Donnie Wendt Speaking Topics

• AI: Opportunity, Risk, and Reality — Navigating the Future of Intelligent Systems

  Artificial intelligence is no longer a future concept; it is actively reshaping how organizations operate, make decisions, and compete. Yet despite the rapid adoption of AI, many leaders struggle to separate hype from reality, opportunity from risk, and innovation from unintended consequences.

  In this keynote, Dr. Donnie Wendt provides a clear, practical framework for understanding AI in today’s world. He demystifies how AI works, what it can realistically achieve, and why it sometimes fails in ways that are not immediately obvious. Drawing on over 30 years of experience in cybersecurity and emerging technologies, Donnie explores both the transformative potential of AI and the hidden risks that organizations must manage.

  From decision-making errors and bias to security vulnerabilities and overreliance, this session highlights the critical challenges that come with AI adoption. At the same time, it provides actionable strategies for using AI effectively, responsibly, and securely.

  This keynote is designed for leaders, professionals, and organizations seeking to move beyond experimentation and confidently integrate AI into real-world operations.

  Audience Objectives

  • Understand what AI is, and what it is not
  • Separate AI hype from practical, real-world capability
  • Recognize where AI creates value across industries
  • Identify key risks, including bias, error, and security threats
  • Learn how to build appropriate trust in AI systems
  • Gain a practical framework for responsible and effective AI adoption

• When AI Gets It Wrong: The Hidden Risks Behind Smart Systems

  AI systems can produce confident but incorrect answers—and those mistakes can have real consequences. Unlike traditional software, AI is probabilistic, which means failure is not always obvious.

  This session explores why AI systems fail, how adversarial attacks and data issues impact outcomes, and what organizations can do to build trust in AI without overreliance. Real-world examples highlight how small issues can lead to major consequences.

  Audience Objectives:

  • Understand why AI systems make mistakes
  • Recognize hidden risks such as bias, manipulation, and overconfidence
  • Learn how to validate and oversee AI-driven decisions
  • Build appropriate trust in AI systems

• Secure AI Adoption: From Strategy to Safe Implementation

  Many organizations are rushing to adopt artificial intelligence without fully understanding the risks, governance requirements, or operational challenges. The result is often fragmented initiatives, security gaps, and unintended consequences.

  This session provides a practical roadmap for adopting AI in a secure, responsible, and business-aligned way. Drawing from real-world experience and proven frameworks, Dr. Donnie Wendt outlines how organizations can move from experimentation to sustainable AI adoption.

  Attendees will learn how to align AI initiatives with strategy, establish governance and guardrails, and address key risks across the AI lifecycle—from data and model development to deployment and ongoing operations.

  Audience Objectives

  • Understand the key components of a successful AI strategy
  • Learn how to align AI initiatives with business goals
  • Identify risks across the AI lifecycle, including data, models, and deployment
  • Establish governance, oversight, and responsible AI practices
  • Develop a structured approach to secure and scalable AI adoption

• The Cybersecurity Trinity: AI, Automation, and Active Defense

  Cyber threats are evolving faster than ever, and traditional defenses are no longer enough. This session introduces the Cybersecurity Trinity—a modern approach that combines artificial intelligence, automation, and active defense to strengthen security posture.

  Dr. Donnie Wendt explains how organizations can move beyond reactive security to a more adaptive and resilient model. The session focuses on practical strategies that help teams respond faster, operate more efficiently, and stay ahead of emerging threats.

  Audience Objectives:

  • Understand how AI is transforming cybersecurity
  • Learn how automation improves speed and efficiency in defense
  • Explore strategies for proactive and adaptive security
  • Develop a more cohesive and modern security approach"

• Artificial Intelligence: Cybersecurity’s Friend & Foe

  Artificial intelligence (AI) is fundamentally improving the capabilities of defenders and attackers. Security strategies must account for the dual nature, friend and foe, of AI. Ensuring the security staff is prepared for the future is vital to any strategy. Cybersecurity professionals of the future must understand AI – how to use it, protect it, and defend against it.

  Employing AI for cybersecurity offers tremendous benefits and great promise, for both groups. This discussion seeks to demystify machine learning for the non-data scientist so that cyber security professionals can harness its full potential. This presentation will briefly cover some underlying machine learning concepts and how AI can improve security. We will investigate the vulnerabilities when using AI within cybersecurity and the use of adversarial AI. Finally, we will look at strategies to improve AI-enhanced cybersecurity to ensure your security team is ready for the future. This discussion focuses on using machine learning for cybersecurity; however, the concepts could apply to employing machine learning in any adversarial environment.

  Attendee Objectives

  • Describe the benefits and potential of machine learning for defenders and attackers.
  • Understand the types of attacks that can target AI in an adversarial environment and the associated mitigation tactics.
  • Understand how to increase the security, robustness, and resiliency of AI for cybersecurity by leveraging both traditional methods and adversarial machine learning processes.
  • Develop strategies to improve readiness to defend against emergent AI threats.

• Security Automation: Strategies for Success (and Failure)

  This presentation will explore why companies need security automation and how they can ensure success. Leveraging professional experience and doctoral research into security automation, the presenter will examine the keys to successful security automation, including how to prioritize use cases and build enterprise support. This session will look at how to decide what to automate (and what not to automate), strategies to help ensure a successful security automation program, and lessons learned from success. As a younger brother, the speaker understands the value of learning from his older brothers’ mistakes. Therefore, we will look also look at strategies for failure, including viewing security automation as a cost saving effort.

  Attendee Objectives

  • Describe the benefits of successfully implementing security automation.
  • Develop stategies to ensure success of a security automation program.
  • Understand how to fail when implementing security automation.

Read More +