Tech Disruptors

Mastercard’s push into stablecoin infrastructure, including its proposed acquisition of BVNK, alongside advances in enabling agentic payments, reflects an evolution rather than a disruption of its core business. In this episode of Bloomberg Intelligence’s Tech Disruptors podcast, Jorn Lambert, Mastercard’s chief product officer, joins BI fintech and payments analyst Diksha Gera to discuss how Mastercard is extending its value proposition around trust into new environments — from owning the “plumbing” of stablecoins through interoperability and multi-rail enablement to acting as the “intent verifier” in emerging agentic payments. Listen to hear more about how Mastercard is shifting from a card network to an intelligent “switch” of multi-rail platforms, as AI agents begin to navigate merchant catalogs and execute autonomous transactions.

Concentrix CEO Chris Caldwell joins Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Tamlin Bason to examine how AI is reshaping customer experience. As companies move from pilots to scaled deployment, Caldwell discusses how AI is enabling more personalized, real-time interactions, while introducing risks around consistency, trust and brand control. The conversation also explores the role of incumbents like Concentrix in bringing the scale needed to implement AI effectively, bridging the gap between emerging technology and enterprise execution. Caldwell shares where he sees value forming across the customer-experience ecosystem, and why protecting brand identity remains critical as automation deepens.

“Enterprises cannot vibe operate,” declares Madhav Thattai, GM and EVP of Salesforce AI, on this episode of Bloomberg Intelligence’s Tech Disruptors podcast. Thattai and BI senior technology analyst Anurag Rana discuss why Salesforce thinks the “SaaSpocalypse” narrative misses how agents change outcomes and how the company is trying to measure that shift with Agentic Work Units (AWUs) — a way to track work performed rather than just token inputs. Thattai outlines Salesforce’s four-part agentic enterprise framework: system of context, system of work, system of agency and system of engagement. The conversation explores how large-language model flexibility plus deterministic workflows are used to reduce “prompt doom loops,” improve latency and manage cost. The discussion also covers how Salesforce is monetizing agents via license bundles and consumption, and why AWUs and session-trace tooling are positioned as budgeting and operational aids for CIOs and CFOs.

AI adoption is moving from experimentation to execution, exposing gaps in data quality and governance. Qlik CEO Mike Capone joins Bloomberg Intelligence Senior Software Analyst Sunil Rajgopal to discuss why enterprises must build strong data foundations rather than rely on plug-and-play LLMs. “SaaS isn’t going away — it just has to be rewired,” Capone says, highlighting how AI is reshaping software architectures and limiting returns without strong data infrastructure. The discussion also covers Qlik’s positioning, competitive dynamics and how AI-driven productivity is influencing growth and product strategy.

The assumption that output grows linearly with headcount no longer holds. As AI tools drive a step-change in productivity, companies are rethinking their operating models. In this episode of the Tech Disruptors podcast, Owen Jennings, executive officer and business lead at Block, joins Bloomberg Intelligence Fintech and Payments Analyst Diksha Gera to discuss Block’s decision to reduce its workforce and how AI is reshaping both internal operations and the company’s products – from Cash App’s MoneyBot, which helps automate financial planning and budgeting, to Square’s upcoming ManagerBot, an AI-assistant designed to streamline SMB operations. Listen to hear more about how Block is deploying AI across its ecosystem — and how its approach differs from that of banks.