The CTO Lens

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• Season 3: Episode 4 - Women in AI: The Biggest Myths, a Deportation & Why the Human Has to Come Back 17.06.2026 49min

  The CTO Lens Podcast does something a little different this week. David is away, and Sophie has taken the opportunity to bring together three brilliant women working at the sharp end of AI for a conversation that is honest, practical and long overdue.Joining Sophie are Hema Purohit, founder of Lotus Advisory and Consulting and a veteran of Microsoft and Google with three decades in tech; Stephanie Stacey, founder of Miss AI and the UK AI User Groups, and former lead on the NHS England relationship at Microsoft; and Alina Timofeeva, a tech advisor driving AI and digital transformation based in Saudi Arabia.Together they cover the biggest myths people confidently repeat about AI, why Europe's organisations are losing out by chasing shiny tools instead of building foundations, where real leverage is starting to emerge, and the skills that will actually matter in the next five years. There is also a conversation about power, capital and ownership - and whether women should be joining AI companies, owning AI infrastructure, or something else entirely.It is a wide ranging, refreshingly candid discussion - with a story about an AI-induced deportation that you will not hear anywhere else.
• Season 3: Episode 3 - Is the Job Market for Senior Technology Leaders Broken? 08.06.2026 1godz 12min

  The CTO Lens Podcast is back with Episode 3 of Season 3, and this week David and Sophie have a packed agenda - news, a brilliant guest and a Flip Side debate that gets a little complicated when Sophie switches sides mid-argument.This episode covers Meta's customer support chatbot being exploited to steal Instagram accounts - and what every tech leader should take from it about deploying agents without really knowing what they can do. Europe's AI startups face an existential reckoning as token costs rise. OpenAI expands beyond developers to target knowledge workers. ChatGPT confirms ads are coming. An Anthropic co-founder reveals 80% of Claude's code was written by Claude itself - and 100% is possible within two years. A company backed by Sam Altman raises half a billion to bring nuclear fusion to the grid by 2028. And the silliest news of the week - a burglar uses a Waymo as a getaway car to steal yoga clothes in San Francisco, and the police still haven't caught them.David and Sophie also sit down with Simon Hudson, fractional CTO and long-time London Tech Leaders community member, for a frank conversation about the senior tech leadership job market - ageism, inflated CTO titles, why networks matter more than ever, and what experience really means when AI claims to have all the answers.And in The Flip Side, David and Sophie debate whether the rising cost of intelligence should be passed on to consumers or absorbed as the cost of doing business. Sophie argues for. David folds his arms and says no. Sophie then crosses the floor mid-debate - and David declares victory.
• Season 3: Episode 2 - "The Best Engineering Leaders of the Next Decade Won't Come from Engineering" 02.06.2026 1godz 4min

  The CTO Lens Podcast is back with another packed episode. David's fresh from a stag weekend involving combat archery, a giant inflatable and some questionable social media evidence, while Sophie's been spotting baby moorhens. Normal service has resumed.This episode covers NVIDIA's new AI chip for personal computers - and what that means for every CTO's laptop refresh plan. King's College London becomes the first UK academic team to access Google's quantum chip Willow, and David and Sophie ask whether quantum computing is finally becoming real or still a solution searching for a problem. GitHub Copilot switches to token-based pricing and some developers are seeing costs jump from $50 to $3,000 a month overnight. There's also a deep dive into token maxing - including Amazon's ill-fated internal AI leaderboard that had to be shut down - humanoid robots arriving on BMW's factory floor with a three-minute battery break, and the growing NEET crisis as automation starts to reshape the jobs market for young people. Plus a quick IPO update on SpaceX's surprise government contract and Anthropic's $65 billion raise ahead of a potential public float.Sophie sits down with Tris Bates, Head of Mobile Engineering at New Day and driving force behind NS London - Europe's largest Apple developer community - for a fascinating conversation about what AI tools are actually doing to mobile engineering in practice, why everyone wants an app, and why seeing through walls using WiFi might not be as far off as you think.And in this week's Flip Side, David and Sophie debate whether the best engineering leaders of the next decade won't come from engineering at all. David argues for the motion. Sophie dismantles him. David awards her a 60-40 victory and hints he might deserve a pay rise.
• Season 3: Episode 1 - The Product Manager Ratio That's Dividing Tech + The Pope Denounces AI 27.05.2026 53min

  The CTO Lens Podcast is back - and Season 3 is here. David and Sophie return refreshed, ready to dig into a packed news agenda, a brand new segment and some big questions about where tech leadership is headed next.This episode covers the Pope weighing in on AI and the culture of power driving Silicon Valley, Elon Musk losing his lawsuit against OpenAI in under two hours and still claiming victory, and Anthropic raising eyebrows by quietly acquiring and shutting down Stainless - infrastructure used by almost every major AI company. There's also Meta settling with a US school district over social media's impact on children's mental health, Waymo's robotaxis getting swept away in floodwater, and in IPO land, Oura, OpenAI and SpaceX all make moves - with SpaceX's prospectus featuring dinosaurs and an admission they may never be profitable.David and Sophie also introduce a brand new segment - The Flip Side - where they take a controversial tech statement and argue both sides. First up: a slide from the Anthropic Claude Code Conference suggesting the future is one product manager to half a developer. Leaner teams or just buggier software?
• Season 2: Episode 20 - What Nobody Is Telling Fractional Workers About AI (Season Finale) 28.04.2026 1godz 30min

  The CTO Lens Podcast wraps up Season 2 with Episode 20 - and David and Sophie are going out with a bang. Twenty episodes in, they reflect on what they've covered, what's coming in Season 3, and why the world of tech leadership has never been more interesting - or more complicated.This episode covers Anthropic's Mythos model making headlines again - this time for falling into the hands of a Discord channel of curious hackers who really shouldn't have had access. Apple bids farewell to Tim Cook and welcomes John Turnus as the new CEO, bringing with him a refreshingly humble philosophy on leadership. There's also a juicy Apple bug fix that will interest anyone who's ever deleted a message they'd rather forget. David and Sophie also dig into the Google Cloud Next conference - new AI chips, a Workspace Intelligence suite and Gemini's enterprise agent platform - and ask whether Google has simply been asleep at the wheel or playing a very long game.On the Elon front, Tesla is upping its capex to $25 billion, millions of owners are facing unexpected hardware upgrades, and a Waymo car drove through a police cordon in North London - though there's a twist. David also makes the case for insourcing tech talent and asks whether the UK could build its own Silicon Valley if it really wanted to.The big conversation this episode is one that's been bubbling all season - what happens to consultants and fractional workers when AI makes them 10x faster? Should they charge more, less, or invent an entirely new model? David may or may not have accidentally invented one live on air.The mid-episode game returns for its season finale - who will clinch the title? And in the listener mailbag, the team tackle whether anyone can ever truly curate AI, and when - if ever - AI processing will run out of power.To give us feedback on the CTO Lens Podcast, you can complete this form: https://tinyurl.com/ctolenspodWe'd really value any comments you had to improve the podcast in any way.
• Season 2: Episode 19 - Liz Kendall, Falling Robots and Data Teams Are More Important Than You Think! 21.04.2026 1godz 23min

  The CTO Lens Podcast is back with Episode 19, and this week David and Sophie are firing on all cylinders with a packed news agenda and a guest who really knows his way around a data pipeline.This episode covers Roblox's controversial facial analysis age checks - and whether that's really the best we can do for child safety online. The UK's AI minister Liz Kendall gets the David and Sophie treatment after it emerged she doesn't actually use AI in her job. Sweden's decision to ditch screens and go back to pens and paper in classrooms raises some uncomfortable questions about where tech actually belongs. Allbirds' spectacular pivot from eco-friendly footwear to AI compute infrastructure gets a thorough reality check. And Tinder and Zoom want to scan your eyeball to prove you're human - with Sam Altman's fingerprints all over it.David and Sophie also sit down with Shamim Mirzai, Head of Data Engineering and AI at Atheneum, for a grounded and genuinely fascinating conversation about how software, platform and data teams are evolving - who owns what, where the friction lives, and why your data engineering team might just be the most strategically important people in your organisation right now. Shamim brings decades of experience across banking, shipping, hospitality and tech - including a memorable stint at Mumsnet - and some refreshingly practical thinking on what it actually takes to make AI initiatives work at scale.And in this week's listener mailbag, David and Sophie tackle the questions keeping tech leaders up at night - do we still need project managers, who's accountable when AI writes bad code, and should engineers be paid more for doing 5x the work with AI? As ever, they don't always have the answers, but they're asking the right questions.Link for London Tech Leaders Upcoming Events: https://luma.com/londontechleadersLink for London Tech Leaders Engineering Summit: https://registration.crowdcomms.com/londontech2026
• Season 2: Episode 18 - Claude Mythos, Molotov Cocktails and the Future of UX 14.04.2026 1godz 31min

  The CTO Lens Podcast is back with Episode 18, and this one's got plenty to dig into. David and Sophie are back in their respective remote setups - but that doesn't mean things are any less lively.This episode covers a cyberattack that forced Northern Irish school kids back into classrooms during Easter - and raises a bigger question about the risk of centralising all your tech on a single supplier. OpenAI's four-day week proposal gets the David and Sophie treatment (spoiler: David is not convinced). There's also Sam Altman's home targeted by a molotov cocktail, the Claude Mythos rumour mill - including a rogue AI that allegedly emailed its own engineer - and a new company called rentahuman.ai that might just be the most honest business model in tech right now.Sophie sits down with Milena Nikolic, Founder of Heywa Labs, for a fascinating conversation about what "agentic" actually means, why text-in text-out is just the beginning of AI-native product design, and why brands should be very worried about becoming just a line in someone else's table. Milena brings serious credentials - over a decade at Google and four years as CTO of Trainline - and some genuinely fresh thinking on where UX is headed.And in this week's listener mailbag - a new segment - David and Sophie tackle the big questions: Will AI take our jobs? Are CTOs the CEOs of the future? And can you really defeat big tech by just... stopping? Plus the mid-episode game returns with a humbling round of "How Old Am I?" featuring child tech prodigies that will make you question everything you've done with your life.Link for London Tech Leaders Upcoming Events: https://luma.com/londontechleadersLink for London Tech Leaders Engineering Summit: https://registration.crowdcomms.com/l...
• Season 2: Episode 17 - "Nobody Told Us It Was Going to Cost This Much" 09.04.2026 1godz 8min

  The CTO Lens Podcast is back with Episode 17, and this week's edition is packed! Oh, and yes - this week's episode was filmed in person. David and Sophie are confirmed humans. This episode features China's obsession with an open-source AI tool nicknamed "the Lobster" (aka Claude), Anthropic's token costs spiralling out of control - and an accidental leak of 500,000 lines of source code, plus a two-brother team on track for $1.8 billion in revenue with no big team, just AI. David and Sophie cut through the noise on the week's biggest tech stories.We also bring you an exclusive pre-recorded conversation with David and Justin Reock (Deputy CTO at DX). Both dive deep into AI adoption inside engineering teams - what's actually working, what the data really shows, and why enterprises are quietly outperforming startups on AI productivity. And the question circling every engineering org right now from our disaster diaries; Are we actually building a better team with AI, or just avoiding the harder conversation about what we really value? This week's diary entry hits close to home.Link for London Tech Leaders Upcoming Events: https://luma.com/londontechleadersLink for London Tech Leaders Engineering Summit: https://registration.crowdcomms.com/londontech2026
• Season 2: Episode 16 - The CTO's Dilemma: Prove ROI from AI & Prove You Still Have a Future Job 01.04.2026 1godz 8min

  The CTO Lens Podcast is back with Episode 16, and this week's edition is packed!Meta vs. Google in court. AI reshaping video production. A Lloyd's Bank data breach update. David and Sophie cut through the noise on the week's biggest tech stories.Then things get really interesting. We're bringing you an exclusive fireside recording straight from our London Tech Leaders event - a razor-sharp conversation on ROI from AI with Lyubomira Dimitrova (Senior Technology Leader) and Scott Eivers (CEO, Datatonic). Don't sleep on this one.And the big question everyone in tech is quietly asking? Will the CTO role even exist in 3 years? OakNorth Bank's own Tom Harris gives his take (taken from the panel session at the same event) - and David and Sophie don't hold back with theirs.Plus, don't forget the mid-episode game (which this week is titled 'Around the World 🌍').Link for London Tech Leaders Upcoming Events: https://luma.com/londontechleadersLink for London Tech Leaders Engineering Summit: https://registration.crowdcomms.com/londontech2026
• Season 2: Episode 15 - How Do Technology Leaders Drive Change for the Future Workforce 24.03.2026 1godz 18min

  In this week’ episode of the CTO Lens Podcast, David and Sophie begin by discussing the week's latest news, including budgets for AI and Quantum Computing, books being written using AI, Pokemon Go and Amazon’s new smart phone!Both then (as part of the leadership segment) discuss the future of the technology workforce, including the responsibilities that senior leaders have, how education may need to accommodate AI in a better way and what does the future workforce actually look like in 5-10 years from a technology standpoint.The episode concludes with the mid-episode game (titled Name That University) and a disaster diary entry all around effective objective setting!Link for London Tech Leaders Upcoming Events: https://luma.com/londontechleadersLink for London Tech Leaders Engineering Summit: https://registration.crowdcomms.com/londontech2026
• Season 2: Episode 14 - How Is AI Reshaping The Software Development Lifecycle? 17.03.2026 1godz 16min

  In this week’ episode of the CTO Lens Podcast, David and Sophie begin by discussing the week's latest news, including delayed Royal Navy deployments, airport face scans, bank apps showing other users' transactions and much more!Both are then joined by Andrew Murphy (Head of Engineering and Product at Wickes) to discuss how AI is reshaping the software development lifecycle. Andrew offers some fantastic insights into the pros and cons of recent AI implementation, how leaders are engaging with AI, and how he foresees the effects of AI in three to five years time (amongst a whole host of other informative conversation). The episode concludes with the mid-episode game (titled Battle of the Blanks) and a disaster diary entry which covers accountability at C-Suite level.Link for London Tech Leaders Upcoming Events: https://luma.com/londontechleadersLink for London Tech Leaders Engineering Summit: https://registration.crowdcomms.com/londontech2026
• Season 2: Episode 13 - Is The CTO Role Now More Strategic Than Technical? 10.03.2026 1godz 14min

  In this week’ episode of the CTO Lens Podcast, David is back and joins Sophie to discuss the latest in tech innovations and news.Both share insights on leadership, strategy, and the evolving role of technology leaders in organisations. From understanding the importance of strategic thinking to the future skills needed for CTOs, this episode offers valuable guidance for tech leaders aiming to make a broader impact.The episode concludes with the mid-episode game (titled Buzzword or Baloney) and a disaster diary entry which covers team conflict.Link for London Tech Leaders Upcoming Events: https://luma.com/londontechleadersLink for London Tech Leaders Engineering Summit: https://registration.crowdcomms.com/londontech2026
• Season 2: Episode 12 - Building The Fastest AI Machines on Earth 03.03.2026 1godz 12min

  In this week’s episode of the CTO Lens Podcast, Sophie Valentine is joined by guest host Samantha Burrows, in an International Women’ Day week special.They explore the significance of culture in leadership, especially for women+ in tech, and continue with news on the ethical implications of AI in defence, the future of AI and its potential economic consequences, innovative AI projects in the civil service, and some light-hearted tech updates.They are also joined by Jeremy Adcock and Josh Silverstone of Hartley Ultrafast. They are building the world’s fastest decision making machines, bringing artificial intelligence to the scale of single nanoseconds for the first time. This was a fantastic conversation and one not to be missed. Find out more here: https://hartleyultrafast.com/The episode concludes with the mid-episode game and Sophie and Sam discuss what International Women’s Day means to them.Link for London Tech Leaders Upcoming Events: https://luma.com/londontechleadersLink for London Tech Leaders Engineering Summit: https://registration.crowdcomms.com/londontech2026
• Season 2: Episode 11 - Practical Cases of AI Working 24.02.2026 1godz 16min

  In this week’ episode of the CTO Lens Podcast, David Crawford and Sophie Valentine discuss various topics including social media court cases, recent AI trials and tribulations, and the emergence of Seedance, an app that can be used to generate Hollywood style videos.They are also joined by Otto Hilska (CEO of Swarmia) who shares insights on engineering effectiveness and the integration of AI tools in organisations, highlighting the importance of teams and the role of AI in enhancing productivity.The episode concludes with the mid-episode game and rather than a disaster diary entry this week, Sophie and David discuss the top five roles they would choose to build the perfect tech team in 2026. Link for London Tech Leaders Upcoming Events: https://luma.com/londontechleadersLink for London Tech Leaders Engineering Summit: https://registration.crowdcomms.com/londontech2026
• Season 2: Episode 10 - How to Get a CTO Role in 2026 17.02.2026 1godz 13min

  In this week’ episode of the CTO Lens Podcast, David Crawford and Sophie Valentine discuss various topics including their Valentine's weekend experiences, the viral success of their podcast clip on digital sovereignty, updates on the UK Online Safety Bill and the implications of AI in online safety, and discuss recent AI advancements in large corporations. They are also joined by Jon Sheehan (Co-Founder of Burns Sheehan) to discuss recruitment in the tech industry. They speak about the evolving role of CTOs, the challenges in the current job market, and strategies for positioning oneself effectively in a competitive landscape. They emphasise the importance of networking, patience, and understanding market dynamics while navigating career transitions. The episode concludes with the mid-episode game (titled "The CTO Winter Olympics”) and a disaster diary entry which is centered around becoming ‘an accidental’ CTO.Link for London Tech Leaders Upcoming Events: https://luma.com/londontechleaders
• Season 2: Episode 9 - Falling Back in Love with My CTO Role 10.02.2026 1godz 6min

  In this week's episode of the CTO Lens Podcast, Sophie and David discuss various topics including France getting rid of Zoom, AI robots and the recent AI Gold Rush. They also are joined by Lee Provoost (CTO of fintech company Flagstone) who discusses his journey of falling out of love and falling back in love with the CTO role.The episode concludes with the mid-episode game (titled ‘Touchdown Tech Leaders’) and a disaster diary entry which encompasses getting the board on side when it comes to technology.
• Season 2: Episode 8 - Incident Response 03.02.2026 1godz 3min

  In this week's episode of the CTO Lens Podcast, Sophie and David discuss various topics including AI training initiatives, Apple's sales trends, digital sovereignty, and the future of driverless cars. They also delve into the importance of incident management and organisational culture with guests Joe and Hamid from Uptime Labs, also sharing personal experiences of IT outages. The conversation emphasises the need for resilience in tech organisations and covers the metrics that can help measure success in incident management.The episode concludes with a product angled mid-episode game (titled ‘Tech to the Top’).Find out more about Uptime Labs: https://uptimelabs.io/Link for London Tech Leaders Upcoming Events:https://luma.com/londontechleaders?k=c
• Season 2: Episode 7 - Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff vs the Devil’s in the Detail 27.01.2026 1godz 5min

  In this week’s episode of The CTO Lens Podcast, Sophie and David cover a wide range of topics. They dive into the challenges facing the gaming industry, youth social media regulations, and discuss the balance between big-picture thinking and attention to detail in leadership during our leadership focused segment. The episode concludes with the mid-episode game (titled ‘Tech to the Top’) and a disaster diary, where the hosts reflect on whether Agile is still working?Link for London Tech Leaders Upcoming Events: https://luma.com/londontechleaders?k=c
• Season 2: Episode 6 - Women in Technology Leadership: Have We Seen Any Progress? 21.01.2026 1godz 6min

  In this week’s episode of the CTO Lens podcast, hosts Sophie Valentine and David Crawford delve into various topics, starting with the internet outage in Iran, AI generated singers and a discussion about Elon Musk's relationships and the implications of AI in our daily lives.Sophie and David then welcome guest Hema Purohit, who brings her extensive experience in technology and leadership development to the conversation. Hema discusses her Leadership Essentials masterclass, emphasising the importance of visibility versus volume in career advancement for women. She highlights the need for women to take on riskier projects and build relationships with senior leaders to enhance their visibility and career prospects.The episode concludes with the mid-episode game (titled ‘Tech or Fake’ and a disaster diary, where the hosts reflect on the build vs. buy dilemma in tech, providing insights on making informed decisions in product development.Find out more about Hema here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hemapurohit/
• Season 2: Episode 5 - The Art of Communicating + AOREN Framework 13.01.2026 1godz 26min

  In this episode, Sophie and David discuss the latest developments in technology, including Nvidia's new AI platform for self-driving cars, the implications of ChatGPT in healthcare, and Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI. Furthermore, the hosts discuss essential communication skills for modern leaders, emphasising the importance of active listening, empathy, and understanding different communication styles. They explore the challenges of communicating in a tech-driven environment, particularly with neurodiverse teams. Guest Ben Pearce shares insights on storytelling and frameworks for effective communication, highlighting the need for clarity and flexibility in interactions. Finally, David and Sophie take part in the weekly mid-episode game (titled ‘Name That UK Tech City’) and also explore the challenges of transitioning into leadership roles and the importance of vulnerability in fostering team cohesion. You can find out more about Ben Pearce here: https://www.elevatedyou.live/ctolens