Artificial intelligence news for the week of August 29; updates from IDC, SoftwareOne, Wiley & more

The artificial intelligence landscape is evolving at an unprecedented pace, with new innovations surfacing weekly that reshape how businesses operate. Are you prepared to navigate this acceleration, or risk being left behind? The past week delivered a torrent of advancements, underscoring both immense opportunities and critical challenges for organizations aiming to harness AI's full potential.

Building the Future: Infrastructure and Performance Innovation

The bedrock of AI, infrastructure, is undergoing a profound transformation. Companies like Broadcom are releasing product suites designed to scale and secure the digital enterprise, integrating AI-driven automation and enhanced security across hybrid cloud and edge environments. This means businesses can build more agile and resilient systems for future workloads.

Similarly, collaborations like Cerebras and Core42 are shattering performance benchmarks, demonstrating how specialized hardware can rapidly train massive language models. For organizations with stringent data sovereignty requirements, Google's Gemini AI models are now available on-premises via Google Distributed Cloud, ensuring advanced generative AI capabilities can be deployed securely within their own data centers.

Meanwhile, network giants NTT Data and Cisco are deepening their partnership to deliver next-gen networking optimized for AI, promising agile infrastructure, enhanced automation, and superior threat detection. HPE is also pushing the envelope with Mist Agentic AI, automating network operations for greater uptime and efficiency. These developments signify that the foundational layers supporting AI are becoming more robust, secure, and performant, enabling broader and more impactful AI adoption.

AI for Enhanced Operations and Specialized Functions

Beyond infrastructure, AI is rapidly embedding itself into core business operations and specialized functions. Digitate's enhanced AIOps platform, with its OpenTelemetry integration, now offers real-time monitoring and automated incident response across distributed systems, providing end-to-end visibility for IT and business transformation.

Hyland is introducing its Enterprise Context Engine and Agent Mesh, frameworks designed to deliver connected enterprise automation and contextual intelligence, enabling smarter processes across diverse business functions. In the legal sector, Exterro Intelligence is transforming investigations and document review with generative AI, streamlining e-discovery and improving accuracy.

Domo’s deepened partnership with AWS is set to accelerate generative AI adoption, offering expanded solutions and seamless integration. For supply chain leaders, Pecan AI’s DemandForecastAI uses GenAI to close forecasting gaps, mitigating costly inefficiencies. Uniphore's strategic acquisitions are boosting AI-powered automation and conversational AI in contact centers, enhancing customer service. Furthermore, Virtualitics is leveraging IRIS AI Agents to advance mission readiness in defense and government, enabling faster, data-driven outcomes. These examples highlight AI’s practical impact, optimizing workflows and delivering tangible value across the enterprise.

Navigating the AI Landscape: Trends and Imperatives

Looking ahead, the strategic implications of AI are equally compelling. IDC predicts agentic AI will command over 26 percent of global IT budgets by 2029, a staggering $1.3 trillion, signalling a profound shift in spending priorities. However, this potential hinges on robust foundations.

A survey by OpenText and Ponemon Institute highlights a critical threat: a lack of information readiness, including data fragmentation and insufficient governance, is delaying AI value realization for 74 percent of organizations. This underscores a core truth: trustworthy data is not just important, it’s the make-or-break factor for AI success, as emphasized by Semarchy’s Craig Gravina.

On a positive note, Jellyfish’s research shows AI is already transforming the entire software development lifecycle, driving productivity and accelerating release cycles. Yet, this rapid change introduces its own challenges; a Wiley survey reveals growing AI change fatigue among employees, warning of potential productivity drops and turnover if organizations don't address upskilling and holistic well-being.

This calls for proactive governance, particularly for agentic AI, as detailed by Kevin Petrie, to manage risks alongside innovation. Furthermore, the evolving role of enterprise data archives, as discussed by Archive360’s George Tziahanas, suggests hidden value waiting to be unlocked for AI initiatives.

Your Next Steps in the AI Era

AI is rapidly moving beyond a mere tool, emerging as a transformative force that demands strategic alignment across infrastructure, operations, and human capital. To truly capitalize on this revolution, organizations must prioritize data readiness, invest in robust governance, and empower their workforce through thoughtful change management. What immediate steps will your organization take to build a future where AI amplifies, rather than complicates, success? Engage with these insights, evaluate your current readiness, and proactively shape your AI journey.