Results

ServiceNow adds more tuck-in acquisitions to build out industry, operational technology offerings

Larry Dignan
Editor in Chief of Constellation Insights Constellation Research

About Larry Dignan: Dignan was most recently Celonis Media’s Editor-in-Chief, where he sat at the intersection of media and marketing. He is the former Editor-in-Chief of ZDNet and has covered the technology industry and transformation trends for more than two decades, publishing articles in CNET, Knowledge@Wharton, Wall Street Week, Interactive Week, The New York Times, and Financial Planning. He is also an Adjunct Professor at Temple University and a member of the Advisory Board for The Fox Business School's Institute of Business and Information Technology.  Constellation Insights does the following: Cover the buy side and sell side of enterprise tech with news, analysis, profiles, interviews, and event coverage of vendors, as well as Constellation Research's community and…...

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ServiceNow continues to go shopping. the company said it has acquired 4Industry, a Netherlands company and partner focused on manufacturing, and Smart Daily Management, a connected worker application from EY.

The most recent deals bolster ServiceNow's current portfolio of operational technology offerings that are focused on manufacturing, energy and transportation and logistics.

In February, ServiceNow said it acquired Atrinet's NetACE technology to better focus on telecommunications companies. In December, ServiceNow acquired UltimateSuite for task mining tools.

ServiceNow's broader strategy with these deals is to take apps that are critical to industries and replatform them on its Now platform. For instance, UltimateSuite will be added to its platform. Atrinet NetACE will be replatformed to ServiceNow. And 4Industry, which provides an app with tasks, knowledge base and data for field workers, was already on ServiceNow's platform.

By adding these smaller acquisitions, ServiceNow can integrate them and then launch new products. 4Industry and the Smart Daily Management application will be used to build a new Connected Worker service on the ServiceNow platform in 2025.

Terms of the aforementioned deals weren't disclosed.

Data to Decisions Future of Work servicenow Chief Information Officer

Cisco closes Splunk purchase, previews integrations ahead

Larry Dignan
Editor in Chief of Constellation Insights Constellation Research

About Larry Dignan: Dignan was most recently Celonis Media’s Editor-in-Chief, where he sat at the intersection of media and marketing. He is the former Editor-in-Chief of ZDNet and has covered the technology industry and transformation trends for more than two decades, publishing articles in CNET, Knowledge@Wharton, Wall Street Week, Interactive Week, The New York Times, and Financial Planning. He is also an Adjunct Professor at Temple University and a member of the Advisory Board for The Fox Business School's Institute of Business and Information Technology.  Constellation Insights does the following: Cover the buy side and sell side of enterprise tech with news, analysis, profiles, interviews, and event coverage of vendors, as well as Constellation Research's community and…...

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Cisco closed its $28 billion purchase of Splunk and outlined what'll be a steady drumbeat of product integrations in the months ahead.

In a blog post outlining what's next for customers, Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins and Splunk Executive Vice President and General Manager Gary Steele said the unified company will be heavily focused on security and observability.

With the deal closed, Cisco becomes one of the largest enterprise software companies and retools its business mix. Here's how the product integrations will play out:

  • Cisco's Talos threat intelligence will be embedded into Splunk's cybersecurity offerings.
  • Cisco and Splunk will unify AI assistants for security so there's a common experience across the combined portfolio.
  • Splunk's SIEM and SOAR platforms will leverage Cisco's cloud, network and endpoint analytics.
  • The companies will combine for a full-stack observability platform to work across clouds. The integration will start with a common experience and workflow optimizations across Cisco and Splunk observability offerings.
  • Over time, the combined Cisco and Splunk observability products will include AI-driven root cause enhancements and assistants including Splunk IT Service Intelligence.

Splunk and Cisco will also combine data for networking and AI deployments. More details about the Cisco integration of Splunk will land in June. Cisco Live is June 2-4 and Splunk's .conf24 is June 11-14.

Data to Decisions Digital Safety, Privacy & Cybersecurity Tech Optimization Innovation & Product-led Growth Future of Work Splunk cisco systems Chief Information Officer Chief Information Security Officer

New Analysis: Nvidia GTC 2024 Is The Davos of AI

Media Name: @rwang0 @cnbc @squawkbox @BeckyQuick @nvidiia #GTC24 shot.png
R "Ray" Wang
Principal Analyst and Founder Constellation Research

R “Ray” Wang is the CEO of Silicon Valley-based Constellation Research Inc. He co-hosts DisrupTV, a weekly enterprise tech and leadership webcast that averages 50,000 views per episode and blogs at www.raywang.org. His ground-breaking best-selling book on digital transformation, Disrupting Digital Business, was published by Harvard Business Review Press in 2015. Ray's new book about Digital Giants and the future of business, titled, Everybody Wants to Rule The World was released in July 2021. Wang is well-quoted and frequently interviewed by media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, Fox Business, CNBC, Yahoo Finance, Cheddar, and Bloomberg. Short Bio R “Ray” Wang (pronounced WAHNG) is the Founder, Chairman, and Principal Analyst of Silicon Valley-based Constellation…...

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New Chips, New Business Models Ahead In Accelerated Computing

Nvidia stock is up 267% YoY.  With over 10,000 people in physical attendance and up to 100,000 people virtually attending, this could be the largest AI conference. All eyes on the next wave for AI with CEO Jensen Huang ready to keynote at 1:00 pm PT at the SAP Center in San Jose.  The key things to look for in the keynote:

  • New B100 Chip replacement.  Built by TSMC, the new chips are expected to be advanced 3nm design.  NVIDIA will take advantage of the two dieTSMC's CoWoS-L (Chip-on-Wafer-On-Substrate-L) advanced 2.5D packaging technology to get larger processors.  Should Nvidia move from the monolithic design to a multi-chip module (MCM) approach, the chip maker could create faster derivatives and shorten its product cycle.
  • CUDA advancements. This is the software layer that allows software companies to harness the power of the GPUs
  • Key vertical expansion.  Healthcare, pharma, defense, and public sector consume massive workloads.
  • Partnerships across the AI ecosystem. Expect announcements from partners such as OpenAI, Microsoft, Amazon, and Google, Meta, Micron, Oracle, Super Micro, Dell, Intel, and more.
  • Sovereign AI growth.  Nvidia is focusing beyond data centers and serving governments for sovereign AI.

Chips Are The Foundational First Inning Of A Nine Inning Age Of AI

The winners of the internet weren’t the early infrastructure companies They were the companies that built their business model on the internet as a key distribution channel.  In AI, it will be the companies that take advantage of the full-stack of AI.  Software companies will drive the second inning.  But the third and fourth innings will be the innovative companies who use AI as their core business model.  For example, in the war for refrigeration, it wasn't the appliance manufacturers that won, it was actually Coca Cola that innovated a new market for cold beverages.

 

 

 

Your POV

Will you be ready for Nvidia's new AI chip? Can competitors catch up?

Add your comments to the blog or reach me via email: R (at) ConstellationR (dot) com or R (at) SoftwareInsider (dot) org. Please let us know if you need help with your strategy efforts. Here’s how we can assist:

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Although we work closely with many mega software vendors, we want you to trust us. For the full disclosure policy,stay tuned for the full client list on the Constellation Research website. * Not responsible for any factual errors or omissions.  However, happy to correct any errors upon email receipt.

Constellation Research recommends that readers consult a stock professional for their investment guidance. Investors should understand the potential conflicts of interest analysts might face. Constellation does not underwrite or own the securities of the companies the analysts cover. Analysts themselves sometimes own stocks in the companies they cover—either directly or indirectly, such as through employee stock-purchase pools in which they and their colleagues participate. As a general matter, investors should not rely solely on an analyst’s recommendation when deciding whether to buy, hold, or sell a stock. Instead, they should also do their own research—such as reading the prospectus for new companies or for public companies, the quarterly and annual reports filed with the SEC—to confirm whether a particular investment is appropriate for them in light of their individual financial circumstances.

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Data to Decisions Digital Safety, Privacy & Cybersecurity Future of Work Marketing Transformation Matrix Commerce New C-Suite Next-Generation Customer Experience Tech Optimization Innovation & Product-led Growth intel AMD meta openai dell Insider Associates nvidia Google SoftwareInsider amazon Oracle Microsoft ML Machine Learning LLMs Agentic AI Generative AI Robotics AI Analytics Automation Quantum Computing Cloud Digital Transformation Disruptive Technology Enterprise IT Enterprise Acceleration Enterprise Software Next Gen Apps IoT Blockchain Leadership VR AR Chief Analytics Officer Chief Customer Officer Chief Data Officer Chief Digital Officer Chief Executive Officer Chief Financial Officer Chief Information Officer Chief Information Security Officer Chief Marketing Officer Chief People Officer Chief Privacy Officer Chief Procurement Officer Chief Revenue Officer Chief Supply Chain Officer Chief Sustainability Officer Chief Technology Officer Chief AI Officer Chief Product Officer Chief Experience Officer

Multi-cloud computing isn't 'a bunch of separate clouds'

Larry Dignan
Editor in Chief of Constellation Insights Constellation Research

About Larry Dignan: Dignan was most recently Celonis Media’s Editor-in-Chief, where he sat at the intersection of media and marketing. He is the former Editor-in-Chief of ZDNet and has covered the technology industry and transformation trends for more than two decades, publishing articles in CNET, Knowledge@Wharton, Wall Street Week, Interactive Week, The New York Times, and Financial Planning. He is also an Adjunct Professor at Temple University and a member of the Advisory Board for The Fox Business School's Institute of Business and Information Technology.  Constellation Insights does the following: Cover the buy side and sell side of enterprise tech with news, analysis, profiles, interviews, and event coverage of vendors, as well as Constellation Research's community and…...

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This post first appeared in the Constellation Insight newsletter, which features bespoke content weekly and is brought to you by Hitachi Vantara.

Oracle CTO Larry Ellison can play multiple roles: Enterprise technology troll, provocateur, visionary and swashbuckling billionaire who will make big bets even when believers are few and far between.

Given that backdrop, Oracle's earnings conference calls are usually worth a listen. Ellison, along with Oracle CEO Safra Catz, did a victory lap as infrastructure-as-a-service revenue was up 49% in the third quarter. Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) has GPUs from Nvidia and is only lacking capacity to grow faster. To that end, Oracle is building data centers as fast as it can.

Many of those data centers are being built to run OCI Database Services within Microsoft Azure data centers. Oracle is also building out OCI data centers for countries that want to keep their data and large language models (LLMs) in country.

Toward the end of Oracle's conference call, Ellison dropped some knowledge on how multi-cloud environments should work. Apparently, Oracle Database@Azure can be a model for other hyperscalers. I chuckled at the idea since the only reason the Oracle-Microsoft deal works is because both have mutual enemies in Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud and mutual customers.

Ellison's take on multi-cloud is that Oracle's Autonomous Database would be the reason multiple hyperscalers would partner with the company. Ellison said (emphasis mine):

"We expect the multi-cloud initiative to continue to expand amongst other hyperscalers where we build OCI regions inside of and coexisting with their existing cloud infrastructure. We think the era of walled gardens is coming to an end. What customers really want is the ability to use multiple clouds to talk to one another. It is really called cloud computing. It's not called a bunch of separate clouds. We expect multi-cloud to become the norm and Oracle DB to be available everywhere. We think that will preserve our franchise in database because the autonomous database is a unique piece of technology, and there's nothing like it in the world. No one else is working on anything like that. No one else is even trying to duplicate the autonomous database. We think it will be it will become a very successful product. In every cloud."

A few takeaways from Ellison's comments.

  • Walled gardens do need to end, but that doesn't mean they will.
  • Interoperability between all the hyperscalers would be swell.
  • Interoperability would also help blend private cloud infrastructure, which will play a role in AI workloads. Constellation Research analyst Dion Hinchcliffe has argued that AI workloads will fundamentally change cloud economic models.
  • Oracle can prod the likes of AWS and Google Cloud to do Oracle DB deals because the company could always make support more difficult on those clouds.
  • Sure, Ellison is talking up Oracle Autonomous Database, but the technology is unique enough to make strange bedfellows.
  • Customers may demand more interoperability to make it easier to mix and match hyperscale compute.
  • The Oracle Database@Azure model isn't much different than retail store-within-a-store partnerships (Kohl's-Amazon, Kohl's Sephora, Apple in Best Buy etc.).
  • Oracle co-location strategy within other cloud data centers has lower capital expenses and gives the company more coverage. Simply put, Oracle Database@Azure, @AWS and @Google Cloud is damn good strategy and joint customers are everywhere.

Today, multi-cloud really just means there are two or three providers operating in silos. For instance, Equifax uses AWS for Oracle mission critical workloads and Google Cloud for its data layer. Despite "all-in" press releases, most enterprises prefer to have a second cloud provider to keep the primary one honest.

Regulators may also push these hyperscale cloud partnerships between archenemies. AWS recently said it will offer free data transfer for enterprises leaving the cloud. That move follows a similar announcement by Google Cloud. Microsoft Azure matched those announcements. You should check out the fine print on all those announcements.

The Federal Trade Commission has launched an inquiry into cloud computing business practices including data egress fees, software licensing and minimum usage contracts.

It's unclear whether regulators and Ellison will spur hyperscale cloud harmony, but stranger things have happened.

Tech Optimization Microsoft Oracle Chief Information Officer

Chirag Mehta on the intersection of cybersecurity, design thinking and AI

Larry Dignan
Editor in Chief of Constellation Insights Constellation Research

About Larry Dignan: Dignan was most recently Celonis Media’s Editor-in-Chief, where he sat at the intersection of media and marketing. He is the former Editor-in-Chief of ZDNet and has covered the technology industry and transformation trends for more than two decades, publishing articles in CNET, Knowledge@Wharton, Wall Street Week, Interactive Week, The New York Times, and Financial Planning. He is also an Adjunct Professor at Temple University and a member of the Advisory Board for The Fox Business School's Institute of Business and Information Technology.  Constellation Insights does the following: Cover the buy side and sell side of enterprise tech with news, analysis, profiles, interviews, and event coverage of vendors, as well as Constellation Research's community and…...

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New Constellation Research analyst Chirag Mehta outlined his approach to cybersecurity on DisrupTV. Chirag is the former Chief Product Officer at SaaS vendors Zipline and iCIMS and held various leadership roles at Google and SAP.

Here are a few takeaways from his DisrupTV appearance.

The variables in cybersecurity. Mehta said there are three key parts to cybersecurity. First, data driven signals and what a company can infer from them and respond. The second part is the human story. "We human beings are inherently trustworthy," he said. And third, what does the response look like? "We're all going to get breached. How can I respond to the test? What does that incident response kind of system look like?"

Design thinking and cybersecurity. Mehta's previous stints revolved around developing applications and products at enterprise software companies. He focuses on design thinking to humanize cybersecurity for CXOs. "You need to be proactive, more outcome based, and risk based," said Mehta. "I'm passionate about helping CXOs find their way and make their organizations more secure."

 

AI and cybersecurity. Perimeter and network-based approaches to cybersecurity are often flawed because "your employees are everywhere, and your data is everywhere." As a result, "AI has a role in creating a dynamic perimeter and what's going on in my environment," said Mehta. "The dynamic AI perimeter will happen, and the reason is the rise of AI means all of these problems are not solvable by human beings."

"Sophisticated, AI-driven attacks need a sophisticated response, which is AI-driven," said Mehta.

"You're going to have access to a vast amount of data telemetry, all the signals that you can analyze, and you can actually defend, including the behavior of your end users. You can defend against these attacks," he said.

What is emerging is cybersecurity platforms that use AI to become a cyber operating system.

ROI and cybersecurity. CXOs have said that cybersecurity budgets have been poached in the last year for AI projects. Mehta said that focus on returns is misplaced. He said:

"Security is cost of doing business. If you don't have security, you won't have business, and then you won't have ROI on anything else. It's not very clear to most leaders that they need to invest into foundational technology so that they can actually have a business, invest in generative AI and everything else in the digital transformation journey. Cybersecurity is not an optional thing."

Cybersecurity is a risk-based investment since one mistake can hit your stock price, result in SEC disclosure and harm the business, said Mehta. Enterprises will use AI to model various threat vectors and have a defense for any given situation.

By nature, defenses will have to become more autonomous. "If the idea is that a human has to get involved when there's an attack you're not going to scale," said Mehta.

 

Data to Decisions Innovation & Product-led Growth Future of Work Tech Optimization Next-Generation Customer Experience Digital Safety, Privacy & Cybersecurity AI GenerativeAI ML Machine Learning LLMs Agentic AI Analytics Automation Disruptive Technology cybersecurity Security Zero Trust Chief Information Security Officer Chief Privacy Officer Chief AI Officer Chief Experience Officer

Ethical Marketing: Navigating the Dark Arts of Paid Marketing & Bot-Driven Metrics in an Age of AI

Liz Miller
Vice President & Principal Analyst Constellation Research

About Liz Miller: Liz Miller is Vice President and Principal Analyst at Constellation, focused on the org-wide team sport known as customer experience. While covering CX as an enterprise strategy, Miller spends time zeroing in on the functional demands of Marketing and Service and the evolving role of the Chief Marketing Officer, the rise of the Chief Experience Officer, the evolution of customer engagement and the rising requirement for a new security posture that accounts for the threat to brand trust in this age of AI.  With over 30 years of marketing, Miller offers strategic guidance on the leadership, business transformation and technology requirements to deliver on today’s CX strategies. She has worked with global marketing organizations to transform…...

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R "Ray" Wang
Principal Analyst and Founder Constellation Research

R “Ray” Wang is the CEO of Silicon Valley-based Constellation Research Inc. He co-hosts DisrupTV, a weekly enterprise tech and leadership webcast that averages 50,000 views per episode and blogs at www.raywang.org. His ground-breaking best-selling book on digital transformation, Disrupting Digital Business, was published by Harvard Business Review Press in 2015. Ray's new book about Digital Giants and the future of business, titled, Everybody Wants to Rule The World was released in July 2021. Wang is well-quoted and frequently interviewed by media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, Fox Business, CNBC, Yahoo Finance, Cheddar, and Bloomberg. Short Bio R “Ray” Wang (pronounced WAHNG) is the Founder, Chairman, and Principal Analyst of Silicon Valley-based Constellation…...

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Larry Dignan
Editor in Chief of Constellation Insights Constellation Research

About Larry Dignan: Dignan was most recently Celonis Media’s Editor-in-Chief, where he sat at the intersection of media and marketing. He is the former Editor-in-Chief of ZDNet and has covered the technology industry and transformation trends for more than two decades, publishing articles in CNET, Knowledge@Wharton, Wall Street Week, Interactive Week, The New York Times, and Financial Planning. He is also an Adjunct Professor at Temple University and a member of the Advisory Board for The Fox Business School's Institute of Business and Information Technology.  Constellation Insights does the following: Cover the buy side and sell side of enterprise tech with news, analysis, profiles, interviews, and event coverage of vendors, as well as Constellation Research's community and…...

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CRTV SPECIAL EDITION: Ethical Marketing - Navigating The Dark Arts And Temptations Of Paid Marketing And Bot-Driven Metrics In an Age of AI

In this special ConstellationTV live episode, CEO and founder R "Ray" Wang moderates a live panel of industry experts for a complimentary workshop on operating with trust and integrity in today’s #marketing landscape. You won't want to miss insights from the following experts:

  • John Furrier, Cofounder & CEO of SiliconANGLE & theCUBE
  • Crystal G., VP of CX and Ops, ARInsights
  • Molly Lauck, Director of Communications, CMTA
  • Ludovic Leforestier / Founder, Starsight Communications & The IIAR (Institute of Influencer & Analyst Relations) Board Member
  • Larry Dignan, Editor in Chief, Constellation Research, Inc. Insights
  • Liz Miller, VP & Principal Analyst, Constellation Research, Inc.

Topics covered in today's session include:

  • The impact of paid #media vs organic audiences
  • What are sustainable approaches to building influence and audience
  • Where you can go to support independent #analysts and media who participate with integrity
  • What are the leading practices to building an audience with both paid media and organic approaches
  • What are the key marketing metrics in an Age of AI

ConstellationTV is a bi-weekly web series hosted by Constellation analysts, tune in live at 9 AM PT/ 12 PM ET every other Wednesday! Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://lnkd.in/gSw27hBU

On ConstellationTV <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Bs8fanTgzOY?si=ySrzAFniHaFQff1Y" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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Adobe: Strong Q1, outlook a bit light, GenAI on deck for Experience Cloud

Larry Dignan
Editor in Chief of Constellation Insights Constellation Research

About Larry Dignan: Dignan was most recently Celonis Media’s Editor-in-Chief, where he sat at the intersection of media and marketing. He is the former Editor-in-Chief of ZDNet and has covered the technology industry and transformation trends for more than two decades, publishing articles in CNET, Knowledge@Wharton, Wall Street Week, Interactive Week, The New York Times, and Financial Planning. He is also an Adjunct Professor at Temple University and a member of the Advisory Board for The Fox Business School's Institute of Business and Information Technology.&nbsp; Constellation Insights does the following: Cover the buy side and sell side of enterprise tech with news, analysis, profiles, interviews, and event coverage of vendors, as well as Constellation Research's community and…...

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Adobe delivered a strong first quarter, but its outlook missed expectations.

The company, which recently dropped its plans to acquire Figma, reported first quarter earnings of $1.36 a share on revenue of $5.18 billion, up 11% from a year ago. Non-GAAP earnings in the first quarter were $4.48 a share.

Wall Street was looking for first quarter non-GAAP earnings of $4.38 a share on revenue of $5.14 billion.

As for the outlook, Adobe projected second quarter revenue of $5.25 billion to $5.3 billion with non-GAAP earnings of $4.35 a share to $4.40 a share. Analysts were looking for $4.38 a share and $5.31 billion in revenue.

For each of its product areas, Adobe posted double-digit percentage growth rates. Digital Media revenue was up 12% from a year ago, Creative revenue was up 11% and Document Cloud posted growth of 18%.

In prepared remarks, Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen said the company is seeing strong traction with its generative AI rollout across the product portfolio. He said:

"We have innovated by delivering generative AI directly in products—with releases in Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and Express across both desktop and mobile. AI Assistant in Acrobat and Reader unlocks the tremendous value of the trillions of PDFs around the world. We’re bringing generative AI to Adobe Experience Cloud and will demonstrate our AI Assistant for customer experience management at Adobe Summit."

Marketing Transformation Next-Generation Customer Experience Data to Decisions Innovation & Product-led Growth Future of Work Tech Optimization Digital Safety, Privacy & Cybersecurity adobe ML Machine Learning LLMs Agentic AI Generative AI AI Analytics Automation business Marketing SaaS PaaS IaaS Digital Transformation Disruptive Technology Enterprise IT Enterprise Acceleration Enterprise Software Next Gen Apps IoT Blockchain CRM ERP finance Healthcare Customer Service Content Management Collaboration GenerativeAI Chief Information Officer Chief Executive Officer Chief Technology Officer Chief AI Officer Chief Data Officer Chief Analytics Officer Chief Information Security Officer Chief Product Officer

What if a Trillion PDFs Could Talk?

Liz Miller
Vice President & Principal Analyst Constellation Research

About Liz Miller: Liz Miller is Vice President and Principal Analyst at Constellation, focused on the org-wide team sport known as customer experience. While covering CX as an enterprise strategy, Miller spends time zeroing in on the functional demands of Marketing and Service and the evolving role&nbsp;of the&nbsp;Chief Marketing Officer, the rise of the Chief Experience Officer, the evolution of customer engagement and the rising requirement for a new security posture that accounts for the threat to brand trust in this age of AI. &nbsp;With over 30 years of marketing, Miller offers strategic&nbsp;guidance on the leadership, business transformation and technology requirements to deliver on&nbsp;today’s CX strategies. She has worked with global&nbsp;marketing organizations to transform…...

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No matter where you turn these days, you are bound to hear about a little something called generative AI. I’ve said it before…AI is really a “thing” now. Don’t misunderstand my sarcasm: Generative pretrained transformers are not new. Neither is artificial intelligence or the models that power them. But within the last year, we’ve seen leaps and bounds in how these innovations are being brought together in the name of productivity.

Case in point: The AI Assistant in Adobe Acrobat and Reader. That’s right…your PDF just got chattier.

What’s the News Here?

Adobe has launched a beta of an AI Assistant that brings conversational and generative AI capabilities to Reader and Adobe Acrobat. Essentially, this new “conversational engine” can summarize the content of a document supported by Acrobat or Reader, answer questions, and recommend more questions based on the content. The models behind Acrobat Liquid Mode bring responsive reading for PDFs on mobile devices, and Adobe’s unique understanding of different document file formats and structures boosts the quality of responses, output and recommendations.

In researching this post, I have played with the beta, and I have to agree that the responses are accurate, but also noted that often the answers were supplemented with citations and additional summaries and insights from across a couple very lengthy documents. I found that reading a document and also leveraging the AI Assistant got me to dig deeper into some thoughts which was something I wasn’t necessarily expecting from the experience.

In the beta, Adobe Acrobat and Reader now include:

  • AI Assistant: Answers questions directly from users in a highly interactive and conversational manner, recommends and delivered suggested and custom questions based on the content of the document.
  • Generative summary: short overviews of content in easy-to-read format.
  • Intelligent citations: attribution engine and generative AI created citations to verify the source of AI Assistant’s summaries and answers to user questions.

The AI Assistant beta is currently available, allowing Acrobat Reader and Acrobat Individual, Pro and Teams customers to simply open their applications and start chatting with their documents today. There is also a private beta for enterprise customers. New features will be coming over the next several weeks. For the time being, these features are available on desktop and web. English is currently supported, but Adobe notes that other languages are soon to follow. Once out of beta, Adobe plans to release a new add-on subscription plan for the full range of AI Assistant capabilities. Currently, there is no word on how long AI Assistant is expected to be in beta, but there is already an extensive roadmap of future capabilities.

What’s the Impact Here?

Adobe’s AI Assistant brings the summary and productivity power of AI to the gold standard in business documentation. I struggle to think of the last time a white paper, contract or user manual wasn’t delivered in a large, multi-page PDF. Now…those PDFs can talk. Or rather…they can listen and then talk back with these new conversational AI functions. The impact on productivity and usability of documents is unquestionable. Imagine being able to just ask product guide how to troubleshoot, or pinpoint exactly where specific phrases or critical details like pricing are in a document. Imagine being able to ask if there are any differences in that pricing. Teams can start to ask for summaries of trends, send meeting notes or chapter summaries, or ask AI to identify anomalies in documents like contracts.
 

What Makes Me Lean in Here?

While the usability of the AI Assistant is unquestionable, we must think about how we as content marketers and creators need to plan and perhaps even write differently thanks to AI Assistants and copilots like this one from Adobe. As a content marketer, things like chapters, bookmarks, clickable links, sticky notes, and comments are lifeline tools when using a PDF as the delivery mechanism for your thought leadership. Afterall, you don’t just “export as PDF” and call it a day.

In this age of Generative AI, we will need to think differently and create within new mental models. When I launched Adobe Acrobat and opened a recent report I had written, I was greeted by the AI Assistant who “knew me” by name and it said, “I’m here to help you read, understand and work with your documents more efficiently.” I must admit that I was left wondering if I had set up the right phrasing, keywords, summary statements and guides to help the AI Assistant summarize and understand the big takeaways that I intend readers to walk away with. It made me exceedingly aware that I needed to not just think about the thoughts I was conveying but HOW I was structuring those thoughts to work well with generative AI tools like this assistant…was I writing to be seen and summarized?

Generative AI will open a world of content possibilities, even offering to author emails, change tone and tenor, update information based on pricing, product or even brand details. It will also offer to break through my writer’s block and whip up that first draft for me…even offer to edit or tighten up my run on sentence. So how can I be sure that I’m clear in those thoughts or leaving the right breadcrumbs to new thoughts?

Thought leadership content is hard enough to create as it needs to be something truly new with thinking that stands the test of time. Now we must make sure that these new thoughts are understood and summarized as such. We won’t be able to hide from the spotlight generative AI can shine on old ideas masquerading as new big ideas!

Content strategy and an overall understanding of where and how AI is impacting an organization’s capacity to create, contextualize and individualize content has to modernize and change. Understanding how these new AI powered tools are fundamentally shifting the process and operations of content marketing has never been MORE important.

With Adobe’s new AI Assistant, PDFs could be saying a lot more than we ever intended them to say. Are we as content marketers ready for this new conversation?

For more on the new AI Assistant, check out Adobe’s announcement here: https://news.adobe.com/news/news-details/2024/Adobe-Brings-Conversational-AI-to-Trillions-of-PDFs-with-the-New-AI-Assistant-in-Reader-and-Acrobat/default.aspx

 

Header Image was AI Generated using Adobe Firefly

New C-Suite Marketing Transformation Next-Generation Customer Experience Chief Customer Officer Chief Marketing Officer Chief Digital Officer

Zscaler acquires Avalor for security data fabric

Larry Dignan
Editor in Chief of Constellation Insights Constellation Research

About Larry Dignan: Dignan was most recently Celonis Media’s Editor-in-Chief, where he sat at the intersection of media and marketing. He is the former Editor-in-Chief of ZDNet and has covered the technology industry and transformation trends for more than two decades, publishing articles in CNET, Knowledge@Wharton, Wall Street Week, Interactive Week, The New York Times, and Financial Planning. He is also an Adjunct Professor at Temple University and a member of the Advisory Board for The Fox Business School's Institute of Business and Information Technology.&nbsp; Constellation Insights does the following: Cover the buy side and sell side of enterprise tech with news, analysis, profiles, interviews, and event coverage of vendors, as well as Constellation Research's community and…...

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Zscaler said it will acquire Avalor, an Israeli startup that launched just 26 months ago, in a move that will aim to scale up Avalor's Data Fabric for Security.

The deal reportedly cost Zscaler $350 million, according to Globes. Zscaler, which said it paid mostly cash, is in a battle with CrowdStrike and Palo Alto Networks to convince enterprises to consolidate on their cybersecurity platforms. Microsoft and other giants are also in the mix.

Avalor's Data Fabric for Security includes 150 pre-built integrations to identify and predict vulnerabilities. Zscaler plans to add its 400 billion Zscaler transactions and its Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange to Avalor's platform. Avalor will continue to run as an independent unit.

Cybersecurity players are racing to add AI to platforms to combat emerging threats from AI.

Jay Chaudhry, CEO of Zscaler, said "with the Avalor acquisition, we can more effectively identify vulnerabilities, while predicting and preventing breaches."

Here's a look at Avalor's features. 

Avalor CEO Raanan Raz said in a blog post arguing the Zscaler purchase accelerates its plans:

"By building on the flexible, extensible data model at the heart of the Avalor Data Fabric for Security, Zscaler now has the opportunity to dramatically advance the state-of-the-art in security insights. By applying the power of AI to this breadth of data, we can help organizations automate security operations across vulnerability discovery and prioritization, attack path and kill chain analysis, and threat remediation and prevention."

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Your next Zoom meeting may be at an AMC Theatre

Larry Dignan
Editor in Chief of Constellation Insights Constellation Research

About Larry Dignan: Dignan was most recently Celonis Media’s Editor-in-Chief, where he sat at the intersection of media and marketing. He is the former Editor-in-Chief of ZDNet and has covered the technology industry and transformation trends for more than two decades, publishing articles in CNET, Knowledge@Wharton, Wall Street Week, Interactive Week, The New York Times, and Financial Planning. He is also an Adjunct Professor at Temple University and a member of the Advisory Board for The Fox Business School's Institute of Business and Information Technology.&nbsp; Constellation Insights does the following: Cover the buy side and sell side of enterprise tech with news, analysis, profiles, interviews, and event coverage of vendors, as well as Constellation Research's community and…...

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The movie theater may become a hybrid work location if AMC Theatres and Zoom have their way. AMC has rolled out Zoom Rooms in eight markets around the country.

According to the companies, the goal is to "redefine interactive business meetings and hybrid events." For AMC and Zoom the deal could be a win-win. AMC needs to fill theatres as the movie industry struggles due to streaming and Zoom would like to redefine hybrid and remote work.

The booking process is online, and you pick by location. For instance, AMC Empire 25 in New York City has 137 guests max and will run you $2,250 for a three-hour block. The Kansas City AMC Town Center 20 has a max of 150 guests and will cost $1,500 for a three-hour block. Bookings are usually available Monday through Thursday--peak work days that don't interfere with movie launches.

In a statement, the companies said Zoom Rooms at AMC are designed for dispersed workforces and customers who can be brought together for product launches, meetings, press conferences and hybrid events. The idea is to combine Zoom's technology with AMC's sight, sounds and seating experience.

The partnership with Zoom and AMC was first announced in 2022 to drive "state-of-the-art" collaboration. Initial Zoom Rooms at AMC locations include Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Kansas City, Los Angeles, New York City, San Jose and Seattle/Tacoma.

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