Cloud Wars Live with Bob Evans

In today's Cloud Wars Minute, I explore how Oracle is using AI to unify and transform the fragmented healthcare ecosystem. Highlights 00:03 — Early in 2026, we're seeing big strides made across all industries with AI, but in particular, there's enormous promise for AI in healthcare. So, I had a chance recently to speak with Oracle Executive Vice President Seema Verma. She's in charge of healthcare and health and life sciences. 01:06 —And one of the things that Seema talked about here is that, for too long, every part of the healthcare industry has been caught up in these point solutions, which worked well for their very narrow slice. But in these days, that's just too much manual effort, too much time required, too much movement attempting to stitch together different data models. 01:33 — And especially now with AI coming, the data has to be centralized. It's got to be in one place, clean, secure, and ready to go. So in this video interview, Seema talks about some of the advances Oracle's making. She said, “We're addressing the big pain points.” 02:06 — She talked a lot about identity, authentication, the ability for doctors and offices to be able to listen and look directly at the patient instead of typing on the keyboard while the AI is recording and transcribing it and bringing up other relevant information. 04:05 — So I do love this big, sprawling effort here, the end-to-end initiative. I think more and more we're going to be seeing that the big application, slash agents, slash data, slash AI, companies like Oracle are going to go after this more on a big, comprehensive basis.  Visit Cloud Wars for more.

In this episode of Cloud Wars Live, Bob Evans speaks with Seema Verma, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Oracle Health and Life Sciences, about how AI is reshaping the healthcare industry. Drawing on her experience leading the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Verma explains how Oracle is tackling one of the world’s most complex sectors with an end-to-end, AI-driven approach. The conversation explores how automation, modern electronic health records, and intelligent agents can reduce administrative costs, improve patient care, and unify fragmented healthcare systems into a more efficient and responsive ecosystem. Oracle Healthcare Vision The Big Themes: AI as Healthcare Backbone: Oracle is not approaching healthcare transformation as a collection of isolated tools but as a unified, AI-driven ecosystem. Unlike past efforts that layered technology onto outdated systems, Oracle is rebuilding infrastructure from the ground up with AI at its core. This allows automation to flow across the entire system rather than remaining siloed. The result is a more cohesive healthcare environment where decisions, processes, and outcomes are interconnected, enabling true industry-wide transformation rather than incremental improvements. Clinical AI Agents in Action: One of the most compelling innovations discussed is Oracle’s clinical AI agent, which listens to doctor-patient interactions and automatically generates notes, recommendations, and workflows. This technology goes beyond documentation — it initiates next steps such as prescribing medications, ordering tests, and suggesting billing codes. Physicians benefit from reduced administrative workload, allowing them to focus on patient interaction. Clinical Trials Transformation: Clinical trials are another area ripe for disruption, with only 1–2% of eligible patients participating due to outdated recruitment methods. Oracle is addressing this by matching patients to trials using real-time health data. Instead of manual processes like bulletin board sign-ups, AI can identify eligible participants and notify both clinicians and patients. The Big Quote: “Fifty percent, sixty percent of the costs are labor-oriented. And if we look at the growth in healthcare, that's not changing, we see high prices in drugs, one of the fastest-growing areas. And so here's where AI has an incredible opportunity here to really transform the industry and get rid of a lot of that repetitive, manual work and increase efficiency." More from Seema Verma: Connect with Seema on LinkedIn or learn more about Oracle, health, and AI. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

Key Takeaways Wellness-focused consumers are flooded with health data from wearable health tech and portals but lack the time and expertise to interpret what it actually means. To combat this, Copilot Health securely unifies data from hospitals, labs, and wearables to detect early health patterns and guide wellness decisions, making advanced medical insight accessible to everyone. Because hallucinations are dangerous in healthcare, Microsoft mitigated risk by embedding physician oversight into Copilot Health’s training and governance. Specifically, Microsoft's multi-agent orchestration layer of Copilot Health scored 85% when diagnosing 304 complex medical cases, four times better than experienced physicians did. At a broader level, AI-driven health systems promise enterprise cost savings and productivity gains while signaling a shift toward more human-like agents, making it paramount that innovation is matched with equally strong security. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

In this episode of Cloud Wars Live, Bob Evans speaks with Nathan Thomas, Senior Vice President of Product Management for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, about the explosive growth and transformative potential of Oracle’s multi-cloud database strategy. Thomas explains how Oracle is enabling customers to run mission-critical databases across AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud while unlocking new AI-driven innovation. Their discussion dives into how multi-cloud is reshaping enterprise mindsets, accelerating cloud migrations, and helping organizations fully leverage their data for next-generation applications and agentic AI. Multi-Cloud Momentum The Big Themes: Multi-Cloud Demand Explodes: Oracle’s multi-cloud database is seeing massive demand, driven by customers wanting to run Oracle workloads in the same cloud environments as their applications. This shift eliminates friction between systems. The surge is amplified by AI, as organizations look to connect their data with services like Gemini, Bedrock, and Copilot. The reported 500%+ growth reflects not just technical appeal but a fundamental change in how enterprises think about infrastructure. AI Is the Growth Catalyst: Artificial intelligence is accelerating multi-cloud adoption at an unprecedented pace. Customers want their data co-located with AI tools and pipelines, enabling faster insights and innovation. Instead of moving data across environments with latency constraints, multi-cloud lets organizations bring AI to their data. This creates a powerful feedback loop where better access drives more experimentation and faster results. New Builders, New Energy: The adoption of multi-cloud is bringing in a new generation of developers and AI-focused professionals. These users are actively engaging with enterprise data to build innovative applications and AI-driven solutions. This marks a shift from traditional, tightly controlled database environments to more dynamic, accessible platforms. Organizations are no longer treating their data as static assets, they’re using it as a foundation for continuous innovation and competitive advantage. The Big Quote: “We hear from customers a lot that they struggle with what I would call the tyranny of choice. There's just way too many options, way too complicated." More from Nathan Thomas and Oracle: Connect with Nathan on LinkedIn or learn more about Oracle and multi-cloud. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

In today’s Cloud Wars Minute, I examine how AI and data access are accelerating unprecedented cooperation among cloud leaders. Highlights 00:03 — It's been two and a half years now since that momentous interview featuring Satya Nadella and Larry Ellison talking about their partnership to do multi-cloud between Oracle and Microsoft. And in some ways, I regard this as the multi-cloud miracle, because we've accepted it. 01:10 — It's opening up more ways in which competing tech vendors are going to work together to drive better benefits, better outcomes for customers. So, I had a very interesting interview with Nathan Thomas, Senior Vice President for Product Marketing at Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, where he heads up the multi-cloud effort. And I wanted to talk to him about the benefits. 02:24 — I want to also go back quickly and touch on what Nadella and Ellison talked about two and a half years ago. One of Ellison's first points, he said, this just makes it easier for customers, and they get the benefits of both Microsoft's top technology and Oracle's top technology optimized to work together. 03:36 — At the time, he said, OpenAI, take it to where the data is. So two and a half years ago, Nadella was very keen on this subject of how this multi-cloud partnership between Oracle and Microsoft would benefit the early days of the AI movement. 04:44 — And when you put it in terms of business outcomes, then these competitive things that are behind the scenes matter less and less. So this is an interesting time. I hope we'll see more of this. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

In today’s Cloud Wars Minute, I discuss the significant leadership changes at Oracle and what they signal for the company’s future. Highlights 00:03 — One of the things that has become clear over the last several months is that there are big changes taking place at the top of Oracle. I wanted to go into that a little bit, particularly how this is all leading up to what is an excellent new adventure for company co-founder and chairman Larry Ellison. 00:21 — I think it's a remarkable time here. Now, clearly, I’m not saying that Larry Ellison is stepping aside. I mean, six months ago, we saw longtime CEO Safra Katz move from CEO. She elected to move to the new position of executive vice chairman. In those six months, we've also seen the ascendancy of new CEOs, Mike Sicilia and Clay Magouyrk. 01:09 — Again, this is not about Larry Ellison leaving. I think the new adventure he has was really brought into clear light on the March 10 fiscal Q3 earnings call for Oracle, when there was no opening statement by Larry Ellison. I mean, that's something he's done for the last 150, 160 earnings calls. 01:50 — Then, in the Q&A session on that March 10 earnings call, there were seven questions asked. None of them was aimed at Larry Ellison. They were all aimed at Magouyrk and Sicilia. After the final question, he added some thoughts to what Mike Sicilia had said. His point there is to say these are the new leaders of Oracle, the people helping now to set the direction, execute it, and make sure we're going in the right way. 02:40 — The new CEOs are doing a great job. In my estimation, the way they handled themselves in the answers on the March 10 earnings call was terrific. They were very, very, very persuasive, impressive, and compelling. So we can say this is the end of an era, but I think another way to look at it is that it's the beginning of a new era for Oracle. 04:05 — New ideas, speed, the ability to do things that customers haven't ever done before — and Sicilia and Magouyrk clearly have won the full confidence of Larry Ellison and Safra Catz, who believe now, as Ellison said on that March 10 earnings call, Oracle's future is bright. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

In today's Cloud Wars Minute, I examine how Health 100 signals a major shift toward AI-powered, patient-centric healthcare ecosystems. Highlights 00:03 —Google Cloud has partnered with CVS Health to launch an AI-driven health data platform called Health 100. The platform unifies patient data from a variety of sources, enabling more streamlined health management. CVS Health, which operates both an insurer and a pharmacy retailer, is embracing the spirit of the AI revolutions. 00:36 — Health 100 will connect benefit managers, pharmacies, healthcare providers, and digital health systems into a single platform, regardless of the companies supplying them. And there's more details coming, but what we know so far is that Health 100 will tap built-in AI and generative AI to act as an always-on personal healthcare partner. 01:00 — It will deliver care options faster, be operated on mobile, and interact visually and through voice interactions. Patient data will be protected through Google Cloud security and compliance infrastructure. Now, this is just the latest in a series of partnerships through which Google Cloud is enabling companies to innovate in the healthcare space. 01:24 — Google Cloud is really standing out as a leader now, I think, in this area, focusing on agentic AI in the healthcare space. Now, while agents have been making significant strides in various business sectors and industries, it's really fascinating for me to see the momentum shifting into healthcare. 02:00 — Now we're talking about agentic workflows for patients driven by their own data. This progress is only possible with stringent governance and compliance, and as Google Cloud describes its infrastructure security as “secure by default,” companies are certainly supporting this new era of healthcare from solid foundations. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

In this episode of the AI Agent & Copilot Podcast, Tom Smith is joined by Kieron Allen, an industry analyst and AI observer, who shares insights from the 2026 AI Agent & Copilot Summit NA in San Diego. Together, they unpack major themes from the event, including agent orchestration, workforce reskilling, MCP’s enterprise impact, and the evolving human-AI partnership. Key Takeaways Human + AI Orchestration Is the New Core Skill: Allen underscores that orchestration is not just about technology—it’s about people managing AI systems effectively. Humans have to view agents as part of the workforce. This means employees must develop skills to coordinate, supervise, and optimize AI agents, treating them as collaborators rather than tools. The ability to orchestrate multiple agents will become a defining competency in modern organizations. Reskilling Must Address Culture and Collaboration One of Allen's strongest points is that reskilling goes beyond technical training. “We need to understand the AI… not just the tools, but also the cultural elements.” Organizations must prepare employees to work alongside AI, interpret outputs, and adapt workflows. This includes fostering trust in AI systems, redefining job roles, and building a culture that embraces continuous learning and collaboration with intelligent agents. MCP is Unlocking Massive Enterprise Efficiency: Smith highlights MCP as a breakthrough, describing it as a “USB-type connector” between AI and enterprise systems. With up to “650,000 actions” now automatable in Dynamics 365, MCP dramatically reduces manual effort. This standard simplifies integration across platforms, accelerates deployment, and enables scalable automation—making it a cornerstone for organizations looking to operationalize AI at scale. Customer-Centric AI Learning is Accelerating Adoption: Allen observes that many professionals are attending the conference not just for internal use, but because “they’re attending this conference… for their customers.” This reflects a shift where AI literacy is becoming essential for delivering value externally. Businesses are recognizing that understanding AI enables them to better anticipate client needs, create new offerings, and remain competitive. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

In today’s Cloud Wars Minute, I question whether OpenAI’s $140 billion enterprise revenue target is a realistic strategy or a speculative leap. Highlights 00:03 — It was announced recently, or revealed recently, that OpenAI expects that its revenue will hit about $280 billion by the year 2030, half of that enterprise, half of it consumer. So that would mean that by 2030, OpenAI, according to this CNBC report citing anonymous, confidential sources, will have its enterprise revenue be about $140 billion in five years, or less than five years now. 00:48 — As Larry Ellison said, “The baby could talk.” There has been a huge amount of interest around OpenAI. It has also stirred up considerable head-scratching with its agreements to purchase $300 billion of AI training and inferencing from Oracle, and about the same amount, maybe even a little more, from Microsoft. Now, all of this has people wondering, who is this company? What's it going to do? 01:47 — They said it's confidential, but they've seen information about OpenAI’s plans, so maybe we need to take this with a grain of salt. And I typically regard anonymous sourcing reports with about the same passion and love that I have for skin rashes. But I think because of the implications here for OpenAI and what it might mean, I thought this was at least worth mentioning. 02:26 — But they also said that, seeing that OpenAI has now changed its projections for how much compute or AI infrastructure spending it needs to do, Sam Altman had recently said it's going to be $1.4 trillion. Well now, according to the CNBC report, he's pulled that back to about $600 billion. That's a cut of $800 billion, or about 57% of the projections. 03:36 — So the more compute spending we do, the more revenue OpenAI is able to get—that is her premise. Now, if they are indeed cutting their compute and AI infrastructure spending by $800 billion, how then does that equate to this explosive revenue growth? And was that premise—that compute growth equals revenue growth—not true? 04:29 — Now, what about if key suppliers such as Oracle and Microsoft, perhaps Google Cloud, perhaps AWS, are also in this expansive scheme by OpenAI to reach $140 billion in enterprise revenue in four and a half years? What if they become competitors? How do they feel about continuing to be the suppliers of this engine of revenue growth? 05:26 — I don't mean in raising these questions to diminish the impact or the potential that OpenAI has. I think, like any fast-growing category creator as OpenAI has been, there's no roadmap, nobody's done this before, there's no playbook, and they've got to make this up as they go along. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

Microsoft is redefining enterprise productivity by positioning Copilot, agents, and unified AI platforms as the operational backbone of next-generation “frontier firms.” Visit Cloud Wars for more.