By Allison Grande ( December 6, 2024, 10:58 PM EST) — The D.C. Circuit’s decision Friday paving the way for a U.S. ban on TikTok to take effect next month sparked immediate concerns about the loss of a social platform that millions rely on to freely express themselves, but a likely appeal and upcoming administration change could end up flipping the script…. 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

Omnicom Group and Interpublic Group (IPG) announced their intention to merge to form the largest global agency holding company. Executives indicate that they anticipate closing the deal in the second half of 2025. This would reshape the marketing services category by consolidating the media scale of two global holding companies, accelerating the role of technology and AI in marketing delivery, and setting the industry on a path toward a hybrid services and SaaS model. Both Omnicom and IPG executives held a joint conference call earlier today. What we know and can infer about the proposed deal thus far is: This is an acquisition, not a merger. Omnicom is acquiring IPG — this is not a merger of equals. Omnicom would be acquiring a slightly distressed IPG that has reported relatively flat growth for the last five quarters. This shows in the proposed leadership of the new company. In a joint conference call this morning, the two companies announced that John Wren will remain chairman and CEO of Omnicom; Phil Angelastro will remain EVP and CFO of Omnicom; and Philippe Krakowsky and Daryl Simm will serve as co-presidents and COOs of Omnicom. We assume a similar dynamic for the eventual structure of the new company. The benefit of this acquisition is scale. The new company would enjoy significant scale of technology, data, media clout, and the ability to produce content at the velocity and volume of media impressions. We anticipate that IPG Mediabrands will likely roll up to Omnicom Media Group, IPG’s growing commerce practice will likely be aligned with Omnicom’s Flywheel Digital unit, and Acxiom will likely be aligned with the technology group managing Omni, the holding company’s suite of proprietary technology. The combination of the Omni marketing operating system, Flywheel Digital, and Acxiom capabilities is a potent one, enabling Omnicom to better compete with Publicis Groupe, its Epsilon PeopleCloud, and recent commerce acquisition of Mars United. The new company would concentrate a culture of creativity. The Omnicom and IPG acquisition would place some of Madison Avenue’s most iconic creative agencies, such as McCann, FCB, The Martin Agency, Mullen, TBWA, BBDO, DDB, Goodby, and GSD&M, under single ownership. Both Omnicom and Interpublic Group leverage agency-first go-to-market models, rather than an integrated, holding-company-first model like that of Publicis Groupe or Dentsu. Omnicom and IPG’s like-minded approach to agency brands makes for a stronger likelihood of successful integration and enables the new company to focus on client and talent retention. Executives from both holding companies acknowledge that details regarding future leadership and structure remain undecided and that the deal is subject to regulatory review. Nonetheless, the larger industry and client implications are beginning to come into focus. For clients of either Omnicom Group or IPG, this acquisition means: Fewer enterprise choices will facilitate more independent options. The “big six” holding cos. may soon be the “big five,” creating some concern with having fewer options. Yet consolidation at the global level makes for opportunities in the independent marketplace. PE-backed, independent agencies like Horizon Media, PMG, DEPT, Tinuiti, Wpromote, and others have grown to capture scale in buying while delivering performance and tech skill. These companies must and will react to a shifting competitive landscape. Anticipate more growth in independents’ innovation investments and more focus in their proposition to compete with the global consolidation of marketing scale at Omnicom, Publicis, and WPP. Technology and innovation investments will accelerate AI’s role in marketing services. Omnicom and IPG executives point out that the combined resources will boost their technology investments. This will accelerate the already-underway AI arms race among the holding cos. and independents: 61% of agencies already use generative AI in marketing, the most mature group compared to IT, marketing orgs, and in-house agencies. Marketers should anticipate the proliferation of AI marketing in production, creative development, and media activation. As agencies race to build competing AI marketing platforms, the combination of SaaS and services will change not only how marketing is created but also how it’s paid for. Principal media solutions will proliferate and grow to account for nearly 10% global billings. Until recently, IPG was the last major holding company not to take an interest in media. While principal media practices are controversial, our research suggests that they represent less than 10% of total global media dollars under agency management. Yet with Omnicom’s existing principal media framework, marketers should expect a percentage of the IPG Mediabrands/MAGNA dollars to transact in principal media solutions, advancing the practice as more mainstream within the industry and within a combined Omnicon Media Group and IPG Mediabrands. If you are a Forrester client working with Omnicom or IPG and want to understand what this acquisition could mean for your business/brand, feel free to book an inquiry or guidance session with me. Some additional Forrester resources include: The Forrester Wave™: Media Management Services, Q4 2024 The Marketing Creative And Content Services Landscape, Q4 2024 Predictions 2025: Marketing Agencies Brand AI Models Will Reinvent How Marketing Creates Business Value source

AI-augmented software engineering integrates artificial intelligence technologies into the software development lifecycle, enhancing and automating various tasks with the goal of improving efficiency, accuracy, and productivity. With the support of AI agents and tools, this advanced approach to software engineering promises to accelerate the entire software engineering process.  Over the past several years, we’ve seen software developers use AI embedded in GitHub Copilot, Anthropic, ChatGPT, and other tools to help write code, says Steve Hall, chief AI officer at technology research and advisory firm ISG. “We’re now seeing AI agents with advanced capabilities to help prioritize features and functions, write and test code, implement advanced security code and help deploy code,” he explains in an email interview.  Less Effort/Faster Results  AI-augmented software reduces the effort needed to develop software, Hall says. “AI algorithms can be tuned for conditions that allow for more efficient, resilient and secure code.” He also notes that ISG research shows a 40% improvement in code quality when AI-augmented software engineering is used.  Brett Smith, distinguished software developer at analytics software firm SAS, says that AI-augmented software engineering has the potential to revolutionize software development. The approach can help developers write better code faster while identifying and fixing vulnerabilities, he explains in an online interview. Its speed can also help organizations detect and respond to security incidents faster. “In short, AI-augmented software engineering has the potential to make software more secure, reliable, and efficient.”  Related:Defining an AI Governance Policy AI-augmented approaches will free software engineers to focus on tasks that require critical thinking and creativity, predicts John Robert, deputy director of the software solutions division of the Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute. “A key potential benefit that excites most enthusiasts of AI-augmented software engineering approaches is efficiency — the ability to develop more code in less time and lower the barrier to entry for some tasks.” Teaming humans and AI will shift the attention of humans to the conceptual tasks that computers aren’t good at while reducing human error from tasks where AI can help, he observes in an email interview.   Thanks to recent advances in Generative AI capabilities and the availability of several large language models, generative AI-enabled software engineering is becoming much more pervasive, says Akash Tayal, principal and cloud engineering offering leader with Deloitte Consulting. “Recent GenAI models have proven to be efficient in automating many software engineering tasks while improving accuracy, which is a significant advancement in the field of software engineering,” he observes via email.  Related:How AI Drives Results for Data-Mature Organizations With the advent of generative AI, we’re seeing a seismic change in how AI is impacting software engineering, says Srini Iragavarapu, director of generative AI applications and developer experiences at Amazon Web Services. “Now, large language models are more accessible through services … so organizations and software providers can more easily build generative AI-powered software development applications,” he says in an online interview.  Better, Faster, Cheaper  GenAI helps offers improved productivity, faster time-to-market, cost efficiency, and improved code quality, Tayal says. “Enterprises can automate repetitive software engineering tasks using AI technologies in coding, testing, and bug fixing, as well as more complex tasks, while applying engineering standards and preferred practices to help drive better software quality.”  Hall notes that GenAI can access vast amounts of data to analyze market trends, current user behavior, customer feedback, and usage data to help identify key features that are in high demand and have the potential to deliver significant value to users. “Once features are described and prioritized, multiple agents can create the software program’s components.” This approach breaks down big tasks into multiple activities with an overall architecture. “It truly changes how we solve complex issues and apply technology.”  Related:Have We Gone Too Far With AI in Software Development? “If you think of the full software development lifecycle — planning what you want to build, creating code, maintaining code, making sure you’re writing high-quality and secure code, deploying your code, and maintaining your production services — AI can accelerate and improve each of these steps,” Iragavarapu says.  Looking Forward  Hall advises software development team leaders looking to get started in AI-augmented software engineering to begin with a handful of pilot programs headed by creative engineers looking to push the IT envelope. “Enable them with the development tools and technology and then tune the process as they go,” he suggests. “This approach will enable different learnings from the various teams and spotlight where there are still weaknesses.”  Robert recommends fielding suggestions from development team members to identify areas where applying AI-augmented software engineering might prove helpful. “Using that information, start a small team to assess the risks and benefits, and begin with small experiments.”  Don’t expect rapid benefits, Hall warns. He notes it will likely take six to twelve months to train and tune the LLMs and processes to scale properly.  source

By Parker Quinlan ( December 6, 2024, 5:11 PM EST) — Body-camera maker Axon Enterprise Inc. will be allowed to market three new contentious surveillance devices after it was granted a waiver by the Federal Communication Commission of two sections of the agency’s rules, according to an order issued by the commission…. 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

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By Peter Guryan, Sara Razi and John Terzaken ( December 6, 2024, 5:36 PM EST) — The antitrust posture of the incoming administration is one we are generally familiar with. We have seen and experienced the Trump administration’s antitrust priorities in 2016 through 2020 — Trump 1.0 — and the shift to more aggressive antitrust enforcement under the Biden administration…. 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

Developers who want to push ahead in their profession will want to choose a programming language that appeals to them and paves the way for a promising career. That’s why it’s always advisable to learn and pursue a programming language that’s popular and in demand among top employers. To compile this list, I consulted the TIOBE Programming Community index for December 2024 and several other sites. The index is a useful indicator of the popularity of programming languages and is updated once a month. The ratings are based on the number of skilled engineers worldwide, courses, and third-party vendors. TIOBE says Google, Amazon, Wikipedia, Bing, and over 20 other websites are used to calculate the ratings. NB. The ‘change’ percentage below refers to the change in ratings in one year. SEE: Quick Glossary: Web Browsers (TechRepublic Premium) Top programming languages Based on the analysis, here are the top 10 programming languages in 2024: Python: 23.84% ratings / +9.98% change (No. 1 in 2023) C++: 10.82% / +0.81% (No. 3) Java: 9.72% / +1.73% (No. 4) C: 9.10% / -2.34% (No. 2) C#: 4.87% / -2.43% (No. 5) JavaScript: 4.61% / +1.72% (No. 6) Go: 2.17% / +1.14% (No. 13) SQL: 1.99% / +0.37% (No. 9) Visual Basic: 1.96% / +0.14% (No. 8) Fortran: 1.79% / +0.72% (No. 12) Must-read developer coverage Python is top Just like TIOBE’s data in November 2024, Python is at the top of the pile. TIOBE reckons Python is “unstoppable thanks to its support for AI and data mining, its large set of libraries, and its ease of learning.” Elsewhere, the evidence shows Python is a powerful beast in the world of programming languages. Python is the most popular programming language in a 2024 report by Stack Overflow. The report notes that 70% of respondents use it regularly. Stack Overflow states, “Employers look for proficiency in frameworks such as Django and Flask for web development and libraries like Pandas, NumPy, and TensorFlow for data-related tasks.” The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers also ranked Python highly. In its Top Programming Languages 2024 report, IEEE explains, “Python continues to cement its overall dominance, buoyed by popular libraries for hot fields such as AI as well as its pedagogical prominence.” IEEE adds, “Python’s pretty popular with employers too, although its lead over other general purpose languages is not as large and, like last year, it plays second fiddle to the database query language SQL, which employers like to see paired with another language.” SEE: The 10 Best Python Courses That are Worth Taking (TechRepublic) Plenty to C TIOBE didn’t outline the other languages in its December report, but let’s have a quick look. C++ is very similar to C, which moved to second place. C++ is well-suited for game and system development, but it may be relatively difficult to learn. C is often used in app and system development. Its syntax is similar to other popular languages, making it a useful branching-off point for beginner developers. C# is an object and component-oriented programming language similar to the C and Java language families. It is used for in-app, game, and web development. Java is an excellent language for AI, app, and web development. It requires relatively advanced skills to learn. SEE: The 5 Best Online C Programming Courses (TechRepublic) Tech job opportunities The news is often full of grim reports about layoffs, but a look at the job boards shows that plenty of tech opportunities are still out there. For instance, in Python, there are 1.19 million jobs on LinkedIn and 6,445 jobs on ZipRecruiter. Not every job on those sites will suit everyone, but a good career could be within reach for people willing to make the effort. SEE: The 5 Best Web Development Courses Worth Taking (TechRepublic) Advice for developers Enhancing your coding skills can lead your career in different directions, including game development, website design, and mobile app development. And by learning the most popular programming languages, you make yourself more appealing to employers. You have various options to learn the most in-demand languages, such as pursuing a four-year degree at a college or university or enrolling in a coding bootcamp. You can also learn programming languages via online courses at TechRepublic Academy or check out our hiring kits at TechRepublic Premium. The latter provides information about developer jobs and is a good way to discover pertinent skills and potential interview questions. source

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By Christopher Cole ( December 9, 2024, 5:48 PM EST) — Lawmakers are considering funding a $3.08 billion shortfall in the program to rid U.S. networks of Chinese-made equipment by letting the Federal Communications Commission borrow the money from the U.S. Department of the Treasury, repaid with spectrum auctions…. 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

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