The simple network definition: a system that links other subsystems together and allows them to share information and resources. Computer networks are the technology interconnecting software, allowing you to do things like print a document from your laptop or send your business partner a signed contract over email. Imagine networks as a fabric of interconnected paths where data travels from one device to another. These paths also have rules to exchange data, known as communication protocols. In reality, the answer isn’t as straightforward as that. Depending on the purpose, various types of networks, topologies, and components exist. We’ll provide a basic guide to help you grasp the foundations of networks — what each network is, its basic functionality, and why we use networks. 1 RingCentral RingEx Employees per Company Size Micro (0-49), Small (50-249), Medium (250-999), Large (1,000-4,999), Enterprise (5,000+) Medium (250-999 Employees), Large (1,000-4,999 Employees), Enterprise (5,000+ Employees) Medium, Large, Enterprise Features Hosted PBX, Managed PBX, Remote User Ability, and more 2 Talkroute Employees per Company Size Micro (0-49), Small (50-249), Medium (250-999), Large (1,000-4,999), Enterprise (5,000+) Any Company Size Any Company Size Features Call Management/Monitoring, Call Routing, Mobile Capabilities, and more Why we use networks every day Networks are designed to connect systems so they can exchange information. Here are some of the reasons why we use networks and the tangible benefits they provide. Resource sharing: This is one of the primary advantages and one of the network’s fundamental uses. Connecting devices allows us to easily share files, documents, and other resources. It’s not even about digital assets. Tired of waiting for the printer? Networks let multiple devices share a single printer. Increased information storage: Networks allow us to access and store data on centralized servers. For instance, they allow you to tune in to your favorite song, even if you don’t have it on a physical record. Cost savings: Since networks create a virtual space where every point connected to it is instantly accessible, it can slash several expenses, including the cost of shipping software on a CD versus sending a download link. Performance management: This one is a given for companies with tight cybersecurity governance. Networks make it easy to manage software updates, security patches, and backups on multiple devices all at once. No more running around updating each device individually. Collaboration: Through shared drives, cloud-based collaboration tools, and video conferencing, teams can collaborate effectively, even if they are miles apart. Think of it as having a virtual office space accessible from anywhere in the world. Accessibility: Networks provide easy access to information and resources. With a network connection, you can access the internet, browse websites, and gather information from anywhere in the world. Increased productivity: Not only do they save you money, but they also save you time, allowing you to do multiple things at once and quickly. For instance, networks allow us to check our bank account while riding the bus instead of going down to a physical branch. SEE: Learn more about essential networking fundamentals.  Every network definition you should know Here are some standard terms and concepts to better understand computer networks. Nodes: In a network, a node refers to any connected device that can participate in communication. This includes computers, laptops, servers, printers, or almost every other endpoint. Nodes are the building blocks of a network. They work together to transmit and receive data. TCP/IP: The abbreviation is Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. It’s a set of rules and protocols that enable communication between devices over the internet. TCP handles reliability, and IP takes care of the directions. Layers: In networking, layers refer to the different levels or stages that define how networks function, with each layer handling a specific aspect of communication. The OSI model, a widely recognized framework, breaks down network processes into seven distinct layers, from physical transmission to application-level interaction. Firewalls: Firewalls serve as a protective shield for a network. They watch the traffic coming in and going out, filtering and blocking anything that could be harmful. This was classically built upon presets, but increasingly relies on machine learning — which depends on networks. Servers: Client–server is the typical network architecture in computers. A server is just that — a computer that serves a function. So when you browse through your emails in a web browser — a client — you’re actually fetching files from an email server. You don’t have your emails stored anywhere. The server does that for you. When you stream a movie, you’re obtaining it from a company’s servers. Wireless: Wireless networks provide a cable-free way for devices to connect and communicate. They use technologies like Wi-Fi or Bluetooth to send data through the airwaves. Network building blocks Now, we’ll explore the fundamental building blocks of computer networks: devices, links, and communication protocols. Network devices Network devices are the physical components that enable communication and connectivity within a computer network. These items play a crucial role in transmitting and receiving data between nodes. Here are some standard network devices: Routers: Routers direct data traffic between networks, allowing different devices to connect to the internet or communicate with each other. They enable both wired (Ethernet) and wireless (Wi-Fi) connections, ensuring data is routed efficiently to its destination, whether within a local network or across the internet. Modems: Devices that connect your home or office network to an Internet Service Provider (ISP), converting digital data from your devices into signals that can be transmitted over the internet, and vice versa. In many households, modems and routers are combined into a single device, providing both the connection to the ISP and the ability to distribute internet access via Wi-Fi or Ethernet. Switches: Switches link devices in a network, forming a local area network (LAN) for smooth communication. They use MAC addresses to identify and direct data packets to the correct destinations, ensuring efficient connectivity. Hubs: Hubs are the simplest form of network devices. They’ve been slowly replaced by switches, but you can notice hubs when looking for

By Al Barbarino ( December 18, 2024, 8:01 PM EST) — International law firm Morrison Foerster LLP is among those citing President-elect Donald Trump’s tariff plans as a key wild card that could affect mergers and acquisitions deal flow in 2025, a Wednesday report from the firm shows. … Law360 is on it, so you are, too. A Law360 subscription puts you at the center of fast-moving legal issues, trends and developments so you can act with speed and confidence. Over 200 articles are published daily across more than 60 topics, industries, practice areas and jurisdictions. A Law360 subscription includes features such as Daily newsletters Expert analysis Mobile app Advanced search Judge information Real-time alerts 450K+ searchable archived articles And more! Experience Law360 today with a free 7-day trial. source

While ‘machismo’ has multiple meanings to Hispanics, most view it negatively Pew Research Center conducted this study to explore Hispanic Americans’ views of and experiences with the concept of machismo. The analysis in this report is based on Pew Research Center’s National Survey of Latinos, a survey of 5,078 Hispanic adults, conducted Nov. 6 to 19, 2023. This includes 1,524 respondents from the Center’s American Trends Panel and an additional 3,554 from Ipsos’ KnowledgePanel. Respondents on both panels are recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. Recruiting panelists by mail ensures that nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. This gives us confidence that any sample can represent the whole population. (For more information, watch our Methods 101 explainer on random sampling.) In this survey, respondents were asked an open-ended question about what machismo means to them, and some quotations from those responses are used in this report. Quotations were selected for illustrative purposes and may have been edited for grammar, spelling and clarity. For more information on this survey, refer to its methodology and topline. The terms Hispanic and Latino are used interchangeably in this report. Immigrant refers to people born outside of the 50 U.S. states or the District of Columbia. For the purposes of this report, immigrant also refers to those born in Puerto Rico or other U.S. territories. Although individuals born in Puerto Rico are U.S. citizens by birth, they are grouped with immigrants because they are born into a Spanish-dominant culture and because on many points their attitudes, views and beliefs are much closer to those of Hispanics born outside the U.S. than to Hispanics born in the 50 states or D.C., even those who identify themselves as being of Puerto Rican origin. U.S. born refers to people born in the 50 U.S. states or D.C. Second generation refers to people born in the 50 U.S. states or D.C. with at least one immigrant parent. Third or higher generation refers to people born in the 50 U.S. states or D.C., with both parents born in the 50 U.S. states or D.C. Language dominance is a composite measure based on self-described assessments of speaking and reading abilities. Spanish-dominant people are more proficient in Spanish than in English (i.e., they speak and read Spanish “very well” or “pretty well” but rate their English-speaking and reading ability lower). Bilingual refers to people who are proficient in both English and Spanish. English-dominant people are more proficient in English than in Spanish. Democrats and Democratic leaners are respondents who identify politically with the Democratic Party or who identify politically as independent or with some other party but lean toward the Democratic Party. Republicans and Republican leaners are respondents who identify politically with the Republican Party or who identify politically as independent or with some other party but lean toward the Republican Party. For Hispanics living in the United States, conversations about gender can include discussions of “machismo,” a concept that generally captures ideas, behaviors and expectations related to men and masculinity that is sometimes attributed to Spanish-speaking cultures. A November 2023 Pew Research Center survey finds that a large majority of Latino adults in the U.S. (83%) have heard of machismo. And among those who have heard of it, 73% say machismo among Latinos is a bad thing. Overall, 60% of all Latino adults – including those who have not heard of machismo – see it negatively. For decades, conversations about machismo have taken place among Hispanics and non-Hispanics alike in American popular culture, higher education and politics. In the 2024 U.S. presidential election, Donald Trump’s campaign was sometimes seen as displaying traits linked to machismo in an effort to appeal to men of all backgrounds. In Latin America, conversations about machismo often focus on gender relations, including its links to toxic masculinity, sexism and gender-based violence. In recent years, governments across the region have launched campaigns against machismo to address some of these attitudes and behaviors. U.S. Latinos define machismo in many ways. In the survey, respondents who have heard of machismo were asked an open-ended question about what the term means to them. 25% say machismo is the belief that men are superior to or better than women. 22% say it means acting with emphasized or prideful masculinity. 19% say it is the belief that men and women should have certain roles in society based on gender. 17% say it means acting dominating or aggressive. There are substantial differences in Hispanics’ views of what machismo means by the primary language they speak and where they were born. Meanwhile, there are more modest differences by gender. In terms of personal behavior, 22% of Latino adults familiar with the term say they act in a way they consider to be consistent with machismo. Among men, 28% say they sometimes or often act this way, and among women, 17% say they do. These findings come from Pew Research Center’s bilingual National Survey of Latinos, conducted in November 2023 among a nationally representative sample of 5,078 Latino adults. ‘Machismo’ in history, scholarship and daily life Machismo is a word rooted in the Spanish language. However, both Spanish– and English-language scholarship have contributed to the development and popularization of the concept. Machismo and ideas related to it gained prominence throughout the 20th century, and by the late 1900s, it started to appear in popular culture outside of Latin America in music, entertainment, sports and beyond. In the last few decades, machismo has been studied as a range of traits tied to masculinity that can have negative, neutral or positive connotations. Others have tied machismo to negative impacts on Latinos’ mental and physical health.  Some have criticized machismo as a concept that portrays Hispanics as monolithic – stereotyping Hispanic men as overly aggressive and hypersexual and Hispanic women as subservient and passive. Critics have also described machismo as an idea imposed on Latinos by outside influences. Machismo is also closely related to marianismo, a concept focused on traditional roles and expectations

It’s “finalizing budgets time” for many CMOs and senior marketing leaders. This time of year, we see peak interest from clients who want to calibrate their budgets and understand how their industry peers are investing in marketing. Often, this is to counteract pressure to decrease marketing budgets — or to advocate for an increase, given that marketing targets typically go up each year. Questions about the ROI of marketing also abound because investment in marketing, annual target setting, and measuring impact typically go together. (TL;DR — Here’s my advice: Don’t rely just on mean investment percentages to plan your budgets.) Global Means Don’t Mean Much, But Details Such As Industry And Revenue Do According to Forrester’s 2024 B2B Marketing Budget Benchmarks: Overview (client access only), the average B2B firm invests 8% of annual revenue in marketing. What does this mean for your business? Perhaps not much by itself. Why? Because this percentage is based on averaging a sample of nearly 500 organizations that show significant variation in their marketing investments. While the largest group of our survey respondents invest between 7.1% and 10%, when we segment the data by industry or annual revenue, we find that there are a lot of ways firms get to that 8% mean. For example, some industries, such as retail and wholesale, cluster tightly around the global mean while others, like production and manufacturing, have a much broader distribution. But in both cases, the mean investment as a percentage of revenue is the same — rounding to 8%. The same holds true for B2B marketing budget allocation by revenue band: Global averages belie the diversity of investment found within and across firms with different revenues. This is why Forrester doesn’t publish only a mean investment percentage. Instead, our B2B marketing budget benchmark reports provide much more depth, analyzing budgets across numerous dimensions including industry and revenue band as well as global/central vs. regional and business unit investments; programs, personnel, and technology splits; and even more detailed breakdowns within marketing subfunctions. Ways To Leverage Forrester’s B2B Marketing Budget Benchmarks Forrester clients can use our B2B marketing budget benchmark reports to: Access budget benchmarks with unmatched depth. Engage in an annual benchmarking exercise to compare their marketing investment with peer set data, review analyst recommendations for optimizing allocations, and collaborate on making the case for increased marketing investment. Request custom views of our B2B marketing budget data specific to their needs. Clients regularly share that this customization and context generate even greater value when applying our benchmarks. We work side by side to ensure that they have up-to-date, compelling data and business cases to accelerate marketing-driven growth for their organization. How To Get Started Forrester clients should start with our 2024 B2B Marketing Budget Benchmarks: Overview and The B2B Marketing Budget Data Hierarchy, 2024 reports, as well as schedule a Forrester Decisions guidance session or inquiry. If you aren’t yet a client, click here to explore becoming one. Join Us At Forrester’s B2B Summit We’ll be hosting a roundtable session on best practices and risks to avoid with B2B marketing budget allocations at Forrester’s B2B Summit North America, in Phoenix from March 31 to April 3, 2025. Come join us and network with your peers as part of this lively discussion! source

Customer experience (CX) is how organizations win, yet the path to that success is far from straightforward. A variety of touchpoints, non-linear journeys, changing preferences, and behaviors make it tricky to deliver a consistent, end-to-end experience. This is where customer journey orchestration becomes vital, allowing companies to navigate these complexities and turn customer experience into measurable outcomes. Customer journey orchestration involves analyzing customer behavior across all channels and touchpoints to strategically coordinate the overall experience. This comprehensive view of the customer journey signposts the way for companies to deliver relevant personalization that deepens connections and demonstrates a true sense of intimacy. Investing in this approach pays off significantly: on average, organizations that excel in customer journey orchestration see revenue increases of 10-20%, cost savings of 15-25%, and improvements in customer advocacy scores of 20-40 points. Here’s what you need to know. Customer journey orchestration is a top priority for 2024 and beyond  A recent report from Gartner highlights customer journey orchestration as a crucial area of CX focus. Nearly 60% of customer service and support leaders plan to invest within the next 12 to 18 months to gain a deeper understanding of customer needs throughout the entire buying journey. Right now, this is a key challenge hindering their ability to improve the customer experience without a cohesive view of behavior across touchpoints. The closer the customer connection, the bigger the gains Customer journey orchestration works by first developing a comprehensive profile for each customer that includes demographic information, behavioral data, transactional history, channel preferences, and more. This holistic view allows companies to look at the buying journey in its entirety instead of just pieces of it. This foundational understanding cultivates a deeper connection with customers, enabling businesses to grasp how each person moves through their journey, why they make certain choices, and how to effectively engage them at the right moments for desired outcomes. Companies that excel in this level of orchestration see significantly faster growth, deriving 40% more of their revenue from these efforts compared to their slower-growing counterparts. Just as importantly, you’ll be able to quickly identify shifts in customer behaviors. Research shows that 75% of customers try a new shopping behavior each year. Customer journey orchestration provides a solid framework for understanding these changes, helping companies navigate shifting behaviors and meet new needs.  Use case: Customer journey orchestration in action After analyzing six months’ worth of data gathered from various sources like their electronic health record (EHR) system, patient surveys and feedback forms, appointment scheduling and attendance records, and patient interactions on their health portal and mobile app, Healthcare Co. noticed a few things. A rising trend in appointment cancellations, specifically among patients under 30 for their annual well exam. Further analysis shows that many of these patients cite scheduling conflicts or lack of reminders.  Patients who receive proactive communication and preventive screenings (like flu shots, for example) are more likely to schedule those appointments. For patients under 30, the preferred channel is SMS/text message. An uptick in the use of telehealth services for non-urgent issues, especially on evenings and weekends.  Armed with this knowledge, the organization implements automated reminders via text and email, specifically targeting younger patients who are canceling appointments. They also develop a personalized proactive outreach campaign to remind patients about preventive care services, doubling down on SMS to increase engagement. They also decide to expand availability of telehealth appointments during weekends and evenings to help make service more accessible for patients.  Using customer journey orchestration, the provider can drill down into this customer segment, connecting them with the information they need on the channel that works best for them – improving efficiency, reducing cancellations, and helping minimize costly no-shows.  3 key benefits for customers  Personalization, speed, and consistency are the reigning trio of customer experience: Seventy-one percent of customers expect companies to deliver personalized interactions, and 76% get frustrated when it doesn’t happen. Two-thirds of customers say speed is as important as price and more than half will hire the first business to respond to their requests, even if it’s more expensive. Most customers say they can feel when a company’s different departments like sales, service, and marketing are disconnected.  Customer journey orchestration is designed to tick every box, ensuring you provide real-time personalization, rapid response times, and seamless interactions across all touchpoints and channels.  Customer journey orchestration made easy Customer experience is about getting a complete picture of each customer at every step of their buying journey to demonstrate a sense of intimacy that research shows leads to higher satisfaction and generates faster rates of revenue growth. Customer journey orchestration sounds complicated, but it doesn’t have to be. Avaya makes it easy for enterprises to prioritize customer journey orchestration using simple contact center plug-ins. Show us what you have, and we’ll show you how to unlock its full potential.  Visit our website to see how Avaya and its solutions empower enterprises to embrace customer journey orchestration. source

By Andrew Karpan ( December 18, 2024, 9:34 PM EST) — An administrative judge at the U.S. International Trade Commission has decided that mobile phones sold by Motorola infringe patents owned by Swedish telecom giant Ericsson…. Law360 is on it, so you are, too. A Law360 subscription puts you at the center of fast-moving legal issues, trends and developments so you can act with speed and confidence. Over 200 articles are published daily across more than 60 topics, industries, practice areas and jurisdictions. A Law360 subscription includes features such as Daily newsletters Expert analysis Mobile app Advanced search Judge information Real-time alerts 450K+ searchable archived articles And more! Experience Law360 today with a free 7-day trial. source

When analyzing any project management tool, my top two priorities are always ensuring that the solution fits my budget and offers the functionalities I use regularly. Both Asana and Todoist provide a range of features at affordable prices compared to many other popular project management tools. I found that these two solutions are not only great for small teams but can also accommodate larger and growing teams that need to collaborate with external partners. Choosing between the two depends on your project requirements and budget. If budget is your main concern, I’d recommend Todoist. However, if your project requires advanced analytics, Asana might be a better fit. 1 monday.com Employees per Company Size Micro (0-49), Small (50-249), Medium (250-999), Large (1,000-4,999), Enterprise (5,000+) Any Company Size Any Company Size Features Agile Development, Analytics / Reports, API, and more 2 Accelo Employees per Company Size Micro (0-49), Small (50-249), Medium (250-999), Large (1,000-4,999), Enterprise (5,000+) Small (50-249 Employees), Medium (250-999 Employees), Large (1,000-4,999 Employees) Small, Medium, Large Features Analytics / Reports, API, Billing / Invoicing, and more 3 ClickUp Employees per Company Size Micro (0-49), Small (50-249), Medium (250-999), Large (1,000-4,999), Enterprise (5,000+) Micro (0-49 Employees), Small (50-249 Employees), Medium (250-999 Employees), Large (1,000-4,999 Employees), Enterprise (5,000+ Employees) Micro, Small, Medium, Large, Enterprise Features Analytics / Reports, API, Billing / Invoicing, and more Asana vs Todoist: comparison table Feature Asana Todoist Integrations Yes Yes Project management Yes Yes Admin tools Yes Yes Collaboration Yes Yes User interface Robust, multi-view options Simple, minimalist Task prioritization Advanced Basic Notifications & Reminders Customizable notifications Built-in reminders Mobile application Mirrors desktop Simple, user-friendly Asana vs Todoist pricing Asana Pricing Personal Price: Free I found Asana’s Personal plan to be a good starting point, offering unlimited tasks, projects, messages, and activity logs for individuals or teams. It also includes different work views like lists, boards, and calendars, making it easy to stay organized. Starter Price: $10.99 per user per month billed annually or $13.49 per user if billed monthly. I love that this plan adds advanced features like timeline views, task dependencies, milestones, and reporting dashboards. These tools really help me keep track of project progress and ensure tasks stay on schedule. Plus, the admin console makes managing teams and permissions much easier. Advanced Price: $24.99 per user per month billed annually or $30.49 per user if billed monthly. This plan includes everything in Premium, plus advanced features like workload management, goals, portfolios, approvals, and integrations with tools like Salesforce and Tableau. I found these extra features particularly useful for managing larger projects that require detailed oversight and more in-depth analytics. Enterprise Price: Contact Asana for custom pricing information. For larger organizations with advanced security and administrative needs, Asana offers an Enterprise plan with features like SAML, user provisioning, data export, and advanced admin controls. These features are perfect for handling sensitive client information and maintaining compliance. Enterprise+ Price: Contact Asana for custom pricing information. For organizations that require even more advanced administrative control and support, Asana offers the Enterprise+ plan. This plan provides enhanced support options, including priority support, custom branding, and additional security features. It’s ideal for enterprises with complex needs that require tailored solutions. For more on Asana, check out our full Asana review or read through our Asana alternatives to see similar tools. Todoist Pricing Beginner Price: Free Todoist’s Beginner plan includes five projects, five guests, and three filter views. I found it ideal for individuals trying out the software without committing to a paid plan or those who simply want an intuitive free project management software solution. Pro Price: $4 per user per month billed annually or $5 per user billed monthly. The Pro subscription offers 300 active projects, task reminders, and unlimited activity history. I think this plan best suits freelancers or those working with multiple clients, though it lacks a shared workspace for teams. Business Price: $6 per user per month billed annually or $8  per user billed monthly. The Business plan allows for 500 active projects and provides team workspaces, admin roles, and unlimited collaborators, making it a good option for larger teams. For more information, read our full Todoist review or check out its top alternatives. Asana vs Todoist features Integrations Winner: Tie In my experience, both Asana and Todoist provide access to integrations that enhance workflows. Todoist offers useful integrations for time tracking, scheduling, automation, and communication with tools like Ganttify, Everhour, Gmail, Outlook, and Slack. Asana provides access to advanced integrations like Tableau, which are only available on higher-tier plans. Although they’re behind a paywall, Asana is a good choice if you’re looking for diverse and advanced integrations. A few of the integrations available in Asana. Image: Collins Ayuya/TechRepublic Project management Winner: Tie Asana offers a broader range of project management features, including templates, task dependencies, reporting, and workload management. I found these features extremely beneficial for managing complex projects. On the other hand, Todoist focuses more on straightforward project needs, such as task reminders, team workspaces, and guest access, which are more affordable and well-suited for simpler projects. I preferred Todoist for its effectiveness when dealing with small teams and Asana for complex projects. Asana’s reporting dashboard. Image: Asana Admin tools Winner: Asana Both tools provide admin and security controls. I appreciate that Asana offers these features across all paid tiers while Todoist restricts them to its Business plan. This means Asana may be better for teams needing comprehensive administrative control from the outset. Collaboration Winner: Asana Collaboration is crucial in any project, and I found Todoist to be quite effective in allowing team members, admins, and guests to work together on projects. Asana, however, offers features like in-app messaging, task dependencies, and templates, which significantly improve teamwork and resource management. User interface and experience Winner: Tie Asana provides a visually rich interface with multiple project views, including a list, board, calendar, and timeline. This flexibility allows me to choose the view that best suits my workflow. However, it was evident that the

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More If 2024 was all about experimentation, 2025 will truly be the year enterprises scale AI, according to a new trends report from Google Cloud out today.  Notably, sophisticated multimodal AI will support ever more complex tasks, AI agents will be embedded across enterprise, and internal search engines will unlock critical business insights.  Interestingly, Google identified these trends by using NotebookLM to analyze data from a previous research study, pulled out the fastest-growing AI topics in Google Trends, and plugged in third-party research and insights.  “Moving forward, you’ll see different agents talking to different agents, almost to the point where we all go to sleep at the end of the evening, and there’s a series of tasks and things and actions that are happening behind the scenes,” Oliver Parker, VP for global generative AI go-to-market at Google Cloud, told VentureBeat. Enterprises will move from chatbots to multi-agent systems AI agents are able to work autonomously (or semi-autonomously) and perform  multi-step processes. According to Capgemini, only about 10% of large enterprises are already using AI agents — but 82% plan to integrate them in the next three years.  Google identifies six types of AI agents:  Customer agents that understand user needs, answer questions, resolve issues and recommend products and services. They work across channels and can integrate voice and video.  Employee agents that help streamline processes, manage repetitive tasks, answer questions and edit and translate.  Creative agents that generate content, images and ideas to support design, marketing and writing projects and other endeavors.  Data agents that can assist with research and data analysis by finding and acting on data (while ensuring factual integrity).  Code agents that support code generation and provide coding assistance.  Security agents that help mitigate attacks or increase the speed of investigations.  However, Parker pointed out, having many agents taking on many processes across many functions can create a bit of chaos, which will give rise to new platforms, he predicts.  “Being able to have a single canvas for managing and enabling your agents is where we think there’s going to be a huge opportunity,” he said. This will lead to “agentic governance,” or the need for an agentic layer that supports “different agents that are going everywhere and working across all these different systems.” Multimodal AI will provide more context The global multimodal AI market was estimated at $2.4 billion in 2025, and is expected to reach $98.9 billion by the end of 2037.  Multimodal AI brings AI comprehension to the next level, allowing models to decipher and process a range of data sources including not only text, but images, video and audio. Several leading vendors and cutting-edge startups already offer highly capable multimodal tools — for instance, Google’s own Gemini 2.0 Flash, Mistral’s Pixtral 12B or Cohere’s Embed 3.  Google predicts that the explosion of multimodal AI will support complex data analysis and lead to greater grounding and more personalized insights.  Along with this, enterprises will be multi-model as they adopt AI. Parker pointed out that conversations have transitioned from enterprises adopting a single model to deploying many for different use cases. “It’s not just an OpenAI model,” he said. “It’s also Gemini, it’s Anthropic, it’s Mistral, it’s Cohere, it’s Llama.” It’s been a fast evolution over the past 12 months, Parker noted. Enterprises have moved beyond just looking at models to analyzing different platforms and laying out AI and AI agent roadmaps. While much of the focus to this point has been on development, the goal in 2025 will be getting gen AI capabilities into the hands of enterprise users.  “The first half of ’24 was heavy, heavy experimentation, but without a lot of production,” said Parker. Now, enterprises are beginning to move into production, although it’s not yet production at scale (more of that will come in 2025).  “These are typically trends you see over several years,” he said. “We’ve just seen them very compressed over a 12-month period. It’s breathtaking.” We will finally unlock the power of enterprise search Enterprise search — supported by internal search engines that query specific enterprise data — will only become more intuitive with AI, Google predicts. It will no longer just be keyword-based queries; employees will be able to use images, audio, video and conversational prompts to quickly access internal data. This will allow for more advanced and intuitive searches, Parker pointed out, and gen AI can process different data formats such as documents, spreadsheets and multimedia.   “It’s not just search, it’s search plus conversational AI,” said Parker. “People’s jobs are really about finding information and bringing it together to be able to get insights and take actions.” He noted that many organizations have different information siloed across different applications — whether a coding system, Jira, Confluence, Box, or platforms like SharePoint or Service Now. AI search can quickly move across these to bring data together. “These systems of reasoning are able to search across enterprise systems,” he said. “So how do you query and find out what’s happening across your organization, across all your systems, and then start to apply agents to take action on it?” Yes, here, too, AI agents will play a big part. “We’re seeing a confluence of conversational and agent-based capabilities combined with search inside organizations,” said Parker.  source

2024 has been a year of profound transformation. Major elections, political unrest, wars, civil uprisings, and ongoing supply chain disruptions have created global turbulence. Despite these challenges, a silent technological revolution is driving fundamental shifts in human behavior, community interactions, societal structures, and government services. This revolution carries the potential to redefine economies and reshape how governments and enterprises function. India, amidst this global upheaval, has emerged as a beacon of resilience. Outperforming every large economy, it leverages its status as a hub for leading IT service providers and offshore development centers. Simultaneously, India’s thriving startup ecosystem is pioneering innovations in AI for defense, drones, satellites, data analytics, and cybersecurity. As these advancements take root, 2025 is set to become the year of AI maturation and solidification. Forrester has identified the following four predictions for India in 2025 that will impact enterprises, service providers, and software vendors. Most enterprises fixated on AI ROI will scale back prematurely. Forrester research highlights a growing challenge in AI investments. About 24% of AI decision-makers require an ROI of 51–75%, and 8% expect 76–100% ROI to consider their AI initiatives successful. Meeting these expectations remains elusive, however, due to high up-front costs, intangible benefits, rapidly evolving technologies, and privacy or regulatory challenges. In 2025, enterprises will shift their focus from ambitious, organizationwide AI implementations to targeted, practical use cases. These include customer service support, intelligent chatbots, automated report generation, and contract analysis. To adapt, organizations will increasingly rely on partners for proven use cases, prebuilt templates, and AI toolkits. They will also prioritize building internal capabilities by upskilling employees or recruiting talent in AI, data science, and analytics to ensure sustainable progress. Implementation challenges will stall more than 50% of agentic and AI agent efforts. Forrester defines agentic AI as advanced AI systems, powered by foundation models, that demonstrate a high degree of autonomy, intentionality, and adaptive behavior, extending beyond the capabilities of traditional and deterministic AI agents. These systems can plan, make complex decisions, and adapt to changing environments, thereby driving toward the highest levels of autonomy in complex process execution. Agentic AI leverages the capabilities of large language models by using primitive reasoning loops to accomplish a task from end to end in ways that weren’t possible with simple prompt strategies. Based on computer scientist Andrew Ng’s work, agentic AI is characterized by four design patterns, to which we’ve added two of our own: reflection, memory, planning, tool use, multiagent collaboration, and autonomy. We are still in the early stages of development of agentic AI technologies and platforms. It’s an evolutionary phase that will take time, but there is lot of noise in the market on it, which is confusing enterprises. Enterprises still need to get their basic act together, including having a proper data strategy and governance in place, working with the overall business in understating the business cases that can be solved using agentic AI, and working with partners and software vendors to work on building templates and toolkits for easy adoption of agentic AI solutions. The top 10% of USD $1 billion-and-above IT service providers will start delivering 30% of their core services through AI-enabled platform services. A Forrester survey underscores why enterprises engage service providers: 33% value their expertise in emerging technologies, while 32% appreciate prebuilt accelerators and software. Service providers will capitalize on this demand by deploying AI-enabled platform services (APSes) to streamline operations and enhance service delivery. These platforms automate essential subprojects such as legacy system assessments, code review and migration, workflow optimization, and data modeling. By reducing manual effort, APSes boost efficiency, ensure higher quality, and cut costs. This transformation enables service providers to offer fixed-price models that focus on measurable outcomes like cost reduction, revenue growth, and market expansion — shifting away from traditional billing practices tied to full-time-equivalents or change requests. Service-as-software will push 20% of midsized services vendors out of business. Forrester’s Software Surveys from 2023 revealed that 9% of companies spend three times their application costs on services, while 20% spend twice as much. Enterprises will increasingly seek to reduce these expenses by adopting service-as-software (SaaS-like) solutions. Service-as-software integrates customizable AI-powered building blocks into prepackaged solutions, minimizing the need for extensive implementation or customization. These solutions can be deployed like traditional software, hosted either on-premises or in the cloud and configured to meet specific organizational needs. Larger service providers will dominate this market, offering expansive service-as-software portfolios or leveraging marketplaces to scale their offerings. Conversely, midsized service vendors face an existential challenge. They must either specialize in niche processes or verticals or expand their breadth of services as software. Without a clear strategy, many will struggle to remain competitive, potentially leading to a 20% reduction in this segment. Start Planning Today For What’s Coming Tomorrow To learn more about our predictions for the coming year, Forrester clients can access our Predictions reports. Use the following research to guide you on your path to success in 2025. AI Agent Platform Selection The State Of AI Agents, 2024 Top Emerging Technologies: AI Agents With Agentic AI, Generative AI Is Evolving From Words To Actions source