Putting Agents To Work
Next in Tech
We’re well underway in the integration of agents into various enterprise workflows, but there are many questions about where and how they can be used effectively. Emily Jasper and Sheryl Kingstone return to the podcast to discuss their recent research and upcoming webinar with host Eric Hanselman. Much has been made of claims that agents are going to replace SaaS applications, particularly in applications like CRM, but that relies on a fundamental misunderstanding of where their value lies. CRM systems are the repositories of crucial enterprise data and agents can help to deliver on many of...
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The RSAC Conference – Agents on The Loose
Next in Tech
The RSAC Conference, a major cybersecurity gathering in the spring, is coming up and the impacts of agents will be on full display. Scott Crawford, Brenon Daly, and Dan Kennedy join host Eric Hanselman to explore their expectations and look at what’s been taking place in both the marketplace, investments and M&A activity. Agents are automating tasks, not jobs, and there are a great set of use cases, but they’re not a panacea. There will be disruption, but it will be in specific areas, rather than a universal replacement of existing tooling. Are we industrializing the automated creation...
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CEO Series: Wildfire Risk with Bryan Spear
Next in Tech
Wildfires have grabbed the headlines recently and AI is being put to work to assess risk aid strategic planning in reducing events. The next in our CEO series brings Bryan Spear, the CEO of Technosylva, in to talk with host Eric Hanselman about not only wildfire, but also the ways in which AI can address flood and extreme weather risks, as well. There are interesting commonalities in the datasets that are used and AI has helped them to pivot into new areas as they dig deeper into what, in many cases, was data they already had. Their computational requirements have driven them to invest in a...
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CEO Series: Agents and Context with Douwe Kiela
Next in Tech
We continue our CEO series with Douwe Kiela, the CEO of Contextual AI, who is addressing the challenges of building effective agentic applications. The shift to agentic amplifies the need for enterprises to improve their data management capabilities and infrastructure scaling. The best models won’t perform well, if there isn’t well built context to support them. Much like people, if there’s not enough of the right information, decision making is going to suffer. There’s an evolution from the prompt engineering needed to generate better results from LLM’s, to the context engineering...
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CEO Series: AI and Supply Chains with Francisco Martin-Rayo
Next in Tech
The next in our series of discussions with CEO’s of companies that are putting AI to work has Fransico Martin-Rayo of Helios discussing the agricultural supply chain with host Eric Hanselman. Helios is leveraging AI to generate insights in the complex dynamics of food production and sourcing at a dramatically finer level of granularity. AI not only enables more complex analysis but also allows customized delivery of the results. Shifting interfaces from legacy dashboards and static reports to queryable constructs lets users explore the analyses in ways that better fit their needs. AI can...
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CEO Series Kick Off: AI and Energy Markets with Sean Kelly
Next in Tech
We’re kicking off a new series of discussions with CEO’s of companies that are putting AI to work to tackle complex problems. Sean Kelly of Amperon joins host Eric Hanselman to dig into how they’re using AI for energy grid forecasting. The combination of weather, changes in generation capacity with renewables, and now increased data center demand is making forecasting a critical requirement for grid stability, as well as energy trading. While this might have been a problem that could be tackled with spreadsheets back in the day, scope and scale of the problem has grown to a size that is...
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AI Data
Next in Tech
There are such significant changes going on in how data is managed and in how AI manages data, that it’s not always clear which requirements are driving which trends. Jim Curtis returns to look data highlights from AWS re:Invent and to identify important changes that are taking place. FinOps and broader cloud cost management efforts are leading providers to offer tools and programs to corral spending. AWS has introduced database savings plans to provide discounts in much the same way they’ve done with other services as they look to foster platform commitment. AWS is also expanding its...
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The NRF Conference
Next in Tech
The National Retail Federation’s annual NRF conference has become a showplace for the latest technology, as well its core retail foundations. Sheryl Kingstone returns to discuss what was on display and how it will impact retail and the larger tech landscape with host Eric Hanselman. While we may be a ways off from having robot dogs retrieving shoes at your local mall store, automation and agentic applications are delivering significant value in customer interactions - $22 billion in the recent 451 Research study. The days of clunky chatbot interfaces seem to be well and truly behind us. One...
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Agentic AI Use Cases
Next in Tech
The choice of use cases in AI has a significant impact on achieving on project outcomes. The latest results of the 451 Research Voice of the Enterprise AI use cases study are out and Alex Johnston joins host Eric Hanselman to explore the data and its implications. The study highlights a widespread, yet often unstructured and fragmented, adoption of AI within organizations, indicating a stall in overall maturity despite significant growth in usage. Key challenges include a clogged project pipeline, where many initiatives remain in limited deployment, and difficulties in consistently measuring...
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A Wild Earnings Season
Next in Tech
We’re just out of the recent earnings season and we’ve seen a wild range of results and some interesting implications. Melissa Otto CFA, head of S&P Global’s Visible Alpha research team, returns to discuss what that markets have been saying and what she makes of the data with host Eric Hanselman. Macroeconomic effects are having some impact, as consumer sentiment diverges across the top and the bottom of the economy. In technology, there are mixed feelings about AI as the hunt continues for use cases with decisive revenue returns. The hyperscalers are continuing to invest capital at...
info_outlineThe world of cryptocurrencies has seen no shortage of upheaval, but regulatory clarity that has arrived with recent legislation has created opportunities. Stablecoins are an area that’s seeing renewed interest in FinTech as a means of reducing friction for global payments. Jordan McKee, Sampath Sharma and Nathan Stovall return to the podcast with host Eric Hanselman to look at how stablecoins are being put to work and how they’re being used. For applications like cross border trade and the remittances trade, stablecoins can increase speed and potentially reduce costs. They can be considered another payment rail through which to conduct business.
Stablecoins are not without challenges. There are regulatory imperatives to be met, like anti-money laundering (AML) and know your customer (KYC). Trust needs to be built in the market and education is needed around their potential benefits and risks. Traditional banks are getting involved, but they have additional stumbling blocks. There are technical hurdles, such as the readiness of backend systems to handle the higher precision values of stablecoins. And there are new concerns around custody risk, as handling wallets and the enhanced security required are new skills for many. The potential benefits and lucrative markets may give them enough incentive to take the plunge.
More S&P Global Content:
- US banks maintain favorable earnings while confronting economic uncertainty
- Money20/20 Europe 2025: Key trends and developments
- Balance sheet, M&A and capital raising strategies for a volatile environment
- Next in Tech | Ep. 230: FinTech Advances
- Street Talk | Episode 142: Despite Looming Rate Cuts, Strong Deposit Franchises Still Take The Cake
For S&P Global subscribers:
- Data Insight: Cross-border payments volume to surpass $17 trillion by 2030
- Cross-Border Payments Market Monitor & Forecast - Data Visualization
- Cross-border payments, stablecoins generate buzz at a low-key Money20/20 Asia
- Tariffs create urgency for payment optimization strategies among large merchants, SMBs
Credits:
- Host/Author: Eric Hanselman
- Guest: Jordan McKee, Sampath Sharma, Nathan Stovall
- Producer/Editor: Feranmi Adeoshun
- Published With Assistance From: Sophie Carr, Kyra Smith