Next in Tech
Define your digital roadmap. Weekly podcasts featuring specialists from across the S&P Global Market Intelligence research team offer deep insights into what’s new and what’s next in technology, industries and companies as they design and implement digital infrastructure. To learn more, visit: https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/topics/tmt-news-insights
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Claw and Agentic Optimization
08/14/2026
Claw and Agentic Optimization
Adoption of AI has been dramatic, but the boost that the release of the OpenClaw agent technology delivered in November of last year was even more so. The mad rush to put agents to work has had wide ranging impacts, including market impacts on the supply of the venerable Mac Mini computer. That intensity and the need to manage the shockwaves agents are creating are what analysts Jean Atelsek and Marissa Incera joined host Eric Hanselman to discuss. There are now a proliferation of agents and they are creating demands on enterprise infrastructure that are outstripping those of initial AI adoption. The quandary enterprises are wrestling with is how to harness agentic power without limiting the innovations they can provide and still bounding the activities they can undertake. Effective agent use requires more than just an agent framework running on a single system. There has to be mediated access to data, management of context and memory in the agentic flow and security around agent action. The headlines are already filled with stories of the havoc that can be wreaked by misguided attempts. It requires a lot of diligence to get this right. More S&P Global Content: For S&P Global Subscribers: Host/Author: Guests: and Producer/Editor: Dylan Scheible Published With Assistance From: Feranmi Adeoshun and Sophie Carr
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IT Executive Qualifications
08/04/2026
IT Executive Qualifications
The world of IT is filled with technical qualifications in all manner of disciplines. They’ve become an expected baseline for knowledge in broad fields like networking and security, as well as narrower, vendor-specific knowledge and skills. But what happens as IT leaders move up to more senior roles? Steve Clarke, cofounder and director of Freeman Clarke joins host Eric Hanselman to talk about the challenges that senior IT professionals have in establishing their bona fides as technical business people. The role of a CIO, CTO, CISO or CDO requires technical depth, but the more important part is the ability to integrate that knowledge with business operations. It’s not an easy transition to undertake and even more complicated to identify. Discussions that are taking place in the 451 Research 451 Alliance community brought up the idea of a business level certification process and how it would have to characterize that unique knowledge set. The Standard is an approach that Steve and his colleagues began to address this issue. The 451 Alliance membership is free and open to all qualified IT professionals and business leaders who want to contribute to industry-leading research. Members take anonymous online surveys in exchange for access to research results that power their IT strategy. More S&P Global Content: For S&P Global Subscribers: Host/Author: Guest: , cofounder and director of Freeman Clarke and Tech Leaders Connect Producer/Editor: Dylan Scheible Published With Assistance From: Feranmi Adeoshun and Sophie Carr
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DevOps and observability
07/28/2026
DevOps and observability
As enterprises integrate greater levels of AI into their operational workflows, many are concerned about the effectiveness and accuracy of the decisions with which it’s being entrusted. Mike Fratto joins host Eric Hanselman to talk about his recent research into the ways in which observability can provide greater context to AI systems and administrative teams. Data is the raw material from which AI value is created and a lack of solid operational data will mean that management systems won’t have a complete perspective. Observability platforms have been expanding to collect and correlate a broader range of data and they can be particularly useful, if they’re integrated well. Observability data can also assist in building confidence in automation and support automation efforts by creating scripts and validating control decisions. It can be a huge help to staff to digest and make sense of existing run books and processes and guide decisions in the event of failures. When novel incidents occur, being able to rule out certain areas can be just as powerful as finding the root cause. No, the network isn’t always the cause of the outage… More S&P Global Content: For S&P Global subscribers: Host/Author: Guest: Producer/Editor: Dylan Scheible Published With Assistance From: Feranmi Adeoshun and Sophie Carr
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Technology in Space
07/20/2026
Technology in Space
There is a dramatic push of technology into space. Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites are changing the broadband communications market and there’s speculation about putting data centers in orbit. Analysts Ellie Brown and Johan Vermij join host Eric Hanselman to look at the practical aspects of this push into a new frontier as a preview to their upcoming webinar. The cost of access to space has been dropping significantly, but there are many considerations that impact the viability of some of these plans. LEO satellite lifetimes are shorter than geosynchronous ones and the sustainability impacts of the launch volumes necessary to maintain multiple, massive constellations are daunting. Space is an attractive vantage point for observation with imaging to support geopolitical needs and ecological ends, like methane emissions tracking. Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is piercing cloud and vegetation layers to reveal landscape details. Space-based data centers are seeing a lot of interest, but popular misconceptions about cooling capabilities may be adding more encouragement than is warranted. While space is “cold”, radiating heat is more complicated in its vacuum. The International Space Station, with a massive radiation system, rejects only 70 KW of heat, less than a few racks of equipment and much less than a typical GPU cluster. And the need to service equipment on orbit hasn’t been meaningfully addressed. Smaller satellites with distributed processing could pre-process data before it’s sent to earth, but that will require greater levels of coordination to manage the massive scale on which this would have to operate. More S&P Global Content: Join the webinar: For S&P Global Subscribers: Host/Author: Guests: and Johan Producer/Editor: Dylan Scheible Published With Assistance From: Feranmi Adeoshun and Sophie Carr
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Quantum CEO Series: Andy Ory
07/14/2026
Quantum CEO Series: Andy Ory
The popular image of quantum computers is the sparkling “chandelier” of the superconducting approach, but this next episode in our Quantum CEO series looks neutral atom quantum computers. Quantum analyst Ellie Brown returns to the podcast to join Andy Ory, the CEO of QuEra, to discuss their approach, the benefits of practical fault tolerant qubits and the advantages of quantum hubs that may have a dearth of beer with host Eric Hanselman. Neutral atom systems don’t require the ultra-low operating temperatures used for superconduction. They stabilize the atoms they’re using with lasers that still their motion. That free space setting allows simpler interaction between larger numbers of qubits that improves scaling of quantum computations. Stability reduces error rates and can improve the effectiveness of quantum error correction. Quantum computing has become a very buzzy topic, with IPO’s and major funding announcements. There is growth of the supporting ecosystems around quantum application development, with software tools and cloud-based services offerings that are expanding access. The greatest challenge is the supply of a quantum workforce that can put quantum capabilities to work. Systems doing optimization approaches, like quantum annealing, are here today. The date for the availability of general purpose, practical quantum computers keeps getting closer. Some have said 2030 might be a target date and QuEra is talking about delivering their next-generation system in 2028. It’s time to be getting quantum-literate today! More S&P Global Content: For S&P Global subscribers: Host/Author: Guests: and Producer/Editor: Dylan Scheible Published With Assistance From: Feranmi Adeoshun and Sophie Carr
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AI CEO Series: Dr. Varun Sivaram
07/07/2026
AI CEO Series: Dr. Varun Sivaram
This episode of our AI CEO series looks at the potential for AI capabilities to address one of AI’s largest challenges – energy availability. Dr. Varun Sivaram, founder and CEO of Emerald AI, joins host Eric Hanselman to explore how greater flexibility is AI workloads can unlock unused capacity. Traditionally, data center construction has focused on delivering peak capacity, even at those times when it may not be needed. That doesn’t mesh well with a power grid that is already under stress. AI intelligence can shift workloads dynamically to reduce data center demands when the power grid needs it and to leverage excess grid capacity when it’s available. Flexing AI workloads to respond to grid conditions isn’t simple, but it can be more attractive than alternatives. Adding generation capacity is a long-term and expensive process and community concerns about rate increases are creating headwinds for new data center builds. Adding Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) are costly and have their own capacity and durability limitations. Flexing workload demand could address grid integration problems on a much shorter timeline. More S&P Gobal content: For S&P Global subscribers: Host/Author: Guest: Producer/Editor: Dylan Scheible Published With Assistance From: Feranmi Adeoshun and Sophie Carr
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Asia Pacific Data Center Trends
07/01/2026
Asia Pacific Data Center Trends
Market dynamics in data center buildouts and dealmaking are complex, but there are some common threads that are spanning the globe. Analysts Soon Chen Kang and Stefanie Williams join host Eric Hanselman to explore their research in the Asia Pacific market. AI demand is a driving force and concerns about power availability can be a headwind, but there are regional nuances that make the markets that comprise the APAC region unique. One treats the market as a cohesive whole at one’s peril! Geopolitical concerns have a significant impact on both demand forces and capacity uptake. Access to GPU’s to feed AI applications takes on new dimensions in a market where technology embargoes are moving workloads. Neoclouds are a new market provider and driving new builds, as well. The boom days of speculative building have tapered off, in many cases, due to the availability of power, but that doesn’t mean activity is slowing. Activity is shifting to find available capacity, but a common challenge in some of these early markets is the lack of transparency on both power deals and the build and financing processes. Check out the research to get more details. More S&P Global Content: For S&P Global subscribers: Host/Author: Guests: , Producer/Editor: Dylan Scheible Published With Assistance From: Feranmi Adeoshun, Sophie Carr, Kyra Smith,
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FinOps and AI
06/23/2026
FinOps and AI
We’re in the early days of cost impacts for AI applications. While there are some cautionary tales, current spending seems to be a small fraction what’s to come. Analysts Jean Atelsek and Melanie Posey return to the podcast to talk about what they heard at the FinOps X conference with host Eric Hanselman. The need for cost management in AI is seen as so great that the FinOps Foundation, a project of the Linux Foundation, is talking about morphing its conference into Tokenomicon and pivot into token economics. The portmanteau of tokenomics is sweeping across cloud and AI services providers, as well as IT vendors, as enterprises wrestle with dueling forces of AI acceleration and management constraints for access and cost. Unlike FinOps for cloud operations, the costs and metrics for AI are fairly opaque. Some enterprises are trying to manage costs by limiting access, but that risks stifling the innovation and democratization that is supposed to come with AI transformation. Request routing is promising, but it requires understanding the nature of the request and the suitability of available infrastructure to fulfill it, something that is not well understood by many. Most are just getting comfortable with managing model lifecycles and the step up to cost management can be a large one. More S&P Global Content: For S&P Global subscribers: Host/Author: Guests: , Producer/Editor: Dylan Scheible Published With Assistance From: Feranmi Adeoshun, Sophie Carr, Kyra Smith,
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Agentic Approaches to Capital Markets
06/16/2026
Agentic Approaches to Capital Markets
There’s great momentum in moving to greater levels of agentic automation, but there are critical areas where deeper consideration is required in how it’s applied. In capital markets, trust is a foundational element on which transactions are built and Krisha Vinjamuri, Head of Technology, Enterprise Solutions at S&P Global Market Intelligence, joins host Eric Hanselman to talk about how this can be achieved and the important aspects of successful implementations. One of the useful things in capital markets, is that there are open standards on which to base data ontologies. It’s not exciting, but it's the basis of a semantic foundation that can not only ensure that there is depth in data definitions, but can also reduce errors generated by agents. The larger question that looms beyond the construction of foundational architecture, is how the operational envelope that bounds agentic action will be established. This has to be built from policy definitions that take those actions into account. There is great promise and much work that needs to be done. More S&P Global Content: For S&P Global subscribers: Credits: Host/Author: Guest: Producer/Editor: Feranmi Adeoshun Published With Assistance From: Sophie Carr, Kyra Smith, Dylan Scheible
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AI Networking
06/09/2026
AI Networking
Networking can be an invisible part of IT infrastructure, but AI is creating demands that make it a critical part of keeping AI application fed with data. Mike Fratto returns to the podcast to discuss both the long haul and local requirements for AI networking with host Eric Hanselman. It’s always been important to link chunks of infrastructure efficiently, but AI’s voracious need for data has dramatically increased the scope and scale of the need. The risk that any gap in performance or capacity presents is that precious GPU resources will be idled, an increasingly expensive proposition. The realities of AI application architectures is that infrastructure is ever more hybrid, requiring access to repositories of data both on-premises and in various clouds and models scattered across various providers. The need for dynamic connectivity is driven by the rapid evolution of preferences for new models and the diversifying needs of agents to reach new data sources. It’s not only forcing network expansion, but it’s also driving M&A activity as network providers look to enhance automation in response to customer demands. More S&P Global Content: For S&P Global subscribers: Credits: Host/Author: Guest: Producer/Editor: Feranmi Adeoshun Published With Assistance From: Sophie Carr, Kyra Smith, Dylan Scheible
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Agentic revolution at Dell Technology World
06/02/2026
Agentic revolution at Dell Technology World
The shifts that the agentic revolution is driving are felt in many areas of technology and Dell Technologies spans some of those that are seeing the greatest upheaval. The 451 Research team was in attendance at the annual Dell Technologies World conference and Brian Partridge, William Fellows, Henry Baltazar and Greg Macatee joined host Eric Hanselman to talk about their perspectives on the conference, agentic advancement and the technology market. Dell has positioned itself as a purveyor of not only the compute infrastructure needed to build the foundation for AI, but also as the custodian of AI’s most critical raw material – data. The rapid evolution of agentic applications has created a need for new capabilities that is being complicated by both technology infrastructure demands and geopolitical events. Supply chains are being challenged by increasing demand for storage at a time when silicon pipelines were already under tremendous pressure. All of this is happening as the costs of AI are starting to have a material impact on businesses. Tokenomics, the impact of the cost of producing AI tokens, has taken center stage. More S&P Global Content: For S&P Global subscribers: Credits: Host/Author: Guest: , , , Producer/Editor: Feranmi Adeoshun Published With Assistance From: Sophie Carr, Kyra Smith, Dylan Scheible
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Smart Buildings and AI
05/28/2026
Smart Buildings and AI
One of the more interesting areas where AI is having an impact is in building operations. While building automation technology has made significant advances, AI is bridging gaps in building system controls. Analyst Zöe Roth has been researching the approaches and achievements from various smart building automation technologies and joins host Eric Hanselman to discuss what she’s seen and what opportunities lie ahead. Some of the advances from data center information management (DCIM) systems are being applied to smart buildings. A typical building has multiple control capabilities for HVAC, lighting, and mechanical that often aren’t interconnected and smart building systems can unify visibility and operations. The integration of AI in smart buildings has to balance a number of different aspects of both the human in the loop for control and the scale that the introduction of cloud-based management offers. Fully autonomous operations may be some time off, but vendors are working to build trust and capability. Cloud-based systems can provide a consolidated view of a portfolio of buildings and improve maintenance operations, but face reluctance in some sectors where on-premises preferences prevail. AI is advancing rapidly and will accelerate further as it matures. More S&P Global Content: For S&P Global subscribers: Credits: Host/Author: Guest: Producer/Editor: Feranmi Adeoshun with Barb Dalumpines Published With Assistance From: Sophie Carr, Kyra Smith, Dylan Scheible
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Autonomy
05/19/2026
Autonomy
The rush to capitalize on agentic capabilities is in full swing in enterprise, but there is caution in operational settings, like industrial control systems. Getting to autonomy in these environments requires a greater consideration in design and implementation and Cody Falcon of ABB joins host Eric Hanselman to continue a conversation that started at CERAWeek to explore the many aspects that should be in consideration. Risk is, of course, much greater in physical systems and AI requires more complex guardrails to manage it. But the greater challenge is in building trust. AI’s ability to handle scope and scale can be tremendously valuable in control systems and the ready availability of telemetry and operational data give implementations a solid base to work from. The journey to autonomy is one that has to be built on proven successes. As with any new employee, agents will need to build trust. More S&P Global Content: For S&P Global subscribers: Credits: Host/Author: Guest: , Global Digital Portfolio & Technology Leader, Energy Industries, ABB Producer/Editor: Feranmi Adeoshun Published With Assistance From: Sophie Carr, Kyra Smith, Dylan Scheible
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Mythos and Security
05/12/2026
Mythos and Security
The recent announcement of the capabilities of the Mythos AI model have raised many concerns about the cybersecurity implications of ever more powerful AI tools. Scott Crawford and Daniel Kennedy return to the podcast to debate the impact with host Eric Hanselman. Is this more marketing than real attack potential? It seems like the pace and scale of the discovery of new vulnerabilities could overwhelm traditional remediation and patching practices. Is this a reason to hold back the release of new AI models? If nothing else, these developments should serve as a wakeup call for enterprises to revamp the way in which they approach both their software supply chains and operational procedures. Increased speed and scale are necessary, but it’s also critical to secure the source of patches and updates to counter attacker efforts to compromise them. Attackers have always been good at taking well intentioned improvements and weaponizing them. More S&P Global Content: For S&P Global subscribers: Credits: Host/Author: Guests: Producer/Editor: Feranmi Adeoshun Published With Assistance From: Sophie Carr, Kyra Smith, Dylan Scheible
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Managing data center risk
05/05/2026
Managing data center risk
Demand for data center capacity is booming, which won’t come as a surprise to any of our listeners, but that boom is extending into the associated areas that are looking to manage risk in this growth. Analysts Tony Lenoir and Kelly Morgan return to the podcast to discuss an upcoming webinar that explores the challenges that insurers are facing with host Eric Hanselman. The “Underwriting the Digital Backbone: Navigating Risk and Growth in Data Center Insurance” webinar digs into the complex risk equations that insurers have to navigate. Data center projects have escalated in scale and cost and this creates concerns not only about financing, but also the entangled supply chain and energy grid connectivity pathways. When data center power demands are approaching the gigawatt level, simply providing reliable power becomes much more challenging. At the same time, the risks for data centers are becoming more complicated. The shift to liquid cooling can deliver much more efficient operation, when compared with air cooling, but it has a downside. When racks of GPU’s can dissipate almost a megawatt of energy, even short interruptions of cooling supply can cause catastrophic damage. And the GPU’s being damaged are tremendously valuable and in short supply. Business continuity insurance has to account for these much greater loss potentials, as well as looking at location risks from environmental hazards. Geopolitical concerns are now a key part of balancing risk, as well. Check out the webinar for a deeper dive with more details. More S&P Global Content: For S&P Global subscribers: Credits: Host/Author: Guests: , Producer/Editor: Feranmi Adeoshun Published With Assistance From: Sophie Carr, Kyra Smith
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Digital Sovereignty
04/28/2026
Digital Sovereignty
While expanding regulatory requirements have been pushing developments in digital sovereignty, increasing levels of geopolitical concerns are driving greater urgency in improving control of digital assets. Andreas Prins, global head of sovereignty solutions for SUSE joins host Eric Hanselman to look at how organizations need to shift their thinking to leverage all of the benefits that sovereignty initiatives offer. We’ve seen study results that show that enterprises see sovereignty as a path to better workload and data portability. To make this work effectively, they need to consider the full technology stack that supports their digital environments. Understanding the controls available to manage sovereignty goals is an important first step, but it’s just as important to look at how applications and data can be pulled out of any environment, if the need arises. Understanding the effort to exit can highlight dependencies that could hinder a path to improved sovereignty. Focusing exclusively on sovereignty can also miss another important benefit – improvements in business resilience. By starting with resilience, organizations can link together security and sovereignty with operational concerns. The result can be more efficient and effective technology operations that go beyond fulfilling simple regulatory requirements and help to build stronger businesses. More S&P Global Content: For S&P Global subscribers: Credits: Host/Author: Guest: Producer/Editor: Feranmi Adeoshun Published With Assistance From: Sophie Carr, Kyra Smith
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Quantum CEO Series: Amir Naveh
04/21/2026
Quantum CEO Series: Amir Naveh
The next episode of our Quantum CEO series looks at the software development stack for quantum computing and how quantum software is developed. Co-founder of Classiq, Amir Naveh, joins host Eric Hanselman to discuss the challenges in working across the dramatically different architectures that make up the current quantum computing landscape. It’s been nine years since IBM introduced the Qiskit development environment and much has changed. Developers can move from simple quantum circuits designs to much more high-level representations of quantum logic, while targeting a broad set of quantum computers on which the can run. Much as classical computing tools advanced to more effective and efficient compilers and tool chains, quantum development tooling is tackling more complex problems and raising the level of abstraction at which developers can operate. The improvements in development tools are expanding the audience for quantum computing and reinforcing the imperative that enterprises large and small should be working to understand how they can put quantum computing to work. Quantum is not a technology for a distant future, it’s a reality that can have impacts in many applications today. More S&P Global Content: For S&P Global subscribers: Credits: Host/Author: Guest: Producer/Editor: Feranmi Adeoshun Published With Assistance From: Sophie Carr, Kyra Smith
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Quantum CEO Series: Dr. Theau Peronnin
04/15/2026
Quantum CEO Series: Dr. Theau Peronnin
The next in our Quantum CEO series looks at the nature of a fundamental element of quantum computing – the qubit. Dr. Theau Peronnin, cofounder and CEO of Alice & Bob, joins host Eric Hanselman to explore the nature and characteristics of this often-misunderstood foundation of the quantum world. There is no standardized definition for a qubit, and yet, many quantum efforts measure their success in terms of qubit counts. At the same time, there are efforts to define logical qubits, as a more functional measure, further clouding the term. It’s far better to look at the work that they can do and what the constraints are in their operation. The current generation of quantum computers work with environments that are computationally noisy, creating error rates that are more than eighteen orders of magnitude greater than classical computers. That puts a focus not only on managing error rates, but also on establishing meaningful benchmarks around quantum performance. There are also efforts to expand the working life of a qubit, the coherence time, and the speed of computation. Differing approaches to quantum computing trade off stability and durability of the quantum state needed to perform a computation. Quantum capabilities are expanding more rapidly than many had predicted and organizations need to develop a better understanding of where and when quantum computing can fit in their business plans. More S&P Global Content: For S&P Global subscribers: Credits: Host/Author: Guest: Producer/Editor: Feranmi Adeoshun Published With Assistance From: Sophie Carr, Kyra Smith
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Quantum CEO Series: Alan Baratz
04/07/2026
Quantum CEO Series: Alan Baratz
We kick off the next in our CEO series with a look at quantum computing. Alan Baratz is the CEO of D-Wave and he joins host Eric Hanselman to explore quantum computing architectures, how they’re evolving, and how enterprises should be considering quantum computing applications. D-Wave now offers both annealing and gate model quantum computing systems, with different types of problems being suited to each type. While many view quantum computing as a distant future, quantum approaches are delivering business value today, particularly in quantum annealing, where optimization of scheduling and processing can be done with greater precision and speed. One of the challenges the enterprises face is translating existing use cases into the quantum realm. So often, heuristics are developed to approximate the computations that are required. The shift to quantum thinking steps beyond the heuristics that were applied to reduce computational efforts and looks at directly addressing computationally complex problems. It’s a shift to embracing a new way addressing some of the most challenging enterprise problems. More S&P Global Content: For S&P Global subscribers: Credits: Host/Author: Guest: Producer/Editor: Feranmi Adeoshun Published With Assistance From: Sophie Carr, Kyra Smith
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Mobile World Congress Review
03/31/2026
Mobile World Congress Review
While the annual gathering of all things telecom might have been dampened by geopolitical impacts, Mobile World Congress was still a hotbed of everything new and next. Analysts Raul Castañon-Martinez and Rich Karpinski join host Eric Hanselman to discuss what they saw in Barcelona and what it portends for not only the telecom players, but also the wider technology ecosystem that was clamoring for attention. MWC has evolved into an event that spans technology in many different forms. There’s a telecom anchor that expands from smartphones, to infrastructure, out to AI and agentic, even out to quantum computing. There seemed to be more quantum computers on display than the perennial stand attraction – Formula 1 cars. This year presented and more pointed challenge to telecom operators to make the jump into being technology providers. There’s certainly a desire to get to a “Connectivity plus” footing, but there are many ecosystem players looking to be the provider of choice for AI services. Operators are trying to avoid the over-the-top displacement of previous tech transitions, but they’re facing a much broader set of competitors. More S&P Global Content: For S&P Global subscribers: Credits: Host/Author: Guests: Producer/Editor: Feranmi Adeoshun Published With Assistance From: Sophie Carr, Kyra Smith
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Putting Agents To Work
03/25/2026
Putting Agents To Work
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 their unfulfilled promises. Many systems have More S&P Global Content: For S&P Global subscribers: Credits: Host/Author: Guests: , Producer/Editor: Feranmi Adeoshun Published With Assistance From: Sophie Carr, Kyra Smith
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The RSAC Conference – Agents on The Loose
03/18/2026
The RSAC Conference – Agents on The Loose
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 of software? Will agents really replace SaaS applications? We’re clearly in the early days, but these questions are causing massive market shifts. A better question is how agentic interactions will change how we interact with the applications that drive businesses today. Join the team at RSAC and get all the details we didn’t have time to cover. The annual 451 Research breakfast will be on, as always, so you can meet the team in person. More S&P Global Content: For S&P Global subscribers: Credits: Host/Author: Guests: , Producer/Editor: Feranmi Adeoshun Published With Assistance From: Sophie Carr, Kyra Smith
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CEO Series: Wildfire Risk with Bryan Spear
03/10/2026
CEO Series: Wildfire Risk with Bryan Spear
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 dedicated compute environment. They’re running analyses on scale where they can keep utilization high enough that the costs make sense. It’s a calculus that many enterprises are making as they trade off the convenience of cloud with the predictable costs of owning one’s own infrastructure. More S&P Global Content: For S&P Global subscribers: Credits: Host/Author: Guest: Producer/Editor: Feranmi Adeoshun Published With Assistance From: Sophie Carr, Kyra Smith
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CEO Series: Agents and Context with Douwe Kiela
03/03/2026
CEO Series: Agents and Context with Douwe Kiela
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 that crafts the right data to feed agents. This is an area where agents can also help to tackle the data quality problem that many enterprises face. Standing the old computing paradigm on its head, effective agentic applications ought to take garbage in and put information out. Well built agentic architectures can understand data characteristics and not only evaluate its quality, but also classify it and apply the appropriate security controls to its use. The scope and scale of agentic potential demands much greater thought to achieve its full value. We need only look to the recent Open Claw project to see both the up and downsides. More S&P Global Content: For S&P Global subscribers: Credits: Host/Author: Guest: Producer/Editor: Feranmi Adeoshun Published With Assistance From: Sophie Carr, Kyra Smith
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CEO Series: AI and Supply Chains with Francisco Martin-Rayo
02/24/2026
CEO Series: AI and Supply Chains with Francisco Martin-Rayo
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 deliver custom insights at scale in ways that weren’t possible with traditional application interfaces. One of the principal shifts accelerating AI, is the availability of better data. Helios integrates massive weather data sets with market history and global events to generate forecasts. While the volumes of data are growing it’s seen significant reductions in the cost per token in their infrastructure. Improving efficiency can expand the depth of analysis, as well as the frequency of forecast updates. More S&P Global Content: For S&P Global Subscribers: Credits: Host/Author: Guest: , CEO and Co-Founder of Helios Producer/Editor: Feranmi Adeoshun Published With Assistance From: Sophie Carr, Kyra Smith
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CEO Series Kick Off: AI and Energy Markets with Sean Kelly
02/17/2026
CEO Series Kick Off: AI and Energy Markets with Sean Kelly
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 outstripping traditional methods. AI-based approaches can scale, but there are challenges with managing the size of the datasets being used and the computational costs that some models demand. Effective integration of AI into complex problem solving demands not only a deep understanding of the problem space, but also innovation in sourcing data and scaling its applications. The payoff can be much faster results with greater perspective depth. But that requires investment in automation and careful engineering to get there. More S&P Global Content: For S&P Global Subscribers: Credits: Host/Author: Guest: Producer/Editor: Feranmi Adeoshun Published With Assistance From: Sophie Carr, Kyra Smith
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AI Data
02/10/2026
AI Data
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 platform capabilities for AI development, with AWS SageMaker integrating additional tools to simplify the creation and deployment of AI solutions. The intersection of databases, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence is creating more focus on vectorization. It’s fueled the evolution of search capabilities, which offers a more semantically rich and efficient way to organize and retrieve data compared to traditional methods. AWS S3 now has vector support, taking the venerable object store into AI-capable territory. AI is revitalizing established technologies and compelling cloud providers to deliver more integrated and tailored services. More S&P Global Content: For S&P Global subscribers: Credits: Host/Author: Guest: Producer/Editor: Feranmi Adeoshun Published With Assistance From: Sophie Carr, Kyra Smith
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The NRF Conference
02/03/2026
The NRF Conference
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 the greater challenges in scaling agentic applications is maintaining consumer trust as applications and use cases grow. Part of that trust will depend on effectively managing fleets of agents. In order to scale, organizations have to develop an AI agent control plane that can manage memory, maintain context and guide agent actions. Regulatory requirements are in their early stages, but enterprises have to focus on controls that will ensure they can maintain customer trust as matter of basic business operations. More S&P Global Content: For S&P Global subscribers: Credits: Host/Author: Guest: Producer/Editor: Feranmi Adeoshun Published With Assistance From: Sophie Carr, Kyra Smith
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Agentic AI Use Cases
01/28/2026
Agentic AI Use Cases
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 return on investment (ROI), although most projects are seen as delivering value. Organizations achieving better outcomes prioritize strong governance, consistent measurement, and "human-in-the-loop" applications, rather than attempting immediate full autonomy. There are major concerns around data quality, rising costs, and a lack of centralized control stemming from the diverse sourcing of AI capabilities and varied user proficiency. Cost concerns are driving organizations towards More S&P Global Content: For S&P Global subscribers: Credits: Host/Author: Guest: Producer/Editor: Feranmi Adeoshun Published With Assistance From: Sophie Carr, Kyra Smith
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A Wild Earnings Season
01/16/2026
A Wild Earnings Season
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 staggering rates and, so far, the markets have mostly approved. AI supply chain companies, like NVIDIA, are generally moving forward with solid results. The larger question is where is the AI boom headed. There are constraints not only in supply chains for data centers, but also in energy supply. Agentic AI has a lot of promise, but needs to prove out its value and earn trust, as providers look to improve efficiency with more targeted silicon, like ASICs, to stand up alongside the forests of GPU’s being deployed. As investors hunt for improved returns, they may be rotating to international opportunities and small cap companies that might be able to see faster returns from AI deployments. More S&P Global Content: For S&P Global Subscribers: Credits: Host/Author: Guest: Producer/Editor: Feranmi Adeoshun Published With Assistance From: Sophie Carr, Kyra Smith
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