Jeetu Patel is President and Chief Product Officer at Cisco. He previously served there as Executive Vice President and General Manager of Security and Collaboration.

He joined Cisco in 2020 after serving as Chief Product Officer and Chief Strategy Officer at Box, where he played a key role in expanding the company into a multi-product platform used by more than 100,000 customers.

He currently sits on the board of real estate services company JLL (Jones Lang LaSalle) and holds a B.S. in Information Decision Sciences from the University of Illinois.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• How Cisco is becoming an AI-first company and why fully embracing AI is now a requirement, not a choice
• How AI will reshape every job, and which human skills will matter most in the decade ahead
• The real constraints slowing enterprise AI adoption: power, trust, and data
• The infrastructure, security, and data gaps limiting AI’s potential, and how Cisco is closing them
• Why skill gaps are growing, and what workers can do to stay relevant as AI changes the workplace
• How Cisco approaches new markets, strategic focus, and building products people love at global scale

Resources

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with Jeetu on LinkedIn
• AI fun fact article
• On How AI helps serve 70 million meals every day

Past guests mentioned on this show:

• Box´s CTO Ben Kus on Responsible AI Use, Innovation Culture, and Future AI Trends
• Box’s Global CIO Ravi Malick on Why Every Problem Doesn't Need an App
• Cisco´s Former CEO on the Future of AI-Driven Work and Investing in PeopleReign

In this special episode of AI and the Future of Work, host Dan Turchin examines one of the most urgent questions in technology today: how artificial intelligence is reshaping the law.

Who owns AI created work? Who is accountable when automated decisions cause harm? And how should legal professionals prepare for a world where AI influences every part of the practice?

This compilation episode revisits insights from five leaders who are redefining how the legal system approaches ownership, risk, compliance, and the future of legal work.

Featuring Guests

• Robert Plotkin,Co-founder, Blueshift IP - Full episode: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/13061560
• Jim McKenna, CIO, Fenwick & West - Full episode: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/13373166
• Scott Stevenson, Co-founder & CEO, Spellbook - Full episode: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/17211693
• Rafie Faruq, Founder & CEO, Genie AI - Full episode: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/16949168
• Tamara Steffens, Managing Director, Thomson Reuters - Full episode: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/15250057

💡 What You Will Learn

• How AI is changing ownership, IP rights, and data confidentiality
• Why law firms need strong governance to innovate safely
• How legal AI tools reduce risk with verification and citations
• How AI will reshape early legal careers and firm operations

💬 Inspired by this episode?

Share your favorite insight on social media and tag us.
And don’t forget to subscribe for more conversations with the leaders shaping the future of AI and work.

Other special episodes:

• Lessons from Four Unicorn CEOs Disrupting Massive Markets with AI (Special Episode)
• Artificial General Intelligence: Can Machines Really Think Like Us? (Special Episode)
• Ethical AI in Hiring: How to Stay Compliant While Building a Fairer Future of Work (HR Day Special Episode)
• The Future of AI Ethics Special: Perspectives from Women Leaders in AI on Bias, Accountability & Trust
• AI and Safety: How Responsible Tech Leaders Build Trustworthy Systems (National Safety Month Special)
• Lessons from Leaders: How AI Is Redefining Work and the Human Experience (Labor Day Special Episode)

Faraj Aalaei is the Founder and CEO of Cognichip, an AI company building the world’s first Artificial Chip Intelligence (ACI) platform to design semiconductors using AI. He brings four decades of experience in communications and networking, having led two companies (Centillium and Aquantia)through IPOs. Aquantia was later acquired by Marvell, where he also held an executive role.

Prior to that, Faraj was Co-Founder and CEO of Centillium, which went public on NASDAQ just three years after its founding, the fastest IPO ever for a semiconductor company.

He holds an honorary Doctor of Engineering from Wentworth Institute of Technology, where he also earned his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, along with an MSEE from the University of Massachusetts and an MBA from the University of New Hampshire.

In this conversation we discussed:

• Why chip development cycles are trailing AI applications by years and how that disconnect leads to inefficient infrastructure and higher energy costs
• How AI could help democratize chip design by enabling smaller teams outside traditional hubs to build customized, application-specific hardware
• What Faraj sees as the real barrier to innovation: the time and cost of chip development, and how Cognichip is reducing both through compute-led design
• How AI can augment, not replace, engineers by offering transparent, explainable design suggestions while keeping humans in the loop
• The coming talent shortage in semiconductor engineering and how AI might close the skills gap and unlock new opportunities for nontraditional builders
• Why every major technological shift creates more opportunity than it destroys, and how Faraj sees AI enabling people to work on more meaningful problems

Resources:

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with Faraj on LinkedIn
• AI fun fact article
• On How To Drive Compelling Narratives in Youtube Videos.