RPA hits an AI inflection point
Today: how business–process automation is changing thanks to generative AI, Adobe tries to thread the needle between AI serendipity and brand safety, and the latest funding rounds in enterprise tech.
RPA is reaching an inflection point as enterprises increasingly look to get more than just productivity gains from their previous investments, and AI enters the chat.
It's getting hard to understand why any company should consider using open-source software released under a traditional license by a venture-backed startup.
"The more significant decision is, 'what is your strategy for centralizing the data?' Because these data platforms do not do that; they are the place that it gets centralized to, but they do not centralize anything."
Like many companies that have grown through acquisitions over the years, Rajesh Naidu's job involves integrating those acquisitions onto a common tech stack, which requires taking a hard look at the SaaS applications used by those companies.
A convoluted series of mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures had left Cushman & Wakefield with "hundreds" of separate enterprise-resource planning applications. It wanted a flexible but standardized base to get everyone on the same page.
For many years financial services companies Principal Financial Group started its transition to the cloud just before the pandemic made the need for modern digital services an existential crisis, and has only accelerated that process since Kathy Kay came on board.
DocuSign's service was built before the cloud, but last year it realized it needed to move to the cloud to handle data residency requirements and its plans for AI services.
The rise of OpenTelemetry coupled with the separation of application data from observability tools could shake up this fast-growing market right as more companies realize they need help managing their cloud apps.
Billions of dollars have already been invested over the last year retrofitting data centers to accommodate AI workloads in one of the biggest inflection points in data-center architecture in decades.
The rise of the cloud was not just a transition from owning computers to renting them; it also ushered in enterprise computing resources that were scalable and flexible. Oxide Computer is a bet that enterprise tech wants to run the cloud model in its own data centers.
Behind every breakthrough in enterprise technology over the past few decades you'll find a database. This year, as engineering managers and CIOs are being asked to articulate a generative AI strategy in the middle of a hype cycle for the ages, the vector database is having its coming-out party.
The most important issue in AI is a lack of open models that could allow researchers — who know surprisingly little about how the generative AI craze that upended the tech industry actually works — to set the parameters of the larger discussions around AI regulation.
"When you have way too many companies chasing way too few opportunities, you go through a cycle like this and only the best will survive." McKay thinks Snyk has found a path forward.
Nishita Henry's job involves helping Deloitte's clients find opportunities and avoid problems while operating on AWS. After several years of rapid change for clients that needed a cloud computing strategy, another disorienting time has arrived thanks to the rise of generative AI.
It became clear in 2023 that the incredible growth in enterprise tech spending during the early years of the pandemic was a mirage, rather than a new baseline. Redpoint's Scott Raney isn't sure how quickly the good times will return.
The premise behind the Agile Manifesto is that developers, the users they serve, and business stakeholders all benefit by working together. But too often, organizations are faking true change by plastering a new label on older software development practices.
Enterprise tech vendors promised customers that they will indemnify them from legal claims made against the output produced by generative AI tools. However, none of those companies want to talk about how it will actually work.
GitHub plays a central role in modern software development. Plan to embed generative AI tech into a fundamental part of that experience has some developers concerned about a lack of focus.
AWS evolved into one of the biggest businesses enterprise tech has ever seen by taking the Home Depot approach; it offers everything companies need to build digital experiences around their businesses, but it's up to you to find it and put it together. However, the market has shifted.
Global teams across an enterprise are likely to speak different languages, of course, but also might be using different keyboard layouts with different characters. Those differences can lead to confusion about password requirements that could hinder collaboration and even compromise security.
"When you have way too many companies chasing way too few opportunities, you go through a cycle like this and only the best will survive." McKay thinks Snyk has found a path forward.
Improving cybersecurity is one of the most important challenges companies face on a day-to-day basis, according to enterprise technology vendors, who preach that mantra right up until they see a massive trend like generative AI come along and can't help but blurt out "squirrel!"
Rowan Trollope started work as the new CEO of Redis earlier this year in February, arguably a low point for enterprise tech growth. Redis hasn't been immune to those trends, but it has also enjoyed the spoils of the generative AI hype cycle.
The speed, flexibility, and efficiency provided by newer data tools have become much more important than simply dumping "Big Data" into a storage facility and running relatively simple analytical queries.