Adobe raises Creative Cloud prices, adds generative AI credits

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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Adobe is raising Creative Cloud prices starting Nov. 1 and introducing a credit system for generative AI capabilities across the product suite.

As vendors are launching generative AI features, prices are rising via add-ons, seats or subscriptions. Adobe's approach is to raise prices for Creative Cloud and include generative AI monthly credits.

• Get ready for a parade of domain specific LLMs
• Generative AI features starting to launch, next comes potential sticker shock

Going forward, Creative cloud will include an allocation of Generative Credits, or tokens that will enable generative AI features. For instance, customers will be able to turn a text-prompt into image and vector content in Photoshop, Illustrator, Express and Firefly.

Users on free plans will also get Generative Credits but be prompted to subscribe to continue creating assets. Generative Fill, Generative Expand, Text to Image, Generative Recolor will be one credit and text effects will be one credit.

Here's a look at the price increases across Creative Cloud.

Creative Cloud for individual Single App Plans, which include Generative Credits, Adobe Express and Firefly.

• A $2 increase for annual billed monthly option to $22.99 per month.
• A $3 increase for month-to-month option to $34.49 per month.
• A $24 increase for annual prepaid option to $263.88 per year.

Creative Cloud for Individual All Apps Plan including Generative Credits, Adobe Express and Firefly.

• A $5 increase for annual billed monthly option to $59.99 a month.
• A $7.50 increase for the month-to-month plan to $89.99 per month.
• A $60 increase for annual prepaid option to $659.88 per year.

Creative Cloud for Teams including Generative Credits, Adobe Express and Firefly.

• A $2 increase for Teams single apps plans including Pro Edition to $37.99 per month, per license.
• A $5 increase for Teams All Apps plan including Pro Edition to $89.99 per month per license.

Enterprise accounts will see price increases, but changes will vary.

Adobe said there will be no changes to Creative Cloud pricing plans for students, teachers and education, Adobe Stock plans and mobile among others.

Aside from the price increases, Adobe launched a bevy of new items including Adobe Firefly models and web application are generally available, Firefly native integration with Creative Cloud, Content Credentials for Firefly, and availability for Adobe Firefly for Enterprise. Adobe also outlined Adobe Gen Studio.

Constellation Research's Liz Miller's take

Constellation Research analyst Liz Miller put the Adobe price increases in context. She said:

"The price increase on Creative Cloud was expected and many customers were actually expecting this to be a bigger number compared to the functional additions to the suite, especially considering all of the advancements to Creative Cloud in the last 12 months. The feedback I am hearing is one of relief that 1) the increase is commensurate with the value they are adding, and that 2) the AI credits make Firefly accessible for what they need without feeling like they are paying off an innovation bill with a large blanket increase.

For the Firefly and generative AI tools that will leverage the credits model, for the enterprise users, much of this will be bundled in an unlimited model and is evenly stacked for the utilization of Firefly and the new GenAI tools.

Not all GenerativeAI creative tools are created equal and predictably their costs are certainly not equal. Adobe is focusing on the business users that are applying AI and generative AI tools for commercially safe and enterprise ready assets and content. The Firefly suite of models is intentionally diverse and purposefully connected. While it is easy to assume these increases are just to offset compute or data costs there is also a cost to commercial safety and viability of what is being created. If those guardrails and authenticity measures are important for you business these costs are minor shifts compared to the liability of assets created without those safety measures in place."

Also:

• Adobe Firefly heads to enterprises, Adobe Express

Employees flocking to generative AI tools as corporate policies lag, says survey

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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Employees are adopting generative AI tools to accomplish work tasks even though enterprises are lagging with official policies, according to a survey from The Conference Board.

The survey found that 56% of workers are using generative AI on the job with almost 10% of them using the technology daily. The catch is that 26% of respondents say their organization has a generative AI use policy, said The Conference Board.

Another 23% of employees noted that their companies have generative AI policies under development.

In the big picture, generative AI adoption is following the same pattern as mobile and cloud. Employees often lead the way with new technologies before employers officially adopt them.

Research: How Generative AI Has Supercharged the Future of Work | How Data Catalogs Will Benefit From and Accelerate Generative AI | Analytics and Business Intelligence Evolve for Cloud, Embedding, and Generative AI | 2023 H1 CxO Business Confidence Survey

The big issue for enterprises, however, is segmenting corporate data from generative AI. Without policies and generative AI tools in place, employees will roll their own tech stack. Vendors are racing to provide features and rolling out pricing plans.

• Get ready for a parade of domain specific LLMs
• Generative AI features starting to launch, next comes potential sticker shock

• How AI workloads will reshape data center demand
• Enterprise tech buyers wary of generative AI hype, security
• How 4 CEOs are approaching generative AI use cases in their companies

The Conference Board survey was based on nearly 1,100 US employees.

Among the key findings from The Conference Board survey:

• 31% report using generative AI frequently with 17% using the technology weekly.
• 44% of employees have never used generative AI.
• Of those that have adopted generative AI, 71% say management is at least partially aware.
• 68% said drafting written content was the primary use case for generative AI followed by 60% who said brainstorming ideas was a use case.
• 19% of employees said they're using generative AI for analyzing data and making forecasts.
• 45% said that generative AI quality is equal to an experienced worker with 31% saying quality is equal to a novice worker.
• 63% said generative AI positively impacted productivity.
• 33% said AI will replace elements of their job in a positive way with 4% saying it will have a negative impact. 

Apple's Double Tap gesture on Apple Watch sets up Vision Pro UI handoff

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's biggest innovation at its Apple Watch Series 9 and iPhone 15 event may be a double tap finger gesture for the Apple Watch that will make the Vision Pro customer experience more familiar.

The Apple event went off as expected--a series of incremental updates--with a few surprises. The biggest surprise was an Apple Watch update that has a new processor (S9) that has a neural engine that can handle Siri requests on device. For the enterprise, there wasn't much there to note.

The double tap gesture--used with your thumb and finger--is enabled by data on the new Apple Watch from the gyroscope, accelerometer, and machine learning. With S9 doing the work, Apple is trying to popularize a gesture that's easy and can answer phones easily.

What's notable about double tap is that it paves the way for Vision Pro interactions. CEO Tim Cook noted that Vision Pro is on schedule and will ship early in 2024. Now the market for Vision Pro is likely to be small given the price tag of $3,499, but Apple is smart by making Apple Watch the UI warmup act for hand gestures.

On Vision Pro, there are a series of hand gestures that will be available to developers. By integrating some of these gestures into other Apple products, the company makes its Vision Pro UI more familiar. And given the installed base of Apple Watch, a lot more people will be familiar with double tap and similar gestures. Apple is also setting up the Vision Pro with the iPhone 15 Pro Max and its ability to take video that can be shared with its mixed reality headset. 

Constellation Research CEO and Principal Analyst Ray Wang breaks down what Wall Street is keeping an eye out for during the #AppleEvent https://t.co/IJ7IINB41e pic.twitter.com/rawtP84Svz

— Bloomberg Technology (@technology) September 12, 2023

Apple Watch is the set-up product for Vision Pro when it comes to mainstreaming hand gestures. Apple said in a release.

“Double tap controls the primary button in an app so it can be used to stop a timer, play and pause music, or snooze an alarm. The gesture can be used to answer and end a phone call, and even to take a photo with the Camera Remote on Apple Watch. Double tap will also open the Smart Stack from the watch face, and another double tap will scroll through widgets in the stack.

This new double tap gesture is enabled by the faster Neural Engine in Apple Watch Series 9, which processes data from the accelerometer, gyroscope, and optical heart sensor with a new machine learning algorithm. The algorithm detects the unique signature of tiny wrist movements and changes in blood flow when the index finger and thumb perform a double tap. The double tap gesture will be available in a software update next month.”

Other observations:

• Apple is holding the pricing line on iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus. Apple's iPhone 15 Pro is expected to keep average selling prices high with perks such as a titanium frame and camera improvements only available on the high-end model. The high-end models start at the same prices as the previous versions. It's worth noting that Apple is also offering good trade-in deals to goose sales. Samsung runs the similar play. 

• The 2-year free Satellite service is a nice touch for iPhone 15.
• By using local processing hopefully Siri will become quicker and more reliable. Siri can also be used to access Health app data without connectivity.
• Hearing Apple dance around USB-C was comical given the EU is forcing the company to ditch the Lightning Cable in the name of e-waste. Apple noted that USB-C is used in its other products and now comes to the iPhone.

• Apple Watch's battery life still hasn't moved the needle much. Apple touted 18-hour battery life with the Ultra at a baseline of 36 hours. For comparison, my two-year-old Garmin Fenix Solar is 97% charged and has 20 days of battery life left.

Constellation Research CEO and Principal Analyst Ray Wang breaks down what Wall Street is keeping an eye out for during the #AppleEvent https://t.co/IJ7IINB41e pic.twitter.com/rawtP84Svz

— Bloomberg Technology (@technology) September 12, 2023

Salesforce launches Einstein 1 Platform, enables metadata across platform, Data Cloud

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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Salesforce launched a rebuilt Data Cloud and Einstein 1 Platform that is now native to a unified metadata framework to go along with a series of product updates designed to make generative AI easier to implement. Salesforce also introduced a series of copilots across core clouds such as sales, service and marketing.

By enabling metadata across the Salesforce platform, the bet is that the data model is in place to automatically customize and update across enterprise applications. The revamped Data Cloud, dubbed the Einstein 1 Data Cloud, will also be connected to the Einstein Trust Layer.

The Einstein 1 Platform underpins all applications and connects Salesforce apps and services in a stack held together by the metadata framework.

According to Salesforce, Einstein 1 Platform is a hyperscale data engine inside Salesforce that connects all of your data with 2 trillion records processed per month. Within Data Cloud, enterprises will be able to prepare and transform data, map to a unified metadata model and resolve customer identities.

Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, said during the company's second quarter earnings conference call that Data Cloud will be a major focus of Dreamforce 2023, which will feature more than 1,500 sessions and more than 200,000 attendees in person and virtual. Data Cloud's revamp is part of a series of Salesforce AI moves. 

• Salesforce's Dream(force) is about Data Cloud, being your single source of truth
• Salesforce Q2 better than expected, outlook raised ahead of price increases
• Salesforce rolls out Sales GPT, Service GPT
• What Movies Get Wrong…and Salesforce Gets Right…About AI
• Salesforce launches AI Cloud, aims to be abstraction layer between corporate data, generative AI models
• Salesforce launches Marketing GPT, Commerce GPT, aims to connect generative AI to ROI

Speaking at Dreamforce, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said:

"We are now the third largest software company in the world [with $34.8 billion in revenue] and the second-largest software company in Japan, where we just surpassed Oracle. We did it with a huge focus on growth and values: Trust, Customer Success, Innovations, Equality and sustainability."

He also talked up the impact of AI on productivity.

"This burst of artificial intelligence is like nothing we’ve seen before. It’s incredible what’s going on, but here’s the thing: We also recognize that it’s going to impact who we are and how we operate, but it’s going to bring us back to our core values. Salesforce is already the largest AI platform used around the world. Where about to hit another wave with general artificial intelligence. There's no question that this AI wave is going to change everything, so what we do matters."

Benioff's bet is that Data Cloud will be a big part of the AI ecosystem. Data Cloud will connect to a bevy of data lakes and warehouses including Snowflakes, Google Cloud and Databricks as well as models from AWS, Anthropic, Cohere, Databricks, Google Cloud and OpenAI.

In addition, Salesforce is enabling free Data Cloud and Tableau for customers with Enterprise and Unlimited Editions. Customers can unify 10,000 profiles with two Tableau Creator licenses.

Constellation Research analyst Doug Henschen, who contributed to this report from Dreamforce in San Francisco, put the Salesforce moves in context. Henschen said:

"Unified metadata management is a key theme that many data platforms vendors are pursuing – with Databricks highlighting Unity Catalog and Google pushing Dataplex, for example – so it’s no surprise to see this added to the unifying data-management capabilities associated with the Salesforce Data Cloud. The free instances of both Data Cloud and Tableau are Salesforce’s push to accelerate adoption of its data platform and leading analytics product throughout the Salesforce customer base, though it’s also promising openness and compatibility with incumbent data-platform choices such as Snowflake, Databricks and Google BigQuery. My take is that Data Cloud deserves consideration from any customer that uses multiple Salesforce clouds and that requires customer identity resolution. The jury is out on Data Cloud’s utility and cost-effectiveness as a general data platform for managing non-Salesforce data.

Tableau keeps gaining tighter integration with Salesforce, with the latest advances including Lighting app-building capabilities. Salesforce CRM Analytics, meanwhile, is increasingly the foundation for pre-built and custom analytic applications. Customers with deep investments in third-party data platforms and analytic tools will have to weigh the touted 'Salesforce-Native' advantages of the Salesforce Data Cloud, pre-built analytic apps and Salesforce-integrated options including Tableau and CRM Analytics."

Research: How Data Catalogs Will Benefit From and Accelerate Generative AI | Constellation ShortList™ Embedded Analytics Platforms for Cloud Applications | Analytics and Business Intelligence Evolve for Cloud, Embedding, and Generative AI

Other key items from Salesforce's Dreamforce launches.

• Einstein Trust Layer will use dynamic grounding to make data before it is sent to a large language model. There's zero data retention outside of Salesforce.
• Einstein 1 Platform will include copilots across sales to enhance relationships, service to resolve cases, marketing for content creation and Tableau to highlight insights.
• Einstein Copilot, a AI assistant built into the user experience of every Salesforce application. 
• Einstein Copilot Studio, which will enable enterprises to customize with prompts, skills and models. 
• Slack will be able to see and update Salesforce data, track work, automate with AI and summarize using AI.
• All Salesforce clouds will get updates from the Einstein 1 Platform update. MuleSoft and Tableau will also get AI enhancements as will industry clouds with copilots for contracts, CPG, ESG, financial services, utilities, education and health to name a few. The glue of these efforts revolves around Salesforce's Data Cloud and metadata platform.

Henschen said:

"The promise of better-unified and more trustworthy metadata is clearly tied to delivering more accurate and trustworthy generative AI, natural language interaction, and search. What wasn’t quite clear, during analyst previews, was whether the new metadata framework is entirely behind the scenes or whether there might also be user-facing enhancements, such as new data catalog, data model, or business glossary interfaces, any and all of which would make the promise of better metadata management more tangible."

More:

• What's in a generative AI name? Not much

SAS generative AI strategy focused on industries, integration, last mile models

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. ...

Read more

SAS outlined its generative AI strategy that revolves around connecting its data science and analytics platform to a choice of large language models, focusing on "last mile" delivery of AI applications and focusing on industries. SAS also expanded a partnership with Microsoft to integrate SAS' orchestration platform with Microsoft Azure OpenAI.

According to SAS, the generative AI integration with Microsoft will be available in private preview in the fourth quarter.

SAS delivered its vision for generative AI integration and a set of industry-specific offerings at SAS Explore in Las Vegas. SAS' approach to generative AI is to partner, offer choice and focus on its core strengths such as digital twin simulations, data governance and expertise in data science and analytics.

Bryan Harris, SAS Chief Technology Officer, said the generative AI effort is part of a $1 billion investment in industry applications. "Our $1 billion investment in industry solutions includes the integration of trustworthy generative AI capabilities that are accurate, explainable and defendable," said Harris.

Also see: 

• Constellation ShortList™ Self-Service Data Science & Machine Learning
• Get ready for a parade of domain specific LLMs
• Generative AI features starting to launch, next comes potential sticker shock

At SAS Explore, the company highlighted synthetic data generation via a patented extension to generative adversarial networks (GANs) that preserves privacy, mitigates bias and provides predictive models that serve as a foundation for digital twins, a core competency for SAS. The company has already integrated generative AI models into its SAS Customer Intelligence 360 platform.

Regarding the Microsoft partnership, SAS said they will aim to combine Azure scale with SAS orchestration of analytics and enterprise data. This integration will be aimed at industries such as banking, insurance, manufacturing, public sector and retail. "SAS is being characteristically conservative on generative AI developments, highlighting existing investments in synthetic data generation and digital twin simulations and pointing to integrations and coming private-preview experimentation with third-party large language models (LLMs)," said Constellation Research analyst Doug Henschen.

To round out its strategy, SAS outlined a series of updates and new capabilities. Here's a look:

• SAS Viya, the company's data, AI and analytics platform, was updated to provide lightweight environments to create models and applications in Python, R or SAS and deploy them via the cloud. The company launched SAS Viya Workbench, which creates cloud-native apps and models in multiple languages. SAS Viya Workbench, currently in private preview, will also include Jupyter Notebook, Visual Studio Code and SAS Enterprise Guide with general availability in early 2024. SAS App Factory will automate the setup and integration of apps built on React, TypeScript and Postgres. SAS App Factory will be generally available in 2024.
• SAS Energy Forecasting Cloud, an energy industry focused service, is built on SAS App Factory and enables utilities to combine data, generative AI and predictive models to forecast peak power demand and supply and demand. SAS Energy Forecasting Cloud will leverage models that absorb operational, weather and usage data from multiple sources including smart meters and IoT devices. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) is a flagship customer of SAS Energy Forecasting Cloud.
• SAS Customer Intelligence 360, a marketing platform, will be getting generative AI tools for campaign planning, content creation and journey design. Customers will be able to use their choice of foundational models, integrate LLMs with SAS connectors, apply natural language and accelerate content creation with human oversight and data privacy.
• SAS Health, a platform for health data management, data automation and analytics, is generally available. SAS Health has a common health data model and predetermined mappings to industry standards. SAS Health is also connected to SAS Viya to deliver analytics and insights.
• SAS said TD SYNNEX will be its primary global distribution partner to provide scale into industry-specific use cases.

"The coming SAS Viya Workbench and SAS App Factory SaaS services promise to accelerate the development of AI- and ML-based applications. The App Factory, in particular, is being targeted at vertical-industry innovation, starting with planned pre-built apps for the energy and healthcare industries," said Henschen. 

Oracle's Q1 better than expected and Ellison loves generative AI

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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Oracle reported better-than-expected first quarter results as the company's infrastructure-as-a-service business gains generative AI workloads.

The company reported first quarter earnings of $2.4 billion, or 86 cents a share, on revenue of $12.45 billion, up 9% from a year ago. Non-GAAP earnings for the first quarter were $1.19 a share.

Wall Street was looking for Oracle to report first quarter earnings of $1.15 a share on revenue of $12.47 billion. Oracle's fourth quarter results shined due to cloud strength.

Oracle’s cloud revenue (IaaS and SaaS) was $4.6 billion, up 30% from a year ago. Of that cloud revenue, Oracle’s IaaS business had revenue of $1.5 billion in the first quarter, up 66% from a year earlier. Cloud application revenue in the first quarter was $3.1 billion, up 17% from a year earlier. 

Research

• Oracle Writes the Next Chapter of Exadata With Exadata X10M
• Oracle’s Data Platform Gets an EPYC™ Boost

The ever-quotable Larry Ellison, CTO of Oracle, is clearly on the generative AI bandwagon. In a statement he said: "Is Generative AI the most important new computer technology ever? Maybe!” In 2008, Ellison panned cloud computing as the latest tech fashion trend but acknowledged that Oracle would make cloud announcements.

Today, Ellison is way faster to the generative AI mark and making cloud computing noise. Ellison said AI development companies have signed contracts to purchase more than $4 billion of capacity in Oracle’s Gen2 Cloud. “That's twice as much as we had booked at the end of Q4,” he said.

Oracle is grabbing generative AI workloads due to a tight partnership with Nvidia and its RDMA-connected superclusters. Oracle CEO Safra Catz said the recurring revenue stream from cloud generated $7 billion in operating cash flow in the first quarter. 

Catz previewed Oracle Cloud World and said announcements would revolve around:

• Multi-cloud strategy.
• Analytics.
• Generative AI. 
• Hardware and infrastructure advances. 
• Customer stories and networking.

"Some of the customers you'll hear from are Nvidia, Uber, Cohere as well as partners such as VMware and Microsoft," said Catz. "There are a lot of discussions going on and you'll see announcements shortly." Indeed, Oracle's Ellison and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella will have a joint announcement planned. The two companies have been ramping up connections between their clouds for joint customers. 

Ellison added that the Microsoft partnership will expand collaboration and enable Azure customers to leverage Oracle cloud applications and databases. 

Catz said Oracle has signed several deals for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure topping $1 billion. "My point here is that customer momentum is continuing to build. Our annual revenue growth will continue to accelerate going forward."

She added that Oracle saw strength in autonomous databases, cloud applications and cloud workloads. Catz added that Cerner and database migration to the cloud will also drive growth in the future. 

"Our biggest challenge is building data centers as quickly as possible," said Catz, who noted Oracle is also migrating Cerner to the cloud.

Here's the outlook in US dollars for the second quarter. Total revenue including Cerner is expected to grow 5% to 7%. Total revenue growth excluding Cerner will be 8% to 10%. Total cloud revenue excluding Cerner is expected to grow from 29% to 31%. Non-GAAP EPS will be $1.27 to $1.31 including Cerner and $1.30 to $1.34. Catz's takeaway is the the Cerner integration is a headwind, but the core business is gaining momentum. 

What spooked investors was the idea that Oracle would be funneling profits into capital expenses. Constellation Research analyst Holger Mueller said:

"Oracle did not deliver to expectations on the revenue side – and that is never a good thing. Traditional Q1 is weak for Oracle, due to summer and lack of potential Q4 closing incentives for both customers and sales processionals. But the cloud portfolio is growing, and Oracle is more profitable, growing generated cash flow and now putting $8B+ - more than 50% of generated cash flow – into CAPEX – for trailing last 4 quarters. Clearly, Larry Ellison and Safra Catz see a massive opportunity in AI and are walking the talk on the CAPEX side. Good to see all regions growing – which is not always the case in an Oracle Q1. Now it will be all to deliver to expectations in Q2. We will see."

Ellison said Elon Musk's X AI has signed a contract for workloads. He added that the Cerner unit is about to sign two big deals at $1 billion. Berkshire Hathaway's insurance units are also standardizing on Oracle Cloud ERP. 

Select Constellation Research Shortlists that include Oracle

• Cloud-Based Planning and Performance Management
• Enterprise Application Platforms
• Enterprise Cloud Finance
• Global HCM Suites 
• Global IaaS for NextGen Apps
• Healthcare ERP
• Next-Gen Databases: RDBMS for On-Premises
• Next-Generation Computing Platforms
• Product-Centric Cloud ERP

Here’s a breakdown of Oracle’s revenue in the first quarter.

What's in a generative AI name? Not much

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. ...

Read more

This post first appeared in the Constellation Insight newsletter, which features bespoke content weekly.

Generative AI may be running out of names as vendors max out on monikers for new services and features.

Way back when (more like 5 months ago) naming a generative AI service was easy. You just put a GPT on the back of everything. Then Microsoft ushered in the era of copilots to name generative AI services. Microsoft will still toss in a GPT here and there, but OpenAI has that naming convention cornered.

This naming issue is no small matter. Generative AI product names have a shelf life of a few months at best. Salesforce's Dreamforce conference will likely feature a few name changes. Salesforce was early on the GPT bandwagon, but that name only goes so far. Why? Salesforce, like other enterprise vendors, are following bring your own model arrangements. Simply put, not everything is a GPT.

I'll bet Salesforce will keep Einstein around as a product, but we'll see if Genie sticks. Who knows about GPT. And with enterprise technology conference season here we're going to hear all kinds of names for generative AI services. 

There are three routes to go with generative AI naming conventions.

• Name one thing that'll apply across a platform. Intuit launched Intuit Assist and the generative AI tool will run across products. Think Intuit Assist for Credit Karma, Mailchimp and QuickBooks. Intuit Assist is simple, a bit boring, but gets the job done. UserTesting has AI Insights Summary. Google Cloud has Duet AI.
• Use a placeholder name. Zoom launched AI Companion, another cross platform generative AI tool. AI Companion used to be called Zoom IQ--may that name rest in peace.
• Name your AI like you would your dog. Crowdstrike has Charlotte AI across its platform. Informatica has CLAIRE with a GPT tacked on. IBM has Watsonx as Big Blue will make that Watson brand stick no matter what. Watson isn’t a bad name for a dog—especially if your pet is inventive in chasing squirrels or something.

Naming conventions for generative AI services got me so wound up that I had to consult with Google’s Bard for ideas just like every other marketing department. First, I asked: “What’s in a name?” Bard riffed on Shakespeare quotes and how it’s personal preference. To some people names matter. To others, names are meaningless.

Thanks for nothing Bard.

Then I refined my prompt since I’m a prompt engineer in training. I asked Bard: “What should I name my generative AI service? Bard gave me a lot more. The answer in full:

“Here are some ideas for names for your generative AI service:

• Generative AI. This is a straightforward name that accurately describes what the service does.
• AI Writer. This name emphasizes the service's ability to generate text.
• AI Artist. This name emphasizes the service's ability to generate images.
• AI Creator. This name is more general and could be used for any type of generative AI service.
• Imagine. This name is creative and evokes the idea of creating new things.
• Create. This name is similar to Imagine, but it is more direct.
• Spark. This name suggests that the service can help people to be creative.
• Inspire. This name is similar to Spark, but it is more focused on the emotional impact of the service.
• Dream. This name is creative and evokes the idea of creating new possibilities.
• Avataar. This name is a reference to the Hindu concept of an avatar, which is a divine being that takes on human form. This could be a good name for a generative AI service that can create realistic images or videos.

Ultimately, the best name for your generative AI service is the one that you think is most appropriate and memorable. Consider the purpose of the service, the target audience, and the overall branding when choosing a name.

I hope this helps!”

It sure does Bard. Thanks. As for the rest of you struggling to name your generative AI you may want to give Bard attribution should you crib one of those names. Spark may have some mojo.

Smartsheet vs. Asana vs. Monday: What you need to know

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. ...

Read more

Work coordination platforms have been busy adding generative AI, retooling infrastructure to scale better for enterprises and growing revenue at a rapid clip.

The category is notable because these platforms are a window to how work is actually executed. As a result, these platforms are churning out data that enables enterprises to optimize. As Constellation Research analyst Dion Hinchcliffe has said: "The cornerstone to the significance and value of work coordination platforms is that they are at the heart of the real work that is getting done."

In recent weeks, three key vendors on the Constellation ShortList™ Work Coordination Platforms have reported results and previewed upcoming conferences. Here's a tour and what you need to know about Smartsheet, Asana and Monday.com results.

Smartsheet

Smartsheet reported second quarter revenue of $235.6 million, up 26% from a year ago. The company reported a second quarter net loss of $33.4 million, or 25 cents a share. Non-GAAP earnings were 16 cents a share.

CEO Mark Mader said the company saw strong demand from enterprises for its work management suite. Customers with annual contract values topping $100,000 were 1,665.

As for the outlook, Smartsheet said third quarter revenue will be $240 million to $242 million, up 20% to 22%. Non-GAAP earnings will be between 8 cents a share to 9 cents a share. For fiscal 2024, Smartsheet projected revenue of $950 million to $953 million, up 24%, with non-GAAP earnings of 53 cents a share to 57 cents a share.

Here's what you need to know.

Momentum. While rivals have cited varying degrees of longer buying cycles and economic concerns, Smartsheet hasn't seen much of a slowdown. Mader said Smartsheet landed expansions with HPE, Airbus, Iron Mountain and Pacific Life. Smartsheet has more than 9,400 enterprise customers defined as companies with more than 2,000 employees.

Smartsheet executives noted that it saw stabilization among enterprise customers, but there is some caution about budgets.

AI. The company has launched a series of generative AI features in beta and plans to outline more at its Engage conference soon. Smartsheet is using generative AI to create charts quickly, write formulas and offer guidance and insights on the fly. AI Assistant and AI Solution Builder are products to watch.

"I do expect over Q3 that number to expand to many thousands of customers who are using this. The things we've heard so far are validating. People are saying that they are seeing a dramatic reduction in cost to doing things like building visualizations with dashboard widgets which is our AI Insights product," said Mader. "And we've started to now also show some of our customers what we are doing on those other premium AI theses around formula building and content generation."

Vision. Smartsheet is using its platform to offer a portfolio of products and capabilities. It has also been focused on scaling as it lands larger enterprises. Smartsheet recently increased compute and cross-sheet linking capacity to 30,000 to 500,000 per sheet to manage more interconnected projects. The company is also looking to automate and enable customers to discover insights and workflows.

Product. Smartsheet said a bevy of products led to wallet share expansion including Smartsheet Advance and Data Shuttle, which allows customers to pull information from disparate data sources to create reports without integrations.

Innovation. Smartsheet's Mader said Engage will be a forum where the company will outline its platform strategy, role of generative AI and scale. Mader said Smartsheet will keep innovating on many fronts to give people a reason to subscribe and get licenses. "We have a huge population measured in millions of people who are actively engaged, who do not pay us today, and we are giving them reasons to subscribe," said Mader.

Asana

Asana reported solid second quarter results with revenue of $162.5 million, up 20% from a year ago. The net loss was $71.4 million, or 33 cents a share. Non-GAAP loss per share in the quarter was 4 cents a share.

The company projected third quarter revenue of $163.5 million to $164.5 million, good for growth of about 16% from a year ago. Asana projected a third quarter non-GAAP loss of 10 cents a share to 11 cents a share.

For fiscal 2024, Asana projected revenue between $642 million to $648 million, up 17% to 18%. The non-GAAP loss for the fiscal year will be between 39 cents a share and 42 cents a share.

Here's what you need to know.

Momentum. CEO Dustin Moskovitz said Asana continues to expand its share at large enterprises, but budgets and seats are being scrutinized with expansion plans being pushed out. Moscovitz said:

"Even with continued macro headwinds and heightened budget scrutiny in the enterprise, sentiment seems to be stabilizing. Customers are looking for ways to consolidate their vendors, getting more ROI out of everything they’re doing, and they’re turning to Asana. Asana can help them to achieve their goals and objectives more efficiently and faster than ever before. In fact, we have seen an increase in multi-year commitments both year over year and sequentially, in the quarter."

AI. Moscovitz said Asana was bullish on AI but argues that enthusiasm is waning for generative AI. "I believe chatbots are just demos, not really the end game. The real potential of AI is going to manifest when it gets deeply integrated into other software, making it possible for end users to get great results without themselves becoming prompt engineers, and for developers to radically accelerate their productivity," he said.

Vision. Asana's architecture is based on the Asana Work Graph data model and the company is betting that it will become the linchpin to future AI use cases. The goal: Make Asana Work Graph the single source of truth for work data so enterprises will know how work actually gets done.

Products. Aside from Asana's Work Management Platform and the Work Graph, Moscovitz touted Asana Intelligence, which will be a shared map that helps "align human intention with AI guidance." Asana also has scale with a platform that can scale up to 200,000 seats and companywide deployments.

Asana is adding a bevy of new AI features in beta including Writing Assistant, Instant Summaries and Work Organizer. Asana also has goal-based resource management and AI assisted smart workflows on tap.

Innovation: Asana has an event Oct. 3 in new York focused on work management across industries and functions. Asana will also share with customers a Work Innovation Score, powered by the Work Graph and AI.

Monday.com

Monday.com, which is best known for its work operating system, delivered second quarter revenue of $175.7 million, up 42% from a year ago. The company reported a net loss of 15 cents a share in the second quarter and non-GAAP earnings of 41 cents a share.

As for the outlook, Monday.com raised its outlook and projected third quarter revenue between $181 million to $183 million, up 32% to 34%. For 2023, Monday.com is projecting revenue of $713 million to $717 million.

Here's what you need to know.

Momentum. On Monday's earnings conference call co-CEOs Roy Mann and Eran Zinman were upbeat. "Demand from our customers remains healthy," said Mann. The company is adding a more scalable infrastructure to become a multi-product work suite.

AI. Monday has launched an AI Assistant and a series of new AI capabilities including automated task generation, formula builder, email composition and content generation. AI solution builder enables customers to build personalized Monday boards via an Azure OpenAI chatbot.

Vision. Monday.com has rebuilt the infrastructure behind its Work OS platform. It has launched the Monday DB 1.0 to all accounts so customers can load large boards 5 times faster and manage complicated workflows. Monday.com is also building out its developer marketplace to develop more AI applications. Monday.com is also optimizing its interface.

Products. Zinman said the company remains "focused on our multiproduct strategy and ensuring that our products can enable cross-functional collaboration. The company launched Monday CRM, mass emailing capabilities and the ability to reach multiple contacts. Monday Dev has been launched to track bugs and application development. Monday is also adding workflows as an add-on.

Innovation. Monday's plan is to provide an integrated platform that gives enterprises more capabilities and products. Mann said:

"The differentiator we see for Dev and all our products, also CRM and the work management the fact that we are in a platform. The products are built on top of the platform, which allows our customers to shape the solution to whatever they see fit and how their organization works. And we see this as a huge advantage also on deals and with customers when we talk with them, it's a major thing that it's built on top of the Work OS.

SAP buys LeanIX, aims to couple it with Signavio, system transformation

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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SAP said it will acquire LeanIX GmbH, an enterprise architecture management software company, in a move that will optimize processes connected to system migrations.

The acquisition of LeanIX will give SAP another process optimization piece to combine with SAP Signavio. In addition, LeanIX will give SAP a path to more easily migrate SAP customers to S4/HANA and cloud operations.

Use cases for the LeanIX platform include application rationalization, portfolio assessment, migration and modernization and ERP transformation.

Indeed, SAP noted that "many CIOs rely on LeanIX's offerings as part of their digital transformation with the RISE with SAP solution." SAP has a lot riding on migrating customers smoothly and the company can use Signavio to continuously improve processes based on the output of LeanIX.

Constellation Research analyst Holger Mueller said:

"A key challenge for SAP customer to upgrade to S/4HANA utilizing the vendor's Grow and Rise initiatives, is to understand their system landscape. LeanIX can help here, and with that help SAP customer assess, plan and access their SAP upgrades better. How well this will work in practice needs to be seen, as the details to be considered and the degree of automation expected as an SAP company are significantly higher than as an independent vendor. Time will tell."

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SAP said the acquisition is expected to close in the fourth quarter. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed.

It's also notable that Celonis and UiPath also offer system transformation using process mining. Many of those migrations involve SAP systems.

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During UiPath's second quarter earnings call, co-CEO Rob Enslin said:

"We are also making great progress with SAP, engaging with customers and building a joint pipeline. During the quarter, a German agricultural company challenged by their S/4 migration, selected UiPath in a competitive win based on our holistic integrated platform. They are in the process of implementing test suite for regression testing on their S/4 migration and testing of all SAP modules. They also plan to automate processes in their finance department and incorporate process mining and AI into their automation program."

SAP said that LeanIX complements SAP Signavio and gives customers "unique clarity on IT landscapes that they need to reap the full benefit of business transformation."

SAP CEO Christian Klein said systems and processes go together and "we'll embed generative AI to offer self-optimizing applications and processes that can help businesses achieve key goals such as maximizing cash flow while minimizing their environmental impact."

LeanIX has about 1,000 customers for its IT visualization software. LeanIX also recently launched an AI assistant for enterprise architecture management.

According to SAP, LeanIX will be combined with SAP Signavio Process Transformation Suite, RISE with SAP, and SAP Business Technology Platform. The company did note that LeanIX will continue to serve non-SAP architectures. SAP also has Demosphere, which aims to optimize and automate processes for multiple systems beyond SAP.