Apple Vision Pro available Feb. 2: Will Enterprises, developers rev expense accounts?

Larry Dignan

Editor in Chief of Constellation Insights
Constellation Research

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of Constellation Insights at Constellation Research, where he leads editorial coverage focused on enterprise technology, digital transformation, and emerging trends shaping the future of business. He oversees research-driven news, analysis, interviews, and event coverage designed to help technology buyers and vendors navigate complex markets with clarity and context. ...

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Apple Vision Pro will be available Feb. 2 starting at $3,499 with 256GB of storage and various throw-ins--the Solo Knit Band, Dual Loop Band, Light Seal, Light Seal Cushions, Apple Vision Pro Cover and polishing cloth--and the uptake for this first-generation device will be fascinating to watch.

Simply put, Apple Vision Pro has the potential to reboot the metaverse, augmented reality and virtual reality but mass market adoption is unlikely now. The thing to watch with Apple Vision Pro is developer uptake, enterprise pilots and that all-important app ecosystem. The catch here is the price tag--even for developers who could in theory either expense Apple Vision Pro or use it for a tax deduction. Preorders start Jan. 19.

According to Apple, Apple Vision Pro will be available online and all Apple Store locations in the US on Feb. 2. The aim of the launch is to bring in the era of spatial computing and provide another device for the Apple ecosystem. Apple Vision Pro will have access to more than 1 million compatible apps on the App Store.

• Apple WWDC 2023: Can Vision Pro headset jump start AR, VR, metaverse for business?
• Apple's Double Tap gesture on Apple Watch sets up Vision Pro UI handoff

The big question is whether any of those compatible apps will make Vision Pro a must own. Here's what I'll be watching as Apple Vision Pro either becomes a big hit or a bust.

The 3D user interface and input system controlled by a user's eyes, hands and voice in the field. This interface has only been seen in demos and is likely to rely on Siri, which is trailing the generative AI pack.

Can environments in Apple Vision Pro be leveraged for collaboration? Sure, Apple will use environments for entertainment and gaming, but the price tag will limit consumer adoption. What's the ROI for the enterprise with Apple Vision Pro? Apple already notes that Vision pro provides "an infinite canvas for productivity." Microsoft and Slack will be available.

Will spatial FaceTime and Personas, a spatial representation of an Apple Vision Pro user that allows others to see facial expressions and hand movements in real time, usher in a better remote work experience? Personas will work in Zoom, Cisco Webex and Microsoft Teams.

Does Apple Vision Pro help or hurt the broader metaverse ecosystem? If successful, Apple can make spatial computing a real thing. That could in theory give Meta's Oculus unit a lift too. Oculus has more SKUs at lower price points. Should Vision Pro ultimately flop, the whole category will wonder how to make it work if Apple can't. 

• Constellation ShortList™ Metaverse Worlds

What's the tolerance for add-ons? We already know that Apple is the king of add on items. Zeiss Optical Inserts will be available as readers for $99 and prescriptions at $149.

In 2024, $AAPL will report Vision Pro sales in the Wearables, Home and Accessories segment. While they won't break out units sold, I expect the number in the initial year to be between 300-500k units (or $1.4B out of $380B in revenue).

— Gene Munster (@munster_gene) January 8, 2024

Twilio names Shipchandler CEO as Co-Founder Lawson steps down

Larry Dignan

Editor in Chief of Constellation Insights
Constellation Research

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of Constellation Insights at Constellation Research, where he leads editorial coverage focused on enterprise technology, digital transformation, and emerging trends shaping the future of business. He oversees research-driven news, analysis, interviews, and event coverage designed to help technology buyers and vendors navigate complex markets with clarity and context. ...

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Twilio said Khozema Shipchandler has been appointed CEO to succeed Jeff Lawson. Shipchandler was President of Twilio.

The enterprise communications company has been under fire by activist investors Anson Funds and Legion Partners. The two firms are pushing Twilio to either sell itself or divest its data and applications unit. Twilio's core business is its API-driven communications platform, but it also runs a customer data platform via the Segment acquisition.

Twilio fleshes out CustomerAI vision with Customer Data Platform enhancements

Overall, Twilio has more than 306,000 customers and processes 1.7 trillion interactions a year.

Among the key moves:

• Lawson will step down as CEO and member of Twilio Board.
• Shipchandler joins the board and will be CEO.
• Jeff Epstein, a member of the Twilio board since 2017, will be Chair of the Board.

Twilio said that its fourth quarter revenue and non-GAAP income will be above its guidance issued in November. Twilio reports earnings Feb. 14.

Shipchandler was appointed President in March 2023. He also served as Chief Operating Officer and CFO at the company. He also held multiple financial and operating roles at GE.

In a blog post, Lawson said:

"Kho knows Twilio inside and out. As CFO, he steered the company through a global pandemic with his trademark steady hand. Later as COO, he scaled Twilio’s systems and processes, creating the controls, mechanisms, and predictability we needed to mature as a company. As the leader of Twilio Communications, he’s pivoted the business toward profitable growth and built strong customer relationships over a short period."

2024 in preview: 11 things in enterprise technology to watch

Larry Dignan

Editor in Chief of Constellation Insights
Constellation Research

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of Constellation Insights at Constellation Research, where he leads editorial coverage focused on enterprise technology, digital transformation, and emerging trends shaping the future of business. He oversees research-driven news, analysis, interviews, and event coverage designed to help technology buyers and vendors navigate complex markets with clarity and context. ...

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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.

Some years are all about questions. Other years deliver answers. For enterprise technology, 2024 is likely to be about the answers. After all, enterprise buyers in 2023 were busy pondering the questions of generative AI, use cases and whether they had the data strategy to innovate.

With that backdrop in mind, here are a few key themes to watch in the year ahead.

2024 will be the year enterprises refocus on data strategy. A frequent quote in 2023 went like this: “Without a data strategy, you don’t have an AI strategy.” Many enterprises will realize they need to hone their data strategies. We surfaced this theme in our 2023 customer story roundup. Those enterprises with a strong data game are poised to lead in AI and generative AI. "We declared five years ago that data and AI was going to be fundamental," said Intuit CEO Sasan Goodarzi, speaking at a recent investor conference. "And everything starts with data."

See: Intuit’s bets on data, AI, AWS pay off ahead of generative AI transformation (PDF) | BT150 Interview: Equifax's Manish Limaye on data architecture, transformation

Generative AI disillusionment appears. In 2023, generative AI disillusionment was percolating and in 2024 there will be a full-blown chorus. Here’s the reality: Many companies simply aren’t ready to scale generative AI and that’s why they need to focus on data strategy. These enterprises will become more frustrated because they fear falling behind and are getting hit by vendors charging more for generative AI features that may not deliver returns. In addition, boards of directors will want generative AI results.

According to Constellation Research's second half 2023 CxO Business Confidence Survey: "Buy-side CxOs are balancing the pressure to invest in the AI space with the need for certainty about the reliability of these new tools. In turn, enterprise tech vendors recognize and predict strong revenue potential in the generative AI space but currently are in the waiting phase of tangible selling and the client's desire to see tangible return on investment (ROI)."

Hybrid models for generative AI workloads will gain traction. Your friendly neighborhood cloud provider will certainly offer you model choices, a bevy of tools and platforms to build out generative AI apps because they want your workloads. But with edge computing devices, on-premises use cases and even the ability to leverage PCs and smartphones, generative AI workloads are likely to go local. I’ll be looking for hybrid approaches to AI workloads throughout 2024.

Transformation projects see more scrutiny over returns. Constellation Research CEO Ray Wang argued in a research note that transformation projects need new techniques to measure returns. Enterprises need to consider the likelihood of success in transformation efforts, qualitative benefits and use a wider view than cost takeout projects. Factors such as implementation risk, ease of maintenance, flexibility and durability need to be considered. Transformation leaders have an average tenure of 2.8 years, but the projects live on. Ingram Micro Chief Digital Officer Sanjib Sahoo argued in an interview that enterprises need to think about technologies that will matter three to five years from now.

Also see: Constellation Research's Connected Enterprise 2023: What we learned

Customers push back on enterprise technology price increases. Inflation has receded somewhat, but revenue and earnings growth has stalled. Yet many enterprise software vendors are raising prices in the name of boosting productivity. Some vendors are even talking about value-based contracts. It's highly doubtful that enterprise tech buyers are going to take their hard-earned earnings gains and hand them over to software providers. The vendors that play the long game with customers will benefit.

The economy will be volatile. Many of the factors that inspired people to predict a 2023 recession are still in place, but there’s widespread optimism that the Federal Reserve will engineer a soft landing. Enterprise technology budgets will be dictated by the economic outlook exiting the first quarter. Another wild card will be the presidential election. CXO optimism is likely to fluctuate along with the S&P 500 index. For what it’s worth (not much), here’s a look at what equity strategists are predicting for the S&P 500.

Tech M&A returns. There are a few green shoots of mergers and acquisitions in 2023 and smaller deals picked up headed into 2024. Merger Mondays here we come. While M&A will return, there will be a price band. Deals will have to be big enough to matter, but not so large that they attract regulatory scrutiny.

• Alteryx goes private in $4.4 billion deal: What to watch next
• ServiceNow acquires UltimateSuite, adds task mining
• IBM buys StreamSets, webMethods from SoftwareAG for €2.13 billion
• Celonis acquires Symbio, aims to meld AI, process intelligence in one package
• Palo Alto Networks acquires Talon Cyber Security, Dig Security
• Cisco acquires Splunk in $28 billion observability, AI and cybersecurity play
• Five9 acquires Aceyus, aims to expand analytics, enterprise reach

• RingCentral buys Hopin Events, Sessions: Here's what it means
• New Relic goes private in $6.5 billion deal, aims to accelerate observability platform ubiquity

IPOs will come back in 2024 and likely ramp in 2025. The two-year IPO drought is about to end, argued Ray Wang in a blog post. The argument is that a solid economy and stock market returns will lead to IPO exits.

Enterprises embrace hybrid and remote work and start unloading commercial real estate. The trend to shed office space started in 2023 even as companies will tell employees to get their butts back in the office. Google and Facebook suddenly don't want to own half of New York City. What changed? Expiring leases that aren't being renewed. Another thing that changed: CFOs will veto the corporate culture crowd in the name of earnings.

Apple loses its Wall Street darling status. Everyone owns Apple whether it’s via a mutual fund, index or direct holding. As a result, there’s a large part of the population rooting for Apple growth. The issue is that it’s almost impossible to move Apple’s topline growth. For fiscal 2023 ending Sept. 30, Apple’s revenue was $383 billion, down from $394 billion the year before. Meanwhile, Apple is trailing in generative AI, hasn’t found the next iPhone, and is betting on an expensive Reality Pro AR/VR headset to save the metaverse. Reality Pro won’t be a total flop due to Apple’s developer base as well as hooks into its ecosystem.

PC market bottoms and then bounces due to higher-priced systems. In 2020, everyone bought a PC. Now those PCs are due for a refresh. In addition, workstations and PCs will get upgraded for generative AI features and workloads. The wave of “AI PCs” even features a Microsoft Copilot button on keyboards. This PC rebound will help Intel, AMD and Nvidia, but it’s unclear whether commercial or consumer demand leads the charge. I'm going to run my PC into the ground as I await a quantum desktop (just kidding...sort of). Intel's AI everywhere strategy rides on AI PCs, edge, Xeon CPUs for model training, Gaudi3 in 2024

5 takeaways for retail, marketers, CX from Adobe’s holiday 2023 data

Larry Dignan

Editor in Chief of Constellation Insights
Constellation Research

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of Constellation Insights at Constellation Research, where he leads editorial coverage focused on enterprise technology, digital transformation, and emerging trends shaping the future of business. He oversees research-driven news, analysis, interviews, and event coverage designed to help technology buyers and vendors navigate complex markets with clarity and context. ...

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Marketers and customer experience leaders need to think about payment flexibility, mobile and balancing paid search with direct relationships, according to Adobe Analytics data on the holiday shopping season.

The headline number is that consumers spent $222.1 billion from Nov. 1 to Dec. 31, up 4.9% from a year ago. For marketers and executives in charge of customer experience (CX) there are a few other takeaways to ponder. Here's a look.

Pricing strategies and payment options are part of the experience. Adobe said that shoppers found discounts that peaked at 31% off listed price. In addition, Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) usage hit $16.6 billion, up 14% from a year ago.

Experiences must be mobile. Mobile shipping overtook desktop this holiday season and represented 51.1% of online sales, up from 47% in 2022.

Curbside pickup was used for 18.4% of online orders this holiday season, down from 21% in 2022, and represented one out of every five online orders. I'd argue there's an economic hook for curbside pickup usage too. I spend less when buying online and picking up.

Social isn't closing sales. Revenue directly attributed to social media during the holiday season was less than 5%.

Paid search dominates retail marketing. According to Adobe, 29.4% of online sales were attributed to paid search followed by direct web visits at 19.3%, affiliates at 16.6%, organic search 15.9% and email at 15.3%. The biggest takeaway is that landing customers requires a portfolio approach when it comes to marketing. 

Carnival aims to leverage scale, optimize across its cruise lines

Larry Dignan

Editor in Chief of Constellation Insights
Constellation Research

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of Constellation Insights at Constellation Research, where he leads editorial coverage focused on enterprise technology, digital transformation, and emerging trends shaping the future of business. He oversees research-driven news, analysis, interviews, and event coverage designed to help technology buyers and vendors navigate complex markets with clarity and context. ...

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Carnival Corporation, known for its family of cruise lines, is implementing a centralized system to optimize the management of equipment and machinery across its brands and ships.

The implementation of Maritime Asset Strategy Transformation (MAST) will be carried out in 2024 with savings being delivered in 2025 and 2026. The company sees a multi-year benefit of savings north of $100 million.

Carnival's project highlights how companies are managing transformation efforts with balanced approach between growth and efficiency.

Carnival, which has recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic, operates AIDA Cruises, Carnival Cruise Line, Costa Cruises, Cunard, Holland America Line, P&O Cruises (Australia), P&O Cruises (UK), Princess Cruises, and Seabourn. The plan for Carnival is to leverage its scale to offset inflation as drives revenue growth.

The system was outlined on Carnival's fourth quarter earnings conference call.

"MAS is a centralized system developed to optimize the management of equipment and machinery across all brands and all of our ships. MAS will allow us to leverage spare parts more effectively across the entire fleet and optimize our maintenance schedules and practices, all of which will strengthen our efficiency and reduce unplanned maintenance overtime," said Carnival CEO Josh Weinstein.

Carnival's fiscal 2023 revenue hit an all-time high of $21.6 billion with a net loss of $74 million. The company has ramped up its advertising in the last year and has more than two-thirds of its 2024 revenue booked. The company has also been paying down debt and ended 2023 with a bit more than $30 billion of debt, ahead of projections earlier this year.

For 2024, Carnival said it will see higher ticket prices, onboard spending and occupancy rates across its brands while maintaining advertising spend at 2023 levels. While the MAST implementation is worth watching, Carnival is looking to save money by using Starlink for Internet access and continue to consume less fuel.

Why digital, business transformation projects need new approaches to returns

Larry Dignan

Editor in Chief of Constellation Insights
Constellation Research

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of Constellation Insights at Constellation Research, where he leads editorial coverage focused on enterprise technology, digital transformation, and emerging trends shaping the future of business. He oversees research-driven news, analysis, interviews, and event coverage designed to help technology buyers and vendors navigate complex markets with clarity and context. ...

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Business transformation projects will require more holistic thinking about likelihood of success, difficulty of implementation and durability of outcomes when it comes to returns on investments.

According to a Constellation Research report by Ray Wang, artificial intelligence and business transformation projects require a more holistic view of value created. The report outlines Constellation Research's Return on Transformation Investment (RTI) methodology, which accounts for four elements (cost, benefit, probability and project type) to consider for any digital transformation project.

In numerous customer stories about transformation projects, it's clear that enterprises need to play the long game. However, there's also a need to show returns incrementally. The balancing act is tricky for CXOs.

To balance traditional returns as well as transformational benefits, enterprises need to think through the following:

• Likelihood for success. Transformation projects often sound great and feature management consulting speak. But ranking projects by likelihood of success is often lacking.
• Probability of impact, which requires validating similar projects with early adopters and experts.
• Degree of difficulty. Cost takeout projects are relatively simple, but revenue and growth transformations are more complicated. The trick is aligning transformation projects with real wins for competitive advantage, compliance, which is always funded, and durable and repeatable results.

Using a methodology like RTI can give enterprises a way to prioritize transformation efforts and assess risk. Ultimately, enterprises are going to have to look at business transformation like a portfolio. Here's how a transformation project portfolio could be stacked and ranked. 

Ingram Micro's Sanjib Sahoo on futureproofing, AI, data and value chains

Larry Dignan

Editor in Chief of Constellation Insights
Constellation Research

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of Constellation Insights at Constellation Research, where he leads editorial coverage focused on enterprise technology, digital transformation, and emerging trends shaping the future of business. He oversees research-driven news, analysis, interviews, and event coverage designed to help technology buyers and vendors navigate complex markets with clarity and context. ...

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Ingram Micro Chief Digital Officer Sanjib Sahoo has spearheaded the technology distribution giant's digital transformation as well as the Ingram Micro Xvantage digital experience platform, which serves as the company's digital twin. However, transformation never ends.

I caught up with Sahoo, a Constellation Research Business Transformation 150 Hall of Famer, at Connected Enterprise 2023 to talk about future proofing and the year ahead.

Technologies to think about three- to five-years from now. Sahoo said harmonizing data and its aggregation will be the No. 1 theme in the years ahead. "Harmonization is a big challenge in large enterprises," said Sahoo. "Data is everywhere. Master data is an issue. How do you get real-time data harmonization and do change data capture from multiple systems and build the harmonization in the cloud?"

"No. 2 is definitely AI, but not for the sake of AI but using AI for experiences with the compute and storage it needs. We make AI agile intelligence. Right now, AI is still okay. How do we move to a more AI first approach that's extremely important? I think large language models will be much more popular in terms of customer, service, inquiries and everything."

Sahoo's No. 3 trend is "the journey from software to platforms." "I want to see much more orchestrations of ecosystems in the industry and connected ecosystems where AI and data blurs what's happening between different industries because you're serving a common customer," he said.

Also: Enterprise customer stories 2023: Everything we learned from technology buyers, CXOs about AI, data, CX, transformation | CXOs placing bets on AI, analytics, automation going into 2024

According to Sahoo, data and AI will enable a single pane of glass for customers. "I think we'll see more ecosystems going forward with cloud data and AI," he said.

Value chains. Sahoo's third trend plays into the value chain concept that in theory creates a flywheel across industries where every player and customer in the value chain benefits. Sahoo said the core value of value chains has to be customer involvement and a flywheel effect. "For example, if you buy a car, you should be able to tie it up with insurance and everything a customer needs," said Sahoo. "In my industry if we're selling hardware, we can use machine learning at the right point to offer a warranty. At that point it's easier for the customer. Every core competency in the flywheel makes it easier for the customer to do business with us."

Connective tissue in value chains. The theory behind value chains makes sense, but the incentives to get rivals to work together may be tricky. Sahoo said on the technology side, "the world is moving from pure API integrations to data integration with machine learning models." "You can take any format of data using machine learning, convert it to your format and build the joint integration," said Sahoo.

The connective tissue on the business side will revolve around bundles.

"You have to create more bundles of solutions. In our industry, an average solution has six products. No one buys one technology item in isolation," said Sahoo. "What is happening is that you have a core platform or offering and then you bring in bundles at the right price and take complexity out for the customer."

Challenges with value chains and making them operate smoothly. "The biggest challenge is integrating your systems and making it nimbler and more flexible," said Sahoo. "Systems of record, systems of engagement, systems of experience and systems of engagement have to be tied together and orchestrated. Then you can bring your own data set." Today, most enterprises are struggling to extract data from their enterprise resource planning systems and really build intelligence.

Buying or building these capabilities. Sahoo said whether enterprises build these ecosystems or buy into them will depend on engineering and product acumen. "What you have to do is customize your architecture and build it in a way that gives you the business model flexibility to pivot and scale your business," said Sahoo. "And you have to build the product your customers really need using a feedback loop." Bottom line: Whether you build or buy the flexibility of architecture is critical. 

Architecture lessons. Sahoo said Ingram Micro started with three layers. The first is the data engine and experience. "The data part is an intelligent mesh that replicates all the data from the different ERPs across the world. Then it stages the data on the fly and harmonizes it in the cloud," explained Sahoo.

"Then we move to build a lot of autonomous engines where we can communicate synchronous and asynchronous with the data. That gives us the flexibility to add agents that are completely segregated from the data layer. The agent to experience layer is completely headless where you can build in any experience such as mobile applications or desktop."

In 2023, Ingram Micro launched its new Xvantage Mobile Application on this architecture.

Sahoo added: "If you think about abstraction and every layer you can move without migrating or rationalizing the footprint as you transform."

BT150 Interview: Cherokee Nation CIO Paula Starr on CX, ITIL and community values

Larry Dignan

Editor in Chief of Constellation Insights
Constellation Research

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of Constellation Insights at Constellation Research, where he leads editorial coverage focused on enterprise technology, digital transformation, and emerging trends shaping the future of business. He oversees research-driven news, analysis, interviews, and event coverage designed to help technology buyers and vendors navigate complex markets with clarity and context. ...

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Paula Starr is a Cherokee citizen leading technology delivery at the Cherokee Nation, the United States' largest federally recognized tribe. With a team that supports 4,000 employees across Cherokee reservation CIO Starr is in a unique position to deliver digital services while maintaining community values.

We caught up with Starr, a BT150 member, at Constellation Research's Connected Enterprise 2023 to talk shop. Here are the takeaways from our conversation.

Cherokee Nation's reach. Starr said the Cherokee Nation is the largest recognized tribe in the US with 460,000 people and a 7,000 square mile reservation. However, the Cherokee Nation's digital presence has to reach beyond the reservation and reach the population in 23 countries. Starr said:

"We have citizens who obviously live off of the reservation and all across the world. We are endeavoring to be able to reach every one of those citizens. If you wanted to interact with your government, it was a matter of coming into our headquarters in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, or making a phone call to us. There was no digital outreach. There were no digital applications or forms whatsoever."

"We had a whole group of citizens that we call our at large citizens who were going unserved and unconnected. We have really tried to increase our digital outreach."

Customer experience and service requires empathy. Starr, who is also Cherokee, said that 88% of her IT team is also Cherokee. That shared experience helps create better customer service. She said:

"So many of us have grown up needing services and we know what it's like to be vulnerable and to need help. We've gone to the health services and clinics. Many of us were born in Indian hospitals, including myself. So, it's very natural for us to have empathy and compassion for our citizens. But beyond that, we also tried to serve according to our Cherokee community values. There's a whole list of 21 values that are common to the Cherokee Nation and much of it overlaps with ITIL. We use a lot of ITIL best practices correlated together with community values."

ITIL and Cherokee values. Starr acknowledges that ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) best practices and Cherokee values may not seem like a fit at first, but they align in multiple areas. The correlation between Cherokee values and ITIL equates to almost built in design thinking. ITIL is a framework used to standardize the selection, planning, delivery, maintenance, and lifecycle of IT services. Starr explained:

"The first ITIL principle that you'll find is focus on value. The only way you can focus on value is if you understand who defines value. Customers, your stakeholders, or whoever is using the thing that you're producing defined that for you as the practitioner. You don't find that view in a lot of IT shops where practitioners think they absolutely define the value. To get to that understanding that we don't define value our customers do, we refer to one of the Cherokee community values which says hold one other sacred. It ties together because you are holding your customer sacred. And you understand that their missions are sacred. You're absolutely going to work with them to define value and ensure that you're serving what provides them value."

Priorities and projects. Starr said prioritizing projects is hard for the tribe due to its unique needs. Traditionally, the biggest battle was to maintain sovereignty with Oklahoma. That battle has never gone away, but a 2019 Supreme Court ruling meant that reservations were never dissolved and have jurisdiction of their lands. And that jurisdiction goes beyond public safety. Police, court and other departments all needed systems built quickly. "There's a whole lot of need there," said Starr.

There is also the IT behind keeping the Cherokee language alive as only 2,000 citizens out of nearly 500,000 speak it. Starr said:

"We are rapidly losing the Cherokee language. Of all of these things how do you prioritize one of those things over the other? One makes you inherently Cherokee and the other is public safety amidst all the other things to work on. We follow the lead of our departments and what they make a priority. We just work to digitize everything as fast as we can."

Cherokee Nation's digital borders. Starr said programs are grouped based on whether a citizen is on the reservation or outside of it. "There are programs to serve those in the reservation and others that open up. Having digital systems helps us out because when someone logs in, we know where they are coming from," said Starr. "We have contact information and know whether it is within our jurisdiction. We can also make a determination of what they qualify for."

Priorities for 2024. Starr said the biggest initiative for Cherokee Nation is wellness. The IT budget is funded by subsidiaries such as hospitality and federal contracting. She said:

"In the year ahead, we are really looking at Cherokee wellness. There's a big initiative across the entirety of Cherokee Nation government to look at wellness and say, We understand wellness is not just physical wellness, it is also mental. It is your connection to your culture. It is your connection to community. You know, there's a lot of talk here at this conference about loneliness, those kinds of things, how do we measure that across our citizenry and how do we help where help is needed? There’s going to be a big technological component to that."

There will also be plenty of system upgrades as well as generative AI. Starr said generative AI can help with services as well as security. A Cherokee Nation large language model could also be a possibility at some point.

Challenges and opportunities ahead. Starr said AI has the potential to upgrade the level of services provided. There's also an opportunity to education IT staff with AI. Those AI opportunities also present challenges. The key thing is keeping up with AI in the public sector and continually teaching the team. Starr concluded:

"I also feel like there's an advantage right now to those who can just learn the fastest. I think that we've got a staff that's highly engaged and has high levels of capability that can learn a lot very quickly. So, I'm really excited about what we're able to do.

"The challenges for us are that it's hard for public sector to keep up in the age of AI, There's so much opportunity but for public sector, it's very hard. I worry about keeping up across all Indian country, to be honest. How do we meet this age of technological advancement and how do we help our friends across the other tribes get there as well?"

CXOs placing bets on AI, analytics, automation going into 2024

Larry Dignan

Editor in Chief of Constellation Insights
Constellation Research

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of Constellation Insights at Constellation Research, where he leads editorial coverage focused on enterprise technology, digital transformation, and emerging trends shaping the future of business. He oversees research-driven news, analysis, interviews, and event coverage designed to help technology buyers and vendors navigate complex markets with clarity and context. ...

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Business technology decision makers are optimistic about 2024 and are plotting investments in generative AI, analytics and automation, according to Constellation Research's second half 2023 CxO Business Confidence Survey.

The report, based on 43 C-level executives, found that enterprise decision makers are banking on emerging technologies to bolster revenue, profit and employment. An excerpt from the report:

"Buy-side CxOs are balancing the pressure to invest in the AI space with the need for certainty about the reliability of these new tools. In turn, enterprise tech vendors recognize and predict strong revenue potential in the generative AI space but currently are in the waiting phase of tangible selling and the client's desire to see tangible return on investment (ROI)."

Also see: Enterprise technology customer stories 2023: Everything we learned from CXOs about AI, data, CX, transformation

How that waiting game between vendors and technology buyers remains to be seen, but there is CxO optimism headed into 2024. Fifty-one percent of respondents said they experienced a better business climate in 2023 relative to 2022. In the first half, only 33% of CxOs said the business climate was better.

Other key items to note:

• 44% of respondents said innovation was their organization's most important business issue, followed by labor availability and quality at 42% and consumer demand at 28%.

• 33% of technology budgets are going to revenue and growth investments with 26% going to efficiency efforts. Strategic differentiation received 20% of budgets.
• 40% said IT budgets will be flat with 21% seeing increases of 0 to 5%.
• AI, analytics, ChatGPT, Automation and cloud were cited as priorities among emerging technologies.
• AWS and Microsoft were the two top of mind software vendors for CxOs followed by Salesforce and Workday.