Stare Down the Bull with Susan Hunt

Susan Hunt sits down with Lacey Wean of Carahsoft to unpack what it really takes to bring emerging technologies into the federal government. From drones and smart cities to AI in public safety, Lacey shares how mission alignment, trust, and long-term strategy determine which innovations actually scale beyond pilot programs.

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Technology sales veteran Tim Walsh joins Susan Hunt to trace the journey from Wildfire’s pioneering virtual assistant to today’s AI-driven customer experience platforms. They unpack what AI actually does well, why implementation is so hard for enterprises, the ethical moments that defined better CX, and the career pivots required when the market changes faster than your product.

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In this episode of Stare Down the Bull, host Susan Hunt talks with CX strategist Chris Arnold to explore what it really takes to build customer experience that works in the age of AI. Drawing on two decades leading CX at enterprise scale and his current work at the intersection of automation and empathy, Chris explains why the future of customer experience is not humans versus AI, but humans and AI working together.

The conversation also turns deeply personal as Chris shares how a profound life tragedy reshaped his perspective on leadership, resilience, and what truly matters both at work and in life.

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Susan Hunt sits down with speech recognition pioneer Mike Phillips to explore what it really takes to turn breakthrough research into global industries. From the early days at MIT and DARPA to founding SpeechWorks and Vlingo, Mike shares how voice technology moved from lab experiment to call centers to smartphones. The conversation also dives into his next chapter building Sense, applying AI to the energy grid, and the hard lessons of leadership, competition, and staring down the bull when survival is on the line.

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In this episode of Stare Down the Bull, Susan Hunt sits down with chief communication and marketing leader Rick Mack to explore how companies communicate under pressure. From 100 acquisitions at Nuance to navigating a global malware crisis and shaping conversations on Capitol Hill, Rick shares what separates confident leaders from reactive ones.

The conversation dives into authenticity, the power of the “why,” AI’s impact on marketing leadership, and Rick’s personal mantra for staying steady when everything is on the line.

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