Shaping Tomorrow: Bold Insights from Extreme AI Summit

"We’re not here just to observe the future, but to shape it,” said Monica Kumar, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at Extreme Networks. Kumar’s words set the tone for a groundbreaking Extreme event that brought together visionaries and technology trailblazers to discuss the future of AI in enterprise networking.

Held at Major League Baseball Headquarters in New York, the inaugural Extreme AI Summit featured leading voices in the industry including Paul Daugherty, AI Advisory Chair at TPG and former CEO of Accenture Technology, and Dr. Derek Peterson, CTO of Boingo, along with special guest Keith Hernandez, a New York Mets legend and respected broadcaster.

Attendees dove into how to lead with AI, build with confidence, and drive real productivity gains, fueling bold ideas for taking the network to new extremes.

Move First and Move Fast 

“We are living in exceptional times,” said Paul Daugherty in his keynote presentation. “It is the most exceptional, unusual time, and time of most promise in the entire trajectory of the technology industry, but it's also one of the most pivotal moments in human civilization.”

Ed Meyercord, CEO of Extreme Networks, stressed that now is the moment to lead with AI, urging organizations to move quickly and guide how AI is used in their networks. Echoing this sentiment, Nabil Bukhari, President of AI Platforms and CTO at Extreme, added that the internal message at Extreme has been simple: “Move fast, keep moving, and aim to be first.”

During the summit’s panel discussion, Bukhari, along with experts including Dr. Peterson of Boingo, stressed the need for responsibility, saying when implementing AI, it’s critical to keep the shift focused on driving transformation, not replacing humans.

Reflecting on the rapid changes brought about by AI and technology, baseball legend Keith Hernandez noted that AI is also transforming the game itself. Real-time video analytics and data-driven strategies are now central to player preparation and in-game decisions. He’s also seeing pivotal new developments such as instant access to stats and plays along with automated ball-strike systems. Yet he expressed a universal unease that increasing reliance on AI may diminish an essential human element.

“I am concerned at the pace of life now, because of AI and computers, is so much of a faster pace,” said Hernandez. “The public is so used to getting information now so fast; do they have the patience for baseball?”

Daugherty addressed this concern, saying it’s critical that IT leaders remain proactive in shaping how AI is applied so that human control is enforced. “This isn't a passive thing where we just have to wait and watch. Leaders will have an influence on how this world gets shaped, and all of you in the room have an influence on how the value's going to accrue and how the benefits are going to accrue.”

“To use the baseball analogy,” said Daugherty, “this isn't a game, this isn't an inning, and you can't do this in one shot. So, setting yourself up with the muscle in your organization to drive change on a continuous basis is really the key.”

Build It and They Will Come: AI You Can Trust 

Daugherty emphasized the importance of establishing responsible AI practices, with strong governance frameworks and ongoing risk assessments, so trust and accountability are woven into every solution.

In this rapidly changing landscape, Daugherty said AI transformation is a continuous journey, where we must remain committed to staying ahead and maximizing value. “I think the kind of platform approach that Ed, Nabil, and the (Extreme) team are talking about is getting at the kind of structure that you need to look at to move into this new world.

Security and Governance Are Foundational to Enterprise AI 

Panel experts expressed that robust security and governance frameworks are vital to AI innovation, especially as threats like prompt injection and democratized hacking tools rise. Responsible AI governance is necessary for trust, scalability, and compliance in B2B environments. IT leaders must prioritize these safeguards to protect innovation and maintain enterprise integrity.

Meyercord emphasized that rather than either over-investment or scepticism, organizations should focus on building trusted AI-enabled applications. This involves ensuring reliability, transparency, and a human-centric model, especially in mission-critical environments like networking, where mistakes can have significant consequences. The key is to partner with trusted providers and prioritize solutions that deliver tangible productivity and efficiency gains without compromising confidence or security.

"It’s incredibly important for our enterprise customers to have a lot of confidence and a lot of trust in the solutions and the applications that they're running,” he said. 

Keeping Humans in Control with Extreme Platform ONE™ 

Kumar pointed out that AI’s role is no longer theoretical: Extreme Platform ONE has already enabled more than 6,000 AI-driven actions, streamlining troubleshooting and accelerating issue resolution.

“We mean it when we say we have AI at the center of everything,” added Carla Guzzetti, Chief Product Officer, Cloud Applications at Extreme.  “The network is vital. It runs your business. What we found was that there's an awful lot of pain in the experience for IT engineers; it takes up a lot of time, a lot of capacity. We really wanted to focus on how we can make sure we manage that and really address that issue.”

During an on-stage demonstration, Guzzetti showcased how Extreme Platform ONE can radically reduce the time required for workflows, highlighting the platform’s real-time, visible impact on everyday operations.

Guzzetti reinforced that the goal is not just efficiency, but also empowerment and growth. “We have to make sure that AI, like any other technology, is about enabling capability. That’s what we thought about every single time.”

Meyercord expanded on this, pointing out “in the short time that our platform has been released, we’ve saved our enterprise customers more than 300,000 hours,” he explained. “That translates into about $20 million of savings just through knowledge acquisition efficiency, which is obviously a very, very basic use case.”

Discover, Develop, and Deploy with Extreme Exchange™

Successful enterprise AI initiatives rely on deep collaboration between technology providers, business units, and industry partners. For B2B IT leaders and AI visionaries, the takeaway is clear: foster a culture of experimentation, break down silos, and continually align AI and networking investments with evolving business goals.

"The force that really shapes the future are conversations,” said Bukhari. “For that we require community; we require ideation." He then invited summit attendees to co-create with Extreme Networks, unveiling a special preview of Extreme Exchange, a curated catalog of AI solutions built to be co-created by Extreme, our customers, partners, and a global developer community.

Extreme Exchange will empower IT developers to discover, develop, and deploy custom AI-driven workflows and microapps. Its no-code environment will enable the developer community with tools and shared resources to quickly combine reasoning agents, service support agents, and integrations with popular third-party platforms such as ServiceNow, Microsoft Outlook, and Microsoft Teams.

A forward-thinking solution, Exchange is designed for responsible, human-focused AI. It aims to help IT teams work together in guiding AI adoption, ensuring that its use will be decided by the community to benefit everyone. “This is about moving everybody forward as one,” said Bukhari. “We'll do that together. This is our next step in the future. This is Extreme Exchange.”