This list celebrates changemakers creating meaningful impact through leadership, innovation, fresh perspectives, transformative mindsets, and lessons that resonate far beyond the workplace.
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…...
Workday said Carl Eschenbach will become CEO of the company Feb. 1. Eschenbach had been co-CEO with Aneel Bhusri since 2022.
Bhusri will become executive chair of Workday's Board of Directors and be a strategic advisor with a focus on innovation and Workday's technology platform.
In a statement, Eschenbach said "working alongside Aneel for the last year has been a highlight of my career, and has solidified my belief in the opportunities ahead for Workday."
Eschenbach is taking over Workday as sole CEO in a strong spot. The company has been integrating AI and generative AI into its platform without going the add-on charge route. Workday has more than 65 million users under contract and more than 10,000 global customers.
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…...
Enterprises are racing to incorporate generative AI into business processes and 45% of chief digital officers say they already have, according to an Informatica survey. However, quality of data was the biggest obstacle for 42% of respondents.
The Informatica survey, based on 600 data leaders from companies with more than $500 million in revenue, revealed that 78% of data leaders expect their enterprises to increase budgets for data management. Informatica noted that 33% of respondents expect significant investments in data management.
These finding align with Constellation Research's take that enterprises will have to invest in data management, architecture and quality to drive generative AI return on investment. There's also the reality that companies may not have enough data to make generative AI work. What remains to be seen is what data drives the most returns with generative AI.
Indeed, Informatica's survey said 41% of respondents already struggle with more than 1,000 sources of data.
From the report:
"As a result, AI, its challenges and data quality are all rising on data leaders' list of priorities for the year ahead.
Top data strategy priorities for 2024 include delivering reliable and consistent data fit for generative AI (39%), improving data-driven culture and data literacy (39%), and improving governance over data and data processes (38%). These priorities all highlight the need to push beyond implementing and toward maximizing AI’s efficacy and making the most of their investments—a point made even more clear by the 43% using AI readiness as a top metric for measuring their data strategy effectiveness."
The report had a series of notable findings. Here's a look:
51% are evaluating or planning to evaluate open-source LLMs and 48% are planning to implement retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) with LLMs.
44% of data leaders are considering fine-tuning public LLMs and 43% are planning on customizing them.
99% of respondents adopting or planning to adopt generative AI have encountered challenges.
73% of those implementing or planning to implement generative AI plan to use the technology to deliver faster insights to data.
66% are looking to generative AI to drive productivity with automation and augmentation.
48% of data leaders said AI and machine learning were key areas for reskilling and upskilling. 44% said data analytics and visualization was an opportunity for reskilling.
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…...
Dell Technologies is exiting its commercial agreement with VMware now that it has been acquired by Broadcom.
The company said in a regulatory filing that it will terminate its commercial agreement with VMware due to a change in control. With the move Dell Technologies won't be a distributor of VMware products--unless there's a new agreement.
In the filing, Dell said the terminated agreement "provides a framework for various commercial activities between the two parties, including how the Company will act as a distributor of VMware products and services as well as how the parties collaborate on certain solutions and go-to-market activities."
In a recent CXO meeting of BT150 members, VMware was a hot topic. Here are some of the takeaways from that meeting.
CIOs were actively looking at alternatives with many looking to move off VMware. Nutanix appears to be the biggest beneficiary.
CIOs weren't surprised by Broadcom's move and one exec noted that peers are seeing price hikes of 100%. Broadcom made similar moves when it acquired CA and Symantec, CXOs said.
Without a major change in strategy, it's hard to rip and replace VMware, but many companies are looking at jumping. One catch is that VMware still owns a lot of EMC's old big data portfolio and it's difficult to migrate.
Enterprises took the time to plan a move off VMWare while the Broadcom purchase was delayed by regulatory issues. It will take a few years to move off VMware completely.
Nutanix was gaining share and some CXOs were looking at open-source options for their Linux stacks.
CXOs are expecting VMware's innovation, support and service to all decline--especially for enterprises that fall out of the top 100 or 200 clients.
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…...
AMD's fourth quarter results were solid, but the outlook for the first quarter missed expectations.
The chipmaker projected first quarter revenue of about $5.4 billion, give or take $300 million. Wall Street was expecting $5.7 billion. AMD's guidance comes a week after Intel's disappointing outlook. AMD also said that its first quarter data center revenue will be flat with the fourth quarter due to a seasonal decline in server sales offset by ramping GPU sales.
For the fourth quarter, AMD reported net income of $667 million, or 41 cents a share. Non-GAAP earnings were 77 cents a share. Revenue for the fourth quarter was $6.2 billion.
Wall Street was expecting AMD to report earnings of 77 cents a share on revenue of $6.14 billion.
For 2023, AMD reported net income of $854 million, or 53 cents a share, on revenue of $22.7 billion. AMD is ramping up its AI-optimized processes as it chases Nvidia.
AMD CEO Lisa Su said, "demand for our high-performance data center product portfolio continues to accelerate, positioning us well to deliver strong annual growth."
Data center revenue in the fourth quarter was $2.3 billion, up 38% from a year ago. Sales were driven by EPYC CPUs and AMD Instinct GPUs.
AMD's PC group delivered revenue of $1.5 billion, up 62% from a year ago. Those gains weren't enough to reverse a rough 2023 as annual revenue fell 25%. Gaming revenue was $1.4 billion, down 17% from a year ago. Embedded revenue in the fourth quarter was down 24% from a year ago.
Speaking on a conference call, Su said:
"Based on a strong customer pool and expanded engagements, we now expect datacenter GPU revenue to grow sequentially in the first quarter and exceed $3.5 billion in 2024."
Other comments of note:
AMD sees AI PCs driving an upgrade cycle. "Looking at 2024 we are planning for the PC total addressable market to grow modestly year on year weighted towards the second half as AI PCs ramp," said Su.
"We believe AI is a once in a generation transition that will reshape virtually every portion of the computing market starting in the data center and then expanding into PCs and across multiple embedded markets," she said.
One point worth noting is what Su said about AI workloads beyond the hyperscalers. When asked about the MI300 demand, she said:
"On the MI300 trajectory. I think you would expect that revenue should increase every quarter from now through sort of the end of the year, but it will be a bit more second half weighted and part of that is just customers as they're finishing up their qualifications as our supply chain is ramping. We are engaged with all of sort of the large customers. These are all folks that know us really well, given our deep relationships in EPYC. I think people just have different adoption cycles as they consider what they're trying to do in their roadmap. This is very, very early innings for us in this space. This is not just about MI300 conversation, but our long-term multi-generational roadmap. There's a lot of demand coming from folks that are more AI centric and not necessarily typical cloud customers, but more enterprise or let's call it AI-specific companies that we're also very well engaged with."
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…...
Microsoft said Azure delivered revenue growth of 30% in its fiscal second quarter and CEO Satya Nadella noted that moved from "talking about AI to applying AI at scale."
The company reported second-quarter net income of $21.9 billion, or $2.93 a share, on revenue of $62 billion, up 18% from a year ago. Wall Street was looking for fiscal second quarter revenue of $61.12 billion with non-GAAP earnings of $2.78 a share.
CFO Amy Hood noted that Microsoft Cloud revenue was $33.7 billion, up 24% from a year ago due to "strong execution by our sales teams and partners."
Microsoft said revenue in its productivity and business processes unit was $19.2 billion, up 13% from a year ago, with Office commercial and cloud services revenue gaining 15%. Dynamics had revenue growth of 21%.
For the Intelligent Cloud unit, powered by Azure, second quarter revenue was up 20% from a year ago. The personal computing division saw Windows revenue gain 9% from a year ago.
Azure revenue in the second quarter accelerated sequentially.
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…...
Google Cloud delivered fourth quarter operating income of $864 million on revenue of $9.2 billion, up from $7.3 billion a year ago. Wall Street was expecting Google Cloud revenue of $8.94 billion.
Alphabet, the parent company of Google, reported fourth quarter net income of $20.69 billion, or $1.64 a share, on revenue of $86.3 billion, up 13% from a year ago. Wall Street was looking for fourth quarter earnings of $1.59 a share on revenue of $85.33 billion.
Google ended the quarter with more than 182,000 employees, down from 190,000 a year ago. The company saw fourth quarter growth across search, YouTube ads, subscriptions and devices and Google Cloud.
For 2023, Google reported net income of $73.79 billion, or $5.80 a share, on revenue of $307.4 billion.
CEO Sundar Pichai said the company was pleased with strength in search, YouTube and Google Cloud. CFO Ruth Porat noted that Alphabet is on an efficiency mission to "durably re-engineer our cost base as we invest to support our growth opportunities."
Alphabet said it spent $45.43 billion on research and development in 2023.
On a conference call with analysts, Pichai said Google Cloud is seeing strong usage of Vertex AI. "Vertex AI has seen strong adoption with the API requests increasing nearly 6x from the first half to second half last year," said Pichai. Pichai also said Duet AI was boosting productivity.
Porat said Google Cloud is seeing strong demand for its industry focused AI offerings.
Google Cloud is also building out its indirect channel. "We have nearly tripled the number of co-sell deals from 2022 to 2023. In our ecosystem, there are nearly 90,000, Google Cloud and AI enabled consultants and Accenture has teamed up with Google Cloud to create a joint generative AI Center of Excellence," said Pichai.
A few takeaways from the conference call:
Pichai said teams across Google are working on the next version of its Gemini model for use across the company. "By applying generative AI to search we are able to serve a wide range of information needs and answer new types of questions, including those that benefit from multiple perspectives. People are finding it particularly useful for more complex questions, like comparisons or longer queries. It's also helpful in areas where people are looking for deeper understanding, such as education or even gift ideas," said Pichai.
Subscription revenue for Google reached $15 billion, primarily due to YouTube Premium and Music. Google One is also boosting subscription revenue.
Advertisers are using and testing generative AI across the platform.
Google saw strong sales in retail in the fourth quarter.
Porat said Google will continue to become more efficient. "We will continue to invest in top technical and engineering talent," she said. "We also continue to execute to slow expense growth, improve efficiency in our technical infrastructure, streamline operations through the use of AI, increase efficiency of our spend with suppliers and vendors through our central procurement organization and optimize our real estate portfolio."
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…...
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…...
With the Apple Vision Pro officially available Feb. 2 much of the focus is on that apps (Netflix, YouTube, Spotify) that won't be on the $3,499 spatial computing device, but for hybrid work three key collaboration applications are worth watching.
Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Cisco Webex are likely to highlight collaboration experiments in spatial computing and potentially lay the groundwork for the future of hybrid work. Box also has created an app for Apple Vision Pro.
Given the price of Apple Vision Pro it's likely to have more appeal in the enterprise in labs for new consumer experiences as well as collaboration use cases.
In a blog post, Zoom outlined its Apple Vision Pro app, which aims to give customers an immersive environment that'll blend virtual and physical space. The app will feature personas, a spatial Zoom experience that will aim for users to feel like they are in the same room as coworkers and upcoming features such as 3D object sharing, Team Chat and the ability to pin up to five Zoom Meeting participants.
Cisco Webex is likely to showcase its Apple Vision Pro app any day now and Microsoft Teams is going to do the same.
"Mesh helps workers tap into the power of the unspoken by listening using the spatial dynamics of the physical world. By incorporating spatial audio, Team can now mimic the way sound travels in the real world. This subtle feature could enhance the feeling of being "in the room" with colleagues, allowing you to naturally turn your attention to who's speaking based on the sound's direction. Imagine the natural flow of a conversation where you instinctively turn your avatar towards the colleague raising a question, or the quiet murmur of agreement that ripples through the virtual room as your boss delivers a key point."
"The convergence of AR, VR, and the metaverse with visual collaboration platforms heralds a new era of digital interaction, blurring the lines between the physical and virtual realms. AR, with its ability to overlay digital information onto the real world, can transform visual collaboration by enabling users to interact with real-world objects and digital data simultaneously."
Are we there yet? Not even close.
There are a bevy of caveats with the Mesh experiment as well as the collaboration apps on Apple Vision Pro. One thing is clear: Enterprise vendors are pondering the next iteration of hybrid work and collaboration. We're not there yet, but the experiments blending physical and virtual environments are worth monitoring.
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…...
The company reported second-quarter earnings of $296 million, or $5.10 a share. Non-GAAP earnings of $5.59 a share compared to $3.26 a year ago. Supermicro's non-GAAP earnings were above the $5.40 a share to $5.55 a share given on Jan. 18.
Charles Liang, President and CEO of Supermicro, said:
"While we continue to win new partners, our current end customers continue to demand more Supermicro’s optimized AI computer platforms and rack-scale Total IT Solutions. As our innovative solutions continue to gain market share, we are raising our fiscal year 2024 revenue outlook to $14.3 billion to $14.7 billion."
Supermicro's results highlight how the generative AI data center buildout is moving beyond benefiting Nvidia to other hardware vendors downstream.
Both Dell Technologies and HPE have signaled strong pipelines for generative AI systems.
As for the outlook, Supermicro projected third-quarter sales of $3.7 billion to $4.1 billion with non-GAAP earnings of $5.20 a share to $6.01 a share.
Supermicro said it is seeing record demand for AI systems powered by NVIDIA H100/A100/L40S, Intel Gaudi 2/PVC and AMD MI200/250. Revenue is being driven by hyperscale data center builds in the US.
On a conference call with analysts, Liang said demand was strong for Nvidia powered systems, but AMD and Intel systems were on the runway.
"Our AI rack-scale solutions, especially the Deep-Learning and LLM-optimized based on NVIDIA HGX-H100, continue gaining high popularity. The demand for AI inferencing systems and mainstream compute solutions has also started to grow.
We have been preparing to more than double the size of our current AI portfolio with the coming soon NVIDIA CG1, CG2 Grace Hopper Superchip, H200 and B100 CPUs -- GPUs, L40S Inferencing-optimized GPUs, AMD MI300X/MI300A, and Intel’s Gaudi 2 and Gaudi 3. All these new platforms will be ready for high volume production in the coming month and quarters."
Liang said Supermicro is further optimizing its Nvidia GPU based systems with AMD AI-optimized gear sampling. Supermicro plans the same for Intel's Gaudi platform.
Other takeaways:
Liquid cooled systems demand will pick up. "I think liquid cooling will be the trend and we continue to make ourselves ready and try our best to support the customer, including providing some help to their data center infrastructure," said Liang. "I believe liquid cooling percentage will continue to grow, but at this moment most of the shipping is still air cooled."
AI systems beyond generative AI are seeing growth. "Other than generative AI deep learning segment continues to grow very strong," said Liang. "Our inferencing opportunity in general CPU customer base also growing. So many verticals around the world need more inferencing solutions as well, including private cloud and data center."
Demand will expand beyond large enterprises. "The economies of scale is very important to us when we further grow our total revenue, we will have a more large scale customers and more middle-sized and small-sized customers as well," said Liang.
Vice President and Principal Analyst
Constellation Research
Title: About Dion Hinchcliffe
Dion Hinchcliffe is an internationally recognized business strategist, bestselling author, enterprise architect, industry analyst, and noted keynote speaker. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in digital strategy, the future of work, and enterprise IT. He works with the leadership teams of large enterprises as well as software vendors to raise the bar for the art-of-the-possible in their digital capabilities.
He is currently Vice President and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research. Dion is also currently an executive fellow at the Tuck School of Business Center for Digital Strategies. He is a globally recognized industry expert on the topics of digital transformation, digital workplace, enterprise collaboration, API…...
The breakthrough success that Microsoft has had with Teams, the now-ubiquitous hub for 320 million in-office, hybrid, and remote workers, has long wrestled with the challenge of replicating the nuanced communication and connection of physical presence. Teams is light years ahead of its predecessor, the justly-maligned Skype for Business, but is still a bit clunky at times, despite regular facelifts and feature additions, including the relatively novel Together mode, arguably Microsoft's original foray into more immersive experiences for meetings within Teams.
Enter Microsoft Mesh, a significant new experiment in 3D immersive worlds for work that's just landed in Teams. Packed with features that defy the confines of flat video calls, Mesh promises to usher in a new era of multi-dimensional collaboration. But can it truly bridge the hybrid divide to close the gap between in-office and remote workers?
Microsoft touts several large companies using Mesh today in innovative ways, including Takeda, Accenture, bp, and Mercy Ships. The latter has even created a virtual ship that they call the Global Mercy, which is a digital replica of one of their hospital ships, right within Microsoft Mesh. They say this will allow their organization to educate a variety of audiences, including volunteers, staff, and prospective donors, on the culture and operations of the organization without ever having to board the physical ship.
Video: Microsoft has Prepared Elaborate Materials Like This Explainer Video to Educate the Market About Mesh
But the elephant in the room about virtual 3D experiences remains this key question: Has the often clunky experience and awkward usability of virtual worlds been sufficiently addressed in the design of Microsoft Mesh enough to make it of interest outside of niche use cases?
To answer these questions, I spent some time with Mesh over the last few days to delve deeper into its capabilities and ponder its potential to transform the way we work. Here is what I found, as well as what collaboration and digital workplace teams should consider as they evaluate this technology that is now available for many organizations as of last week in their Microsoft 365 licenses.
Using Mesh demands that users step off into a virtual world that is spatial in three dimensions, although not as immersively so on a desktop. The new Microsoft Teams encourages its users to create a new 3D avatar, which I did and though there are plenty of controls, it takes a while to craft a custom avatar that is satisfyingly familiar. There is also a virtual reality version of Mesh available for Meta Quest users that is more involving and truly 3D. The Mesh experiences inside Teams and on the Meta Quest can be connected together into a single immersive experience for multiple workers.
Accenture has created One Accenture Park, a Mesh space that enables immersive experiences during onboarding
Before using Mesh, it is helpful to educate new users on the premise. Namely, that they will be able to ditch the today's sterile video grids and step into vibrant 3D environments like sun-drenched meeting rooms, bustling cafes, or even a fantastical courtyard, all accessible within Mesh, via its new presence within Teams. This shift promises to spark creativity and informal interactions in ways flat screens simply can't. Microsoft would like you to imagine brainstorming under a giant virtual oak tree, grabbing a simulated coffee with colleagues inside a bustling digital cafe, or celebrating a client win in a vibrant digitally-rendered night club.
Custom Avatars and Spatial Audio Differentiate the Experience
Mesh has also done away with static thumbnails for people, even in vanilla Teams. Now it lets you craft and customize your own digital avatar, a virtual you that moves, reacts, and reflects your personality. This personalized touch could foster a sense of embodiment and presence, making interactions feel more natural and engaging. Picture yourself high-fiving colleagues after a successful presentation, a comforting pat on the back to a teammate facing a challenge, or simply the subtle shift in your avatar's posture that conveys your focused attention. The avatars aren't quite a realistic as you might wish, but you have plenty of control over how they look.
In Microsoft Teams, Workers Can Now Mix and Match Live Video with 3D Avatars That Mimic Their Movements
Mesh helps workers tap into the power of the unspoken by listening using the spatial dynamics of the physical world. By incorporating spatial audio, Team can now mimick the way sound travels in the real world. This subtle feature could enhance the feeling of being "in the room" with colleagues, allowing you to naturally turn your attention to who's speaking based on the sound's direction. Imagine the natural flow of a conversation where you instinctively turn your avatar towards the colleague raising a question, or the quiet murmur of agreement that ripples through the virtual room as your boss delivers a key point.
By reading a user's face with the camera, Mesh can capture gaze, although it did not seem to respond to hand or body gestures. I found that Mesh does a somewhat decent job of mimicing one's gaze, translating it into an avatar's movements. A raised eyebrow or a concerned glance can now be conveyed non-verbally, enriching communication and potentially fostering deeper understanding. Imagine the subtle shift in an avatar's gaze as they consider a colleague's proposal, the encouraging glance from a remote team member during a presentation, or the shared look of concern exchanged between colleagues witnessing a teammate's struggle. At least, that is the intent, and it mostly works in my testing.
Copilot AI: The Secret Weapon in Mesh's Virtual Pocket
The addition of in-experience AI is where Mesh gets truly intriguing. Microsoft's generative AI assistant, Copilot, is a personalized AI concierge embedded right with your avatar. It can transcribe conversations, suggest talking points, and can even translate languages in real-time. This layer of intelligent support could revolutionize meetings, especially for remote or language-barriered participants. Microsoft can expand greatly on the value that generative AI can inject contextually into ongoing meetings, from supporting data to informative 3D visualizations. What we're seeing today, as useful as it is, is just the beginning of what's possible and will likely end up being a key draw to using Mesh over time.
Imagine a world where a shy team member's ideas are amplified through Copilot's suggestions, or a global team seamlessly collaborates across language barriers thanks to real-time translation. Copilot can even be used to re-imagine and re-design the virtual space itself (watch a demonstration of this in the video above), if you have the right license level.
Challenges and Cautions: Is Mesh Enough to Overcome VR's Current Limits?
However, amidst the excitement, challenges remain. Will users truly connect with their pixelated counterparts? Past attempts at 3D avatars often felt gimmicky and isolating. Can Mesh overcome the fatigue often associated with VR experiences? Maintaining focus and engagement in a virtual world for extended periods can be draining. I was able to fairly easily download the Mesh app in the Meta Quest Store, connected it to my Microsoft 365 account and use the Mesh within a virtual reality space, though some fiddling with licenses and admin settings was necessary. When it works, it's pretty neat and the features above work as advertised. But the overall 3D experience -- at least in Meta Quest -- is indeed fatiguing after a fairly short while. It's clear that Mesh will have to wait for better hardware with more comfortable ergonomics, but the promise is there when it arrives. For now, the 3D experience within Teams on a laptop or desktop device is the most sustainable way to use Mesh.
More importantly, is the question of whether Mesh can deliver on its promise of improved communication and collaboration. Although some studies have shown that virtual meetings can hinder productivity and creativity, other research has found dramatic benefits when 3D worlds are involved. Mesh needs to demonstrably overcome today's limitations to justify its existence, but the promise is clear.
A Bold Leap of Faith: A Necessary Immersive Pathfinder
My assessment is that Microsoft Mesh is a brave move, a necessary experiment in today's hybrid work landscape that is yearning for deeper virtual connections between employees. But it's also crucial to remember that gimmicks and fatigue have plagued similar attempts. The success of Mesh hinges on its ability to genuinely deliver something new, something that transcends the limitations of past virtual meeting technologies. Copilot AI might just be that game-changer. But only time will tell if Mesh is the revolutionary tool it aims to be. Regardless, this experiment is one to watch and learn from, for it represents a significant step towards the future of hybrid work, a future where the line between physical and virtual increasingly blur seamlessly altogether.
I am currently bullish on spatial computing long term, and have been analyzing the space closely in my immersive experiences research. In this view, Mesh represents an critical experiment in pathfinding the way forward with virtual meeting tech. As the ergonomics, usability, and the underlying technology become better fleshed out, we'll soon be stepping into our virtual workplaces, meeting with our colleague's avatars in sun-drenched virtual courtyards, with echoes of our AI's helpful whispers guiding us towards a more connected, collaborative future. I recommend most organizations find their own business use cases for Mesh that it will improve -- most likely ones related to education, strategic communication, culture-building, and some creative work -- and build experience and capability with this new mode of digital collaboration.
51% are evaluating or planning to evaluate open-source LLMs and 48% are planning to implement retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) with LLMs.
