Expert Roundtable: Tech in 2025

hi I'm James Maguire and on today's webcast we're trying to do something that's impossible we're trying to predict the future of the technology sector I'm not sure anyone can ever do that technology changes way too quickly but if anyone can forecast the future of tech it's the five top experts we have with us really some major thought leaders so let's meet the panel and make some bold predictions with me today is Lori Rosano senior Vice president North American public Cloud for sap Lori good to have you with us today thank you Jim I'm excited to be here also with me is Bina amth Global head of deo's AI Institute hello to you beina thank you for having me Jim and uh beina didn't you uh publish a book sometime recently or what is what is the book you put out well there are two that came out in the last three years one is trustworthy AI U and the other one is zero latency leadership aha okay sounds like pretty serious topics um also with me today is Ryan Manning vice president product management at BMC Software Ryan good to have you and your insights with us today Jim great to be here uh also on board is Chad Dunn vice president of product management Ai and data management for Dell and and Chad that sounds like a lot to manage Ai and data that's a big job and there's a lot to manage but all of AI is based on data so it's a right place to be there you go uh and and rounding out our panel is Nabil bukari Chief technology and product officer for extreme networks and uh someone who really knows this stuff hello to you n hey James it's always good to be back and as you said let's predict some future what could go wrong exactly well we will be embarrassed looking back a year from now we very embarrassed at what we said but but we're trying uh all right first let's look at where we are right now here in 2024 it's been a really big year I would call it a transformational year what madej your Tech Trend most shape this year in in a what way uh be what did you see for the year 2024 I think there were quite a few H you know in the last few months it's been more about AI the rise of AI agents agentic AI it's it's just come up in the last few months but prior to that everything that we saw around content creation how good it became and how realistic it it just changed everybody's perception of what AI could achieve if Done Right mhm yeah the the nature of the deep fakes I don't think we've seen the worst of deep fakes yet but in terms of the realistic content creation that is amazing uh NAB what do you see for 2024 what's been really big in your mind oh god um I think if I say anything other than AI the crowd will throw tomatoes at it's so it's so true you might surprise us though you never know but but I'll take a slightly different angle on the AI I think the the thing that shaped the year for you know most of our customers us what we're seeing is The Tale of Two Cities when it comes to on one side super useful super valuable on the other side the complete dud you know both at the same time as well as you know people jumping head feet legs first into it and lots of investment going into it but at the same time a lot of people struggle in defining the ROI on that investment and at the same time everybody is taking talking about AI but especially in the upper leadership of enterprise AI literacy is it is in its infancy right there's very few AI liter leaders out there so I think that's really the context It's A Tale of Two Cities right on one side it's just the most amazing spectacular thing ever possible and on the other side very hard to put an Roi on that so I would say that that kind of shaped the year at least the way I looked at it yeah it's a Charles Dickens reference it's PR pretty impressive to be I give you credit for that uh Ryan your sense of 2024 it's a big year what did you say yeah I mean I think it it feels like you know 23 was about folks getting comfortable with Gen and then 24 rolled around and everyone reemed that you can't have an AI strategy without a data strategy so um uh as was mentioned we also saw the emergence of a agentic Ai and you know these agents are super hungry for large Enterprise data workloads so we've seen a lot of customers want us building AI agents to actually help with the data problem and and help get their data in one place yeah definitely Chad he mentioned data it's right up your alley what did you see for 2024 well we saw sort of this transition from the the tier 2 cloud service providers are building out infrastructure to do training of foundational and Frontier models to now the adoption of the Enterprise where the Mandate is go go go with AI find something that works and so it's Pilots everywhere in every line of business there are multiple Pilots now we're coming to that rationalization to say where's the ROI where are we going to place the emphasis on our development going forward and how we're going to realize those outcomes so now it's going to get real yeah the pressure's on Lori you're big in the cloud world what what did you see for 2024 yeah so to add to that relative to AI um automation was a really defining trend for us so in terms of just streamlining the processes and the operations and such but we experienced that firsthand serving our CL our customers around public class and the one thing that really stood out to me was the automation allows for work um and systems to continue without any disruption or fatigue so it's really kind of neat about it is it Bridges those gaps you think about automation it allows us to deliver and consume and to basically curate these high quality product and services that really truly make it accessible to even some populations or underserved markets that couldn't have access before so again just like around that software as a service the automation I believe is going to continue to get more streamlined and more important to customers that are you know putting together the cloud transformation strategy no doubt automation is a huge part of the picture um all right let's let's look ahead and actually make a prediction for for the year ahead so so what to leaders and managers need to know about tech Evolution for 2025 what's important for them to keep in mind as they strategize in other words what's going to happen how can we get ready for it uh Ryan your advice yeah I mean I think I think think we're I think we're entering an era of of reimagining corporate it cost structures at least on my side of the house I think for for years and years we all have been building software to make human beings more productive and we've had to build at least our salespeople have had to build these complex value engineering models to try to prove it to say a CIO and they've always kind of looked at it as maybe a little fantasy land math but I think next year a agentic AI is going to legitimize um that work I really think we can sit up in front of an executive and and and and show them a value forecast that's grounded in truth and and they'll keep a straight face this time yeah no doubt I see aent AI seems to be the biggest Trent in AI it's just like it's what everyone's talking about uh Chad your sense of uh next year how can companies get ready for next year you think next year becomes all about the use case if they want to Target and making sure that they're picking The Right Use cases ones that are close to the competencies ones that are close to their differentiators if you're a software company don't bring in AI to try to replace your HR systems you're going to get that for free from your HR provider but really focus on those areas that differentiate I think we've seen a lot of horizontal patterns that have worked their way down through vertical use cases so Rag and inferencing is is life across the Enterprises right now for different use cases look for those to get more focused look for smaller models more efficiency and more agenic workflows Lor your sense of what's going to happen next year 2025 what what's your prediction yeah so more and more leaders and organizations are really going to lead with a cloud first mindset so in terms of that the you must have the Deep passion and enthusiasm and it must be authentic so when you think about the way that we have enhanced collaboration um it's really neat now we're inspired to have different shared workplac so I think in terms of just really leaning in um folks are going to have to continue to adapt to the change that's going to be changes in their own processes the way they go to market the way they hire you know the way they create different levels of Engagement and dis in their organizations and I think we're going to start seeing which has been really kind of neat to experience firsthand too with the public Cloud team is just this continuous environment of learning so again the diversity of skills the cross-pollination of what people bring to the organization and then really how you deploy that and materialize it into an offering or a solution Yeah you mentioned a cloud first strategy are most companies not already doing that I want to make sure I know what you mean by that yeah so there's a lot of organizations that have invested heavily over the last last couple of years in building that cloud infrastructure so they're going to Le frog right so they built the you know they have the ingredients now to fuel Ai and they're putting together even more refined Cloud strategies some organizations depending on where they are on their own current path or their Journey are starting to invest and candidly they're going to need to in order to remain competitive so I think there's a lot of different populations a lot of different requirements and different personas or dnas but those that that made the investment that's where we're seeing the you know the more provocative type of solutions and innovations that are coming from those organizations all right makes sense uh Nabil your prediction for 2025 oh gosh my first prediction is that all of these will probably turn out well let's let's be optimistic a little bit can wa well I'm gonna I'm going to try anyways right so a couple couple of these things I think one of the things that that I see is that maybe three quarters or more of the investment or the projects on the a will fail in 2025 and that's actually a good thing because then we can slowly get out of this hype cycle and this froth that is built up in the system and we can go back to the basics of what's the use Gates what's the return on that investment what's the value because right now this is this is almost like a tech race you know it's like kind of like I want to use that model because my neighbor is using it right so we really need to get out of that and that amount of failure will really help us get out of that that's one thing second thing I would say um I go back to leadership look there's amazing technology out there this is not the first time yes this is amazing but there have been other groundbreaking you know reality changing uh technologies that have happened in the past AI literacy at the top at at the at the sea suite and the board will become an absolute must and I think in 2024 we haven't put enough focus on that and aent Ki agree with my with my peers here agentic a would be really interesting but I would again say that instead of the check if you look at the use case the actual use case is digital Workforce agentic AI will translate into digital Workforce but that will open up a whole lot slew of issues especially around how do you take your human Workforce and digital Workforce and combine them together in in a productive and efficient way so I think these are the three topics that I feel will dominate 2025 and hopefully will come out on on the right end of it so that's that's my prediction yeah combining humans with a gentic ey is definitely going to be an issue in the years ahead um being in your sense what do you predict for 20125 I think one uh one topic my peers haven't touched on which I see will come up is uh you know domain specific large language models right and today we are seeing a little bit around the functions like a finance specific llm or HR specific llm but I'm talking about having a manufacturing specific or a drug Discovery specific llm so you're going to see more and more of that that kind of llms coming to the Forefront the other one is really around compliance and AI regulations the EU AI Act is kicking in and we we will see that you know cascading throughout the world so AI compliance AI regulations is going to become more real there's going to be even more of it but my hope is also that it's going to be more nuanced right we come up with regulations that doesn't stifle Innovation but at the same time puts in guard rails that's necessary yeah you know on the regulation piece it amazes me it feels like and and be correct me if I'm wrong because you're close to this space that AI remains very almost non-regulated at this point given its power and influence would you agree with that I I don't I actually think it is regulated depending on the industry because there are industries that are highly regulated and the same regulations apply to when AI comes in of of course AI comes with its own nuances and and it may expose certain weaknesses within the existing regulations but at a high level if you look at Healthcare or financial services traditional Industries have existing regulations that does encompass on how AI is being used so on the applied AI side I think that there is more coverage it's on where you know where foundational models are created or where you know you pure technology is created that there is a lack of regulations uhuh okay all right so what about a surprise for next year what what significant surprise in this the tech sector do you foresee as possible next year what's going to shock us uh nail what's going to shock us next year oh God uh some my call Lori you're not going to like what I'm gonna say here but she can take it n um I think I think the the whole public Cloud equation will have to evolve yeah because um I think AI kind of brings in all of these concerns and I'm not talking about you know training your massive large langage models that can be done in the public Cloud that's fine but I think combining with what Bina is saying and I think somebody else mentioned I think Chad was mentioning the data part I think we will go towards more specialized small language models and and by the way it's not just all generative AI even in today's AI application generative part is about 20% the rest is the good old machine learning you know in a lot of cases so I think local inference will become more and more important and in some cases um it would be bringing the model to the data rather than the data to the model I actually believe that um some of the highly regulated Industries um how the model is actually trained and developed that will come under a lot of scrutiny I really so what we are seeing is that we we're starting to see some of the larger organizations really start to think about that yes on one side uh there's still workloads that are transitioning to the public cloud no problem at all um but on the other side they're starting to think about what is my local data inferencing kind of strategy on AI That's one part the second thing that will surprise us is that we will probably move and this could surprise us that operate it w that we could move past the SAS application AG because right now what's happening is that you know there's an app for it there's like 10,000 apps you know it used to be on the consumer side now on the Enterprise side there's an app for everything but the problem is that all of those apps come with their own data models with their own Silo operating models around you know how you govern data and how do you manage it and then yeah sure there are apis on on top of it but try you know converging these applications through apis and good luck with that right that's a mess and a half so I think we might move away from SAS applications to the good old world of platforms uh which which brings in a whole slew of other problems but these could be the two surprising things that could happen in 2025 uh we'll see I could I couldn't couldn't I don't I'm not I don't think I would be surprised in any of those things happen I think we're we're very much on the same wavelength because we when we look at the at the cost of Performing generative AI whether it's it's training in or inferencing or or fine-tuning we're seeing much more of that happen on Prem we're actually seeing sort of repatriation of those kinds of workloads out of public Cloud on Prem much faster than we saw repatriation of C certain workloads that didn't fit into public Cloud when we all sort of ran there a few years ago so that that cycle is happen happening much more quickly and and what we have repeatedly told our customers bring AI to your data don't bring your data to Ai and and we're seeing that happen yeah time and time again yeah I think I think I saw a study from from Barclays where 83% Ci's have plan on returning workloads to the private Cloud it's it's really interesting and I mean we have some of our customers that are going as far as thinking that they could monetize their own proprietary data so they're getting quite selfish with it so I'm just total in agreement with my peers here Lori I believe that n mentioned a cloud and the need for cloud to evolve agree disagree with this comments yeah so I I agree with my peers that's so such disagree but I think that's what's been really um you know really insightful to to see how we've designed this so from a cloud Erp perspective speaking of public cloud and private Cloud so we've experienced now serving our clients is hybrid Cloud so we have the best of both worlds so when you think about the large Enterprise we deliver that through rise with sap which is our private Cloud Edition then we have the diversity to handle you know some of the other additional workloads or the incubation the mergers the Acquisitions some of that activity that's really inspiring that creation right to do some of the future technology or built into their strategy with with public Cloud so what I'm smiling about is is you know the peers in their experience that ins sites are spot on is I predict right public Cloud will still have a very meaningful role in terms of the future of you know it and technology and where we're headed as a as an industry together but more importantly we're going to have hybrid options so for us again it's that two-tier strategy where you run private Cloud on the Enterprise and then you start to seed in and woven in you know how to fully integrated with some of the standardization some of the turnkey options and that automation of public cloud so I think for me it's it's inspiring because I think it allows us to have that longevity because it's not just going to be one or the other it'll it'll have us an option to really kind of serve our clients the other thing too is you know we're going to see a lot of which which is you know it's happy to be invited to be on this panel with everybody um when I was looking at our different backgrounds because we're going to start to see a creation of new roles so as we start to understand how do we cater to the development the deployment and and then candidly what Bina said the ethical use of artificial intelligence it's going to create a lot of different roles and different roles bring a lot of different top talent and when you have top talent that is diverse that brings in this level of expertise you start to have different creativity and high performing teams so I think one word I'd put it is just truly like the unbounded ambition that we have here right now because when we look at it the Horizon is wide open in terms of next year so if we all reflect maybe we do that together we reflect next December 2025 I kind of hope that some of our predictions aren't true because I want to see that some of this creativity and then again this unbounded ambition that I speak to basically you know changes all right so you mentioned the the top roles and then tell we move around do I hear you asking for reses from everyone involved is this what I'm hearing laori yeah I mean I I love what your email we'll send you our resume yeah yeah I mean building a team you guys is really inspiring and it's a privilege but I think one thing is is if you look at the technology that we we have you have to have the people reflect it so it goes back to what everybody has said get people that are passionate get Cloud mindset get provocative get entrepreneurs get people that are willing to take that leap um because you're going to have to break out of you know some of those set Cycles or mindsets that maybe others you know have lived in Lori I would I would 100% agree with you I would add one more thing and this is like anybody that is listening hopefully it's the sea Suite you know my peers as well as board is listening start from your board and your sea Suite uh because I think what we are seeing a lot is that there's a lot of this change and transformation and everybody thinks that they'll have an outer in the organization and nobody wants to touch the sea Suite it's like I actually think that the seite needs to transform massively for this to happen and I think Lori is like thumbs up and so spe so uh but yeah that I will just add that to Lori what you're saying because this transformation requires a very different style of leadership in my view I did two thumbs up have a chief AI officer appointed yet and so the companies are serious about that are putting someone in the SE Suite in place to oversee AI not only technology but also as you mentioned the ethical use of it the bounded use of it that's how you can tell a company is serious about it Sab what is your view what what do you think is going to surprise us in 2025 uh I think the fear cycle is going to break yeah there there's a lot there has been a lot of fear around AI traditionally and I've been in this place for quite a while right there's always the fear of AI taking away jobs or replacing humans I think that fear cycle is going to break by the end of next year Lori when we have this conversation you know that the conversation will be at the next level so many companies are rolling out AI literacy tradings and to nabil's point you know that's H happening more and more and we'll see that rise in the part of the year as companies realize the importance of having an AI literate sea Suite A AI literate Workforce you know that leads to that fear cycle breaking as people get more familiar with AI and the tools and how to use that those tools more productively in their jobs so for me I think that'll be that'll come as a shock because we've been talking about Ai and fear for such a long time I think the fear cycle will be gone by the end of next year you know I I want you to be right about that but I'm also worried that as AI becomes more capable and plays a larger role some employees might go oh gosh I'm even more afraid than ever because now I can really see what it's going to do you don't see that happening I I it's going to be more of uh I can see what AI is capable of doing and what it cannot do uh more you learn about AI the You' realize there are limitations that come with it and as humans we are very adaptable we will you know focus our energy on filling those gaps so my bet is on humans that you know that they we're going to figure it out and there more more and more of HR conversations on that how do we work effectively human and machine what does that Workforce look like you know who does what and how do you manage that work digital work plus human Workforce I think all of that is going to come to froan so I'm an optimist by Nature full disclaimer so that's where I think we will goal I I like that you're Bing on humans for sure uh Ryan you spoke I want to make sure I get your your your surprise for 2025 did you have a surprise for next year oh no I mean I I think my peers said um almost exactly what I was going to say in terms of where um how the deployment model um might change or revert M and then Chad you're you're surprised for the year 2025 you may have said it make sure go ahead please yeah no I I look I think I'm in very good alignment with my peers I think think we're going to see a lot more of this happening on premises than we are on cloud I think we're going to start to see the Practical use cases that are backed up by the true Roi that that changes the complexion of their business be adopted I think that as as Pina said we're going to see that Fierce cycle sort of break and realize that AI is not going to take your job people that know how to use AI may take your job so you want to be one of the ones that that know how to use it um so yeah yeah very good well all right really for for big predictions now into the future so how will Tech developments in 2025 shape the future of tech tech over the next two to five years how how is it going to how's it looking looking forward um Lura your sense of that what's going to happen next year that shapes the rest of the decade I think maybe there's possibly two things so um and we've talked about it throughout this discussion but AI is no longer a concept for the experts right so now it's accessible it's tangible it's inter active so I I suspect we'll start seeing more Hands-On experiences for different people different levels different functions to access and experience um the other thing is which I'm excited for is um you know maybe I'll put it this way is a surge in new Partnerships so I hope that we start to see different organizations that wouldn't typically or traditionally come together and unite but really take their subject matter experience their Innovation their enthusiasm and we start smashing up some of these organizations together to deliver and create something that was unmanageable so I think that's going to be exciting for all of us just again really to see the marrying of different organizations bring their you know superpowers together and put technology and different solutions to work definitely think you're right about that I mean look at Microsoft and open AI I mean that was really a partnership and I think AI is so complicated and so hard to make happen that it it requires Partnerships uh personal opinion um Chad your sense next year and how it's going to shape the years ahead well look I I think that um like Lori said the ecosystem is going to be the key to this if we look at the ecosystem that we saw with sort of traditional predictive AI that we've all lived with for quite a while it was very much endtoend um use case to result focused that's not the case with generative AI these these the ecosystem is very broad very frothy you know lots and lots of startups lots and lots of innovation happening very modular so the way in which we start to assemble this ecosystem to achieve these outcomes I think is going to surprise us with some of the use cases that we come up with and I think it's going to send us on vectors that we didn't expect in the next two to five years what might be one of those vectors perhaps could be things that that we don't even expect right now could be augmented or even replaced by AI um it could be you know think about the way that we sell today think about the way that we negotiate prices with with our with our customers um a lot of these things are very algorithmic and can be very easily offloaded AI especially as we start to see the Advent of these agentic workflows and start to see these expert agents in different areas be able to piece together an entire transaction or or an entire business concept I think that's uh I think the potential there is amazing Ryan what do you see what do you predict for next year that'll shape the years ahead yeah I think I'd piggyback on something Lori said or at the top of the call um which like the the the like the biggest opportunities in AI aren't just about doing what our software already does today you know they're about solving problems that like maybe were either too expensive or inefficient to try um it's like software is not a zero some game it's it's not going to shrink markets it's um it's AI is not uh deflationary it's going to unlock untapped potential and bring massive efficiencies to longtail business challenges um that you know uh as as Chad was just saying we might not even realize yet so I I personally can't wait to see what technology does to to the global GDP growth over the next few years yeah I've seen the numbers the numbers are are staggering to be sure uh being to your sense what's going to happen this big next year that shapes the year year ahead in addition to what Lori Chad and ran mentioned I think uh you know what what what we see probably is the Confluence of Technologies AI working with Quantum AI and biology coming together to take to that next level and those are going to have implications much into the future like if you look back at when iot was there right it was really you know traditional machine learning coming together with physics and chemistry but you know we've not really gone deep onto you where AI or software is blending with Biology to drive that next Frontier in biotech or in Pharma or in human care I think there's a huge opportunity there and I I hope that's where we we start exploring next year you know the AI and Quantum piece I found really really fascinating I mean do you think Quantum is ready for that now it AI might be the you know Catalyst that actually pulls Quantum forward into the real world uh you know if you look at what's happening in cyber a Ai and cyber there is so much that's happened at that intersection I call it the entanglement of cyber and AI yeah Quantum can have a huge role in that space so yeah it's not been as explored in the past few years but 2025 could very much be the beginning of that n take us home what is your big thought for next year that'll shape the years ahead yeah I mean you you you said like the next decade and that made me think that look this March of technology is unabated you know today we're talking about agentic AI we'll be talking about AGI and we'll be talking about who knows what we talking about from a technology so if you take our technology hats off I I think one one thing that could just force a massive realignment everywhere will be this rise of digital Workforce the more the technology get improves like whether it's agentic AI or AGI with Quantum as as Vina pointed out this will force a realignment we will have to fundamentally sit down as a society or as a planet or a species and figure out what is our relationship to this artif artificial intelligence and how can we actually coexist in a very productive way no I'm not predicting you know Skynet and this I'm very optimistic myself um so I think that that would define the next decade because it's not just about technology we'll have to uh realign the way we form companies and the way we form organizations and then yes you know for some people it will be massive opportunity it will be amazing but for some people it'll be massive hardships so we can't leave the social aspect out so I think that realignment will happen all around and I think the next decade is all about it but I don't I don't think you asked me a prediction for a decade but you know what the hell I will predict the decade here I I think at the end of the decade if we are and hopefully we're talking about it that that my hope is that the rise of artificial intelligence will force us to become more human because there'll always be things that AI can do better but that will force us to go back to the core of what makes us human and that really would be the combination between the two so I'm hoping at the end of the day decade we are more human than we are today and I'll leave it there that's I think on that note that pretty much wraps us up uh Chad Ryan deil Lori beina thank you so much I learned a ton of stuff let's talk again next year thank you

This transcript was generated automatically from the video's captions and may contain errors.