Fall research agenda

As summer comes to an end – never feels that way in Florida, but I digress – I am looking forward to a packed Fall. Have two big projects, several industry events, a list of video recordings and other items to juggle on the agenda.

Some major goals – in line with the on-going research agenda I shared earlier in the year here, where I said we are seeing a pivot in the software industry

Enterprise AI

AI and ML have been evolving for decades. I hope to hear from vendors about all branches of AI, not just Generative AI. We all heard endless talk about GenAI in the first half of the year. We also heard why vendors believe they are entitled to premium pricing. I want to hear about specific and hopefully differentiated use cases to justify those premiums. Also, examples of customer payback and ROI for that premium.  There is so much talk about “ethical AI”. My definition is I want more candor about how much data volumes vendors are training their machines with. And how they have handled the thorny issues of customer permissions and GDPR compliance around such data. What audit trails and other risk mitigation they are providing their customers around the AI results. In other words, much more detailed conversations at a use case, not just a conceptual, level.

Verticalization and Globalization

Vinnie Vertical is always prodding vendors to showcase what they are doing around industry specific operational applications, especially at the edge of massively changed industries. That’s not changing. However, the shocks of the last few years did not merely transform industries, they have shaken up whole countries. In my travels this year, I have seen seismic changes across many of them. I am pushing vendors to showcase how their MNC customer base has evolved and also what they are doing around rapidly emerging economies. And how their AI training data and use cases are becoming richer as a result of more vertical and global data.

Hope you have had as enjoyable a summer as I have had. Time to look forward to an exciting Fall. We are squarely in the midst of a pivot in the industry.