Searchlight News Analysis

Digital business transformation and innovation

• Generative AI for enterprises: ADP, IKEA launch tools

  The human capital management company and the retailer have taken different roads to GenAI deployment. But both enterprises aim to boost customer experience.  Continue Reading

• Democratizing machine learning hits cultural, tech snags

  Forrester Consulting-Capital One study points to organizational silos, disconnect between line-of-business and data managers, and hard-to-use machine learning tools as challenges.  Continue Reading

• Cloud inflation affects IT spending trends, GenAI not yet

  Gartner's forecast points to rising cloud and services spend. Generative AI is yet to strongly influence IT budgets, but IBM and other providers gear up for growth.  Continue Reading

• Walmart AI: Retailer taps employees to find GenAI use cases

  The Walmart generative AI approach includes learning from its employee-users and soliciting their feedback to discover key applications and refine the technology.  Continue Reading

• Early-stage companies pursue the practical at CIO event

  Startups in the MIT Sloan CIO Symposium's Innovation Showcase said their offerings tackle key enterprise IT concerns, from automating manual processes to cutting cloud costs.  Continue Reading

• Capital One study cites ML anomaly detection as top use case

  The bank itself is making ML a key part of its digital transformation strategy, deploying the technology to locate aberrations, detect fraud and support marketing.  Continue Reading

• Gartner: IT spending to grow 5.1% amid optimization push

  The market research firm said enterprise IT spending will endure in a tough economy, but noted an emphasis on optimization, productivity gains and rooting out inefficiencies.  Continue Reading

• Sustainable procurement goes mainstream, influences IT buys

  ESG considerations add a new dimension to IT purchasing criteria and, more broadly, could bridge the gap between business leaders and IT professionals.  Continue Reading

• Micron investment to spark chip ecosystem in New York

  The $100 billion plan aims to bring businesses and thousands of workers to the Syracuse, N.Y., area -- and boost the chip supply for the IT staples and innovations CIOs pursue.  Continue Reading

• PenFed expands chatbot strategy via Salesforce platform

  The credit union, one of the nation's largest, is using the Salesforce platform to deploy chatbots that can handle a growing set of customer-facing tasks as well as in-house uses.  Continue Reading

• Eli Lilly data strategy paves way for AI in drug discovery

  Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly has embarked on an enterprise data initiative that paves the way for greater AI use. Read about the company's strategy.  Continue Reading

• MIT Sloan panelists urge cyber resilience focus

  Enterprises must prepare for cyber-adversity, think beyond protection, establish lines of communication -- and learn to take a punch, according to security executives.  Continue Reading

• Ukrainian startup offers financial cloud, business advice

  Fuel offers early-stage companies a mix of cloud-based financial products, working with domestic clients and diversifying into European and U.S. markets.  Continue Reading

• MIT Sloan innovation startups pursue AI at scale

  Modzy and Snowplow are among the early-stage companies aiming to move AI from science project to enterprise asset. Success will let businesses reap the benefits of the technology.  Continue Reading

• Cal Poly Pomona pursues digital student experience

  The public university's digital experience initiative, which builds upon its use of ServiceNow, aims to help students focus on their education rather than administrative tasks.  Continue Reading

• Ukrainian company offers lesson in IT resilience

  Keiki, a product development company, uses remote collaboration tools and cloud resources to continue operations and keep its educational apps in the hands of children.  Continue Reading

• Gartner IT spending forecast cites higher service prices

  CIOs can expect a rate hike as service providers offer their employees more competitive salaries amid talent shortages, higher attrition and soaring utilization rates.  Continue Reading

• Tech companies in Ukraine open economic front in Russian war

  Developers and engineers serve as an economic bulwark in the country's battle for survival. The regional reshuffling of talent, meanwhile, could spell higher costs for IT buyers.  Continue Reading

• Metaverse platforms offer opportunity and risk for CIOs

  Accenture's recent Technology Vision event underscored the transformational possibilities of virtual worlds, but also pointed to security and safety challenges.  Continue Reading

• Tech firms relocate Ukrainian developers

  Companies tapping Ukrainian coding talent are working to relocate employees willing to move. Tech firms, in the longer term, may need to rethink resiliency plans due to the war.  Continue Reading

• Digital leaders open gap on digital laggards

  A Boston Consulting Group report reveals that 30% of large enterprises are on the path to becoming 'digital incumbents' while the remainder risk falling behind.  Continue Reading

• Federal privacy regulations usher in the age of tech lawmakers

  Big tech and privacy advocates are lobbying for dramatically different federal data privacy rights. CIOs should pay attention to whom -- and what -- the legislation seeks to regulate.  Continue Reading

• Build 2018 gives the office meeting a high-tech sheen. Does it matter?

  A display on the future of meetings at Microsoft's Build 2018 event was a technology tour de force. But analysts said the fanfare sort of misses the point.  Continue Reading

• IT Priorities 2018: Network upgrades, automation, cloud make the cut

  The TechTarget IT Priorities 2018 survey finds that networking, automation and cloud projects will keep IT pros busy. IoT and AI lag, but that doesn't mean they aren't happening.  Continue Reading

• CES 2018 for CIOs: Rise of the AI voice assistant class

  What happens in Vegas doesn't stay there -- not at CES 2018, where AI voice assistants and sentient objects were ubiquitous and the crossover to workforces was obvious.  Continue Reading

• CES 2017 for CIOs: Making consumer tech business-ready

  Artificial intelligence and the internet of things were big at this year's extravaganza. Here's what IT chiefs need to know.  Continue Reading

• Samsung Note 7 disaster a CIO parable about quality assurance

  Reasons for the Samsung Note 7 disaster are not fully known, but experts are certain of this: A shoddy quality assurance process can kill you. Also: Gig economy up; PC orders down; Amazon stores a-coming.  Continue Reading

• Gartner: IoT services, connected 'things' to surge in 2016

  The IoT services boom is on, says Gartner. What does that mean for CIOs? Also in Searchlight: Four indicted in last year's JP Morgan hack; Google's self-driving car pulled over.  Continue Reading