Escape Velocity: Arvind Nithrakashyap on Leading Through AI’s Fastest Era

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Arvind Nithrakashyap, Co-founder and CTO of Rubrik, describes this current moment in technology and the impact that AI is having on every organization as unlike anything he has experienced in his 30 years in technology. Having experienced the internet, cloud, and mobile revolutions, he says, "I've never seen something at this pace," likening it to "escape velocity" as advancements compound at extraordinary speed.

He explains that previous technology transformations unfolded gradually, giving organizations and society time to adapt. In contrast, AI-driven changes are happening so quickly that it’s a major challenge for companies “that are not set up to operate or respond at this speed,” he notes. Even experts at the heart of AI development, Arvind thinks, "don't seem to know exactly where things are going – they are predicting, but they are not sure exactly where we will be 12 to 18 months from now.”

Arvind believes this moment is "bigger than any other technology changes so far," raising profound questions about disruption not just in business, but across society. "It is a very different world we live in, and we have to adapt – and it comes with its own set of risks.” 
 

Adapting to Risk and Becoming Resilient in this New Era

Arvind is presenting on the topic of risk and resilience at the upcoming Global CIO Community Executive Summit in his session, “From Recovery to Reputation — The New CIO Mandate.” To preview his session, he shares how AI is reshaping cybersecurity, noting that powerful models mean "you no longer have to be a sophisticated hacker." Now, anyone with access to these models can construct attacks, making breaches more likely. "The assumption is that there are going to be more and more attacks, which means there will be breaches," he explains.

Given this reality, Arvind stresses the importance of preparing for data breaches as a matter of course. "If data is my core IP, how is my data protected?” he asks, urging organizations to focus on how their most valuable information is safeguarded and how they can respond when incidents occur.
 

Attacks are going to happen. Resilience to cyberattacks is the only option.

Arvind also points to the increasing use of AI agents in daily operations, with humans overseeing their work, as another risk to manage. These agents "can easily be compromised by a malicious attacker, may hallucinate a lot, and can make mistakes.” He acknowledges that “humans make mistakes, too, but agent mistakes can compound very quickly because of the speed at which they operate.” For Arvind, this means resilience strategies must evolve: "You need your resilience platform to be able to operate at the speed of AI," ensuring organizations can recover quickly from both security breaches and agent errors in this new era.

This transition also requires a mindset shift for IT and security leaders. Arvind explains that “historically, resilience meant dealing with human-driven cyber attacks – so there are systems in place today that are built for that phenomena.” Now, CIOs and CISOs must re-think their resilience strategies with the lens that “these are going to be AI-driven attacks.”

Arvind adds, “It can't be humans trying to figure this out. The platform itself needs to act like an agent. We believe that's the reality of where we are headed in a very short period of time – and the platform we're building is ready to try and address those two key problems.” 
 

Navigating the Tech World and Becoming a Startup Founder

His extensive background in technology gives Arvind a unique perspective from which to lead at Rubrik in this new AI era. Arvind began his career at Oracle after earning his master's degree from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, joining the core database team as a software engineer. He gradually took on leadership roles and mentoring others as he contributed to major projects across Oracle's database products.

Arvind had the rare opportunity to help launch a new product at Oracle – what would eventually become Exadata. It was not long before he realized the challenges of innovating within a large organization, recalling, "It took us nearly three and a half years to get the first version out. That's when I realized that if you were at a startup, you would be on version three or four by then.” 

Seeking that experience, he joined a small company in the customer data integration space to “learn the startup ropes and see where it goes,” he says. There, he gained broader exposure to the business side and left when the company was acquired by Dun & Bradstreet. Arvind then joined Rocketfuel, an advertising startup, where he was tasked with building a real-time ad buying platform. Reflecting on this period, he highlights the excitement of working in a fast-moving environment and going public. 

As Rocketfuel went public, he reconnected with Bipul Sinha, a venture capitalist who he had worked with at Oracle. Together, they brainstormed on the idea that would eventually become Rubrik. “As we started talking more, we decided that this looks really big and said – let’s jump out and let's do this together,” he shares. “We added a couple of more co-founders and started Rubrik back in 2014.” Arvind adds, “Interestingly, what we had envisioned as the product in those early days – fundamentally, it's still the same. Of course, it's more sophisticated and complex, but the core is still the same.” 

Arvind shares that his leadership principles at Rubrik were shaped by necessity, as he hadn’t led large teams before. He explains, “I had to form my own principles and methodologies in some ways,” emphasizing the importance of building trust within his team. “You want to hire people with higher horsepower, who are motivated and can drive things,” he shares. “But at the same time, you need the kind of trust where people will tell you to your face when something is not going right.”
 

At the end of the day, I think the success we achieve is based on the team that you have.

He believes that success is rooted in culture and describes his approach as creating a “circle of trust” with his team. Arvind says, “As leaders, you need to be able to go deep where needed, but also up-level the conversation,” underscoring the importance of both hands-on involvement and strategic oversight as the organization scales. “You can't be everywhere as the company grows, so that’s where you need to trust your leaders,” he says.
 

Driving AI Transformation at Rubrik

In his role at Rubrik today, Arvind is focused on harnessing AI to transform the company across three major areas. First, he highlights the "internal AI transformation," where AI is reshaping how Rubrik operates – from software development to business processes and go-to-market strategies. "AI can completely transform how the company operates," he explains, emphasizing the need to re-architect internal processes to become more AI-native.

Secondly, Arvind is working on evolving Rubrik’s products to meet the demands of the new AI era, turning their offerings into agents that enable cyber resilience for customers. Finally, he is focused on supporting customers as they build their own AI agents, providing "the right kind of governance and security framework" to protect against mistakes, hallucinations, and attacks. He describes his role as helping both Rubrik and its customers "rethink how you operate in this new world.”
 

If you are already a member of the Gartner Global CIO Community, you can join Arvind’s session “From Recovery to Reputation — The New CIO Mandate” at the upcoming Global CIO Community Executive Summit by registering in the app. If you are not yet a member of a Gartner CIO community, apply to join here.
 

Special thanks to Arvind Nithrakashyap and Rubrik.