CIO Classified · 2026-04-23 · 30 min
Nik Seetharaman has watched the offensive side of cybersecurity adopt AI tools at a pace defenders can't match. So, he built a company to close that gap. Before founding Wraithwatch, he was the first CIO of Anduril, a defense tech company he joined when it was 100 people and helped scale through hypergrowth. His path (Palantir to SpaceX to building AI-native cyber defense platforms for over a dozen federal agencies) gives him a view most CIOs and CISOs don't have. In this episode, Nik makes the case that AI has created a forcing function for CIOs and CISOs to finally work together, plus, shares how to run a pilot that actually moves the needle, why blocking AI tools backfires, and what the OpenClaw security drama gets right and wrong. 3 Takeaways: The CIO-CISO turf war is now a competitive disadvantage. Whoever figures out AI collaboration first wins. Treat every internal AI rollout like a startup: small cohort, parallel security review, measure the outcome in revenue. The best investment a new CIO can make isn't a security stack - it's coffee with people.
The Self-Driving Enterprise Is Already Here with Fred Laluyaux of Aera Technology71 / 100Leading IT Across Vertical Businesses with Ellora Sengupta of EverCommerceFrom Technical Debt to 4x Engineering Velocity with Gayatri Narayan of Builders FirstSourceScaling IT for Millions: How to Lead When Every Device Talks Back with Ravi Thadani of Enphase EnergyAI-Augmented SDLC with Jason Adams of State Street Alpha & Charles River Development; Accelerating Software Development at Enterprise Scale