Secure by Design AI for a Modern Utility with Eversource Energy VP & CISO Chris Leigh
Wed Jan 21 2026
On the 36th episode of Enterprise AI Defenders, hosts Evan Reiser and Mike Britton talk with Chris Leigh, VP and Chief Information Security Officer at Eversource Energy. Chris leads security for a regulated, high-stakes utility serving millions across New England. He also owns AI in an uncommon org design that he uses to prove a point: governance does not have to slow innovation if it is built like an engineering function, with repeatable guardrails and clear pathways to ship.
Quick hits from Chris:
On shipping AI faster with standardization: “And that’s allowed us to accelerate our time to delivery by orders of magnitude of three months, down to four weeks, down to two weeks for various sprints.”
On preventing outages with drone inspection: “We’ve put some patterns out on this that allows us to better bring in the imagery and run it through our models and pick up damaged components or hotspots in the wires, which allows us to schedule and do repairs before we actually have power outages.”
On transforming threat intel into action for the SOC: “Any IOCs get popped into our tools automatically.”
Recent Book Recommendation: Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity by Peter Attia, MD
Like what you hear? Leave us a review and subscribe to the show on Apple, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Enterprise AI Defenders is a show where top security executives share how moves to the cloud have created an evolved threat landscape that requires new tools to protect against cybercrime. Find more great lessons from tech leaders and enterprise software experts at https://www.enterprisesoftware.blog/.
Enterprise AI Defenders is produced by Abnormal Studios.
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On the 36th episode of Enterprise AI Defenders, hosts Evan Reiser and Mike Britton talk with Chris Leigh, VP and Chief Information Security Officer at Eversource Energy. Chris leads security for a regulated, high-stakes utility serving millions across New England. He also owns AI in an uncommon org design that he uses to prove a point: governance does not have to slow innovation if it is built like an engineering function, with repeatable guardrails and clear pathways to ship. Quick hits from Chris: On shipping AI faster with standardization: “And that’s allowed us to accelerate our time to delivery by orders of magnitude of three months, down to four weeks, down to two weeks for various sprints.” On preventing outages with drone inspection: “We’ve put some patterns out on this that allows us to better bring in the imagery and run it through our models and pick up damaged components or hotspots in the wires, which allows us to schedule and do repairs before we actually have power outages.” On transforming threat intel into action for the SOC: “Any IOCs get popped into our tools automatically.” Recent Book Recommendation: Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity by Peter Attia, MD Like what you hear? Leave us a review and subscribe to the show on Apple, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Enterprise AI Defenders is a show where top security executives share how moves to the cloud have created an evolved threat landscape that requires new tools to protect against cybercrime. Find more great lessons from tech leaders and enterprise software experts at https://www.enterprisesoftware.blog/. Enterprise AI Defenders is produced by Abnormal Studios.