Systems Integrators Adopting the FDE Model with a Focus on Business Outcomes

by siowmeng, posted in Big Data, Cloud Enable, Secure
A professional man with dark hair and a slight smile, wearing a suit jacket over a light blue shirt, standing in front of a blurred glass background.
S. Soh

Summary Bullets:

• Technology vendors are investing in forward deployed engineers to adapt AI solutions to meet customer needs.

• Systems integrators are working alongside their technology partners to help enterprises accelerate their AI adoption and ensure business outcomes are met.

It is widely reported that only a small percentage of firms that have conducted AI pilots are moving them into production. Even fewer enterprises have been able to scale their AI initiatives across multiple business functions. Based on GlobalData’s observations and discussions with enterprises, there has been greater success in AI implementations among large enterprises that have engaged a systems integrator or consulting firm to work alongside their technology partners, including hyperscale cloud providers and AI model companies (e.g., Anthropic and OpenAI).

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Agentic AI May Give IP Voice a New Lease on Life as Legacy Decline Continues

by Gary Barton, posted in Big Data
Professional headshot of a man wearing a dark blazer and a light shirt, looking directly at the camera with a neutral expression.
Gary Barton – Research Director, Enterprise Technology and Services

Summary Bullets:

• While IP voice is less ubiquitous, when it matters it, it really matters

• Agent-to-agent communication adds a new paradigm to IP voice services

Calling IP voice a legacy service is a little unfair, but only a little. Innovation in this arena is still happening as can be seen by BT’s recent launch of its automated UC edge platform designed to help enterprises move numbers between UC platforms automatically. However, a recent and stark counterpoint to this is Lumen’s decision to exit the IP voice market.

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Meta Will Need to Shed its Consumer-centric Image to Gain Ground in Enterprise AI

by Rena Bhattacharyya, posted in Big Data
A woman with long, dark hair wearing a gray blazer, smiling at the camera.
R. Bhattacharyya

Summary Bullets:

• Meta will need to shed its consumer-centric image to gain traction in the business market, even if it only targets smaller organizations.

• Convincing organizations that they can trust Meta to secure personal information and corporate intellectual property will take time and effort.

On Monday September 28, 2026, Meta announced plans to enter what is already a crowded enterprise AI market. It will develop Meta Enterprise Platform, a collection of tools and services that will help business customers implement their own AI strategies. Few details were shared other than the platform will incorporate Muse agent, Meta Business Agent, Muse API, Muse Code, and other solutions.

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Australia’s Cable Wars Are Heating Up: Thanks, AI

by Brendan Swan, posted in Network
Professional headshot of a man with short hair, smiling, wearing a black suit and a pink shirt against a gray background.
B. Swan

• Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping Australia’s fiber map, driving investment beyond city limits and into emerging data center locations.

• Route diversity is becoming strategic, with terrestrial and subsea network providing greater resilience and flexibility for future digital workloads.

Australia’s fiber build-out is getting a second wind – and this time, artificial intelligence (AI) is changing the rules of the game. In the same week, Vocus and SUBCO announced new terrestrial and subsea cable projects demonstrating that Australia’s connectivity investment cycle is picking up speed. But this is about more than adding fiber. AI, cloud and data center expansions are changing where capacity is required and creating demand for networks with diverse, resilient routes that can withstand outages, congestion and other disruptions.

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Google is Keeping Workspace on the Cutting Edge

by Gregg Willsky, posted in Big Data, Communicate
A close-up portrait of a smiling man wearing glasses, with a neutral background.
G. Willsky

Summary Bullets:

• Three voice-activated features coming to Google Workspace reflect a broader trend of AI becoming incorporated into everyday workflows.

• The features also mirror how vendors are opening their team collaboration platforms to support the multi-platform environment in which their users operate.

Google recently announced three voice-activated AI features coming soon to Google Workspace. ‘Gmail Live’ lets users ask conversational questions to retrieve information from their Gmail inbox such as “What’s my flight’s gate number?”. Users can talk to ‘Keep Live’ to capture ideas that cross their mind and turn them into organized, actionable notes. With ‘Docs Live’ users can engage in real-time conversation to create documents on the fly. Although Workspace users cannot avail themselves of the features quite yet, ‘Gmail Live’ and ‘Keep Live’ are available to Google AI subscribers on the Plus, Pro, and Ultra plans while ‘Docs Live’ is reserved for Pro and Ultra subscribers.

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Beyond the Hype: The Reality of CX Agentic Orchestration

by orumohiuddin, posted in Cloud Enable, Communicate, Secure
A woman with long dark hair wearing a colorful patterned top and a pearl necklace, smiling softly at the camera.
Oru Mohiuddin

Summary Bullets:

• Agentic orchestration has been dominating vendor narratives as growing complexity in the CX space is driving the need for a sophisticated coordination system.

• CX agentic orchestration remains fragmented as there are still infrastructural gaps, and trust remains a major issue for customers.

Agentic orchestration has been increasingly occupying CX vendor narratives in recent years, so it is time to take a deep dive into what orchestration is and why it is becoming relevant. Simply put, orchestration is bringing people, workflows, and technology together to achieve an outcome. Depending on how far we stretch the concept, orchestration is not new, and even a deterministic call routing can be described as orchestration. The question is, what is new today and why is orchestration increasingly dominating vendor narratives?

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Salesforce Dreamforce 2026: Salesforce Combats AI Mistrust via Control Plane

by Charlotte Dunlap, posted in Cloud Enable
Close-up portrait of a smiling woman with blonde hair and earrings, against a blurred background.
C. Dunlap
Research Director

Summary Bullets:

• New fears of AI breaches and vulnerabilities significantly threaten AI adoption

• Salesforce and rivals launch aggressive control plane portfolios as part of the new layer of the AI stack

On the heels of broad industry doomsday reports of AIs going rogue, Salesforce launched its mega Dreamforce conference in San Francisco, California (US) last week. CEO Marc Benioff used the stage to reposition the company as the industry platform to provide the oversight and governance of both Salesforce and third-party agents under a single view.

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Under Pressure to Demonstrate AI ROI, Too Often Organizations Come Up Short

by Amy Larsen DeCarlo, posted in IT Leader
Close-up portrait of a woman with blonde hair, wearing a black jacket and light-colored sweater.
Amy Larsen DeCarlo – Principal Analyst, Security and Data Center Services

Summary Bullets:

• Concerns about missing the AI boat have many corporate executives pushing AI application development mandates.

• However, research indicates that far too few organizations are realizing the kind of expected dividends in terms of cost savings, revenue generation, productivity gains, and innovation. What can they do differently to make the most of their investments?

To say artificial intelligence (AI) has become ubiquitous is almost an understatement. Just under 90% of all enterprises today use AI to support at least one corporate function, according to consulting firm McKinsey and Company, with 56% of all organizations applying the technology across three or more discrete tasks. This pace of adoption is unprecedented. Stanford University’s 2026 AI Index Report says 53% of the global population had been using generative AI (GenAI) within three years of widespread availability. For comparison’s sake, it was 12 years before the personal computer reached 40% of the population.

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Zoom Continues to Flourish

by Gregg Willsky, posted in Cloud Enable
A smiling man with glasses, wearing a light-colored shirt, against a blurred background.
G. Willsky

Summary Bullets:

• New features from Zoom reinforce its recently reconstituted platform vision, extend its ongoing transformation, and support an important, contemporary trend in the team collaboration space.

• This latest batch of improvements underscores Zoom’s place among the top team collaboration and contact center vendors such as Microsoft, Cisco, and Google.

Earlier this month, Zoom held the latest installment of an ongoing series of customer webinars highlighting new platform features. In keeping with tradition at Zoom, the enhancements were wide-ranging, covering various tracts of its platform.

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Despite Meta’s $17.1 Billion Lawsuit Settlement, Questions Linger About Reducing Negative Social Media Effects for Children

by Amy Larsen DeCarlo, posted in IT Leader
A professional headshot of a woman with blonde hair, wearing a black jacket and a light-colored turtleneck sweater, smiling towards the camera.
Amy Larsen DeCarlo – Principal Analyst, Security and Data Center Services

Summary Bullets:

• In August, Meta admitted liability regarding social media’s addictive qualities on children, reaching a $17.1 billion settlement with US states and the District of Columbia.

• While seen as a victory by critics, the settlement is insufficient to introduce the sweeping changes needed to have a measurable effect.

Just weeks after Meta, the parent company of social media giants Instagram and Facebook, promised to restrict access to some of the more controversial features of its platform to settle a multi-billion dollar lawsuit, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill tightening social media controls for children. The California law, which goes into effect in 2028, mandates social media accounts for users under age 16 be private, limits algorithmic feeds for minors, masks children’s location data, and turns off overnight notifications for underage users. Unlike similar legislation passed by other states like Illinois, the California law allows parents to amend social media restrictions. Newsom also signed a bill that requires AI companies to reveal to minors whether they are communicating with a non-human entity. The legislation also prevents children from accessing risky content on subjects like self-harm.

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