Stefanini Group, a global technology consulting firm, has signed on as the company's first Impact Partner for 2026. Under this strategic partnership, Stefanini will participate in TechTalk Summit events across the USA throughout 2026, with access to proprietary audience research designed to maximize the relevance and ROI of their presentations.

The Impact Partner program represents a new approach to technology event sponsorship. Rather than simply providing speaking opportunities, TechTalk will conduct comprehensive surveys of its audience—comprising over 70,000 technology decision-makers—on behalf of Stefanini. The resulting intelligence will inform Stefanini's presentation content, ensuring sessions address the specific challenges, priorities, and investment plans of attendees.

By Rob Enderle May 5, 2023 

Last week, Cisco had an interesting session about the significant amount of AI development that is going into its networking gear. Cisco is moving aggressively from security solutions that are reactive to security solutions that take initiative to protect the data from where it originates until it arrives at its destination. 

By Rob Enderle/ March 17, 2023

IBM’s mainframes aren’t the least expensive solutions in the market unless you take into account the risks they mitigate. Banks tend to be very frugal, yet they overwhelmingly favor IBM’s mainframe solution (at least the large banks do). This is because of a number of things: they are more secure and reliable, and when it comes to transactions, there is nothing that can handle the kind of load and financial risk that a financial institution has.

Particularly considering the recent Silicon Valley Bank failure, financial institutions also have huge compliance requirements, and IBM’s compliance capability is unmatched.

Let’s talk about why financial institutions and other firms that don’t want the excitement of a breach or outage favor IBM’s zSystem.

The arrival of AI in Microsoft apps, especially Office, could kick off a lot of creativity and — if we’re lucky — make Office a more coherent suite of tools

Written by Rob Enderle, read more at ComputerWorld

The future of generative AI: early challenges for IT, and opportunities

I recently attended the annual scenario planning session for friend and colleague Rob Salkowitz’s ‘Future of Marketing’ class in the Communications Leadership program at the University of Washington. We introduced his students to scenario planning and asked them to think about how the technologies of the moment may play out against different social, technological, economic, environmental, and political backdrops over the next decade.

March 11, 2023 by Daniel W. Rasmus

Microsoft caught Google off-guard with its recent push into generative AI, which could have big ramifications for search. And it might just mean the Singularity is closer than we think.

Written by Rob Enderle, read more at ComputerWorld

With the HP Elitebook 840 G9, HP delivers a relatively powerful computer in the prefered form factor for most business users. The wide-ranging options make it ideal for corporate purchases that want to buy in bulk but still meet the needs of varying use cases.

What we like

From its excellent 5-megapixel auto-framing camera to its 14-inch 16:10 aspect ratio 2920×1200 WUXGA display, the HP Elitebook 840 G9 elegantly states that it’s all business. The adoption of the 16:10 offers more workspace than the 16:9 EliteBook 840 Aero G8 which preceded this model. The list price shared during a briefing stated the device will cost between $1,100 and $1,600, depending on the configuration, though the HP website  shows several higher-priced configurations.

By Daniel Rasmus, Serious Insights

We are surrounded by fake news, whether it’s from someone trying to discredit someone else, trick us into doing something not in our best interests, or convince us that a viable medical treatment is bad or a non-viable medical treatment is good. Particularly with videos and the emergence of Deep Fakes, we may increasingly see people we trust misrepresented and giving us bad advice or making us believe a false narrative.  Worse, even if we later find that video is false, the impression it leaves with us may cause us to place or remove trust from a person or institution in error. 

By Robert Enderle

Updated: This AI chatbot's advanced conversational capabilities have created quite the buzz. Here's what you need to know.

Written by Sabrina Ortiz, Read more at ZDNET, updated Jan. 24, 2023

Several jobs and their associated skills face existential threats from automation. Conventional wisdom, and assertions from inventors, almost always focus on automating activities that detract from the human experience by removing physical burdens or eliminating mind-numbing tedium. Automation frees humans, it is argued; it unleashes them from subsistence and allows them to better create, to more effectively, and more freely, do those things that remain utterly and uniquely human.

The latest round of AI, however, overreaches its ambitions by impinging on very human activities such as art and writing. In the name of eliminating the burden of copywriting, commercial tools like Jasper suggest AI can write blogs and advertising copy with the same competency as a human being.

By Dan Rasmus, Serious Insights