Tag: IBM

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This Week in Enterprise Tech – Week 55

In this podcast episode of This Week in Enterprise Technology, Hyoun Park and Charles Araujo critically assess the biggest tech news for the CIO office:

  1. NVIDIA Strikes an Agentic Pose with Llama Nemotron
  2. NVIDIA Launches a Laser Show with Photonics Switches
  3. NVIDIA, Google, Disney Take on Reality with Physical AI
  4. NVIDIA Open Sourcing cuOPT
  5. Adobe Summit (How Adobe Can Regain its AI Mojo)
  6. Stop It; Operational Efficiency Is Not Innovation
  7. Research Says Teamwork and AI Make the Dream Work Even Better
  8. We Needed an Executive Order on IT Procurement?
  9. SAP Predicts Data Entry Will Disappear By 2027

Buzzsprout Podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2319034/episodes/16855327

For this video presentation of This Week in Enterprise Technology, Hyoun Park and Charles Araujo critically assess the biggest tech issues for the CIO office:

  1. NVIDIA Strikes an Agentic Pose with Llama Nemotron
  2. NVIDIA Launches a Laser Show with Photonics Switches
  3. NVIDIA, Google, and Disney Take on Reality with Physical AI
  4. NVIDIA Open Sourcing CuOPT
  5. Adobe Summit and How Adobe Can Regain its AI Mojo
  6. Stop it. Operational Efficiency is Not Innovation. 
  7. Research Says Teamwork and AI Make the Dream Work Even Better
  8. We Needed an Executive Order on IT Procurement?
  9. SAP Predicts Data Entry Will Disappear By 2027

NVIDIA Strikes an Agentic Pose with Llama Nemotron

NVIDIA launched the Llama Nemotron models to support agentic AI. Some of the biggest names in tech like Microsoft, SAP, ServiceNow, Accenture, and Deloitte have already committed to using models either to support or augment their current AI efforts. 

We wonder if every tech vendor will end up with their own tweaked versions of Llama that end up fragmenting the market 100 different ways? 

NVIDIA Press Release: https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/nvidia-launches-family-of-open-reasoning-ai-models-for-developers-and-enterprises-to-build-agentic-ai-platforms

CIO Dive’s Lindsey Wilkinson: https://www.ciodive.com/news/Nvidia-gtc-llama-nemotron-model-family-ai-agent-development/742994/?utm_source=AmalgamInsights 

NVIDIA Launches a Laser Show with Photonics Switches

NVIDIA launches silicon photonics networking switches as part of the NVIDIA Spectrum-X Photonics Ethernet and NVIDIA Quantum-X Photonics InfiniBand platforms. If you had told us a few years ago, that Nvidia would bring out the fastest networking equipment for the enterprise, we would have wondered what you were smoking. Charles explains the business logic while Hyoun wonders how long networking providers will continue to be asleep at the wheel. 

NVIDIA: https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/nvidia-spectrum-x-co-packaged-optics-networking-switches-ai-factories

Optics.org: https://optics.org/news/16/3/26

NVIDIA, Google, and Disney Take on Reality with Physical AI

NVIDIA is also working on physical AI with Google on both AI Robotics and in creating an open-source physics engine. The latter effort also includes Disney Research, well known for translating cutting-edge research into customer experiences. Will this reality-simulating exercise make its way into cars or mass transit?


NVIDIA: https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/nvidia-alphabet-and-google-collaborate-on-the-future-of-agentic-and-physical-ai

NVIDIA Open Sourcing CuOPT

NVIDIA opens the floodgates for a well-known analytic use case by open sourcing its cuOPT massively parallelized decision optimization engine. As market leaders including FICO and IBM have already committed to this engine, the strategy seems clear  to drive demand for GPUs. Hyoun and Charles discuss how this execution demonstrates NVIDIA’s focus in use cases in a market that often  struggles to get past nonsensical naming structures. 

NVIDIA: https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/cuopt-open-source/

Adobe Summit and How Adobe Can Regain its AI Mojo

We think Adobe has been a vanguard of AI adoption and innovation, but the tech market at large doesn’t appreciate this role. At Adobe Summit, the tech behemoth made its case for Adobe Experience Platform to be the foundation of a new wave of AI agents for marketers and creatives. Charles and Hyoun debate what else Adobe needs to do to make a case for increased Adobe adoption. 

Adobe on Agents: https://news.adobe.com/news/2025/03/adobe-brings-ai-agents-to-adobe-experience-cloud

Adobe on Gen AI: https://news.adobe.com/news/2025/03/adobe-firefly-services-custom-models-unlock-on-brand-content-production

CIO.com coverage: https://www.cio.com/article/3847382/adobe-makes-agentic-ai-push-with-agent-orchestrator-purpose-built-agents.html 

Stop it. Operational Efficiency is Not Innovation

Strategy consultant Michael Bertha argues that by addressing the “missing middle,” companies can bridge the gap between ideas and execution to innovate. Charles and Hyoun discuss how efficiency and innovation approaches can be quantified and framed. 

CIO.com, Michael Bertha : https://www.cio.com/article/3847331/operational-efficiency-is-not-transformation.html

Research Says Teamwork and AI Make the Dream Work Even Better

Professor Ethan Mollick and a bevy of colleagues from Harvard and P&G came out with a fascinating report showing how AI productivity helps both individuals and groups. Hyoun and Charles dig into this study of P&G revenue and research professionals. Don’t miss Charles’ four-part framework for AI innovation starting with why expert augmentation is a core starting point. 

One Useful Thing – Ethan Mollick: https://www.oneusefulthing.org/p/the-cybernetic-teammate

We Needed an Executive Order on IT Procurement?

It is rare that IT procurement reaches the level of either a CEO or president’s executive memos and public statements. But in 2025, IT procurement has finally reached that stage with a new executive order designed to provide directive action for federal government operations. Hyoun and Charles discuss where this EO makes sense and where it might not pass standard enterprise logic. 

White House Executive Order: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/03/eliminating-waste-and-saving-taxpayer-dollars-by-consolidating-procurement/

The Register’s Brandon Vigliarolo: https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/21/trump_orders_it_contracts_consolidated

SAP Predicts Data Entry Will Disappear By 2027

SAP CEO Christian Klein predicts manual data entry will disappear from SAP by 2027 as SAP continues its focus on trying to look easier and simpler to use. Both Hyoun and Charles have their separate concerns with this messaging as Charles wonders how practical it is and Hyoun wonders if it fits into SAP customer desires. 

CIO’s Ji-Hyun Lee: https://www.cio.com/article/3850705/sap-ceo-christian-klein-ai-transformation-in-korean-enterprises-will-be-driven-by-business-data-cloud-and-jules.html

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This Week in Enterprise Tech , Week 51

This Week in Enterprise Technology, Hyoun Park and Charles Araujo critically assess the biggest tech news for the CIO office:

  1. Microsoft Quantum Takes a Majorana Step Forward
  2. Alibaba and Apple Both Commit $50B to AI
  3. Avaya Cuts Off Customers with <200 Seats
  4. Gitlab Being Sued For Providing Believable AI Hype
  5. TMobile Wins NYC 911 Contract with Network Slicing
  6. Ready for a Personalized AI Agent? PIN AI thinks so
  7. Codeium Raises at Near-$3 Billion Valuation to Assist Coders
  8. Is Your  Most Important Customer AI
  9. xAI Plays Fast and Loose with Grok 3 Benchmarks

Audio Podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2319034/episodes/16688357

Microsoft Quantum Takes a Majorana Step Forward

Microsoft made big news with its quantum announcement of the Majorana chip, which apparently is not marijuana. Charles and Hyoun discuss the quantum science behind this chip and what it could mean for the long-term feature of the CIO.

Source

Wired: https://www.wired.com/story/microsoft-just-claimed-a-quantum-breakthrough-a-quantum-physicist-explains-what-it-means/ 

Alibaba Commits Over $50B to AI, while Apple Goes Further

Alibaba committed $52 billion to AI for the next three years. Although this is more than Alibaba has invested over the past decade in the space, is it enough? Hyoun and Charles discuss the increasingly heated global AI Cold War.

Sources

Morningstar: https://www.morningstar.com/news/dow-jones/20250224715/alibaba-to-spend-more-than-52-billion-in-ai-cloud-over-next-three-years 

The Register: https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/23/asia_tech_news_roundup/ 

The Verge: https://www.theverge.com/news/618172/apple-500-billion-us-investment-tariffs-trump 

Avaya Cuts Off Customers with Fewer than 200 Seats

Avaya plans to cut off cloud-based contact center customers with less than 200 seats in an ongoing trend for large companies to focus more on the enterprise and abandon their smaller customers. Charles and Hyoun ponder what this means for CIOs in managing key business technologies. 

Source
Avaya: https://news.avaya.com/axp-evolution-update-partners 

Gitlab Being Sued For Providing Believable AI Hype

Gitlab is facing multiple lawsuits because they were apparently too optimistic about their AI capabilities. Charles and Hyoun ponder whether this is justified and if the CIO faces potential liability or due diligence concerns. 

Source

The Register: https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/20/gitlab_thrice_sued/ 

T-Mobile Wins NYC 911 Contract with Network Slicing

T-Mobile has won the New York City contract for 911 services based on its ability to provide a capability called network slicing on its 5G network. This allows New York City to carve out a portion of the network for emergency services. Hyoun and Charles wonder if this is a precursor to network slicing used either by vendors or enterprises to gain preferential access to networks and Internet.

Source

Fierce Network: https://www.fierce-network.com/wireless/t-mobile-pushes-network-slicing-major-nyc-deal-announced 

Ready for a Personalized AI Agent? PIN AI Thinks So

PIN AI has an interesting vision for a secure AI agent, including both a local app and large language model to become your personalized intelligence network. Charles and Hyoun discuss how this looks like the future of AI, not just at the personal level, but the enterprise as well.

Source

Fast Company: https://www.fastcompany.com/91278338/pin-ai-encrypted-assistant-app-launch-llm 

Codeium Raises at Near-$3 Billion Valuation to Assist Coders

Codeium, an AI code assistant, is raising money at a $2.85 billion evaluation, making it another new AI unicorn. But what makes Codeium so much more valuable than every other code assistant? Charles and Hyoun wrestle over what makes Codeium special when Anysphere, Microsoft, and Google have all made waves in this market. 

Source

TechCrunch: https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/19/ai-coding-startup-codeium-in-talks-to-raise-at-an-almost-3b-valuation-sources-say/ 

Your Most Important Customer May Be AI

Scott Mulligan of the MIT Technology Review takes on the interesting idea that our most important customer is now AI. Hyoun and Charles discuss why this is so difficult as every AI is starting to establish its own preferences, biases, and limits. 

Source

MIT Technology Review: https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/02/19/1112076/your-most-important-customer-may-be-ai/