In this episode, Keith and special guest Jesse are joined by Anthony Kent, VP of Information Technology at Four County EMC, an electric membership cooperative in North Carolina. Anthony shares insights into the technological advancements and challenges faced by electric cooperatives, particularly focusing on the integration of new technologies and AI into their operations.

Conversation Highlights:
[00:17] Introducing our guests, Anthony Kent and Jesse Erickson
[01:17] How Jesse and Anthony met
[02:46] Anthony's career journey and background
[06:32] Explaining what an electric co-op is
[09:18] Technologies impacting Anthony's role
[15:27] AI in the EMC industry
[19:30] Anthony's integration challenges
[24:51] Learning from failures in his role
[29:13] Innovations in the OT space
[33:41] Anthony's message to IT leaders

Notable Quotes:

• "You need to have some buffers in place to help protect yourself, your data, and your organization, but AI is here to stay. And it's going to be a bigger part of the future going forward." Anthony Kent [12:23]
• "Just keep moving along. We're all human. We all make mistakes. All we can do is just try to be better." Anthony Kent [34:53]

Connect With Anthony Kent
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthony-k-b3ab0b5/
Off the Wire: https://open.spotify.com/show/4hTvTSA935imZPY41wXS39?si=0c7eb684d6754b51

The IT Matters Podcast is about IT matters and matters pertaining to IT. It is produced by Opkalla, a technology advisory firm that helps their clients navigate the confusion in the technology marketplace and choose the solution that is right for their business.