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Big 5 AI Vendor Roundup: Week of August 24, 2026
It has become almost a full-time job to stay current with the glut of news in the AI space. This weekly roundup will get you up to speed on the news and happenings with the Big 5 AI vendors in the last week.
Esri: The Future of Analytics Is GIS
Esri’s founder Jack Dangermond claims that the future of analytics is GIS, which can be substantiated by the fact that ultimately we have to manage our sole and finite resource – the Earth. Let’s see what news Esri User Conference 2026 has delivered to support this claim.
Black Hat 2026 Trends – Security Buyers Want Proof, Not More Tools
The following trends reflect themes that emerged from conversations, vendor briefings, and conference sessions at Black Hat 2026, with an emphasis on what they mean for CIOs and security leaders.
Big 5 AI Vendor Roundup: Week of August 10, 2026
It has become almost a full-time job to stay current with the glut of news in the AI space. This weekly roundup will get you up to speed on the news and happenings with the Big 5 AI vendors in the last week.
Veeam Adds 6 Hypervisors, Launches Cloud Archive Tier to Replace Tape
Veeam wants IT leaders to bet on one platform instead of five. Data Platform v13.1 adds six hypervisors, native protection that finally unites healthcare and non-x86 workload customers under Epic and Db2/Oracle, and a new archive tier built to replace tape. The real question is: Does putting recovery, security, and archiving under one vendor close the fragmented-visibility and standards-drift risk of running five separate tools, or does it just trade that for one giant backup target that’s easier for an attacker, or an admin, to break?
Esri’s Customers Prove CIOs Are Getting Half the Story Without GIS
Esri’s user conference showed GIS connecting street sweepers, Italian railways, and barley farms to enterprise data. CIOs who leave GIS out of their AI and data strategy are working from half the picture.
ServiceNow Bundles AI Into Every Product and Bets That Context Is the Missing Piece
We keep hearing that enterprise AI spending is up in many organizations, and the results are not remarkable. On April 9, 2026, ServiceNow announced it will no longer sell AI as an add-on, instead restructuring its commercial model to focus on AI and launching new features that let AI agents make organizational decisions without frequent human oversight.
From Digital Maturity to AI Value: An Interview With Zoho’s Ram Ramamoorthy
At ZohoDay26, Info-Tech’s John Annand sat down with Ramprakash “Ram” Ramamoorthy (Director of AI Research at Zoho). Over a wide-ranging conversation, John and Ram discussed Zoho’s go-to-market strategy for AI capabilities. This note provides a structured summary of that interview.
ManageEngine Is Quietly Rebuilding the Enterprise IT Control Plane
Rajesh Ganeshan didn’t walk on stage at the recent ZohoDay (February 2026) to announce a new product or declare a category shift. He spent the time doing something more unusual in enterprise software: explaining why ManageEngine exists the way it does, and why that history suddenly matters again.
Big 5 AI Vendor Roundup: Week of August 24, 2026
It has become almost a full-time job to stay current with the glut of news in the AI space. This weekly roundup will get you up to speed on the news and happenings with the Big 5 AI vendors in the last week.
Black Hat 2026 Trends – Security Buyers Want Proof, Not More Tools
The following trends reflect themes that emerged from conversations, vendor briefings, and conference sessions at Black Hat 2026, with an emphasis on what they mean for CIOs and security leaders.
Big 5 AI Vendor Roundup: Week of August 10, 2026
It has become almost a full-time job to stay current with the glut of news in the AI space. This weekly roundup will get you up to speed on the news and happenings with the Big 5 AI vendors in the last week.
Verint Engage 2026 Presents the “New Verint,” Moving From CX Automation to Agentic Workforce Orchestration
Verint Engage 2026 showcased the “new Verint” under Thoma Bravo ownership: a combined Verint-Calabrio organization repositioning from CX workflow automation toward agentic workforce orchestration. Agent Factory, open ecosystem messaging, and customer ROI proof points strengthen the story, but buyers should scrutinize roadmap clarity, platform convergence, and whether Verint fits their CX operating model.
Cognigy 2026: Agentic AI for Outstanding Customer Care and Proactive Resolution Takes Center Stage
Cognigy Nexus 2026 was held recently in Munich. The event highlighted a meaningful shift in the agentic market for AI-powered customer service, with NiCE focusing less on the novelty of agentic AI and more on the disciplines required to run it effectively at scale (such as governance, interoperability, and platform-driven approach). Its announcements around automation discovery from interaction data, multivariate testing, multimodal orchestration, and MCP-based interoperability suggest NiCE Cognigy is aligning with what enterprise buyers increasingly need: a way to identify the right use cases, test agents rigorously, connect them across journeys and systems, and manage them as part of an operating model rather than a standalone tool. The strategy is directionally strong, but its real value will depend on whether Cognigy can translate these capabilities into repeatable customer outcomes – and whether use cases can scale not just from customer care, but also to sales and marketing.
Has the “SaaSpocalypse” Come for CX Technology Providers?
This note examines whether “SaaSpocalypse” claims are valid, based on full-year results from 24 public companies that have significant customer experience (CX) SaaS offerings.
Acquia Source: The Command Center Vision Anchored in Governance
Acquia Source brings CMS, DAM, web governance, Drupal hosting, and a new in-platform agentic AI layer into a single command center spanning SaaS and PaaS delivery, with the strategic bet that enterprises moving content operations into the AI era will value governed coordination and marketer-friendly Drupal alongside agentic speed. The architecture is well aligned for organizations already invested in Drupal, with broad MCP availability and bring-your-own-model support sitting on the near-term roadmap.
Regulated AI Crosses Into Production Reality
LighthouseIQ, launched on January 21, 2026, by Lighthouse Global is an AI intelligence platform purpose-built for eDiscovery. Outputs have been accepted by the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission on second-request matters. That is a production threshold most AI vendors in this space have not yet been required to clear.
Conga Acquires PROS as Part of Rebrand and Expanded Commerce Coverage
Big change is at hand for CPQ vendors Conga and PROS, as the former acquired the latter in early 2026. Catering to different markets, the two products will remain distinct within the Conga Advantage platform. Conga intends to provide robust functionality across the commerce chain by rounding out existing CLM, CPQ, and document generation capabilities with strong pricing technology and new AI capabilities.
Esri: The Future of Analytics Is GIS
Esri’s founder Jack Dangermond claims that the future of analytics is GIS, which can be substantiated by the fact that ultimately we have to manage our sole and finite resource – the Earth. Let’s see what news Esri User Conference 2026 has delivered to support this claim.
Esri’s Customers Prove CIOs Are Getting Half the Story Without GIS
Esri’s user conference showed GIS connecting street sweepers, Italian railways, and barley farms to enterprise data. CIOs who leave GIS out of their AI and data strategy are working from half the picture.
A Closer Look at Google's Agentic Data Cloud Enhancements in H1-2026
Info-Tech has already provided a brief summary of updates to Agentic Data Cloud announced by Google in April 2026. Here’s a closer look at some of the updates important from the perspective of Data and Analytics.
SAP Acquires Dremio, Reltio, and Prior Labs to Create an Agentic AI Platform and Research Center for Structured Data
SAP’s recent acquisition activity should be viewed as building a three-part stack: Dremio for open lakehouse and business context, Reltio for trusted master data, and Prior Labs for AI models purpose-built for structured business data.
Oracle Analyst Summit 2026: Integrating AI Data Platform, Fusion Data Intelligence and OCI Enterprise AI
Oracle’s 2026 Analyst Relations Summit showcased how their three platforms – Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, AI Data Platform, and Fusion Data Intelligence – unified by shared governance and semantics, could facilitate building an enterprise-scale agentic AI platform.
At Insights 2026, Epicor Reframes ERP From Record-Keeper to Action-Taker
Epicor Insights 2026 marked the company’s shift from ERP as a system of record to a system of action, with live agentic AI demos showing measurable freight cost recovery, AI-driven shop floor replanning, and cloud migrations compressed to weeks.
Winning on Deployment, Not Disruption: What Contract Logix CLM Actually Sells
Contract Logix, now part of LegalSifter, is a mid-market CLM platform that focuses on rapid deployment and operational simplicity, prioritizing usability and cost control over deep customization and advanced AI-driven contract intelligence.
Conga Acquires PROS as Part of Rebrand and Expanded Commerce Coverage
Big change is at hand for CPQ vendors Conga and PROS, as the former acquired the latter in early 2026. Catering to different markets, the two products will remain distinct within the Conga Advantage platform. Conga intends to provide robust functionality across the commerce chain by rounding out existing CLM, CPQ, and document generation capabilities with strong pricing technology and new AI capabilities.
From CPQ to Control Plane: How Conga Is Reassembling Enterprise Commerce
Conga is making a deliberate bid to become the control plane for enterprise commerce, not just a CPQ vendor with adjacent features. The PROS acquisition closes a structural pricing gap and accelerates Conga's AI roadmap, while the commerce chain narrative reframes how revenue work should flow end to end. If Conga executes well, it will be a default platform for complex enterprises. If it stumbles, it remains a strong but bounded CPQ incumbent.
Workday’s AI Bet Is Built on Data You Already Own
Workday has spent eighteen months acquiring the pieces – Sana Labs, Pipedream, Flowise – and the March 2026 global launch is where they converge. The result is an AI layer embedded directly in the system of record, capable of executing tasks, not just suggesting them. For HR and finance leaders in Workday shops, the embedded execution layer raises the bar for any team still considering a custom build.
Zoho Announces Major Updates to Billing and Spend Solutions for the Enterprise
In an analyst briefing, Zoho provided updates to Zia's capabilities for finance use cases. Specifically, Zoho emphasized reconciliation, reporting, and proactive insights, with a showcase of its new enterprise billing and spend management products.
The Newest at UKG: The Workforce Operating Platform
UKG, a leader in HR management systems, has introduced their Workforce Operating Platform. This platform unifies human capital management, workforce management, and payroll, coupled with its Bryte AI technology. The Workforce Operating Platform aims to help retail, manufacturing, and healthcare institutions manage complexity while simplifying and streamlining processes for frontline workers.
Big 5 AI Vendor Roundup: Week of August 24, 2026
It has become almost a full-time job to stay current with the glut of news in the AI space. This weekly roundup will get you up to speed on the news and happenings with the Big 5 AI vendors in the last week.
Black Hat 2026 Trends – Security Buyers Want Proof, Not More Tools
The following trends reflect themes that emerged from conversations, vendor briefings, and conference sessions at Black Hat 2026, with an emphasis on what they mean for CIOs and security leaders.
Big 5 AI Vendor Roundup: Week of August 10, 2026
It has become almost a full-time job to stay current with the glut of news in the AI space. This weekly roundup will get you up to speed on the news and happenings with the Big 5 AI vendors in the last week.
AWS Seeks to Remove the Friction Around Government AI Adoption
At AWS Summit DC 2026, Amazon Web Services unveiled new AI modernization and security automation tools built for federal agencies with classified cloud infrastructure and billions of dollars in credits, with thousands of engineers embedded on top. The pitch is speed.
Cisco Live 2026: When the Network Becomes the Governance Layer
Agentic AI breaks three assumptions enterprise infrastructure was built on: traffic direction, monitoring visibility, and identity scope. Cisco Live 2026 made the case that the right place to address all three is the network layer, not a security product bolted on top.
Cisco Makes Its Bid to Run the Agentic Enterprise at Cisco Live US 2026
Cisco Live wrapped up in Las Vegas on June 4, and the theme was pretty consistent across announcements and sessions. Cisco wants to be the layer the agentic enterprise runs on, not a vendor of boxes that carry agent traffic.
Black Hat 2026 Trends – Security Buyers Want Proof, Not More Tools
The following trends reflect themes that emerged from conversations, vendor briefings, and conference sessions at Black Hat 2026, with an emphasis on what they mean for CIOs and security leaders.
Skyhigh Security SSE Platform: Hybrid Enforcement, Browser-Native AI Controls, and Integrated Data Security Posture
Skyhigh Security announced three platform extensions at RSAC 2026: a hybrid management console, Enterprise Browser Controls, and an integrated security posture management capability.
ThreatLocker: Default-Deny Endpoint Protection for the Post-Mythos Threat Environment
A single-agent endpoint platform combining application allowlisting, ringfencing, ZTNA, patch management, and EDR around a default-deny philosophy. Designed for MSPs and enterprises consolidating endpoint controls in preparation for a Mythos-driven threat environment.
Creatio No-Code Days 2026: Advancing the Agentic Enterprise Through Unified CRM, AI, and Workflow Automation
At No-Code Days 2026 in Orlando, Creatio outlined a five-pillar agentic enterprise strategy combining AI-powered agents, unified CRM, industry-specific workflows, scalable architecture, and ecosystem enablement to advance the next phase of enterprise automation.
Hootsuite Makes CEO Change Amid Multiple Controversies, Remains a Profitable Market Leader
From ICE contracts to mass layoffs, Hootsuite has faced considerable public controversy. The recent resignation of CEO Irina Novoselsky, replaced in interim by founder Ryan Holmes, indicates a strategic shift in response to challenges.
Adobe Targets the Next Phase of Customer Experience: Humans and AI Agents
Adobe introduced CX Enterprise as an agentic AI platform designed to help brands create content, improve visibility in AI-driven discovery, and orchestrate personalized engagement.
ServiceNow Bundles AI Into Every Product and Bets That Context Is the Missing Piece
We keep hearing that enterprise AI spending is up in many organizations, and the results are not remarkable. On April 9, 2026, ServiceNow announced it will no longer sell AI as an add-on, instead restructuring its commercial model to focus on AI and launching new features that let AI agents make organizational decisions without frequent human oversight.
ServiceNow Makes Its Bid to Own Enterprise AI Execution
In a world where understanding of the power of AI is still confusing, ServiceNow has excellent messaging on what AI can actually achieve in an enterprise. Through TV ads and ads in the Wall Street Journal, the messaging has been clear: AI can assist and improve efficiency. With their recent announcement (February 2026) of two major launches – Autonomous Workforce and Employee Works – ServiceNow underscores the shift of AI from “answer engines” to “actually finishing the job.” With this announcement their message is clear: the era of AI experiments is over; AI operations at scale have begun. And ServiceNow wants to be the control tower that runs all of it.
ServiceNow Q4 Results Reinforce Enterprise AI Driving Business Impact
ServiceNow exceeds guidance as enterprise AI adoption accelerates growth, margin, and cash flow. Now Assist ACV tops $600M and heads toward a $1B run rate while customers commit at scale.
Black Hat 2026 Trends – Security Buyers Want Proof, Not More Tools
The following trends reflect themes that emerged from conversations, vendor briefings, and conference sessions at Black Hat 2026, with an emphasis on what they mean for CIOs and security leaders.
ServiceNow Bundles AI Into Every Product and Bets That Context Is the Missing Piece
We keep hearing that enterprise AI spending is up in many organizations, and the results are not remarkable. On April 9, 2026, ServiceNow announced it will no longer sell AI as an add-on, instead restructuring its commercial model to focus on AI and launching new features that let AI agents make organizational decisions without frequent human oversight.
ServiceNow Makes Its Bid to Own Enterprise AI Execution
In a world where understanding of the power of AI is still confusing, ServiceNow has excellent messaging on what AI can actually achieve in an enterprise. Through TV ads and ads in the Wall Street Journal, the messaging has been clear: AI can assist and improve efficiency. With their recent announcement (February 2026) of two major launches – Autonomous Workforce and Employee Works – ServiceNow underscores the shift of AI from “answer engines” to “actually finishing the job.” With this announcement their message is clear: the era of AI experiments is over; AI operations at scale have begun. And ServiceNow wants to be the control tower that runs all of it.
ServiceNow Bundles AI Into Every Product and Bets That Context Is the Missing Piece
We keep hearing that enterprise AI spending is up in many organizations, and the results are not remarkable. On April 9, 2026, ServiceNow announced it will no longer sell AI as an add-on, instead restructuring its commercial model to focus on AI and launching new features that let AI agents make organizational decisions without frequent human oversight.
Salesforce Advances Intelligent Document Processing With Flow
Salesforce is working toward a future where humans, systems, and agents are positioned together to get work done. Within this framework, Salesforce is adding flow-native Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) to their MuleSoft offering. This builds on optical character recognition (OCR) by using AI to classify documents, extract key fields, and route structured data into workflows.
Asana Goes Beyond Tasks: A Work Graph–Powered AI Offensive
Asana has introduced new AI features aimed at expanding its work management platform with agent‑driven automation. The core capability, AI Teammates, enables AI to directly support task execution, content creation, and workflow progression rather than serving only as a passive assistant. These capabilities are most beneficial for organizations that already maintain structured, consistent usage of Asana across teams.
Creatio No-Code Days 2026: Advancing the Agentic Enterprise Through Unified CRM, AI, and Workflow Automation
At No-Code Days 2026 in Orlando, Creatio outlined a five-pillar agentic enterprise strategy combining AI-powered agents, unified CRM, industry-specific workflows, scalable architecture, and ecosystem enablement to advance the next phase of enterprise automation.
Zendesk Bets on AI That Solves, Not Just Deflects
At Relate 2026, Zendesk pulled its agentic AI story together under a new “autonomous service workforce” label. Outcome-based pricing isn’t actually new in this market. Pure-play agent vendors have been billing on resolutions for years, so the core distinction is the platform Zendesk has built around the pricing: QA, workflows, audit trails, and admin. The employee service push and the work to integrate six recent acquisitions are both still in progress, and buyers should test the employee service crossover and the postacquisition integration directly before assuming the whole picture is settled.
Infor Analyst Summit 2026: Agentic Orchestration Sharpens Its Operational Pitch
The Infor Analyst Innovation Summit offered a clear view of what operational readiness looks like as agentic AI moves from experimentation into production. The key takeaway was that success depends less on model sophistication than on foundational discipline: shared semantics, documented processes, clean data, and clear delegation and control.
Infor Analyst Summit 2026: Agentic Orchestration Sharpens Its Operational Pitch
The Infor Analyst Innovation Summit offered a clear view of what operational readiness looks like as agentic AI moves from experimentation into production. The key takeaway was that success depends less on model sophistication than on foundational discipline: shared semantics, documented processes, clean data, and clear delegation and control.
The 2026 Turning Point: Key C-Suite Takeaways From the Cisco AI Summit
The Cisco AI Summit (Feb. 2026) addressed the accelerating maturity of AI adoption inside enterprises. Leaders across infrastructure, security, design, systems, and geopolitics emphasized that organizations are now moving from exploratory experimentation to a period requiring architectural reinvention, measurable outcomes, and new forms of workforce enablement.
Device-First Continuum AI: The Technology Behind mimik's Approach
mimik is the first company we've encountered that discusses how to operationalize billions of agents to perform tasks in the physical world, not only within software workflows but also in industrial processes. The company’s core thesis is that the existing cloud-first mobile internet infrastructure is a legacy bottleneck that is unsustainable for the computational, cost, and energy demands of agentic AI. Powered by mimik, DFC-AI seeks to fundamentally reorganize compute distribution by prioritizing the edge.