Artificial intelligence is moving at a pace few organizations have ever experienced, but how much of today's AI adoption is driven by real business value versus fear of being left behind? This week on That Tech Pod, we sit down with Steven Walchek, Founder and CEO of Liminal, for a conversation about what separates companies that are genuinely transforming with AI from those simply putting on a show.
Steven shares how growing up around entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley shaped his approach to building companies, his experiences helping scale innovation at Amazon Web Services and FIS, and the lessons learned from launching multiple startups and achieving three successful exits. Along the way, he explains why every major technology wave creates both incredible opportunities and very expensive mistakes.
We also dig into why so many organizations fall into "innovation theater," whether executives are adopting AI because of business strategy or fear of missing the next big thing, and which technologies from the past two decades proved to be underrated or wildly overhyped. Steven offers an honest perspective on where enterprise AI is heading, what regulated industries need to get right, and the AI investments companies may look back on with regret just a few years from now.
If you're trying to separate AI hype from lasting business value, this is an episode you won't want to miss.
Steven Walchek is the Founder and CEO of Liminal, where he helps large regulated enterprises securely scale generative AI with the right balance of governance, visibility, and multi-model access. He’s spent more than 15 years building and scaling companies across fintech, cloud, and enterprise software, focused on turning emerging technologies into real operational advantage. Before Liminal, Steven was EVP and Chief Innovation Officer at FIS, where he led corporate venture initiatives, launched new business lines, and built multiple subsidiary companies. Earlier in his career at Amazon Web Services, he worked on early machine learning and cloud infrastructure initiatives while helping expand the partner ecosystem and drive new revenue growth. He’s also been involved in three successful exits, including DebtMarket, the fintech company he co-founded and later sold to Intercontinental Exchange. Today, he focuses on helping regulated industries adopt AI at scale without losing control, security, or trust.