AI Agent & Copilot Podcast: John Siefert and Cedric Wells Discuss AI Leadership, Vibe Coding, and Governance

**John Siefert** (0:07)
Hey, everybody, welcome back to another episode of the Cloud Wars AI Agent Podcast, where we get a chance to talk through the opportunities, the impact, and the potential outcomes possible with AI.
Now, lately, I've been trying to bring on a few guests to be a part of this podcast, not just talk about the neat stuff that's going on, but really try to break down a little bit of the evolving world that we have in front of us here in this AI era. And today, I am thrilled because I've got one of my pals that I've gotten to know over the last few years, Cedric Wells, joining us. Now, Cedric has been in the IT infrastructure space for a number of years, from the physical layer to the application layer. Most recently, almost six years with Gorilla Glue, really being a part of the transformative team that has been changing this organization into the future, or charging this institution into the future. Cedric, good to see you, my friend.

**Cedric Wells** (1:02)
It's a pleasure to be here with you, John. Thank you so much for this opportunity.

**John Siefert** (1:05)
Absolutely. Now, Cedric, one of the things that I have gotten, I've had so much fun getting to know you over the years, and going to the agent and copilot summit, or what we've done through Cloud Wars and all that sort of thing.
But one of the things I've always really respected about your approach is the forward-looking strategic ideas that you put into what it means to be an IT professional, and what it means to create transformation inside organizations. Now, with all of this AI stuff, that we are all trying to figure out, agentic architectures, MCP servers, what this stuff means and how we code, and all that sort of stuff, what are some of the top things that you think about for what it means to be an IT professional in this new era?

**Cedric Wells** (1:56)
Yeah, sure, John.
I think for me right now, and I should be for any person in IT, it's really taking a look at where things are going and having a growth mindset, right? There's so much that's changing and it's changing so fast. I've even found myself, stuff that I learned six months ago, it's like, okay, this has all changed and going back to, oh, I need to refresh myself. Having a mindset that's really around learning, as much as I can, as things are changing, I think is going to be really important going forward for just about anyone that's an IT professional today. And that goes from whether you're an engineer doing the actual work or a leader.

**John Siefert** (2:45)
Yeah. And what's so interesting too, let's talk about that leadership aspect for a minute, right? Because that's a lot of times mindset sort of has a trickle-down perspective inside organizations.
And you've got two different types of leaders right now on the tech side that I've been spending time with, right? Kind of the CIO, director level individuals, VP level individuals. You've got some people that have kind of been doing the, okay, we've got to keep doing stuff the way we were doing it and maybe work a little harder and keep trying to get this stuff right. And then you've got others that are maybe a little bit more of the mindset of, boy, what is the new art of the possible look like, right? When we're utilizing pod code, when we're utilizing Opus, when we're utilizing some of the platform stuff that's out there.
Talk to me about those two different kind of perspectives, because it feels to me like you lean more on this side, right? Of the, hey, what is that art of the possible?

**Cedric Wells** (3:46)
Yeah, very much so. I normally tell people that I've had an interesting career because I was an engineer. I was doing computer science at one point, writing code and all that kind of stuff. Then I got into leadership. I have a unique perspective on how to be really, really technical, but also be able to be strategic and think about what's possible. I've been told that, Cedric, you're always up here thinking up in the clouds and stuff. I think that's important, but it's also important to be practical and pragmatic and be able to actually do what's necessary in the moment, tactical for lack of a better term.
I believe oftentimes you have people who they've never been technical, so they're a leader and they know how to lead people, and that's important.
In today's day and age, with AI and stuff like that, I think it's important to still be technical, but I think a lot of that knowledge can come from folks who are really good with AI and other technologies and stuff like that. But I think being able to really, as a leader, leverage AI as much as possible. A lot of the stuff that you otherwise would not have known because you weren't technical, you can learn that stuff easily. I think bridging that gap with your leadership skills and leveraging the AI on the technical side, the house is going to be really important going forward for just about every leader in IT.