Who Owns AI When It Breaks? | NightDragon

AI is no longer an experiment — it’s an accountability test.

In this episode of the AI Proving Ground Podcast, Dave DeWalt, Founder and CEO of NightDragon, and Kate Kuehn of WWT unpack what happens when AI systems fail, misfire, or create real-world risk — and who ultimately owns the outcome.

As organizations look toward 2026, boards want visibility, CEOs want measurable impact, and the lines between IT, security, and the business have disappeared. AI accelerates opportunity, but it also accelerates exposure — collapsing decision timelines and reshaping responsibility.

This conversation explores how accountability is shifting to the top of the enterprise, how leaders should think about ownership when AI breaks, and why resilience, governance, and speed now define competitive advantage.

Support for this episode provided by: Graphiant

More about this week's guests:

Dave DeWalt is founder and CEO of NightDragon, a venture and advisory firm focused on building the world's leading SecureTech platform. A four-time CEO, he has led iconic companies including FireEye, McAfee, and Documentum, creating over $20B in shareholder value. A longtime board leader and public servant, DeWalt has advised four U.S. administrations on national security and cybersecurity and is a recognized voice on technology risk and resilience.

Dave's top pick: Infrastructure as a Strategic Target of War

Kate Kuehn joined WWT in 2024, bringing more than 25 years of experience leading and advising cybersecurity, technology, and AI strategy. She has held executive and board roles across the cyber ecosystem — including CISO, CEO, Chief Trust Officer, advisor, and board director — with experience at companies such as Aon, BT, and Verizon. A trusted advisor and award-winning leader, Kate focuses on helping executives and boards align cyber risk, AI, and business strategy in an increasingly complex threat landscape.

Kate's top pick: AI Won't Save You: Easterly, Joyce and CISOs on the Cybersecurity Reality No One Wants to Hear

The AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions.

Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.

The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.

Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments.