Business Technology Roundtable

The Applied-AI Requirement, Seen from My Own Desk A few months ago, I began evaluating a paid license from some of the leading AI providers on the assumption that my advisory work would eventually outgrow the free AI app tiers. It has not happened yet. Each time I approached the point of subscribing, a new free or entry-level release arrived that adequately covered what I actually needed: drafting, research synthesis, and editorial refinement.  My requirements were never exotic. They were representative of a large share of knowledge work, which is precisely the point. This is not a story about frugality. It is a story about an AI capability moving target. The capability that once justified a premium license a year ago is now embedded in the free tier of the same provider, or matched by a competitor's low-cost model. Independent benchmark trackers have shown the performance gap between open and proprietary models narrowing from double digits to less than one percentage point within ...

Economic growth is fueled by strategic investment. Venture capital (VC) has quietly become one of the most consequential forces in the global networked economy, yet most C-suite leaders engage with it only at the margins. That needs to change. A landmark new report from the World Economic Forum and Stanford Graduate School of Business, released this month, offers a comprehensive and at times sobering assessment of where the VC industry stands and where it is headed. For senior executives navigating technology strategy, capital allocation, and competitive positioning, the findings carry direct implications. The Scale of the Opportunity and the Strain Beneath It VC assets under management have grown more than sixfold since 2008, reaching $3.4 trillion globally in 2025. Seven of the ten largest companies in the world by market capitalization, including Apple, NVIDIA, and Amazon, received venture backing in their early stages. Among U.S. public companies founded in the past 50 years, VC-ba...

The global transition toward artificial intelligence (AI) has reached a critical juncture, marking a fundamental move from theoretical exploration to the large-scale implementation of Applied AI Initiatives . Applied artificial intelligence refers specifically to the practical deployment of AI technologies and methodologies to resolve discrete real-world challenges and generate measurable organizational value.  Unlike theoretical AI research, which prioritizes the advancement of fundamental science and the exploration of hypothetical machine intelligence, Applied-AI is strictly purpose-driven and practical implementation-oriented. Success in this domain is no longer measured by academic citations or AI lab breakthroughs, but by business impact, operational efficiency, and tangible societal outcomes. Between 2023 and 2025, Applied-AI consistently maintained the highest innovation scores among emerging technologies and ranked in the top five for global investment activity. As the ind...

If your AI investments are still in pilot mode, you're falling behind. The latest research data shows 42 percent of retailers have moved AI into production, revenue leaders report 20+ percent lifts, and 97 percent are increasing budgets next year. The question is no longer whether to scale AI, but whether you can scale it fast enough to maintain a competitive position. As an advisor to the C-suite, I see retailers and CPG firms shifting from experimentation to scaled deployment, with AI moving from the innovation lab into core P&L ownership. This latest "State of AI in Retail and CPG" study from NVIDIA reveals a critical inflection point: AI is now a broad-based transformation lever, driving revenue, compressing costs, and reshaping how retailers compete across digital, store, and supply chain operations. The Adoption Reality Check Nine in ten companies are either actively using AI or assessing it through pilots, that's up from 82 percent in 2023. But the spread t...

Has your organization prepared to compete in a world where Artificial Intelligence (AI) isn't just an IT tool, but the new operating system for digital transformation? Based on the findings from a Menlo Ventures market study, it's now clear that Generative AI (GenAI) has moved beyond the realm of experimentation and firmly established itself as a mission-critical imperative for enterprises across industries. The transformative power of this rapidly emerging technology is reshaping digital business strategies, enterprise workflows, and entire sectors at an unprecedented pace. The Numbers Tell a Compelling Story The surge in AI spending is nothing short of remarkable. In 2024, enterprise AI investments skyrocketed to $13.8 billion, a staggering sixfold increase from the $2.3 billion spent in 2023. This dramatic uptick in investment signals a definitive shift from pilot programs to full-scale implementation, with GenAI tools becoming deeply embedded in core business operations. T...

The emergence of Generative AI (GenAI) represents a pivotal moment in business technology evolution, with early enterprise adoption showing promising results according to PwC's latest Global CEO Survey . While much attention has focused on potential future impacts, concrete productivity, and revenue gains are already materializing across industries, suggesting we're at the beginning of a transformative wave in how organizations operate. Current State of Enterprise Adoption The PwC research findings, drawing from 4,701 CEOs worldwide, reveal encouraging early returns from GenAI tools and associated use case investments. Notably, 56 percent of CEOs report that GenAI has improved employee time efficiency, while about one-third have seen increased revenue (32 percent) and profitability (34 percent). These performance metrics, while slightly below initial expectations, demonstrate that organizations are finding practical ways to extract value from the latest technology. Perhaps most...

Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools evolved and the inevitable outcome has arrived. The emerging Generative AI market demand has rapidly grown from initial hype and pilots to full-blown strategic implementation. The Wharton AI Report for 2024 reveals a nuanced picture of how the leading firms integrate this groundbreaking business technology into their operational frameworks. Key Insights and Market Dynamics The most striking statistic is the surge in generative AI adoption: 72 percent of decision-makers now report using generative AI at least once a week, compared to just 37 percent in 2023. This represents a dramatic shift from curiosity to active experimentation across multiple business functions. Spending has matched this enthusiasm, with generative AI budgets increasing by 130 percent since 2023. However, the growth trajectory is showing signs of stabilization. While 72 percent of respondents plan to increase AI budgets in the next year, a majority (57 percent) anticipate more mod...

The digital business sector is at a pivotal moment, particularly with Generative AI (GenAI) emerging as the most defining value-creation trend of 2024 and beyond. Are you prepared? Bain & Company's latest Technology Report provides a comprehensive look at how AI reshapes the industry landscape, creates new opportunities, and delivers tangible results for enterprises across sectors. As an independent industry analyst and consultant, I find the report's insights on enterprise opportunities with GenAI applications particularly enlightening and compelling. This transformational technology is driving meaningful and substantive business outcomes. It now has the potential to revolutionize how companies operate and compete globally. The Strategic GenAI Imperative Generative AI has moved firmly into the mainstream, with cloud service providers, enterprises, and technology vendors increasing their GenAI investments to unprecedented levels.  However, as with any transformative busine...

We have reached the tipping point for business technology investment. The integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into the economy is a transformative force that executives can no longer ignore. The Stanford HAI's " Artificial Intelligence Index Report 2024 " provides invaluable insights into the economic impact of AI, highlighting both opportunities and challenges that demand strategic action from today's business leaders. The AI Investment Race: America Sprints Ahead The United States has emerged as the undisputed leader in AI investment, outpacing China and the European Union by a substantial margin. In 2023, American companies invested a staggering $67.2 billion in AI, nearly 8.7 times more than China, the next highest investor. This investment surge underscores the immense strategic importance placed on AI by U.S. enterprises, positioning them as frontrunners in the race to harness this game-changing technology. Job Market Dynamics: AI's Transformative Im...

Are you likely to increase your business technology investment next year? If you are, then you're not alone. Worldwide ICT spending is expected to accelerate in 2014, after dipping to its slowest pace of growth since the financial crisis in 2013, according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation ( IDC ). Overall business technology spending is on course to increase by 4 percent this year at constant currency, reaching $2.04 trillion -- that's down from last year’s growth of 5 percent, due mainly to the slowdown in key emerging markets including China and Russia. IDC forecasts that in 2014, a rebound in China and continued momentum in the U.S. and Europe will see a return to overall industry growth of more than 5 percent (reaching $2.14 trillion). The Business Technology That Will Drive Growth In fact, almost half of this year’s industry growth is due to continued strength in smartphone and tablet shipments. Excluding mobile phones, IT spending will ...

Are you one of those independent executives that uses strategic foresight to gain a decisive lead over competitors that tend to follow the crowd? Granted, it takes courage to make bold moves -- and follow the path that's less traveled. Big rewards tend to go to the confident, not the cautious. What's your business technology investment strategy for 2013, and beyond?  Does your corporate foresight anticipate success, based upon your ability to deploy quantum-leap technological advances -- like managed cloud services ? According to International Data Corporation ( IDC ), the economic slowdown in China has driven them to lower their expectations for worldwide IT spending growth this year. IDC now forecasts IT spending growth of 4.6 percent in constant currency for 2013. That's down from the previous forecast of 4.9 percent growth and a sharp deceleration from last year's growth of almost 6 percent. Despite the lower forecast, IDC expects IT spending will reach $2 tr...

You may think that the worldwide economic downturn has negatively impacted most CIO's budgets, but so far that hasn't been the case. According to the latest market study by IDC, worldwide IT spending remains on course to grow by 6 percent this year in constant currency, that's only slightly down on last year's pace of 7 percent growth. Strong performance in software, storage, enterprise network and mobile device markets has offset weaker trends in PCs, servers, peripherals and telecom provider equipment. However, the strength of the U.S. dollar in the first half of 2012 means that IT spending is on course for growth of just 4 percent this year. Including telecom services, it's now estimated that total ICT spending will increase by 5 percent this year in constant currency to $3.6 trillion (that's growth of 2.5 percent in U.S. dollars). "In spite of economic uncertainty, which continues to inhibit enterprise investment in some tech segments, the conti...