Eric Vaughan Headlines FT Future of AI Summit: A Playbook for Product Teams
IgniteTech announced that CEO Eric Vaughan will sit down for a keynote interview on Day One of the Financial Times Future of AI Summit in London on November 5, 2025. Interviewed by FT senior business writer Andrew Hill, Vaughan will break down how AI is changing how people work and how products get built.
Vaughan leads IgniteTech, Khoros, and GFI Software. He's widely recognized for turning IgniteTech into an AI-first company starting in 2023-embedding "AI-DNA" into how teams operate, ship, and improve products.
Why this matters for product development
AI isn't just a feature layer-it's an operating shift. Vaughan's lens is simple: put people at the center and use AI to amplify what they can do, faster and with more confidence.
- Adopt "AI-first" as default: before you start any project, ask where AI can support, improve, or deliver the task end-to-end.
- Embed AI across the lifecycle: discovery, UX research, design, prototyping, code generation/review, QA, release notes, support.
- Keep humans in control: set decision rights, review thresholds, and live handoffs for sensitive actions.
- Instrument outcomes: track cycle time, PR throughput, defect escape rate, CSAT, time-to-first-response, and an "AI contribution rate."
- Operationalize prompts and models: version prompts, document contexts, govern datasets, and define rollback plans.
- Design for multilingual from day one: treat global responses as default, not an add-on.
- Train the team weekly: short playbooks, practical examples, and shadow-mode trials before autonomous tasks.
Inside IgniteTech's AI-DNA operating model
Under Vaughan's leadership, the company rebuilt its habits around AI. No project kicks off without checking where AI can assist or carry the load. That shift turns ideation and execution into a tighter loop-and it scales across the portfolio.
As Vaughan puts it, "AI's greatest potential is unlocking human capability we never knew existed." The point isn't replacing people-it's building confidence and reach so teams move faster and achieve more.
New products to watch
MyPersonas creates on-demand digital clones of key employees so their knowledge is available 24/7 in video chat format. The human can also join the conversation live for high-stakes cases. Teams can preserve expert know-how, speed onboarding, and reduce escalation churn.
Eloquens AI manages inbound email inquiries and sends customized, knowledge-grounded replies in under five minutes, 24/7. It keeps tone personal and consistent, and it can respond in over 160 languages-useful for global product launches and support commitments.
- Outcome focus: scale institutional knowledge and protect quality with human override.
- Operational gains: shorter response times, consistent messaging, and reduced load on SMEs.
- Global by default: multilingual support built in, not bolted on.
Event details
Vaughan will share the stage with technology leaders including web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Meta's chief AI scientist Yann LeCun, and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Learn more about the event on the Financial Times site: FT Future of AI Summit.
A 30-day action plan for product leaders
- Week 1: Audit your roadmap and backlog for AI assist/automation opportunities. Define guardrails and review steps.
- Week 2: Pilot an internal "AI-first" workflow (e.g., user research synthesis, PRD drafting, test generation). Track time saved and quality.
- Week 3: Stand up prompt/version management. Add metrics to dashboards (cycle time, defects, response SLAs, AI contribution).
- Week 4: Roll out multilingual support for a top customer touchpoint. Add human handoff and post-launch QA loop.
About IgniteTech
IgniteTech is a global, AI-first enterprise software company helping organizations grow revenue, optimize expenses, and transform through advanced AI-driven solutions. With 30+ years in mission-critical software and a track record of acquisitions, IgniteTech has added AI capabilities across its entire portfolio since 2023.
Contacts
Media: jeannie@firecrackerpr.com
Business: software@ignitetech.com
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