The intersection of data, artificial intelligence and security is reshaping the enterprise landscape.

Cohesity’s Sanjay Poonen unpacks the intersection of AI and cybersecurity with theCUBE.

As generative and agentic AI redefine automation, enterprises grapple with the challenge of turning massive, unclassified data stores into actionable intelligence in a secure manner. From the evolution of regulatory frameworks to the rise of sovereign clouds and hybrid computing, Cohesity Inc. is positioning itself at the forefront of AI-powered data protection and developer security.

“You have to have very strict role-based access controls to ensure the wrong people aren’t searching for and summarizing your data,” said Sanjay Poonen (pictured), president and chief executive officer of Cohesity Inc. “If you’re going to do summarization, which is a lot of what ChatGPT and these LLMs do, you’ve got to make sure it’s not hallucinating and getting the wrong summarization because you could make business decisions then that are wrong. All of these lead to a fantastic canvas of how companies that are focused on security and AI data operate. We’re an AI-powered data security company.”

Poonen spoke with theCUBE’s Jackie McGuire at The AI Security Summit, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed how the future of artificial intelligence and security will be defined by secure automation and smarter regulation — where trust and transparency drive the next era of enterprise AI. (* Disclosure below.)

Artificial intelligence and security rely on enterprise data

As enterprises harness and safeguard their data, role-based access controls and secure data governance will be key to preventing unauthorized access or misuse, according to Poonen. For Cohesity, that balance between security and accessibility defines its mission: protecting sensitive enterprise data while unlocking its potential through AI. The company’s ongoing collaboration with Nvidia Corp. aims to deliver generative AI tools that allow customers to search, summarize and analyze both primary and backup data securely.

“We obsess about understanding where this world is going,” Poonen said. “We have over 13,000 customers, and some of our customers are the largest, for example, in banks. We work closely with them to understand where this is going, and we’ve designed a platform to meet their needs.”

Data regulation must evolve alongside AI. While industries such as banking and healthcare remain tightly bound by compliance mandates, others can benefit from more flexible, reality-based policies, according to Poonen.

“Different organizations have different regulatory requirements from the government on how long you need to keep email and messaging,” he said.  “In certain very regulated industries like banking, that data needs to be left forever, but companies that don’t have regulations may decide to delete an email after a year. It saves them costs. It also saves them the legal liability risk.”

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of The AI Security Summit:

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for The AI Security Summit event. Neither Snyk, the sponsor of theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE