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Forbes
13 hours ago
- Business
- Forbes
Is Your Business Ready For AI Or Just Chasing Hype?
Tod Loofbourrow, Chairman and CEO, ViralGains. Generative AI is rewriting the rules of marketing, and many brands are scrambling to keep up. But here's a reality check: by the end of 2025, Gartner predicts that 30% of GenAI projects will be abandoned before delivering any business value. This is because adopting AI isn't about deploying shiny new tools; it's about aligning technology with real business problems, building the right data foundation, managing risk and, most importantly, understanding where AI can actually move the needle. Right now, too many marketers are chasing AI for the optics, not the outcomes. Across the C-suite, "AI strategy" has become the must-have line item, especially in marketing. Promises of hyper-efficiency, real-time targeting, infinite personalization and generative scale have leaders greenlighting AI projects left and right. But a lot of these initiatives stall before launch. Worse yet, they fail to perform to expectations. This is because while the tech is impressive, the implementation is messy. Core questions—How will this drive ROI? Do we have the right data? Is this even the right use case?—often go unasked. This is the danger of AI FOMO: investing reactively, not strategically. The antidote? A framework that aligns AI opportunity with actual business relevance. If businesses want to cut through the hype, they need to ensure they have a thorough framework in place. Harvard Business Review, for example, introduced the WINS framework—a powerful lens to assess where GenAI can drive the most impact. WINS refers to the four dominant types of work GenAI can enhance: • Words (like ad copy, scripts and reports) • Images (visual assets, design and branding) • Numbers (analytics, forecasting and segmentation) • Sounds (audio branding, voice AI and podcasts) For marketers and advertising agencies, this should be viewed as core work. Your campaigns, strategies, insights and outputs all live squarely in this framework, which means your teams are on the front lines of AI transformation. But there's a second, equally important layer, which is evaluating how digitized your processes already are and how urgently you need to transform. Are you still manually pulling campaign data from siloed systems? Are your audience insights stuck in spreadsheets? Are your creative workflows bottlenecked? If your answer is "yes," you're likely in what HBR calls the "Next in Line" quadrant—where GenAI could deliver massive impact, but only if you prioritize the right foundations and partnerships. MIT's Andrew McAfee and others have discussed the importance of using AI to augment human performance—not replace it. The goal isn't to eliminate your creative, strategic or analytical talent. The goal is to amplify it. The real promise of GenAI lies in things like helping a junior copywriter draft 10 good ideas instead of two, letting a strategist test 50 creative variants in the time it once took to run A/B tests and giving insights teams real-time visibility into shifting audience sentiment. This isn't about automating your team out of existence. It's about enabling them to use GenAI as a co-pilot that elevates creative thinking, accelerates iteration and sharpens decisions. In working with large advertisers, I've seen how GenAI delivers value when combined with zero-party data—insights that consumers willingly share. Take the case of a national bank entering new markets. Rather than relying on assumptions about brand perception, they launched interactive video ads featuring a simple, embedded question: "Which word best describes our brand?" That single question became a rich source of insight. By applying GenAI-powered sentiment analysis to the responses, the bank quickly learned which creatives inspired trust, which messages resonated in specific regions and how to optimize the campaign in real time. This is WINS in action—words, images and numbers working together not just to capture attention, but to deepen understanding and accelerate performance. A common pitfall in adopting GenAI is the belief that everything must be built in-house to truly "own" the strategy. But in reality, GenAI success is less about technological ownership and more about making timely, strategic decisions that align with business goals. Deploying GenAI effectively often requires capabilities that span data engineering, model fine-tuning, regulatory alignment and creative integration. While some organizations may choose to develop these from scratch, others accelerate progress by leveraging existing tools, frameworks or external expertise—especially when it comes to domain-specific models or ready-to-use data pipelines. Ultimately, this is about avoiding unnecessary reinvention. Internal teams stay focused on differentiation and core value while relying on proven methods to get there faster and with less risk. The question is: where does your team add the most value, and where can others help remove friction so you can move with purpose, not just speed? To avoid AI regret and maximize impact, I suggest that CMOs and agencies answer the following three questions: 1. Where in our marketing operation do WINS apply—and how digitized are those processes? 2. How can we use AI to augment human creativity and decision-making—not just automate tasks? 3. Where might strategic collaboration help us accelerate time-to-value without compromising control or insight? AI has the power to reshape marketing—but only if it's tied to real outcomes, implemented strategically and grounded in the data and workflows that actually drive business value. The winners won't be those who jumped in first. The winners will be those who used AI wisely, with the right frameworks, the right partners and the right expectations. Don't chase the hype. Find your zero bit, deploy for impact and watch the wins follow. Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?
Forbes
15 hours ago
- Business
- Forbes
The AI Talent Crisis: Why Companies Are Looking In The Wrong Places
Nicole Zheng is the Chief Business Officer at which powers companies with elite tech talent and ready-to-deploy AI solutions. Last year, generative AI officially entered Gartner's famed 'Trough of Disillusionment'—a rite of passage for any emerging technology. While most enterprise companies are eager to embrace AI, with some saving hundreds of millions of dollars through strategic use cases, most fail to progress past the pilot phase. And one of the main barriers for many corporate leaders is talent. "The biggest AI talent shortage has created a $134.8 billion market opportunity," said João (Joe) Moura, CEO of crewAI. "Many focus solely on technical roles, but overlook a crucial segment: Traditional approaches emphasize Deep ML engineering or Ph.D.s," which implies barriers for talent lacking those qualifications. It's a challenge my company has heard repeatedly when consulting with enterprise leaders on their generative AI strategy, and we wanted to understand those challenges more deeply. So, we surveyed 250 senior tech leaders responsible for AI initiatives. Our research confirmed those challenges: "While 96% of tech leaders plan to increase AI investments in 2025, only 36% have successfully deployed AI to production." The gap isn't due to a lack of enthusiasm or budget—it's a talent problem. In fact, 85% of tech leaders have delayed critical AI initiatives due to talent shortages. But I believe there's another reason for this talent crisis: Most companies are looking for AI talent in all the wrong places, using outdated hiring approaches that fundamentally clash with the pace of AI innovation. Why Traditional Hiring Is Hindering, Not Helping When we asked these senior AI leaders how long it takes to hire top product and engineering talent, the answers were eye-opening: 67% said "it takes 4+ months to hire top engineering talent." This hiring timeline is completely mismatched with the whiplash pace of AI development; the technology is evolving every few weeks, bringing new opportunities to drive value for customers and employees alike. By the time most organizations have hired the talent they initially sought, that person's skills may already be outdated. It's like hiring horses while the Model T is accelerating in the fast lane. Adopting The 'T-Shaped' Talent Model One way organizations can succeed is by taking a different approach: a 'T-shaped' model that integrates specialized freelance talent with a smaller, core team of full-time employees. Picture the letter T: Your vertical stem is made up of core, full-time engineers who know your systems inside and out. The horizontal bar is made up of specialized contractors who bring targeted expertise where you need it. Why does this approach work? As GenAI is still nascent, your full-time engineers carry the burden of maintaining your core platform while learning the latest agentic system design techniques and tools. It can be next to impossible to succeed with the landscape evolving daily. By contrast, independent AI/ML engineers can bring experience from dozens of deployments across different companies—often choosing independence precisely for this opportunity. You're not just hiring skills; you're hiring the experience gained from rapid innovation cycles. Factors That Contribute To T-Shaped Model Effectiveness 1. The Shift In The Technical Talent Market: The freelance economy has evolved dramatically from its gig-economy origins. Today's freelance talent marketplace includes elite, specialized professionals who've chosen to go independent thanks to the autonomy, flexibility and financial upside that it can provide. For top AI talent, a big part of the appeal is getting to choose the specific projects and problems that interest them the most, instead of being put in a 'golden cage' and paid to literally do nothing. 2. The Innovation And Deployment Boost: Fractional talent can boost innovation capabilities and accelerate your road map. Look for freelance AI specialists who have experience with deployments at multiple companies; they should have more knowledge of the pitfalls that lurk around the corner and be able to help your company avoid them. 3. Cost Efficiency: By bringing in specialized fractional talent for the specific stages of development that you need them for, you can deploy your capital and resources more effectively. 4. A Startup Mindset: I've found that for most organizations—particularly those in non-tech industries—GenAI requires a monumental mindset shift. While IT teams excel at buying and integrating software for systems of record, capitalizing on GenAI's full capabilities often means adopting a mindset of leveraging your company's data and automating human workflows to realize new value. Choosing team members who can contribute out-of-the-box thinking as well as AI engineering expertise can help you achieve this mindset. 5. Flexibility: This model can also help solve flexibility challenges. Instead of trying to hire full-time employees for specific technical needs, focus on building fluid teams that can adapt as quickly as the technology. The Importance Of Collaboration A common pitfall in attempting the T-shaped model is to treat independent talent as outsiders, but this isn't outsourcing. The trick is to embed specialists into your existing teams, having them code and participate in standups right alongside your core engineers. In my experience, this approach can deliver more than project outcomes; it can also allow your core team to upskill through direct collaboration. Conclusion The AI talent crisis may seem daunting, but it's far from insurmountable. You don't need to compete with Netflix to hire that million-dollar AI engineer; instead, consider adopting a more flexible approach to how you build your teams. Forbes Business Council is the foremost growth and networking organization for business owners and leaders. Do I qualify?
Channel Post MEA
15 hours ago
- Business
- Channel Post MEA
F5 Announces New Post-Quantum Cryptography Solutions
F5 is helping customers prepare for the foundational cybersecurity shift presented by quantum computing. New comprehensive post-quantum cryptography (PQC) readiness solutions are seamlessly integrated into the F5 Application Delivery and Security Platform, equipping organizations with the tools they need to secure applications and APIs while maintaining high performance and scalability. The quantum era presents a significant cybersecurity inflection point, as the previous limits of classical computing will no longer apply. According to Gartner: 'The motivation for IT departments to adopt post-quantum cryptography is grounded in the fact that advances in quantum computing will make asymmetric cryptography unsafe by 2029. By 2034, asymmetric cryptography will be fully breakable with quantum computing technologies.' A Requirement to Rethink Cybersecurity Post-quantum cryptography marks a critical transformation in how sensitive data is secured. Unlike typical upgrades or patches, the transition to PQC represents a fundamental architectural shift in cybersecurity, requiring proactive planning and execution. A poorly managed transition can cause outages and disrupt operations, especially across hybrid, multicloud, and legacy systems. Without the right approach, organizations risk costly downtime, slower applications, compliance issues, and frustrated users. In addition, with widespread traditional cryptographic methods becoming ineffective, malicious actors have already begun employing a 'harvest now, decrypt later' attack strategy, capturing encrypted data today to decrypt when quantum capabilities emerge. Sensitive data—including user records, financial information, personal health details, and intellectual property—faces unprecedented vulnerability. 'Post-quantum threats aren't a distant problem—they're a forcing function to modernize security now,' said Kunal Anand, Chief Innovation Officer at F5. 'Our platform makes PQC adoption practical so enterprises can future-proof their apps, APIs, and trust models without slowing down.' What Sets F5 Apart F5 simplifies the shift to quantum-safe protections as the leading vendor providing a fully integrated, scalable platform for both application delivery and security. With comprehensive PQC support for both server-side and client-side encryption—and seamless integration across hybrid, multicloud, and legacy environments—this platform-based approach protects organizations' apps, APIs, and data while optimizing performance. By combining classical encryption with PQC, customers benefit from interoperability and phased system upgrades without business disruptions. F5 solutions also offer detailed insights into encrypted traffic, enhancing threat detection even during post-quantum cryptography transitions. Key benefits of F5's PQC capabilities include: Trusted Post-Quantum Encryption: NIST-standardized cryptographic algorithms protect customer data, intellectual property, and operational assets without compromising system performance. End-to-End Security: From client-side encryption to backend systems, F5 provides full-spectrum PQC coverage combining high-availability app delivery with encrypted threat protection, access security, high-performance firewall capabilities, and proactive threat intelligence. Operational Continuity: With hybrid and multicloud compatibility, F5 ensures mission-critical apps and APIs remain efficient, secure, and available during every step of the quantum transition. Unified Visibility Across Environments: Centralized management and assessment tools provide insights into all apps, APIs, and encrypted traffic, covering the entire security ecosystem and promoting additive AI, telemetry, and automation capabilities. Simplified Compliance: F5 helps businesses meet evolving regulatory standards, ensuring sensitive data remains protected and compliant during the post-quantum transition. The Path Forward: Accelerating Quantum-Ready Adoption Moving to post-quantum cryptography is not just a technical necessity—it's an opportunity to prepare for the future while driving current innovation. F5 provides organizations with a smooth migration path and full proxy capabilities that allow PQC to be implemented, and further evolved, alongside existing encryption technology. Businesses gain the flexibility to adopt hybrid cryptographic models at their own pace, ensuring minimal risk of downtime or operational challenges. By focusing on the applications and APIs that drive today's digital businesses, F5 helps customers confidently embrace the transformative opportunities of the quantum era. The company's tailored support for hybrid cryptographic models enables organizations to maintain streamlined app delivery while preparing for post-quantum protocols and the future of cybersecurity. Availability Post-quantum cryptography readiness solutions are now available for the F5 Application Delivery and Security Platform.
Channel Post MEA
16 hours ago
- Business
- Channel Post MEA
Bitdefender Launches External Attack Surface Management Solution GravityZone EASM
Bitdefender has announced Bitdefender GravityZone External Attack Surface Management (EASM), a new solution that gives businesses, managed service providers (MSPs) and their customers comprehensive visibility into their internet-facing assets and associated vulnerabilities. GravityZone EASM dramatically reduces threat exposure and strengthens security operations through centralized discovery, monitoring, and management of expanding attack surfaces. The attack surface, encompassing all potential entry points for adversaries, is rapidly expanding due to digital transformation, cloud adoption, remote work, and increased connectivity with third-party infrastructure, including partners and customers. Without centralized oversight, assets such as unused domains, misconfigured cloud instances, and expired certificates often go unnoticed—leaving organizations vulnerable to attackers who continuously scan the internet for exposed systems. According to Gartner®, 'Through 2029, more than 60% of security incidents will be traced to misconfigured technical security controls.'¹ Additionally, a recent survey of 1,200 cybersecurity professionals found that reducing the attack surface is a top priority in their security operations. Bitdefender GravityZone EASM is agentless, requiring no endpoint deployment, and delivers a powerful, proactive approach to identifying and understanding external risks while reducing the attack surface. It continuously discovers, maps, and analyzes internet-exposed assets from an attacker's perspective, enabling organizations to quickly assess risk, identify vulnerabilities, and take action before they are exploited. The solution is available as an add-on to Bitdefender GravityZone, the company's unified security, risk analytics, and compliance platform that delivers advanced endpoint protection (EPP), endpoint detection and response (EDR), extended detection and response (XDR), and cloud-native security. GravityZone EASM scans a wide range of asset types, including IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, IP blocks, email addresses, and domains. From these scans, it delivers comprehensive asset discovery by detecting publicly exposed IPs, expiring or expired certificates, vulnerable public services, open ports, and more—ensuring no asset is overlooked. Key Benefits of Bitdefender GravityZone EASM: Fast internet-facing asset discovery – GravityZone EASM scans and maps all internet-facing assets including devices, domains, subdomains, applications, certificates, third-party connections, shadow IT, and more—in as little as 30 minutes. It delivers comprehensive visibility into a business's attack surface, even for unmanaged or forgotten assets. – GravityZone EASM scans and maps all internet-facing assets including devices, domains, subdomains, applications, certificates, third-party connections, shadow IT, and more—in as little as 30 minutes. It delivers comprehensive visibility into a business's attack surface, even for unmanaged or forgotten assets. Continuous vulnerability monitoring, alerting, and prioritization – GravityZone EASM continuously monitors and detects vulnerabilities and misconfigurations across internal and external assets, including those managed by partners, customers, and supply chain vendors. It delivers immediate, context-rich alerts for exposed systems, expired certificates, and high-risk threats. Alerts are prioritized by severity (e.g., CVE scores) to streamline response and remediation. – GravityZone EASM continuously monitors and detects vulnerabilities and misconfigurations across internal and external assets, including those managed by partners, customers, and supply chain vendors. It delivers immediate, context-rich alerts for exposed systems, expired certificates, and high-risk threats. Alerts are prioritized by severity (e.g., CVE scores) to streamline response and remediation. Unified security, risk management, and compliance – Seamlessly integrated with Bitdefender GravityZone, combining security, risk analytics, and compliance—GravityZone EASM supports both strategic and operational use cases. Security analysts can leverage it for threat analysis and vulnerability prioritization, while administrators benefit from broader security management capabilities such as policy enforcement and access control configuration—all within a single platform. 'Security teams across businesses and MSPs face increasing pressure to keep pace with expanding attack surfaces, driven by digital transformation and complex third-party ecosystems,' said Andrei Florescu, president and general manager at Bitdefender Business Solutions Group. 'Effective defense-in-depth security starts by reducing the attack surface as much as possible before threats reach the detection and response layers. GravityZone EASM is a critical part of our vision for unified security, risk management, and compliance, enabling proactive discovery and control of internet-facing assets that could serve as potential entry points for attackers.' Availability Bitdefender GravityZone EASM is available now for select GravityZone license tiers, and Bitdefender MDR services. For more information, visit here.
Yahoo
21 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Oracle Named Leader in Gartner's 2025 Analytics Magic Quadrant, Highlighting AI Integration
Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) is one of the best US tech stocks to buy now. On June 23, Oracle announced that it has been recognized as a Leader in the 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Analytics and Business Intelligence Platforms. This marks the second consecutive year that Oracle has received this distinction, acknowledging its Ability to Execute and Completeness of Vision in the analytics and business intelligence market. The report was published earlier by Gartner on June 16. According to the executive vice president of Oracle Analytics, T.K. Anand, the recognition is a result of Oracle's integration of AI at the core of its analytics offerings. Oracle continues to enhance its Analytics Cloud offerings by applying AI to facilitate user interaction with analytics. A notable feature is the Oracle Analytics AI Assistant, which uses the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure/OCI GenAI service. A team of IT professionals meticulously crafting a large-scale enterprise performance management system. The AI Assistant allows workbook authors and analysts to use natural language to discover insights from their data and construct complex visualizations. Additionally, Contextual Insights provide business users with a deeper understanding of their data by offering insights and recommendations as they navigate and explore analytics content. Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) offers products and services that address enterprise information technology environments worldwide. While we acknowledge the potential of ORCL as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the . READ NEXT: and . Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey. Sign in to access your portfolio
