The eOne team has just returned from Community Summit North America in Nashville, Tennessee, where they had the opportunity to visit with customers and partners about how they’re currently using AI and what their biggest concerns with AI implementation are.

We asked three members of our team to share their takeaways. Together, this gives us a clear sign as to how we can continue to tell the eOne story and provide value for our customers.

Marketing: It’s Still About the People

MacKenzie Harbinson, Content Marketing Specialist, was attending Community Summit for the very first time. With AI top of mind for everyone right now, she expected to hear a lot about it. She arrived with the intention to listen and learn about what people are asking about AI, and tie it back to PopdockAI, so she and the team could figure out exactly how it answers those questions. Whether she was listening to the keynote, sitting in a session, or talking to people on the conference floor, one key theme jumped out to her: even in the age of AI, it’s still all about the people.

“As with anything in marketing, the goal is to show what value your product brings to the table, and the good that comes from it. If we apply that to AI and data integration, I believe it comes down to the end users. It comes down to the people who are actually using these tools, and our goal is to make their jobs easier.”

Using AI without the right foundation limits its impact. MacKenzie noted that clean data and the right context, built on your team’s expertise, give your AI the foundation it needs to drive business forward.

“As someone who was once very hesitant about the adoption of AI, it was refreshing to hear about how people are still the driving force of so much change. Change comes when we imagine what good we can do, and that imagination and intention come from people, even if they use AI to help with the implementation.”

Sales: Security and Governance is Driving the Conversation

Luke Steckler, Director of Global Partner Sales & Strategic Alliances, walked away from Community Summit with a different perspective, also tied to what users actually need.

“My biggest takeaway was how this was eOne’s best Summit in a few years, namely because of PopdockAI and how prevalent AI security and governance are right now. People want to utilize AI and receive the benefits of it. But AI also needs security and governance to be able to be successful across a company.”

When security and governance are at the foundation of AI across systems, scaling users and use cases across the company becomes a lot less scary. Luke also mentioned a conversation he had at the booth the very first night, and how it changed the way he spoke about the value PopdockAI brings.

“Someone showed up with AI security concerns. They’d connected AI to D365 F&O and ADP. It was returning data and they were finding use cases. Then, three days later they realized it would reveal anyone in the company’s salary if prompted. I used to talk about a no-code, cross-system MCP. Now, I say PopdockAI sits between AI and your business systems deciding who gets to see what, before any data moves. Salary data stays where it should. Every request is logged. Security & governance at the top. That’s a key difference between “AI we can use” and “AI we can deploy across the company.”

Product: Companies Are Further Along Now More Than Ever

Several eOne team members had the opportunity to run sessions this year. Chris Dew, Popdock Product Manager, was the speaker in the premier spotlight session “What the heck is MCP?” and ran the demo in eOne’s Partner Showcase Solution session, “eOne + MCP: real-world use cases.”

Having spent time with both the technology and the audience, he came away with the realization of how far AI adoption has come in the past few years, and the impact it’s had on users.

“The biggest takeaway for me was how far along companies are in adopting AI. The conversations have moved past “should we do this?” to harder questions: how do we give AI access to more of our systems, and how do we secure that access? Now that PopdockAI is available to everyone, it’s rewarding to see the product our team has spent almost three years building meet exactly what companies need as they build their AI strategy.”

Try PopdockAI for Free

Customers who have already started using PopdockAI have loved the power of connecting AI to all their apps as well as the security, governance, and peace of mind it provides. You can get started today with a 14-day free trial of PopdockAI. Sign up here.

See You Next Year

Their roles may differ, but the takeaways all line up. AI adoption is moving fast, people are at the center of making it work, and security and governance are what let it scale. The team got a lot out of this year’s Community Summit and can’t wait for next year. See you in Columbus!