Five years ago, Chief Information Officers (CIOs) were on top of the world. These executives played mission-critical roles in driving multi-million dollar projects that delivered massive change. However, a global recession and the inability of CIOs to deliver on business value have tarnished their status. Today's CIOs are under pressure to deliver on requests for innovation, cost reduction, connectivity, and a growing demand for business intelligence. Just as previous technology and business shifts have changed the role of the CIO, the new, more consumer-oriented business models of the social revolution will favor a new breed of business and technology leader. These leaders will have to navigate myriad converging and disruptive technologies, align new initiatives to both business value and technology feasibility, and identify strategies to leverage existing investments to fund innovation. Constellation's research and advisory offerings arm the CIO w/ the knowledge, best practices, and strategies required to manage the four personas of the next generation CIO.
Microsoft launched the Quantum Ready Initiative to help businesses prepare for quantum computing as well as align it with business strategy and returns.
Enterprise IT strategies are consolidating into one approach that can encompass artificial intelligence and next-generation applications. Constellation Research analyst Holger Mueller argued in a report that AI is going to lead to "a single best-practice IT strategy."
Artificial intelligence is a big opportunity across enterprises in multiple sectors and boards of directors need to think through practical use cases that drive returns, said Karen Higgins-Carter, a former CIO who serves on multiple boards.
A big push to cut costs via IT spending and automation is likely to put a squeeze on enterprise vendors with some companies pondering exit ramps from current suppliers. Can you write your own ERP and CRM systems using generative AI?
Physical AI and the foundational models that go with them will be a recurring theme across enterprises now that Nvidia has laid out its Cosmos world foundation models.
Quantum computing vendors IonQ and D-Wave Quantum touted strong bookings for 2024 and the fourth quarter and said systems are showing near-term usefulness and commercial potential. The disclosures were timed to counter Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's take that useful quantum computing systems were 15- to 30-years away.
Cohere launched an early access program for North, an AI platform designed to make daily work more efficient. The aim for Cohere North is to combine large language models, search and agents in one secure enterprise work and collaboration platform that can run anywhere.
Retailers are about to get swamped with AI agents that are designed to boost efficiency and enhance customer experiences if news out of NRF 2025 is any indicator.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said useful quantum computers are more than a decade away, Project Digits fills a big void for data scientists and developers and serves as a personal AI cloud, and human robotics will develop faster than expected.
The idea of fine tuning and model inferencing workloads carried out on a PC and then being deployed is becoming real.
