ISG Software Research Analyst Perspectives

Kyvos Provides Semantic Context for BI and AI

Posted by Matt Aslett on 27 October 2026

I have recently written about the renewed focus on semantic modeling and semantic layer software and the role they play in providing context for generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) and agentic AI. Semantic modeling has always been a critical enabler for business intelligence (BI), adding agreed-upon definitions and meaning to data to facilitate business understanding. It is also now... Read More

Topics: Operations, Analytics, Generative AI, AI & Technologies, AI & Machine Learning

Cost-Effective Agents Advancing Safely in Business Applications

Posted by Robert Kugel on 21 October 2026

Against the backdrop of today’s generalized freakout about the potential existential threat posed by artificial intelligence (AI), business software providers are rapidly building out AI agents that can safely and reliably improve human productivity and compress operational and decision-making cycles to boost responsiveness and resiliency as well as cut costs. In addition to embedding... Read More

Topics: Governance, Office of Finance, Business Planning, ERP and Continuous Accounting, digital finance, Procure-to-Pay, Generative AI, Consolidate and Close Management, Order-to-Cash, AI & Machine Learning

Denodo’s Platform Enhancements to Extend Logical Data Management Era

Posted by Mukesh Ranjan on 15 October 2026

As enterprises accelerate investments in agentic artificial intelligence (AI), advanced analytics and data-driven decision-making, the ability to provide trusted, governed and real-time access to distributed data has become increasingly important. Many enterprises continue to contend with fragmented data estates spanning cloud platforms, on-premises systems, software-as-a-service (SaaS)... Read More

Topics: Operations, Analytics, Generative AI, Data Intelligence, AI & Technologies

Salesforce All in on AI at Dreamforce 2026

Posted by David Menninger on 14 October 2026

Salesforce’s Dreamforce event was an event of epic proportions. Pre-pandemic attendance peaked at 170,000 about 10 years ago. This year’s event garnered nearly as much attention with 50,000 attendees and 122,000 online viewers. The event took over the entire Moscone Convention Center, including the North, South and West pavilions, as well as surrounding venues. If the agentic future that... Read More

Topics: Generative AI, AI & Technologies, AI & Machine Learning

Starburst Provides a Platform for Enterprise Intelligence

Posted by Matt Aslett on 14 October 2026

The ability to access and analyze data from multiple data sources has always been critical to business intelligence (BI), driving the evolution of the market for data integration products to ensure data from operational workloads is available for analytics use cases. Despite that, data silos continue to be a perennial challenge with the potential to stifle innovation given the speed and... Read More

Topics: Data Platforms, Generative AI, Data Intelligence, AI & Technologies

Salesforce Puts Context at the Center of the AI/CX Stack

Posted by Keith Dawson on 08 October 2026

Dreamforce is usually a performative exercise, one in which Salesforce uses the gathering to solidify messaging around products that act as tentpole explanations of its strategy, even if many of those announced products aren’t going to be GA for the better part of a year. This year was markedly different. Product announcements were less flashy, but potentially far more consequential to the... Read More

Topics: Analytics, Contact Center, Dreamforce, Customer Experience Management, Generative AI, Customers and CX - Business & Technologies, AI and Machine Learning, Service Management, Context, Agentic

Designing Agents for People-Centric Processes

Posted by Robert Kugel on 29 September 2026

You may be old enough to remember the Talking Heads 1984 concert film, “Stop Making Sense.” I think that phrase is a fitting warning to anyone designing agents for human-centric business processes who assumes that their behavior must always be rational. Despite significant advances in applied analytics, behavior modeling and process intelligence, achieving the right balance between achievable... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, Employee Engagement, Talent Management, Workforce Management, Revenue Performance Management, Office of Revenue, Generative AI, Employees & HCM - Business & Technologies, AI & Machine Learning, Agentic Systems, Agents

The AI Skills That Set Top Sellers Apart

Posted by Barika Pace on 15 September 2026

For Chief Revenue Officers, the central question about artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer whether sellers will use it. The question is whether they will use it well enough to improve revenue performance. Most sales organizations now have access to generative AI (GenAI), embedded copilots, conversation intelligence and predictive insights. Yet access alone does not create an advantage. As... Read More

Topics: sales engagement, Generative AI, Revenue Lifecycle Management, Office of Revenue - Business Technologies

Acceldata Accelerates Autonomous Data and AI

Posted by Matt Aslett on 09 September 2026

The emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) agents capable of automating enterprise decision-making has placed greater focus on the need for trusted and reliable data. As I recently explained, the guardrails provided by agent harnesses ensure the output of agents and large language models (LLMs) is grounded by enterprise data. The accuracy and trustworthiness of the content are dependent on the... Read More

Topics: Operations, Generative AI, AI & Technologies, AI & Machine Learning

Everything is Context: The Many Layers of Context for Enterprise AI

Posted by Matt Aslett on 19 August 2026

I have previously described how context is everything when it comes to establishing enterprise trust in the output of generative and agentic artificial intelligence. Based on our recent interactions with analytics and data software providers, it might be more accurate to say that context is everywhere, as almost all providers of analytics and data software are currently positioning products in... Read More

Topics: Operations, Data Platforms, Generative AI, Data Intelligence, AI & Technologies, AI & Machine Learning, AI Governance

Exasol Shines on High-Performance Agentic AI

Posted by Matt Aslett on 06 August 2026

Much like the emergence of cloud computing, agentic artificial intelligence is causing many data platform software providers to fundamentally rethink value propositions. For example, the ability to accelerate data workloads with custom hardware was an important differentiator in an era when almost all data processing was performed using on-premises server infrastructure but quickly became a niche... Read More

Topics: Analytics, Data Platforms, Generative AI, AI & Technologies

Boomi Enables Enterprise Data and Agent Activation

Posted by Matt Aslett on 29 July 2026

As an increasing proportion of enterprise software becomes replaced or augmented by artificial intelligence agents, capabilities for application, data and API management are evolving accordingly. Orchestrating communication and integration among applications, data, systems, tools and processes is essential to enabling agents to execute business processes through autonomous actions. Established... Read More

Topics: Operations, Generative AI, AI & Technologies, AI & Machine Learning, AI Governance

Personal Productivity AI Versus Enterprise AI

Posted by Robert Kugel on 14 July 2026

In the first stages of any major technology breakthrough, there is often a three-blind-men-describing-an-elephant effect at work. In the case of artificial intelligence (AI), its vast potential has people looking at it from their single perspective to the exclusion of others. It’s that narrow focus that has lent itself to the “Saaspocalypse” meme earlier this year. AI is already having a... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, Supply Chain Planning, Analytics, Business Planning, Workplace, Enterprise Resource Planning, supply chain management, Digital Business, Generative AI, Customers and CX - Business & Technologies, Employees & HCM - Business & Technologies, Vertical Industry, AI Governance

Databricks Unites Operational and Analytic Workloads on the Lakehouse

Posted by Matt Aslett on 08 July 2026

I recently wrote about the emerging category of data platform products that facilitate the deployment of Online Transaction Processing workloads on data lakehouse architecture. Databricks Lakebase is a prime example of this OLTP-on-lakehouse approach, which was added to its Databricks Data Intelligence Platform in 2025 and became generally available earlier this year. At the company’s recent Data... Read More

Topics: Governance, Data Platforms, Generative AI, Data Intelligence, AI & Technologies, Streaming & Events, AI & Machine Learning

IBM Addresses Autonomous Database Administration for Db2

Posted by Matt Aslett on 01 July 2026

I have previously written about the emerging requirements for database management systems, including the use of artificial intelligence to automate and accelerate the execution of database administration tasks. These emerging requirements have provided an opportunity for new and established data platform providers to differentiate in a crowded and competitive market. IBM is a prime example of an... Read More

Topics: Operations, Business Planning, Data Platforms, Generative AI, AI & Technologies, AI & Machine Learning

Salesforce Adds Knowledge to Tableau for Agentic Analytics

Posted by Matt Aslett on 03 June 2026

I recently wrote about the growing importance of semantics as a context layer for business intelligence and artificial intelligence agents. Semantic modeling has always been a critical enabler for business intelligence, adding meaning to data that provides the conceptual context for its use. It has become essential as a key enabler of multiple trends driving innovation in the analytics sector,... Read More

Topics: Analytics, Data Platforms, Generative AI, AI & Technologies, AI & Machine Learning

Teradata Advances Autonomous Knowledge Platform for Agentic AI

Posted by Mukesh Ranjan on 21 May 2026

A core challenge faced by enterprises due to the rapid rise of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) and agentic AI is how to operationalize AI systems that rely on vast volumes of unstructured and multimodal data without compromising governance, scalability or performance. While early retrieval‑augmented generation (RAG) experiments fuelled interest in vector databases, many organizations... Read More

Topics: Data Platforms, Generative AI, AI & Technologies, AI & Machine Learning

Securing AI Moves to the Center of Enterprise Risk

Posted by Jeff Orr on 12 May 2026

A distinct security category is emerging around protecting artificial intelligence (AI) itself, driven by the shift from pilot projects to embedded operational use. As AI becomes part of everyday workflows, the risk surface expands beyond traditional controls. Enterprises now need visibility into how employees prompt and rely on AI systems, how autonomous agents execute tasks and where sensitive... Read More

Topics: Data Governance, Cybersecurity, Generative AI, IT & Technologies, AI and Machine Learning, Data Controls, Visibility, Behavior Monitoring, Policy Enforcement, Control Plane

Salesforce Tackles the Entire Agent Development Lifecycle

Posted by David Menninger on 05 May 2026

Agentic AI is rapidly emerging as the next phase of enterprise automation, moving beyond static workflows and copilots toward systems capable of autonomous reasoning, decision-making and action. Enterprises are increasingly experimenting with AI agents to augment customer service, IT operations and business processes, yet many struggle to operationalize these systems at scale. The challenge is no... Read More

Topics: Governance, Generative AI, AI & Technologies, AI & Machine Learning

Domo Adds Context to Platform for Analytics and AI

Posted by Matt Aslett on 29 April 2026

I have recently written about the importance of context in relation to agentic artificial intelligence, including the growing use of Model Context Protocol to enable LLMs, agents and applications to communicate with data platforms, file systems and development and productivity tools, and the importance of semantic data modeling to provide agreed definitions that reflect the meaning of entities,... Read More

Topics: Operations, Analytics, Data Platforms, Generative AI, AI & Technologies

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