Larry Dignan

Editor in Chief of Constellation Insights Constellation Research

About Larry Dignan: Dignan was most recently Celonis Media’s Editor-in-Chief, where he sat at the intersection of media and marketing. He is the former Editor-in-Chief of ZDNet and has covered the technology industry and transformation trends for more than two decades, publishing articles in CNET, Knowledge@Wharton, Wall Street Week, Interactive Week, The New York Times, and Financial Planning. He is also an Adjunct Professor at Temple University and a member of the Advisory Board for The Fox Business School's Institute of Business and Information Technology.&nbsp; <br>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… Read more

IBM and AMD are planning to create new architectures that meld high-performance computing and quantum computing.

The companies said the focus on these next-generation architectures are designed to create "quantum-centric supercomputing." IBM and AMD said the two companies will develop scalable open source platforms that combine their respective expertise.

Quantum computing companies have been increasingly talking about hybrid systems that connect with classical supercomputers. In addition, quantum computing companies have been focused on use cases that can be addressed today in drug discovery, materials and optimization.

Constellation ShortList™ Quantum Computing Platforms | Quantum Computing Software Platforms | Quantum Full Stack Players

IBM and AMD plan to integrate AMD's CPUs, GPUs and FPGAs with IBM quantum computers. The integration would be able address use cases that could require simulation from quantum computing and data analysis from supercomputers.

• IBM outlines quantum computing roadmap through 2029, fault-tolerant systems
• IBM sees quantum advantage 2026, fault tolerant quantum in 2029
• IBM launches Flex Plan for quantum computing, aims to expand use cases
• 2025 is the year of quantum computing (already)

In addition, AMD and IBM said the partnership could speed up fault-tolerant quantum computers by the end of the decade. AMD's stack could provide real-time error correction.

According to IBM and AMD, the companies are planning to demonstrate the integration between quantum computing systems and supercomputers later this year.

In a statement, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna said the partnership will create "a powerful hybrid model that pushes past the limits of traditional computing." AMD CEO Lisa Su said the hybrid quantum approach can create "tremendous opportunities to accelerate discovery and innovation."

Holger Mueller, an analyst at Constellation Research, said a hybrid approach to quantum computing can deliver more immediate returns.

"Quantum is showing a lot of promise in 2025, but it is clear that the path to the enterprise will be a hybrid approach of traditional compute architectures feeding, validating and prepping for the quantum machines. The IBM and AMD partnership aims at exactly that upcoming market sweet spot - now is the time to validate and put in pace these architectures."

• AMD Q2 on target on strength of data center, PC chips
• AMD eyes AI inference gains with new Instinct accelerators, GPU, open rack systems

Larry Dignan

Editor in Chief of Constellation Insights Constellation Research

About Larry Dignan: Dignan was most recently Celonis Media’s Editor-in-Chief, where he sat at the intersection of media and marketing. He is the former Editor-in-Chief of ZDNet and has covered the technology industry and transformation trends for more than two decades, publishing articles in CNET, Knowledge@Wharton, Wall Street Week, Interactive Week, The New York Times, and Financial Planning. He is also an Adjunct Professor at Temple University and a member of the Advisory Board for The Fox Business School's Institute of Business and Information Technology.&nbsp; <br>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… Read more

Thoma Bravo will acquire Verint in a deal valued at $2 billion and combine it with Calabrio in a bet that it can automate customer experience with AI.

Verint shareholders will get $20.50 a share in cash. Verint shares had moved higher on reports of a deal.

Dan Bodner, CEO of Verint, said the Thoma Bravo purchase will enable it to advance its CX Automation Platform and develop AI-driven products.

The plan for Thoma Bravo is to combine Verint's CX platform with Calabrio, which specializes in workforce engagement management software. Mike Hoffmann, a partner at Thoma Bravo, said the combination of Verint and Calabrio will create "the industry’s broadest CX platform arming brands of all sizes with strong AI business outcomes."

• Verint builds out CX bots, analytics suite as AI approach resonates

Both Calabrio and Verint are on the Constellation Research Shortlist for Contact Center Workforce Engagement Management.

• Constellation ShortList™ Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS)
• Constellation ShortList™ Conversational AI
• Constellation ShortList™ Digital Customer Service and Support
• Constellation ShortList™ Contact Center Workforce Engagement Management (WEM)

Verint was on deck to report second quarter earnings, but will suspend guidance and earnings calls. In April, Verint said that half of its annual recurring revenue was derived from AI-related software. The company projected revenue of $960 million for its fiscal year.

Larry Dignan

Editor in Chief of Constellation Insights Constellation Research

About Larry Dignan: Dignan was most recently Celonis Media’s Editor-in-Chief, where he sat at the intersection of media and marketing. He is the former Editor-in-Chief of ZDNet and has covered the technology industry and transformation trends for more than two decades, publishing articles in CNET, Knowledge@Wharton, Wall Street Week, Interactive Week, The New York Times, and Financial Planning. He is also an Adjunct Professor at Temple University and a member of the Advisory Board for The Fox Business School's Institute of Business and Information Technology.&nbsp; <br>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… Read more

Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora said agentic AI means that enterprises will need secure browsers and the company is seeing strong demand.

For those of you focused on the large language model (LLM) rat race, the trusty browser is going to become a security headache. Why? AI agents will be accessing browsers all over the place and probably without a lot of security. Browsers are an easy mark for cyberattacks.

Consider Perplexity has launched Comet assuming it doesn't somehow buy Google's Chrome browser. Chrome is adding agentic capabilities to the browser. Microsoft is doing the agentic AI dance with Edge. 

The security threats via browsers with agentic AI features are just starting to be surfaced. For instance, Brave, which is aiming to make a browser that also acts as an AI agent, detailed potential attacks on AI browsers such as Nanobrowser and Perplexity's Comet. Brave said:

"Agentic browsing is incredibly powerful, but it also presents significant security and privacy challenges. As users grow comfortable with AI browsers and begin trusting them with sensitive data in logged in sessions—such as banking, healthcare, and other critical websites—the risks multiply. What if the model hallucinates and performs actions you didn’t request? Or worse, what if a benign-looking website or a comment left on a social media site could steal your login credentials or other sensitive data by adding invisible instructions for the AI assistant?"

Enterprises appear to be catching on the the security threats. Arora said Palo Alto Networks sold more than 3 million licenses for its Prisma Access Browser in the fourth quarter. The cumulative seat count for Palo Alto Networks secure browser has more than doubled on a sequential basis.

To some degree, Palo Alto Networks is talking up its own product line. "Notable deals include an over $3 million transaction, the leading U.S. pharmaceutical company who purchased Prisma Access Browser for over 80,000 seats," said Arora.

In 2023, Palo Alto Networks bought Talon Cyber Security, which was a leader in enterprise browser technology. Palo Alto Networks was a bit lucky.

"It's sometimes better to be lucky than good. We bought the browser (Talon) because we felt there were certain use cases like VDI or third-party contractors or mobile devices, which are not covered by SASE," said Arora. "About 6 to 8 months ago, you started hearing that the only way to deploy agents successfully for many consumer use cases is a browser. If you want to make a reservation on Booking.com and pick an OpenTable reservation or any agentic task, you need to control the browser. That's what Anthropic is figuring out, that's what OpenAI is figuring out, that's what Perplexity is figuring out. That's what Google is figuring out."

Now a boom market for secure enterprise browsers may be underway. Arora said: "We are beginning to see browser wars as we see the adoption of AI. Understandably, this is a requirement as we march towards agentic. Interestingly, it will become impossible to allow employees access to nonsecure browsers in the future. And as more and more critical applications and data reside within the browser, it naturally becomes a target for cyber-attacks."

Arora said the Prisma Access Browser "is strategically positioned to be the future OS in enabling secure and productive work in an AI-driven world."

The reality is that no enterprise can afford to let you do whatever you want on a browser and run agents that can't be controlled. Arora argued that enterprises will have to lock down browsers as AI agents take off.

Palo Alto Networks is betting that AI agents are going to take advantage of disparate platforms and infrastructure. The browser is going to serve as a key line of defense.

Bottom line: The secure enterprise browser market is going to be worth watching. The usual suspects will be Chrome Enterprise, Edge for Business and Firefox for Enterprise. But security vendors such as Palo Alto Networks will be in the browser mix with offerings or partnerships. Island Enterprise is another browser option and it's worth taking Zoho's Ulaa Enterprise for a spin. LLM players looking to expand into browsers will also need enterprise versions.

Larry Dignan

Editor in Chief of Constellation Insights Constellation Research

About Larry Dignan: Dignan was most recently Celonis Media’s Editor-in-Chief, where he sat at the intersection of media and marketing. He is the former Editor-in-Chief of ZDNet and has covered the technology industry and transformation trends for more than two decades, publishing articles in CNET, Knowledge@Wharton, Wall Street Week, Interactive Week, The New York Times, and Financial Planning. He is also an Adjunct Professor at Temple University and a member of the Advisory Board for The Fox Business School's Institute of Business and Information Technology.&nbsp; <br>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… Read more

Walmart's AI strategy is evolving as the company plans four "superagents" that will run across the retailer's operations, but one big theme is that CEO Doug McMillon expects revenue growth as well as productivity.

Each quarter, Walmart has divulged a bit more about its AI plans and the big takeaway this go round is that revenue growth is an expectation. Typically, enterprises have seen AI as a way to drive productivity and efficiency.

Walmart’s adjusted second quarter earnings of 68 cents per share missed expectations, but revenue of $177.4 billion was topped estimates. Walmart maintained its outlook for fiscal 2026.

Here’s a look at Walmart’s AI progression over the last year:

• A look at Walmart’s platform approach to data, AI, optimization
• Walmart's tech bets improve resilience as it reaffirms Q1 outlook
• Walmart’s fiscal 2026 bets: Supply chain optimization, AI, automation

McMillion said:

"As it relates to AI, I don't think it's lifting our top line sales yet. I think this is very early days. But I am excited about the road map, as I mentioned. I think what lies ahead is really exciting for us, given how our assortment has grown and our capabilities today as it relates to tech."

Walmart likely sits somewhere between AI Aware and AI Enabled today, but based on what executives have said the retailing giant clearly plans to become AI Native with faster growth rates. Constellation Research CEO Ray Wang outlined an AI maturity model that ranges from AI Luddites to AI Exponentials.

Also see: The road to AI Exponential will be bumpy

McMillon added that Walmart recently created a new position reporting to him. Walmart hired Daniel Dankers, who was previously at Instacart and Uber, to lead AI acceleration, product management, design, tech prioritization and AI-related change management. Dankers will report to McMillon. Walmart also created a new role focused on AI platforms and increasing speed, productivity and architecture. That role will report CTO Suresh Kumar.

"We're biased towards growth as it relates to AI. It's exciting to think about the productivity opportunities. But when we wake up in the morning, we're thinking about how we can serve customers better using AI," said McMillon.

For now, most of Walmart's AI plans seem to generate returns that revolve around productivity. It'll be interesting to see how long it takes for Walmart's AI plans to be credited for sales gains.

McMillon said that plan now is for Walmart to create its superagents. These superagents will govern a bevy of underlying AI agents.

Walmart's superagents are focused on the following:

• A customer-facing assistant called Sparky that resides in Walmart's app. Over time, Sparky will become agentic, but for now it's focused on search and assistance.
• A superagent for associates that will bring scheduling, sales data and other need-to-know items in one place.
• A superagent focused on suppliers, sellers and advertisers to manage onboarding orders and campaigns.
• A developer agent to speed up new product delivery.

"We see lots of opportunities, whether that's with digital twins of our facilities, which can help predict or prevent issues before they happen or the accuracy of dynamic delivery windows, which will provide to 95% of U.S. households by the end of this year," said McMillon.

Should Walmart leverage AI to deliver sales growth it will be a big win. Vendors have talked about AI driving revenue growth, but enterprises are often struggling to get from pilot to production.

Takeaways from Walmart's second quarter and technology strategy include:

Walmart is funding its investments with high-growth, high-margin businesses. Walmart--via Sam's Club--delivered membership growth of 16% in the second quarter with advertising up 50% from a year ago and e-commerce was up 26%. These businesses are giving Walmart flexibility to navigate tariffs, absorbing pricing hits and investing in new initiatives.

Walmart CFO John David Rainey noted the company is "fortunate to have opportunities to invest in ourselves in things like technology, AI, supply chain automation to drive returns in some cases, in the 20% range."

The data flywheel. McMillon said:

"We've obviously got is a ton of data and it's not just product catalog data these days, it's delivery data. It's real-time data. And the way that we can put that to work to understand the context in which someone's shopping is really exciting to think about.

I think it's compelling. There are times when you want to replenish your home with the things you buy all the time. There are other times when you're browsing for fun, and I think we're going to do a better job of understanding what the moment calls for and being able to meet the need, whether it's delivery speed or it's the breadth of the assortment."

Physical technology improvements. McMillon added that Walmart can differentiate its digital abilities with physical supply chain and in-person customer service.

Sam's Club CEO Christopher Nicholas said more than 40% of weekend shoppers are using Scan & Go and Just Go arches. Physical AI such as computer vision can drive customer experience. See: Sam's Club CEO Nicholas on AI, frictionless commerce, focus on members

Larry Dignan

Editor in Chief of Constellation Insights Constellation Research

About Larry Dignan: Dignan was most recently Celonis Media’s Editor-in-Chief, where he sat at the intersection of media and marketing. He is the former Editor-in-Chief of ZDNet and has covered the technology industry and transformation trends for more than two decades, publishing articles in CNET, Knowledge@Wharton, Wall Street Week, Interactive Week, The New York Times, and Financial Planning. He is also an Adjunct Professor at Temple University and a member of the Advisory Board for The Fox Business School's Institute of Business and Information Technology.&nbsp; <br>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… Read more

When your mother starts asking about AI stocks and SPACs are relaunching perhaps you should get a bit worried about an AI bubble. Yes, I have a few gray hairs and have lived through a few bubbles—dotcom circa 2000 and real estate circa 2008—and the aftermath isn’t great.

As a general rule, when you hear people standing in line at Wawa talking about AI, crypto and meme stocks you know you’re near a top. They don’t ring a bell and insanity can last longer than you think.

That said here are some mileposts to consider as the AI bubble inflates.

• OpenAI's Sam Altman reportedly mentioned AI bubbles in a talk that was widely reported.
• Microsoft AI chief Mustafa Suleyman posted a thought-provoking riff on AI becoming "seemingly conscious" and how AI needs to be built for people not as a digital human. Suleyman's essay is a great read, but more than a few have interpreted as a way to tamp down expectations.
• Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg threw $100 million pay packages at AI researchers chasing superintelligence and is already restructuring.
• I'm seeing semi absurd ETFs launching chasing buzz and getting inflows after years of losses.
• SPACs are back with the category’s core ringleader in the fold.
• Various reports are finding that most companies are seeing no bottom-line impact from genAI. McKinsey calls this the “genAI paradox.”
• Databricks is valued at $100 billion on a revenue run rate that was last reported at $3 billion. Even if you do generously assume that revenue run rate is $5 billion you're at 20x sales. Snowflake is 17x sales and 15x forward sales. Microsoft is valued at 13x sales and 12x forward sales. At least Databricks is cheaper than Palantir, which is going for 117x sales at last check.
• And finally, grandparents in their 80s are asking about AI stocks at Wawa where all great investment decisions are made.

We hit the watercooler at Constellation Research to get opinions on the AI bubble. Here are a few thoughts from our analysts.

📌 Overall Context

The watercooler debate revolved around whether today’s AI boom—driven by generative AI, LLMs, and infrastructure spending—resembles a bubble. The contributors weigh in with different levels of skepticism and optimism, comparing current AI hype to past tech cycles like dot-com, crypto, and GPUs.

💡 Key Perspectives

Esteban Kolsky

• Bubble signs:
  • Reports of high failure rates for GenAI projects and LLM oversaturation.
  • Many users are scrapping projects due to ROI as low as 1–5%.
  • Complaints about deteriorating performance in GPT-5, Claude, and Gemini—slower, more error-prone, and costly to run.
• Hopeful note:
  • Unlike past cycles, VCs are cutting back earlier, which may limit damage.
  • Draws parallels to crypto and GPU cycles where optimization of cheaper tech separated winners from losers.

Larry Dignan

• Moderate stance:
  • AI could “pause” for a few years and enterprises would still benefit if they focus on data readiness.
  • Warns that current valuations and constant Nvidia hardware spending are unsustainable, calling it a looming “shit show.”

Michael Ni

• Not a blind bubble:
  • Acknowledges froth at the edges (overfunded, pre-revenue startups with 100x valuations).
  • But the core is strong: platforms like ServiceNow and Databricks are building durable AI-native systems for decision intelligence, governance, and execution.
  • Sees these as foundational enterprise value creators, not speculation.

Holger Mueller

• Critical of execution:
  • Notes OpenAI’s failed launches (Project Ghibli, GPT-5 redirector issues) as “strike two” for enterprise trust.
  • Warns that if critical infrastructure can’t deliver reliably, enterprise adoption is at risk.
  • Enterprises are just starting with AI and the end of experimentation from them may pop the vendor bubble.
  • It's likely there will be a murky AI vendor field.

Martin Schneider

• Bubble of expectations:
  • Says this isn’t a classic bubble yet, but rather a “bubble of inflated expectations” driven by the pace of innovation without sufficient end-user value.
  • Infrastructure providers will thrive (chips, compute), but application providers must deliver pragmatic, functional value or risk irrelevance.
  • Highlights Salesforce’s smaller acquisitions (Regrello, Bluebirds, Moonhub) as examples of moving toward practical AI applications instead of hype.

🧾 Takeaways on the “AI Bubble”

1. Yes, bubble symptoms exist – low ROI, failed launches, hype-driven startups, inflated valuations.
2. But not fully a bubble – enterprise platforms and infrastructure are building lasting value.
3. Current state = bubble of expectations – more hype than results at the application layer, though infrastructure is solid.
4. Future hinges on execution – pragmatic value delivery, cost control, and reliability will determine whether AI sustains or collapses in speculative segments.

👉 In short: The consensus is that AI has frothy edges but a grounded core. We may be in a contained bubble of expectations, not a full-blown collapse scenario.

Larry Dignan

Editor in Chief of Constellation Insights Constellation Research

About Larry Dignan: Dignan was most recently Celonis Media’s Editor-in-Chief, where he sat at the intersection of media and marketing. He is the former Editor-in-Chief of ZDNet and has covered the technology industry and transformation trends for more than two decades, publishing articles in CNET, Knowledge@Wharton, Wall Street Week, Interactive Week, The New York Times, and Financial Planning. He is also an Adjunct Professor at Temple University and a member of the Advisory Board for The Fox Business School's Institute of Business and Information Technology.&nbsp; <br>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… Read more

Zoom Communications reported strong second quarter results and CEO Eric Yuan said the company is seeing customers broaden their AI usage.

The company reported second quarter net income was $358.6 million, or $1.16 a share, on revenue of $1.217 billion, up 4.7% from a year ago. Non-GAAP earnings were $1.53 a share.

Wall Street was expecting Zoom to report second quarter earnings of $1.38 a share on revenue of $1.2 billion.

Yuan said:

"AI Companion Monthly Active Users have grown over four times year over year, with millions using our AI to boost business value throughout the meeting lifecycle and beyond. AI adoption now extends well beyond meeting summaries, with strong momentum in meeting prep and post-meeting task management, call summaries for Zoom Phone, and AI-first meeting integration and content generation capabilities for Zoom Docs. This progress is just the beginning and we look forward to sharing more AI innovations at Zoomtopia next month."

By the numbers:

• Zoom ended the second quarter with 4,274 customers contributing more than $100,000 in trailing 12 months revenue.
• Online average churn was 2.9% for the quarter.
• Enterprise revenue was $730.7 million, up 7% from a year ago. Online revenue, typically smaller businesses, delivered second quarter revenue of $486.6 million, up 1.4% from a year ago.

As for the outlook, Zoom said third quarter revenue will be between $1.21 billion and $1.215 billion with non-GAAP earnings between $1.42 a share and $1.44 a share. For fiscal 2026, Zoom projected revenue between $4.825 billion and $4.835 billion with non-GAAP earnings of $5.81 a share and $5.84 a share.

Larry Dignan

Editor in Chief of Constellation Insights Constellation Research

About Larry Dignan: Dignan was most recently Celonis Media’s Editor-in-Chief, where he sat at the intersection of media and marketing. He is the former Editor-in-Chief of ZDNet and has covered the technology industry and transformation trends for more than two decades, publishing articles in CNET, Knowledge@Wharton, Wall Street Week, Interactive Week, The New York Times, and Financial Planning. He is also an Adjunct Professor at Temple University and a member of the Advisory Board for The Fox Business School's Institute of Business and Information Technology.&nbsp; <br>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… Read more

Workday's AI strategy appears to feature a heavy dose of acquisitions. The company said that it is acquiring Paradox, a startup that features a candidate experience agent to work through the job application process. The Paradox acquisition came just days after it acquired Flowise, a platform to build AI agents and automate workflows.

The latest acquisition landed as Workday reported better-than-expected second quarter earnings.

According to Workday, Paradox will give it an AI-driven talent acquisition suite. Paradox provides agent that provides responses, schedules and provides 24/7 support for recruiting processes. Paradox has powered more than 189 million AI-assisted candidate conversations that have boosted employee conversion rates. Here's a look at how Paradox reaches candidates. 

• Workday acquires Flowise to speed up building AI agents, automated workflows
• Workday aims to be system of record for AI agents, digital labor
• Workday Enters the Era of AI
• Employee Experience Platforms: Workday Peakon

The plan going forward is to add Paradox to the Workday Recruiting suite. Terms of the deal, which is expected to close in Workday's fiscal third quarter, weren't disclosed.

Paradox has integrations with Workday, SAP SuccessFactors and Indeed to name a few. The company focuses on the experiences for candidates, recruiters, hiring managers and franchises. Paradox's core industries are retail, restaurants, healthcare, logistics, manufacturing and financial services.

Recruiting has become a hot area. SAP recently acquired SmartRecruiters to bolster SuccessFactors.

Constellation Research analyst Holger Mueller said:

"Right when you thought Workday had settled on an organic approach to talent acquisition, it acquires Paradox. Granted, Paradox is a good and complimentary acquisition, but with the Workday move and the recent SAP acquisition one thing is clear - the gloves have come off in the talent acquisition game. And it makes sense - as the winners of talent acquisition can redefine how talent management overall will be reinvented in the AI era."

Workday also reported better-than-expected second quarter earnings that were 9 cents a share above Wall Street estimates. The company reported second quarter net income of 84 cents a share on revenue of $2.35 billion, up 12.6% from a year ago. Non-GAAP second quarter earnings were $2.21 a share.

Carl Eschenbach, CEO of Workday, said the company saw strength in AI consumption and international business.

Workday CFO Zane Rowe said the company is raising its fiscal 2026 subscription revenue guidance to $8.815 billion, up 14% from a year ago.

As for the outlook, Workday projected third quarter subscription revenue of $2.235 billion, up 14.1%.

Key takeaways from Carl Eschenbach on the earnings conference call:

• "With Workday Recruiting, Hiredscore and now Paradox, we will be able to deliver an incredibly powerful AI Powered talent acquisition suite, helping customers find, hire and onboard every type of worker for every type of work." 
• "This quarter, roughly 30% of our net new deals were full suite, with that number rising to 50% or more in industries like edu and healthcare."
• "Salesforce, a long time HCM customer, went live on Workday financial management and accounting center in the quarter. They're all in on Workday by unifying their HR and financial data on our platform. They're getting entirely new insights about their business to support their innovation and growth."
• "AI is front and center in nearly every customer conversation. More than 30% of our customer deals and more than 75% of our net new deals included one or more of our AI products."
• "At Workday Rising in a few weeks, we will unveil exciting AI and platform innovations, partnerships and new ways to make it easier for customers to access and get value from our AI solutions."
• "developers are embracing Workday's tools including extend and our AI APIs to expand the Workday footprint in new industries, markets and territories. We now have more than 100 Marketplace apps live on Workday Marketplace, which has doubled since the start of fiscal 2026."

Larry Dignan

Editor in Chief of Constellation Insights Constellation Research

About Larry Dignan: Dignan was most recently Celonis Media’s Editor-in-Chief, where he sat at the intersection of media and marketing. He is the former Editor-in-Chief of ZDNet and has covered the technology industry and transformation trends for more than two decades, publishing articles in CNET, Knowledge@Wharton, Wall Street Week, Interactive Week, The New York Times, and Financial Planning. He is also an Adjunct Professor at Temple University and a member of the Advisory Board for The Fox Business School's Institute of Business and Information Technology.&nbsp; <br>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… Read more

Google launched Gemini for Government, an AI platform priced at less than 50 cents per US government agency for a year. For those keeping score, Google Cloud just undercut the $1 General Services Administration (GSA) plans from OpenAI and Anthropic.

As noted previously, the large language model (LLM) price competition is brutal--and all about gaining usage and market share. OpenAI kicked off the value pricing plans for its models and Anthropic matched.

Google Cloud's Gemini for Government plans include:

• An AI platform that includes Google's enterprise search and video and image generation tools as well as NotebookLM and AI agents for Deep Research and ideation. US government employees can also build their own AI agents.
• Less than 50 cents per government agency for a year pricing.
• FedRAMP high-authorized security and compliance with built-in security features for identity and access management, threat protection, AI threat protection, data privacy and SOC2 Type 2 compliance and advanced compliance (with Sec4, FedRAMP).
• AI Agent Gallery with connectors to agents, data sets and communications protocols. Agencies also get Google Cloud Vertex AI and the ability to tune and ground their own models.

Also see:

• LLMs on sale: What happens when OpenAI, Anthropic offer Feds value meal pricing?
• Anthropic matches OpenAI $1 deal for US government
• Frontier AI companies land Department of Defense deals

For Google Cloud, the Gemini for Government offerings build on an already-strong position as a vendor for public sector agencies.

• Google Public Sector: A look at the strategy
• Google Public Sector lands new clearances for Gemini, authorizations for Air Force Cloud One
• Google Public Sector Summit: 9 takeaways you need to know
• Google Public Sector 2024: US Space Force General Saltzman on innovation, scale, leadership
• How Google Public Sector and NASA aim to bring generative AI to aircraft ground traffic control

Larry Dignan

Editor in Chief of Constellation Insights Constellation Research

About Larry Dignan: Dignan was most recently Celonis Media’s Editor-in-Chief, where he sat at the intersection of media and marketing. He is the former Editor-in-Chief of ZDNet and has covered the technology industry and transformation trends for more than two decades, publishing articles in CNET, Knowledge@Wharton, Wall Street Week, Interactive Week, The New York Times, and Financial Planning. He is also an Adjunct Professor at Temple University and a member of the Advisory Board for The Fox Business School's Institute of Business and Information Technology.&nbsp; <br>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… Read more

Microsoft laid out its plans to roll out post-quantum cryptography across its products and platform in a multi-year effort.

In a blog post, Microsoft introduced its Quantum Safe Program (QSP), which is a broad transformation to secure its infrastructure, customers and ecosystem against future quantum threats.

Holger Mueller, analyst at Constellation Research, said:

"The real quantum use case in 2025 is to make data centers quantum safe, which is a top priority for CxOs who need to fear that state actors will be spying on them. Microsoft is now making a key move by making all of Azure quantum safe. This move will make deployments for enterprises easier and get every Azure customer to the top level of safety. It also simplifies things for Microsoft as it can manage all its datacenters consistently."

Microsoft's QSP components include the following:

• Integrating post-quantum cryptography into foundational components.
• Updating products and services to prevent future quantum risks. Microsoft said it will integrate post-quantum cryptography across Azure, Entra Authentication, Microsoft 365 and more.
• Align QSP with US government requirements and timelines for quantum safety.
• Complete the transition to post-quantum cryptography by 2033, two years ahead of the deadline set by most governments.

In the blog post, Microsoft noted:

"Migration to post quantum cryptography (PQC) is not a flip-the-switch moment, it’s a multiyear transformation that requires immediate planning and coordinated execution to avoid a last-minute scramble.

It is also an opportunity for every organization to address legacy technology and practices and implement improved cryptographic standards. By acting now, organizations can upgrade to modern cryptographical architectures that are inherently quantum safe, upgrade existing systems with the latest standards in cryptography, and embrace crypto-agility (the ability to easily change algorithms) to modernize their cryptographic standards and practices and prepare for scalable quantum computing."

Here's a look at where Microsoft sits today and the roadmap ahead.