube. It's all converging, isn't
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  it? Audio meets video, software meets service.
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  And hopefully that fire weather meets some much
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  -needed rain. Amen to that. All right, that is
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  a wrap for today's show. We hope you feel a little
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  more connected and ready to tackle your Tuesday.
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  We're here to help at Snarful, so reach out on
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  our website if you have any more questions. That's
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  a wrap on today's top stories. Remember, tech
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  doesn't have to be complicated, and we're here
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  to help connect the dots. If you've got questions
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  or want to learn more, visit us at snarful .com.
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  Thanks for listening, and we'll catch you next
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  time.