How to Succeed with AI - the One v. the Many with Sergio Gago - The Digital Analyst

Veteran CTO Sergio Gago sits down with John to discuss why 95% of AI projects fail and how enterprises can break free from the costly cycle of stitching together fragmented AI solutions. As @ClouderaInc's new CTO, Sergio exposes the hidden "integration tax" that's bankrupting AI initiatives and explains why private AI isn't just a luxury—it's a business survival strategy. This isn't another AI hype discussion; it's a battle-tested roadmap from someone who's built companies, mastered quantum computing, and now leads the charge in enterprise AI unification.

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Sergio Gago is the Chief Technology Officer at Cloudera, where he leads the company’s technology vision and innovation strategy, aligning cutting-edge data and AI capabilities with enterprise needs across hybrid and multi-cloud environments.. With over two decades of experience as a CTO, entrepreneur, and executive across startups, scaleups, and global enterprises, Sergio builds and scales high-impact technical teams that deliver real-world disruption.

Sergio holds graduate degrees in Telecommunications Engineering, an MBA, and a postgraduate degree in Quantum Computing. Recognized by CDO Magazine as one of the "40 under 40" in data, he is the author of "The CTO Toolbox" and the Director of the Big Data and AI Master's Program at BTS/University of Barcelona, as well as an active angel investor backing frontier tech startups.

When not decoding the future of computing, he’s probably decoding Hendrix solos on his guitar.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sergiogh/
Cloudera Evolve 2025: https://www.cloudera.com/events/evolve.html

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John Santaferraro
https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnsantaferraro/
https://www.ferraroconsulting.com/
http://www.thedigitalanalyst.ai/

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00:00 Introduction
03:58 Welcome Sergio Gago, Cloudera's New CTO
04:48 Sergio's Journey from Coding to Quantum Computing
08:10 The CTO Toolbox and Choose Your Own Adventure
12:24 Why Sergio Chose Cloudera
20:29 The AI Elephant in the Room
25:58 Private AI vs Public Models
32:27 The Integration Tax Problem
37:01 Building Unified AI Platforms
44:19 AI in Software Engineering Lifecycle
51:31 Wrap-up and Connect with Sergio