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DisrupTV’s Top 25 Books of 2025: Leadership, AI, and the Ideas Shaping What Comes Next | DisrupTV Ep. 422

DisrupTV’s Top 25 Books of 2025: Leadership, AI, and the Ideas Shaping What Comes Next | DisrupTV Ep. 422

R "Ray" Wang
Principal Analyst and Founder
Constellation Research

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

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Elle DeRosa
Director of Marketing, Communications & Operations
Constellation Research

Elle is the Director of Marketing at Constellation Research and producer of the weekly enterprise tech show, DisrupTV. She leads marketing and communications efforts across all avenues while also managing an array of programs including the SuperNova Awards, Business Transformation 150, AX100, AI150, S50 and ShortLists. She has previous experience in public relations and has a strong passion for the marketing world. Contact Elle at [email protected] ...

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DisrupTV’s Top 25 Books of 2025: Leadership, AI, and the Ideas Shaping What Comes Next

The latest episode of DisrupTV marked a milestone moment with the unveiling of the Top 25 Books of 2025—a curated list spotlighting the ideas, frameworks, and leadership principles that will shape organizations, culture, and technology in 2026 and beyond.

Featuring bestselling authors, strategists, and practitioners, the conversation explored how leaders can navigate disruption, build courage, define mission, and co-create with AI in what many are calling the Age of Intelligence.

See the full listing here.

Why the Top 25 Books of 2025 Matter

Books don’t just reflect the times—they help leaders make sense of uncertainty, challenge assumptions, and take action. Since its inception, DisrupTV has featured more than 210 books, and this year’s Top 25 list reflects a world grappling with:

  • Rapid AI acceleration
  • Shifting definitions of leadership and work
  • The need for purpose, courage, and adaptability
  • New approaches to innovation beyond traditional transformation

This year’s authors didn’t just talk about trends—they shared practical guidance for leading through complexity.

Epic Disruptions and Learning From History

Scott Anthony, author of Epic Disruptions, emphasized the importance of studying historical innovation cycles to understand today’s upheavals. His perspective reframes disruption not as chaos, but as an opportunity for curiosity, creativity, and even joy.

Rather than fearing disruption, Anthony encouraged leaders to approach it with a sense of play—recognizing patterns from past transformations to make smarter decisions today.

Honing Over Transforming: A New Leadership Mindset

Steven Goldbach, author of Hone, challenged the traditional obsession with large-scale transformation. Instead, he advocated for continuous honing—small, deliberate adjustments that keep organizations sharp in fast-moving environments.

Using the analogy of chefs honing knives rather than grinding them down, Lochhead made the case that adaptability beats overhaul in an era of constant change. He also called for a return to respectful debate, arguing that progress depends on open, thoughtful disagreement.

Personal Branding for Introverts in a Loud World

Goldie Chan, author of Personal Branding for Introverts, tackled a timely challenge: how thoughtful, quieter leaders can build influence without becoming something they’re not.

In an age dominated by algorithms and attention economies, Chan emphasized that personal branding is about intentional storytelling, credibility, and clarity—not volume. For introverts, managing a personal brand isn’t optional; it’s a leadership skill.

Mission-Driven Leadership and Purpose

Mike Hayes, author of Mission Driven and a former Navy SEAL, brought a powerful message about purpose. His book—and his life’s work—focuses on helping people define their mission, with all book profits supporting Gold Star families.

Hayes underscored that mission-driven leaders create resilience, alignment, and meaning—especially in high-stakes environments. Purpose isn’t abstract; it’s operational.

How to Be Bold: Courage in Uncertain Times

Ranjay Gulati’s How to Be Bold offered practical insights into courage as a leadership discipline—not a personality trait. Gulati emphasized that boldness is built through action, self-efficacy, and values-driven decision-making, even when fear is present.

In a world shaped by AI and ambiguity, courage becomes a competitive advantage.

Brave Together: Co-Creation With AI

Chris Deaver’s Brave Together explored the shift from humans competing with machines to co-creating with AI. Rather than framing AI as a replacement, DeVore positioned it as a collaborator—one that can enhance creativity, leadership, and decision-making when guided ethically.

This theme echoed throughout the episode: the future belongs to leaders who understand how to partner with intelligence, not fear it.

The Age of Intelligence and Super Shifts

Several authors touched on what Steve Fisher described as the Age of Intelligence—a period where machines may outperform humans in narrow tasks, but humans remain essential for judgment, values, and meaning.

Books like The Existing Market Trap, Super Shifts, and Employment Is Dead challenged leaders to rethink assumptions about markets, careers, and organizational design.

Key Themes Across the Top 25 Books of 2025

Across the episode, several themes consistently emerged:

  • Leadership requires courage, self-awareness, and action
  • Continuous improvement beats one-time transformation
  • Mission and purpose drive resilience and performance
  • AI must be co-created with humans, not blindly adopted
  • Personal branding is essential—even (especially) for introverts
  • Ethics, trust, and respectful debate matter more than ever

Final Thoughts: Reading as a Leadership Advantage

As Vala Afshar and R "Ray" Wang noted, knowledge alone isn’t enough—action is what creates impact. The Top 25 Books of 2025 provide context, clarity, and frameworks to help leaders act with confidence in uncertain times.

Whether you’re navigating AI adoption, redefining success, or searching for your next mission, these books offer a roadmap for the year ahead.

DisrupTV closed the episode by thanking its community and encouraging leaders to stay curious, stay bold, and stay human as we head into 2026.

Related Episodes

If you found Episode 422 valuable, here are a few others that align in theme or extend similar conversations:

 

New C-Suite Future of Work Tech Optimization Chief Executive Officer Chief People Officer Chief Information Officer Chief Data Officer Chief Technology Officer
On DisrupTV <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zrfP62HNnAw?si=gQKTOraL8HwRSX64" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>

FedEx's logistics data spinning up new services, products

FedEx's logistics data spinning up new services, products

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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FedEx is best known as a delivery and logistics company, but with its data footprint and use of AI it’s starting to resemble a technology firm.

On FedEx's second quarter earnings call, President and CEO Rajesh Subramaniam outlined how the company's digital transformation efforts have helped the company execute better. Those technology, data and AI efforts are also likely to lead to new products.

"The reality is that AI is becoming an integral part of all business functions," said Subramaniam, who said FedEx is working to provide its employees with AI knowhow in multiple areas. "We continue to explore new approaches that leverage our real-world operational data platform. We are actively pursuing opportunities to bring digital solutions to the market, starting with logistics intelligence insights."

Subramaniam said a recent partnership with ServiceNow highlights where FedEx is going. Under a partnership announced Oct. 29, FedEx said it will combine its Dataworks platform with ServiceNow to anticipate supply chain disruptions. FedEx Dataworks will also integrate with ServiceNow's procurement applications to provide supply chain performance intelligence and provide insights.

"Through this collaboration, we are giving businesses a single system that anticipates, adapts and acts before they experience supply chain disruptions. And by integrating into ServiceNow's procurement and supply chain solutions, we are beginning to monetize the proprietary insights that only FedEx can provide. Enterprises need access to real-world logistics intelligence to power their AI systems and workflows and this partnership demonstrates market demand for what we have built," said Subramaniam.

The ServiceNow-FedEx platform integrations will start rolling out in the first quarter of 2026.

The FedEx-ServiceNow partnership highlights how companies with strong industry knowledge and datasets can leverage AI to spin up new products. In the FedEx case, data products and software platforms will have much higher margins that the logistics network that is heavy on the capital expenditures yet provides the data that'll create new services.

Other areas where FedEx is spinning up new data-driven products and services:

Data center logistics. Brie Carere, Executive VP & Chief Customer Officer at FedEx, said the company is creating a team focused on data center infrastructure. FedEx is developing vertical strategies in tech as well as automotive and healthcare. The data angle is getting goods to the right place at the right time at scale.

Shipment communications platforms. Carere said: "We are very pleased with how our digital tools are supporting revenue growth while creating better outcomes for our customers and their customers."

She added:

"Wayfair is a great example of how we're using these tools to help our customers improve their shipment-related communications and support their customer service teams. By using our premium integrated visibility tool, Wayfair is increasing their Net Promoter Score, reducing where is my order calls, otherwise known as WISMO calls and decreasing outages with their tracking data."

Data to Decisions Future of Work Next-Generation Customer Experience AI ML Machine Learning LLMs Agentic AI Generative AI Robotics Analytics Automation Cloud SaaS PaaS IaaS Quantum Computing Digital Transformation Disruptive Technology Enterprise IT Enterprise Acceleration Enterprise Software Next Gen Apps IoT Blockchain CRM ERP CCaaS UCaaS Collaboration Enterprise Service developer Metaverse VR Healthcare Supply Chain Leadership Chief Information Officer Chief Technology Officer Chief Information Security Officer Chief Data Officer

Accenture says advanced AI is so pervasive it won’t break it out anymore

Accenture says advanced AI is so pervasive it won’t break it out anymore

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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Accenture said that AI is so pervasive in enterprise transformation that it won't break out figures going forward. And although AI is everywhere, Accenture noted that half of the advanced AI projects also require a data project.

The consulting giant broke out advanced AI--a category with generative AI, agentic AI and physical AI--bookings were $2.2 billion in the first quarter, double from a year ago. Accenture also said that it has reached its goal of 80,000 AI and data professionals.

Accenture reported first quarter earnings of $3.54 a share on revenue of $18.7 billion, up 6% from a year ago. For fiscal 2026, Accenture is projecting revenue growth of 2% to 5%.

CEO Julie Sweet explained how AI is now everywhere just like cloud is.

"As we think about the advanced AI opportunity ahead, as you know, we were the first in our industry to share our bookings and revenue from advanced AI, which we define as GenAI, Agentic AI and physical AI and does not include data, classical AI or RPA. "This will be the last quarter in which we share these specific metrics. The demand for AI is both real and rapidly maturing. We've now reached a point where advanced AI is being embedded in some way across nearly everything we do, and many of our clients are focusing on moving beyond standalone proof of concepts or initiatives."

Sweet said the AI disclosure made sense in late 2023 when bookings were $100 million across 100 projects. Today, Accenture has delivered about $11.5 billion in bookings across 11,000 projects with revenue of $4.8 billion. Advanced AI is being deployed in 1,300 of Accenture's 9,000 clients.

Accenture said its focus is scaled projects that integrate multiple forms of AI. In other words, it's difficult to separate AI from broader projects. Sweet said "demand for reinvention remains strong" and transformation projects include both digital core (cloud and data projects) as well as AI and cover everything from manufacturing to finance and insurance to supply chain.

"Starting with the demand environment, clients continue to prioritize their most strategic and large-scale transformational programs, which convert to revenue more slowly but position us at the center of the reinvention agendas. The pace of overall spending and discretionary spend in our market is at the same levels we have seen over the last year," said Sweet.

According to Accenture, AI projects almost inevitably mean data transformation. "When companies tell us they want to use AI, they quickly realize that AI is only as powerful as the data underneath it," said Sweet. "Most organizations have mountains of data spread across systems, stored in different formats, often unreliable or incomplete. Before AI can create value, underlying data and the processes connected to it need to be simplified, cleaned, connected and properly governed."

Accenture is using AI to modernize data platforms and improve quality at scale. Sweet said at least half of the advanced AI projects also require a data project.

Sweet cited projects with Essity and Bristol Myers Squibb as examples of clients leveraging AI agents to automate processes. "The real opportunity is not proving AI works, it is making it work everywhere. Scaling AI means working with all forms of AI and means embedding it across critical processes so it transforms outcomes," said Sweet.

Other takeaways from Accenture's first quarter earnings call:

  • "Enterprise AI is fundamentally different than consumer AI. Consumer AI adoption is instant. In the enterprise, you can't adopt it unless you have the right security. You've done the right work around processes and most companies have fragmented and siloed processes. You have to have the right data and most companies have mountains of data with a lot of issues in the data, and we call it they have process debt, they have data debt. And of course, they need a modern digital core. And that's why so many companies are still early in the journey," said Sweet.
  • Productivity isn't driving AI projects as much. "when you look at our bigger deals over the last quarter, for example, you see that advanced AI is a bigger part of those deals, but you also see that it's both growth and cost because clients are not only fixated on the productivity side. You cannot cut your way to growth. And in this market, they need to find more growth," said Sweet.
  • Banking is leading in AI and finance and procurement are key use cases. Energy and utilities and pharmaceuticals are early in terms of scaling. "There are leaders in every industry who already had strong digital course who are leapfrogging. It's very different than cloud where you have some industries like, say, energy lagging behind for quite some time. It's quite different this time," said Sweet.

Data to Decisions accenture Chief Financial Officer Chief Information Officer Chief Data Officer Chief Technology Officer

HOT TAKE: Salesforce Solidifies Agentic Sales Engagement with Qualified Pickup 

HOT TAKE: Salesforce Solidifies Agentic Sales Engagement with Qualified Pickup 

Martin Schneider
Vice President and Principal Analyst
Constellation Research

Martin Schneider has had a unique career that has spanned both analyst and marketing practitioner roles, focused on high technology and related industries. The unifying factor has always been both a keen analysis of go-to-market trends, while also having achieved success as a marketing leader. Schneider started his career as a journalist covering B2B technologies, and quickly transitioned into a leading analyst covering application software for the 451 Group in NYC, where he specialized in CRM, marketing automation, and business intelligence/analytics technologies. After analyzing various go-to-market strategies of dozens of technology vendors, Schneider made the move to the vendor side, where he led successful go-to-market teams for several startups and established tech providers,…...

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Salesforce has made some big M&A investments to make its agentic vision a reality - a la Informatica etc. But sometimes, the smaller deals that actually play into core go-to-market motions can have an outsized effect. This might be the case with the deal Salesforce announced yesterday - acquiring  “agentic marketing” company Qualified. What Qualified offers is a conversational tool set that identifies high-intent website visitors and uses AI agents—most notably their Piper AI SDR —to engage them through chat, voice, or video. By integrating natively with Salesforce, the software aims to allow revenue teams to bypass traditional lead forms, instantly qualifying prospects and booking meetings to accelerate the sales cycle. Now, again this is grat for marketing leaders, but also important for revenue leaders focsued on expansion revenue. By understanding intent inside the install base, foir example, teams can be more proactive and collaborative to secure additional revenue - or simply treat existing customers like they know them - rather than as "just another raw lead." 

At its core, Qualified excels at transforming website visitors into qualified pipeline whether touched by their intelligent chatbots and live sales reps. This capability directly addresses a long-standing challenge for Salesforce: bridging the gap between passive website engagement and active CRM pipeline. While Salesforce provides the system of record and robust sales cloud, the instantaneous, personalized engagement layer on the website was often left to third-party tools. Qualified seamlessly integrates this crucial "last mile" of engagement directly into the Salesforce ecosystem. Also, while Salesforce offers an out of the box BDR agent in its Agentforce arsenal - Qualified brings far more nuance, development, and ability to leverage first-party data and other data and document sources to provide effective back-and-forth communique’ between the agents and prospects. While the Agentforce tool can be quickly deployed and be effective, Qualified brings the game to another level. Again, for existing customer engaging with Piper - they can access more documents and other unstructured data to better solidify their buying plans than a simplistic BANT discovery flow that is offered for new leads accessing the web site, for example. 

By owning the conversational layer, Salesforce gains invaluable first-party data on prospect intent and behavior before they even become a formal lead in the CRM - and in the case of existing business - sometime you simply do not want them to be treated as a "lead.". This rich pre-CRM data fuels more accurate lead scoring, better personalization for subsequent outreach, and a more holistic view of the customer journey, from anonymous visitor to loyal advocate. Again, while Salesforce offers some remedial capabilities in these areas, gaining a more robust set of functions - already built on the Salesforce platform - will be a boon. What will be important is ensuring that both Sales Cloud and Marketing Cloud are the benificiaries of the deeper integration post-merger. While Qualified has been optimized for the Pardot and post-Pardot Marketing Cloud platform, there are key use cases for sales and customer success that can be drilled into and finessed to make these an even bigger slam dunk deal. 

For growth leaders, this should bring more benefits than an eventual consolidation of SaaS bills to pay. The acquisition offers a more unified data picture. From initial website clicks and chatbot interactions to CRM records and sales activities, the entire journey will live more seamlessly within Salesforce.  This comprehensive view is critical for training more effective AI models, optimizing lead routing, and ultimately boosting conversion rates.Revenue leaders must insist on integrated platforms that eliminate data silos to truly understand and serve their buyers.

And of course, ideally, sales reps will spend less time qualifying cold leads and more time engaging warm, pre-vetted prospects handed off directly from the website. This frees up valuable sales capacity for high-value activities, directly impacting pipeline velocity and revenue generation. Leaders should plan for a future where AI handles the initial qualification, allowing their human teams to focus on relationship building and complex deal closure.

For those already using Salesforce but not Qualified, this should bolster the ability to deploy AI-powered GTM strategies and motions. But for those not using Salesforce but were using Qualified?  There are still a number of solid lead management and AI BDR tools to choose from if your organization does not want to shift SFA/CRM platforms. 

Next-Generation Customer Experience Data to Decisions Innovation & Product-led Growth Future of Work Tech Optimization Digital Safety, Privacy & Cybersecurity New C-Suite Marketing Transformation I am Team Leader at the Nominee Organization (no vendor self nominations) Distillation Aftershots salesforce ML Machine Learning LLMs Agentic AI Generative AI Robotics AI Analytics Automation Quantum Computing Cloud Digital Transformation Disruptive Technology Enterprise IT Enterprise Acceleration Enterprise Software Next Gen Apps IoT Blockchain Leadership VR business Marketing SaaS PaaS IaaS CRM ERP finance Healthcare Customer Service Content Management Collaboration Chief Revenue Officer Chief Executive Officer Chief Information Officer Chief Technology Officer Chief AI Officer Chief Data Officer Chief Analytics Officer Chief Information Security Officer Chief Product Officer

Zoho launches Zoho Spend, Zoho Billing Enterprise Edition

Zoho launches Zoho Spend, Zoho Billing Enterprise Edition

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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Zoho launched Zoho Spend, a spend management application that integrates payroll, accounts payable automation, travel, expense and procurement, and Zoho Billing Enterprise Edition, which is designed to streamline billing operations to recognize revenue faster.

The applications are designed for larger companies and enable smaller ones to scale without leaving the Zoho platform. In addition, Zoho added a series of AI tools in applications across Zoho's Finance and Operations Platform.

Prashant Ganti, Zoho's vice president of global product strategy, development and alliances for the finance and operations unit, said Zoho Billing Enterprise Edition "brings together lot of capabilities that caters to large enterprises, like advanced customer, lifestyle management, lifecycle management and complex pricing models coupled with tools to address regulatory norms."

Ganti said Zoho Billing Enterprise Edition already has customers live including one that is processing 20 million invoices on the platform.

As for Zoho Spend, Ganti said the application is designed to unify the processes behind the money going out of the enterprise. "The application is designed to bring all the disconnected strands of spend in one platform," said Ganti.

Ganti added that Zoho is continually adding AI features across its finance and operations platform to take out manual work using its Zia assistant.

Here's a look at products.

Zoho Spend

  • The application has a dashboard that provides a consolidated view into procurement, accounts payable (AP), corporate travel, employee expenses and payroll.
  • Zoho Spend features procurement tools to simplify source-to-pay processes, onboard vendor onboarding and manage purchase requisitions and purchase orders and bills.
  • AP automation tools capture bills with OCR-scanning, matching and payment approvals.
  • A self-booking travel tools with integrations for corporate fares that are compliant with policies.
  • Tools to automate expense reporting.
  • Automated payroll processing with compliance across federal, state and local taxes.

Zoho Billing Enterprise Edition

  • The suite is designed to enable enterprises to monetize with multiple revenue strategies across 15 country-specific editions. Zoho Billing Enterprise Edition can help companies monetize via standard, project-based, subscription or usage-based billing.
  • Collection workflows are automated.
  • Lifecycle management tools are focused on subscriptions from trial to conversion to plan changes to retention.
  • Revenue recognition is built in with role-based dashboards and reporting.
  • Ask Zia is a finance assistant providing insights about billing efficiency and customer behavior.

Broad AI additions

  • Zoho added Co-Create Agent, which transparently creates invoices, quotes, credit notes, sales orders and custom reports.
  • Bank reconciliation with automated suggestions to categorize transactions.
  • Revenue forecasting via AI to predict trends.
  • Anomaly detection to flag inconsistencies with transactions.
Data to Decisions Future of Work Next-Generation Customer Experience Revenue & Growth Effectiveness New C-Suite Matrix Commerce Digital Safety, Privacy & Cybersecurity Innovation & Product-led Growth Tech Optimization zoho SaaS PaaS IaaS Cloud Digital Transformation Disruptive Technology Enterprise IT Enterprise Acceleration Enterprise Software Next Gen Apps IoT Blockchain CRM ERP CCaaS UCaaS Collaboration Enterprise Service Chief Financial Officer Chief Information Officer Chief Procurement Officer Chief Revenue Officer Chief Product Officer Chief Technology Officer Chief Information Security Officer Chief Data Officer

2025 Enterprise Awards | CRTV's Best & Worst in Enterprise Technology

2025 Enterprise Awards | CRTV's Best & Worst in Enterprise Technology

Chirag Mehta
Vice President and Principal Analyst
Constellation Research

Chirag Mehta is Vice President and Principal Analyst focusing on cybersecurity, next-gen application development, and product-led growth. With over 25 years of experience, he has built, shipped, marketed, and sold successful enterprise SaaS products and solutions across startups, mid-size, and large companies. As a product leader overseeing engineering, product management, and design, he has consistently driven revenue growth and product innovation. He also held key leadership roles in product marketing, corporate strategy, ecosystem partnerships, and business development, leveraging his expertise to make a significant impact on various aspects of product success. His holistic research approach on cybersecurity is grounded in the reality that as sophisticated AI-led attacks become…...

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Esteban Kolsky
Chief Distiller, Board Advisor
Constellation Research

Esteban Kolsky spent the first part of his professional career working on the customer service front line and in management roles, culminating in early implementations of first-generation CRM tools. In 2000, he became a research analyst at Gartner, focused on CRM, customer service, customer experience management, enterprise feedback management, and voice of the customer, among topics that later became the basis for the current field of CX. During his tenure at Gartner, Kolsky assisted vendors and Global 2000 organizations with their customer strategies. He left Gartner to focus his career on strategic advisory services and influenced all the major software vendors, as well as many smaller vendors, in the CX industry and advised executive leadership teams across industries and countries…...

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Holger Mueller
Vice President and Principal Analyst
Constellation Research

Holger Mueller is VP and Principal Analyst for Constellation Research for the fundamental enablers of the&nbsp;cloud, IaaS, PaaS and next generation Applications, with forays up the tech stack into BigData and Analytics, HR Tech, and sometimes SaaS. Holger provides strategy and counsel to key clients, including Chief Information Officers, Chief Technology Officers, Chief Product Officers, Chief HR Officers, investment analysts, venture capitalists, sell-side firms, and technology buyers.&nbsp; Coverage Areas: Future of Work Tech Optimization &amp; Innovation&nbsp; Background: Before joining Constellation Research, Mueller was VP of Products for NorthgateArinso, a KKR company. There, he led the transformation of products to the cloud and laid the foundation for new Business Process as a…...

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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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Martin Schneider
Vice President and Principal Analyst
Constellation Research

Martin Schneider has had a unique career that has spanned both analyst and marketing practitioner roles, focused on high technology and related industries. The unifying factor has always been both a keen analysis of go-to-market trends, while also having achieved success as a marketing leader. Schneider started his career as a journalist covering B2B technologies, and quickly transitioned into a leading analyst covering application software for the 451 Group in NYC, where he specialized in CRM, marketing automation, and business intelligence/analytics technologies. After analyzing various go-to-market strategies of dozens of technology vendors, Schneider made the move to the vendor side, where he led successful go-to-market teams for several startups and established tech providers,…...

Read more
Michael Ni
Vice President and Principal Analyst
Constellation Research

Michael Ni is Vice President and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research, covering the evolving Data-to-Decisions landscape—where CDOs, CIOs, and CPOs must modernize data infrastructure, integrate AI into decision-making, and scale automation to improve business outcomes. Ni’s research examines how enterprises operationalize AI, automate decision-making, and integrate data management and analytics into core business processes. He focuses on the challenges of scaling AI-driven decision systems, aligning data strategy with business goals, and the growing role of data and decisioning “products” in enterprise ecosystems. With 25+ years as a product and GTM executive across enterprise software, AI platforms, and analytics-driven technologies, Ni brings a practitioner’s perspective to…...

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R "Ray" Wang
Principal Analyst and Founder
Constellation Research

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

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The results are in! 📢 We are excited to announce the 2025 Enterprise Awards, recognizing the standout leaders, innovations, breakthroughs, and yes, a few unforgettable flops that shaped enterprise technology this year.

From #AI-native software to sovereign #cloud, 2025 proved that the next era of enterprise transformation is already here. Our analyst team evaluated the biggest moves across the industry, and these winners set the pace for what comes next.

Check out the list of winners and runners-up below and find out why they made this year’s list in our blog post: https://www.constellationr.com/blog-news/constellation-2025-enterprise-awards

🏆 Best Enterprise Software Vendor
Winner: Oracle
Runners up: Anthropic, Adobe, Databricks

🏆 Best CEO
Winner: Sundar Pichai, Google
Runners up: Arvind Krishna, IBM; Sam Altman, OpenAI

🏆 Best Enterprise Services Vendor
Winner: Cognizant
Runners up: Infosys, Thoughtworks

🏆 Best Enterprise Software Startup
Winner: Cursor, Loveable
Runners up: Gamma

🏆 Best AI Model Launch
Winner: Gemini 2.5
Runners up: Chinese Open Source LLMs, Claude, Grok, Amazon Nova Sonic

🏆 Best AI Application Launch
Winner: Adobe Brand Concierge
Runners up: Sierra.ai, SAP Joule Everywhere, Microsoft Research Agent

🏆 Best Partnership
Winner: ServiceNow
Runners up: Oracle, OpenAI + Every Corporate Boardroom’s Slide Deck, IDS and Anthropic

🏆 Best Tech Acquisition
Winner: Wiz + Google
Runners up: Salesforce + Informatica, Adobe + Semrush, ServiceNow + Logik.ai + Moveworks

🏆 Best New IPO
Winner: Figma
Runners up: CoreWeave

🏆 Best New Enterprise Category
Winner: Sovereign AI Cloud
Runners up: Retrieval and Context Platforms

🏆 Best New Enterprise Software Marketing of the Year
Winner: Google Cloud Gemini for Enterprise
Runners up: ServiceNow’s “People First”

🏆 Best New Enterprise Software Ad Campaign
Winner: ServiceNow
Runners up: UKG

🏆 Best Live-Event
Winner: Canva Create
Runners up: Adobe MAX, Amazon Web Services (AWS) ReInvent, Databricks Data + AI Summit, Google Cloud Next, ServiceNow Knowledge, UKG Aspire

🥴 Worst Tech Acquisition
Winner: HP + Humane
Runners up: CoreWeave + Core Scientific, Windsurf + Google

🥴 Biggest Tech Flop of the Year
Winner: DNS Failures
Runners up: Humane AI, Meta Edits

These organizations and leaders stood out for their bold thinking, disruptive execution, and ability to deliver real impact in a year defined by AI acceleration and platform-level change.

👏 A big congratulations to all the winners and runners-up, and a huge thank you to the teams pushing enterprise technology forward every day.

Future of Work Innovation & Product-led Growth Marketing Transformation New C-Suite Next-Generation Customer Experience Tech Optimization Chief Analytics Officer Chief Customer Officer Chief Data Officer Chief Digital Officer Chief Executive Officer Chief Financial Officer Chief Information Officer Chief Information Security Officer Chief Marketing Officer Chief People Officer Chief Privacy Officer Chief Procurement Officer Chief Product Officer Chief Revenue Officer Chief Supply Chain Officer Chief Sustainability Officer Chief Technology Officer
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Coursera, Udemy merge in $2.5 billion deal

Coursera, Udemy merge in $2.5 billion deal

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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Coursera and Udemy said they will merge in $2.5 billion deal that combines two learning platforms and expands their enterprise reach.

Under the terms of the deal, Udemy shareholders will receive 0.80 shares of Coursera for every share they own. The two companies were rivals, but Coursera had a strong footprint in consumer and higher education and was building out its enterprise offerings. Udemy had the enterprise footprint and was expanding into other areas.

The combined company will have sales evenly divided between consumer and enterprise and be able to scale much faster.

Key points about the deal include:

  • Coursera and Udemy said the combined company will have more than $1.5 billion and be able to save $115 million annually within 24 months.
  • Udemy's skills development marketplace will be combined with Coursera's university ecosystem.
  • Coursera CEO Greg Hart said the acquisition is designed to address how AI is redefining work. "We’re at a pivotal moment in which AI is rapidly redefining the skills required for every job across every industry. Organizations and individuals around the world need a platform that is as agile as the new and emerging skills learners must master," said Hart.
  • The combined company will also be able to speed up its AI roadmap and scale sales efforts, said Udemy CEO Hugo Sarrazin.
  • Coursera and Udemy will have a larger roster of instructors and subject matter experts.
  • The companies have been developing similar efforts on parallel tracks, but the need for speed pointed to a merger. "This deal is about accelerating innovation. By combining our data, our talent and our resources, we can execute an AI-powered product road map far faster than either business could accomplish alone. We will leverage our insights to deliver personalized adaptive learning experiences that support career advancement for individuals and integrate directly into the flow of work for enterprise customers," said Sarrazin.
  • The combined platform of the Coursera-Udemy combination will include Coursera Coach, Udemy's AI Role Play simulation technology and MCP server.
  • Udemy has more than 17,000 enterprise customers and Coursera brings a total learner base of 191 million people. The combined company will have more than 270 million individual learners.

Speaking on a conference call with analysts, Hart said the timing was right for a merger. "To understand why this combination is necessary now, we must first look at the reality our learners and customers face. The World Economic Forum estimates that 39% of key skills will change in the next 5 years. And our own data shows that 86% of learners come to Coursera specifically to transform their careers. Learners need guidance on the skills they need to advance their career. Organizations need talent and tools that adapt. Both need a platform as agile as the rapidly evolving labor market," said Hart.

Hart added that the combined company will be better equipped to address lifelong learning. "Together, we'll build a unified system of record that allows leaders to benchmark, develop and track the skills of their talent across every stage of their career," said Hart.

Data to Decisions Future of Work Next-Generation Customer Experience Chief Information Officer

IFS acquires Softeon to expand into warehouse management

IFS acquires Softeon to expand into warehouse management

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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IFS said it will acquire Softeon, a cloud native software provider for warehouses. IFS, which provides an industrial AI platform, will use Softeon to expand into warehouse management and connect it to manufacturing operations software.

Terms of the deal weren't disclosed.

For IFS, Softeon also gives it a bigger footprint. IFS said warehouse management and execution is a natural expansion of its manufacturing expertise. The argument is that production and distribution are being tightly integrated. Softeon's portfolio includes a warehouse management system, warehouse execution software and distributed order management.

"The warehouse is the next frontier for Industrial AI. As we work with increasingly complex global manufacturers and asset-intensive enterprises, warehouse operations must become as intelligent and autonomous as the production lines they support," said IFS CEO Mark Moffat, who added that Softeon's warehouse expertise will complement IFS' next-gen AI, robotics and industrial offerings.

According to the companies, IFS and Softeon will bring industrial AI to warehouse operations and ultimately replace legacy systems and manual processes. The companies plan to meld Softeon's platform with IFS' AI offerings including IFS Loops Digital Workers. Softeon already features native integrations with robotics, voice and automation systems.

In New York, IFS outlined its vision at its Industrial X Unleashed conference. IFS outlined partnerships with Anthropic, Boston Dynamics and 1X Technologies to create AI-driven autonomous warehouses that blend physical AI and humanoid robots.

IFS customers are in warehouse heavy industries such as aerospace and defense, energy, engineering and construction, manufacturing and transportation. Softeon's core industries are retail, third party logistics, food and beverage, healthcare and manufacturing.

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CFOs grow appetite for risk going into 2026

CFOs grow appetite for risk going into 2026

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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CFO confidence has it its highest point in four years as 59% of CFOs say it's a good time to take risks, according to Deloitte's fourth quarter CFO Signals report.

Deloitte's survey found that external risks to the economy are still plentiful, but also manageable. CFOs are optimistic about their companies' growth prospects. Deloitte said the fourth quarter CFO confidence score was 6.6 out of 10 possible, the highest since the fourth quarter of 2021.

CFOs globally expect their respective economies to be better a year from now. Fifty-five percent of North American CFOs expect the economy to be better a year from now, followed by 58% of CFOs in Europe and 46% of China CFOs. Asia CFOs excluding China are the most bullish with 61% seeing a better economy a year from now.

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Meanwhile, 86% of CFOs are more optimistic about their companies prospects than they were 3 months ago.

With that optimism surging among CFOs, it's not surprising that those execs want to take more risks. According to Deloitte, 59% of CFOs think it's a good time to take on greater risk, up from 36% in the third quarter.

And cuts in interest rates are beginning to make debt financing more attractive say 53% of CFOs.

As for risks, CFOs have plenty of them that could curb their risk appetite. The highest external risks were economy, inflation, interest rates and cybersecurity. Internal risks were cost management, efficiency and productivity, talent and data strategies.

Data to Decisions Future of Work Innovation & Product-led Growth Revenue & Growth Effectiveness New C-Suite business finance Chief Executive Officer Chief Financial Officer Chief Information Officer

Databricks annual revenue run rate hits $4.8 billion with $134 billion valuation

Databricks annual revenue run rate hits $4.8 billion with $134 billion valuation

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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Databricks said it has raised $4 billion in a Series L investment for a $134 billion valuation and topped a $4.8 billion annual revenue run rate in the third quarter. For comparison, Snowflake’s annual revenue run rate exiting its third quarter was $4.84 billion.

The latest funding round is becoming an annual event where Databricks outlines its annual revenue run rate. In August, Databricks was valued at $100 billion. A year ago, Databricks said its annual revenue run rate was $3 billion.

Perhaps the biggest question in 2026 is whether Databricks will get to a Z Series of funding before going public. The latest round of funding for Databricks was led by Insights Partners, Fidelity and JP Morgan with participation from BlackRock, Blackstone and a bevy of others positioning to get in Databricks before an IPO.

Databricks outlined a few key figures.

  • Third quarter revenue growth topped 55%.
  • Databricks' data warehousing business topped a $1 billion annual revenue run rate.
  • AI products topped a $1 billion annual revenue run rate too.
  • Databricks said vibe coding and genAI is accelerating data-intelligent apps built on Lakebase, Databricks Apps and Agent Bricks.
  • The company has seen positive free cash flow over the last 12 months.
  • Lakebase is growing revenue at twice the base of data warehousing.
  • Databricks has more than 700 customers consuming more than $1 million in annual revenue run rate.

Databricks said it will use the capital to provide liquidity for employees, future acquisitions and AI research.

Databricks 2025:

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