The AI revolution is global, and so are the challenges and opportunities it presents. In this OpenStudio interview from Nashville, we discuss how OpenText is helping international customers harness the power of AI through the open AI Data Platform, deploy armies of AI agents to combat increasingly sophisticated cybersecurity threats, and achieve productivity gains that seemed impossible just years ago.

Watch the full interview:

Introduction

Ajit: Hello everyone. Welcome to Nashville. My name is Ajit Yohannan. As we're continuing the great conversations here at OpenText World 2025, I'm so glad to have with me here, Harald Adams, Senior Vice President Sales at OpenText. I'm a big fan of him, the way he leads the organization. So I'm glad, Harald, that you could come to the show and you've been here for the last couple of days. What's been the energy so far? What do you—

Harald: First of all, thanks for having me. Look, I'm with the company for quite a while, as you know. From my perspective, that is maybe really a pivotal week for the entire company because from my perspective, the announcement we have seen the other day is from my perspective really game changing and I think we are now living in a new company and we are bringing absolutely something completely new to the market and that is really super exciting not only for me because I think you can feel already here on the venue, the energy, not only the energy from all the OpenText people but as well from the customers and from the partners in the same way. So it is absolutely stunning.

Customer Excitement and AI Innovation

Ajit: That's amazing and in your role as for international sales, you're closest to the global customer. So what are some of the things they're talking about OpenText? What's the excitement on that side of the business?

Harald: Look, honestly, I think we surprised some of our customers. I think especially this week with the announcement, because look, they had already a lot of history with us and they are using our technology and they got already over the last couple of decades maybe value out of it. But in these days, what every executive on our customer side keeps awake at the moment is artificial intelligence. Yes, of course, on the one hand side it's how to control it, but on the other side as well, how to really get the value out of it. I think that what we have announced with the AI and data platform and that we have now the most open AI and data platform is for them absolutely mind blowing. Why? Because they are managing already all of their content or a lot of their content with our technology. And now to put this layer on top of that and to get in the most easiest way the value out of it so that we can augment any user they have in their cooperation to give them not only one AI agent, at the end, we give them an army of AI agents to get their job done in a more efficient way so that they can increase their productivity by 10 or maybe by 100x. That's absolutely amazing, and I think that is for them—I heard statements that they said, I have seen a new OpenText. That is, I think the category we're talking about.

Ajit: That's awesome. I read your first day summary on LinkedIn and you really captured all of these points very well. So thank you for that. And thank you for sharing here as well.

AI Security and Agent Defense

Ajit: You spoke about AI, but what about security? How are you seeing that alongside because it comes with, as you said, it's a whole army of agents. So how do you make sure that the customers feel completely confident?

Harald: I think cybersecurity is at the center of it. Because I read the other day an article where we have seen just recently an attack, I think it was an Australian bank or so. And they got attacked by almost 80% of agents. So these agents were just controlled by only a few human beings. That is, I think, the world we are living in. So now what we give now to our customers is an army of cybersecurity AI agents to fight back. Look how we're going to do that because they have already all of their log files, controls, and monitoring tools, and now we are putting an AI agent on top of that and this AI agent, they will learn on their own, which means they will become smarter and smarter over the term to identify all the different patterns and then to identify, ah, I think here is maybe an insider and this is an AI agent, we need to isolate them and remove them from the corporate network. And I think in these days with the increasing complexity in IT systems, but as well with the increasing amount of attacks they are facing from all the AI agents, I think there is no other way than to get this thing again under control by leveraging an army of AI agents to fight back. And I think that excites not only me but attacks in the same way our customers.

OpenText's Competitive Advantage

Ajit: I also want to also acknowledge we're not the only one who are doing it. We are also competition in the market. So how do you think OpenText stands out with respect to our competition?

Harald: To be honest, I don't know a single competitor of us who can do what we can do. I think, look, in the past, yes, of course, in the SOC environment and maybe as well in the application security environment, we have many competitors. But none of them, these competitors have is a layer, an AI data layer on top of that so that we can now bring the intelligence, the next level of intelligence into these technologies. And the openness means at the end we can see information even out of some competitive solutions in that corporate network. So we are not asking the customer to replace any of what they have. So we are just putting this AI data layer on top of that to say, look, what we want to do is to make you even smarter in that cybersecurity environment or maybe as well in the Observabilty and Service Management environment. So that means we are just adding a layer of intelligence on top of that and that's why the most open thing is, I think the competitive edge, and I have not seen anybody who can do what we can do.

OT Trusts OT Program

Ajit: That's awesome, and I heard a lot of customers speaking today in the keynote as well, and I know OpenText uses its own products. Do you also tell that story to your customers that how we are doing OT Trusts OT program? Do you want to talk about that?

Harald: Absolutely, because look, I mean, first of all, it shows an element of trust. If what we are selling to the market is what we are using on our own, that's what, and this is of course a proof point. It is one reference in that market, besides of many other customers' reference we need if we want to sell something to the customer, but it is an important one, of course. And Shannon, she's running our IT and CDO as a CDO. She is of course an executive our customers wants to talk about because she has exactly the same challenges than all the other executives out there. So that's why there is as well a learning and that's why she is pretty engaged with many of our customer executives and that is absolutely a proof what we need.

Leadership Philosophy for Global Teams

Ajit: That's awesome. I think I also want to ask you a personal question. I know you're leading the international teams, a lot of—I don't know. How do you lead that from a leadership? What's your leadership style like? I see you all the time busy traveling across, you have a large market to cover.

Harald: Look, it is a large market. Because, I mean, you cannot really micromanage it, to be honest. Why? Because it is a business which scales across the whole planet more or less, which means you need to be awake 24/7 if you want to do it. So how I'm leading it at the end. So first of all, we need to make clear what is exactly our vision, what is what we want to accomplish together with the team on the ground and with our customers over the next couple of years. So because they need to understand that, and then yes, of course we need to show them as well on a regular basis and we are running all hands calls for instance on a quarterly basis to show them what is our progression towards our vision, and how far did we get and what is the next what we bring into the country because we need to give them, of course, all the new solutions, all the cloud solutions we have. We need to increase our partner ecosystem. Why? Because if you want to accelerate in the modernization towards AI and cloud, then we need our partners. They need to see as well that we are then improving our partner program in a way that our partners are then saying, okay, you have not only great solutions, you have as well a great partner program, it makes sense that I move together with you into that future. So we are doing all of that and at the end you need to give them the trust that they can do what we are expecting them to do. And yes, of course, we are checking them on a regular basis, so what is the forecast, all of that. But at the moment I think they're moving into the right direction. I'm pretty privileged and proud.

Vision for 2030

Ajit: Absolutely, it's a privilege to see how you lead that and we help our customers across the world. Here's a fun question. Imagine this is 2030, and you're seeing all the things in OpenText World. What are the new things? Are you going to be seeing this the same way or what's your thing? What kind of new demos are going to be there? Any prediction? What is it first of all, is going to be happening in Nashville, or maybe Mars or what is your prediction?

Harald: No, look, I mean, if you imagine that at the end with our technology, our customers will become, for instance, in some cases 100% more productive than they are today, which means at the end the valuation of these companies and the evaluation of the OpenText company will exactly represent that. Yes, so because these customers will then be especially more productive, that is one thing and I think we will see as well on our side a different level of engagement. Why? Because if everything is more or less driven by AI or a lot of things are driven and automated by AI, then the human touch is at the end what will be the competitive element against many others. So I think as a Canadian software company and we are anyhow the good guys around this planet, I think we can then really make a difference in that human touch. And I think that is what I predict in the future. So from that perspective, I think maybe then these events are even more family like, and everybody and the rumors of course maybe 3 times or 4 times or 10 times of what it is today. So that that is what I'm expecting to see in 2030, I think.

Closing

Ajit: Thank you so much. And before we end, any message to the customers and partners?

Harald: Maybe one, maybe in 2030 we can run another podcast. And I hope that you're not replaced by a robot so that we can still have a human to human conversation. That's it, I think.

Ajit: Thank you so much for talking and thank you for tuning in. It's always we bring what we're hearing from our customers, our leaders, and what's in store for us. Thank you so much for tuning in.

Harald: Thank you. Thanks for having me.

About OpenStudio

OpenStudio is OpenText’s media hub for thought leadership and innovation. This series explores stories of progress and success from industry experts, visionaries, and trailblazers. Our goal is to inspire, inform, and connect audiences with the people and ideas shaping the future of the digital world.

The post OpenText OpenStudio: AI-Driven Customer Impact & Global Security appeared first on OpenText Blogs.