Computerworld.com [Hacking News]

Google’s dominance in the search arena has given rise to two major antitrust lawsuits from the US government alleging the company has manipulated the market to maintain that dominance, to the exclusion of competitors and the detriment of the public at large.

The first lawsuit, targeting Google’s search business, kicked off in mid-September 2023 and drew to a close in May 2024 with the delivery of closing arguments; US District Judge Amit Mehta ruled against the tech giant in August 2024. The New York Times reports that Judge Mehta will preside over a three-week hearing to consider breaking up Google starting April 21. The second trial against the tech giant, focused on advertising, took place over 15 days in September 2024, with US District Judge Leonie Brinkema’s ruling arriving in April 2025. Google plans to appeal both decisions.

The cases heavily echo the turn-of-the-century Microsoft antitrust case in several respects, not least of which is the fact that Google faces the possibility of being broken up by regulators if it is unsuccessful in its legal battles.

Here’s our condensed timeline of the two lawsuits and their progress through the court system.

April 17, 2025: In a second landmark defeat for Google, Judge Brinkema ruled that Google illegally monopolized the ad tech market. The company’s “exclusionary conduct substantially harmed Google’s publisher customers, the competitive process, and, ultimately, consumers of information on the open web,” she wrote in the ruling. Remedies, which could include the breakup of Google’s advertising products and/or changes to its business practices, will be imposed at a future date.

Sept. 20, 2024: The US Department of Justice (DoJ) is set to wrap its case in the Google antitrust trial after an eventful two weeks. The tech giant is accused of engaging in monopolistic behavior by strategically acquiring certain companies and controlling the adtech industry’s most widely-used tools and exchanges,  beginning with its acquisition of advertising company DoubleClick in 2008.

Sept. 9, 2024: The second major case against Google began with the company defending itself against claims it engaged in illegal behavior to maintain control of the ad tech market. The US government is accusing Google of purposefully manipulating that market, snuffing out competitors and gobbling up key technologies through acquisitions. If the DoJ successfully makes its case, Google risks being broken up by regulators.

Aug. 5, 2024: In a major defeat for Google, Judge Amit Mehta ruled that the company had engaged in anticompetitive behavior in an effort to protect its search business. In the 277-page decision, Mehta was blunt: “After having carefully considered and weighed the witness testimony and evidence, the court reaches the following conclusion: Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly. It has violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act.”

Attorney General Merrick Garland, in a statement from the Department of Justice, said: “This victory against Google is an historic win for the American people. No company — no matter how large or influential — is above the law.”

Mehta’s ruling did not include remedies for the anticompetitive behavior; those will be decided later.

May 3, 2024: Over two days of closing arguments, the DoJ revisited its case for Google having a monopoly on search advertising, and Judge Mehta quizzed both parties about whether other platforms could be viewed as substitutes for Google’s search advertising business. He hasn’t said how long he expects to take to reach a decision, but if he rules against Google, a second hearing will take place to decide on any remedies.

Nov. 16, 2023: The evidentiary phase of the trial finishes, as Judge Mehta issues instructions for post-trial submissions. Despite considerable amounts of redaction and closed-door testimony, the case revealed some unprecedented details about the relationships between the largest tech companies in the world, including the fact that Apple apparently keeps 36% of the search revenue from Google searches in Safari, and Apple once considered buying Microsoft’s Bing search engine as leverage against Google. Judge Mehta has scheduled closing arguments in the case for May 1, 2024.

Oct. 31, 2023: Google CEO Sundai Pichai takes the stand, for long-awaited testimony about the relationship between his company and Apple. He gave some details about Google’s negotiations with Apple over a contract that made Google the default search engine on Apple’s iPhones, iPads, and Macs. Google has paid billions for the privilege of being the default search on Apple products, and the relationship is a key part of the case – which was underlined by the Justice Department’s cross-examination of Pichai, during which he admitted that default search status is a major driver of market share.

Oct. 18, 2023: Google begins its defense, calling Paul Nayak, a vice president of search, to the stand as its first witness. Nayak downplays the importance of scale in his testimony, stressing that machine intelligence, compute infrastructure, and a team of 16,000 staff that checks on search results are crucial to maintaining quality of service. DOJ witnesses including DuckDuckGo CEO Gabriel Weinberg and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella had testified that Google keeps an edge over competitors via an ever-increasing trove of data — the result of its default search engine status, maintained through exclusive contracts and billions of dollars in payments to Apple, Samsung and other companies. This data gives Google an advantage in refining search engine results, they said. 

Oct. 3, 2023: As a witness for the prosecution in the Google antitrust trial, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella warns that Google’s monopoly profits could lock in publishers as AI-enabled search arrives. Nadella argued that it’s almost impossible to compete with Google, given the search leader’s massive competitive edge in collecting and analyzing user data. He also warned that Google, with its vast profits and lock on the search market, stands poised to extend its monopoly power in a new era where artificial intelligence technologies will turbocharge the search business.

Sept. 26, 2023: Apple’s Eddy Cue testifies behind closed doors in the Google search case, as critics slam presiding Judge Amit Mehta’s decision to hold much of the trial’s testimony from witnesses secret, allow documents to be heavily redacted, and block some documents from public view — mainly at the insistence of Google, but also at the request of other companies, including Apple. By the end of Cue’s testimony — and after a wek of wrangling by all parties — Judge Mehta rules that documents used during the trial can be published online at the end of each day, but still allows time Google and third parties to object to exhibits being shown publicly before the DOJ presents them in court. 

Sept. 21, 2023: Judge Mehta rules that public access to court exhibits, which have been mostly internal Google documents thus far, should be removed, after Google challenged the Justice Department’s regular publication of them. The company said that it was concerned for its employees’ privacy.

Sept. 12, 2023: The default search trial begins with opening statements, and the government begins its case.

Aug. 2023: Judge Mehta grants partial summary judgment for Google in the search case, saying that the government had failed to raise a genuine dispute of material fact on antitrust charges relating to contracts around the use of the Android operating system, as well as Google Assistant and IoT devices. The claims relating to Google’s exclusive “default search” contracts, however, are allowed to proceed to trial.

July/Aug. 2023: Google and the plaintiffs in the search case argue various motions in limine, designed to control what evidence should be included or excluded in the actual trial. Discovery and motion practice over evidence continues in the advertising case.

June 2023: Judge Mehta schedules a trial date of September 12, 2023 for the search case.

April 2023: Judge Leonie M. Brinkema denies Google’s motion to dismiss in the advertising case.

March 2023: Google’s motion to transfer the advertising case to New York is denied by Judge Brinkema, who orders the parties to propose discovery schedules within two weeks of the order. Two weeks later, Google moves to dismiss the case for failure to state a claim, arguing that the plaintiffs have simply produced legal conclusions, and not specific facts, that could support their claims. Judge Brinkema schedules pre-trial conferences for January 2024.

Feb. 2023: The plaintiffs in the default search case case move for sanctions against Google, accusing it of spoliation, which refers to the destruction, alteration or failure to preserve relevant evidence in a case. Elsewhere, in the advertising case, Google moves to transfer the case from the Eastern District of Virginia to the Southern District of New York, which is seen as an attempt to consolidate the case with related digital advertising antitrust litigation.

Jan. 2023: A second antitrust action, pushed by eight states and the DoJ, is filed in federal district court in eastern Virginia. The plaintiffs, who call for Google’s advertising business to be split up, accuse Google of manipulating its dominant position in the online advertising world to squeeze out rivals and control both the supply and demand side of the advertising market. Google, according to the complaint, thwarted fair competition by manipulating fees, punished advertisers for using alternative platforms and ad exchanges, and engaged in a host of further anti-competitive behavior in the interest of monopolizing the marketplace. (This is case that began in September 2024.)

Dec. 2022: Google moves for summary judgment against the separate Colorado case and the larger, DoJ-led case. A summary judgement motion is essentially a request by one of the parties in a lawsuit that the judge rule in their favor and end the case, arguing that, based on the undisputed facts, they are entitled to win the case as a matter of law.

May 2022: A deadline of June 17 is set for the production of all discovery materials. Further documents – for example, those whose is existence is first disclosed in late in the discovery window – can be produced until June 30.

May 2022: Judge Mehta denies a government motion to sanction Google for inaccurately classifying documents as attorney-client privileged. The plaintiffs had argued that emails on which Google’s lawyers were listed as recipients or CCed, but that the lawyers never responded to, constituted a misuse of the attorney-client privilege rules.

Dec. 2021: Judge Mehta conditionally splits Colorado’s claims from the case at large, ordering that separate trials on that state’s issues of liability and remedies will be “more convenient for the Court and the Parties, and will expedite and economize this litigation.”

Aug.-Oct. 2021: Discovery-related motions and orders continue, as Yelp and Samsung join the fray. (Those companies, like Microsoft and Apple, are relevant to the case even if they aren’t parties themselves, as their internal records are potentially relevant to Google’s liability.)

June/July 2021: The discovery process continues, and the U.S. and Google both file several documents with the court under seal. (Microsoft files two sealed documents, as well, in response to Google’s subpoenas for company records, and Apple becomes involved after the government requests access to some of its internal information.)

March 2021: Meetings between Google and the various governmental plaintiffs continue, with periodic status reports on the discovery process.

Jan. 2021: Google files a response to the complaint, admitting to many of the facts alleged by the Justice Department and associated attorneys general, but categorically denying the substance of the government’s claims of illegality. Further responses to separate but related claims, generally to specific state attorneys general, follow in the subsequent weeks and months.

Dec. 2020: Judge Amit Mehta approves the joinder of Michigan, Wisconsin and California to the suit.

Oct. 2020: The Department of Justice, along with the attorneys general of 11 states, sues Google in DC federal district court for unlawfully maintaining a monopoly, in violation of Section 2 of the Sherman Act. The case centers on Google’s use of exclusive contracts that mandate its use as the default search engine in a host of different hardware and software applications, with the government alleging that this represents an artificial constraint on any possible competition for the search giant.

Microsoft 365 (and Office 365) subscribers get more frequent software updates than those who have purchased Office without a subscription, which means subscribers have access to the latest features, security patches, and bug fixes. But it can be hard to keep track of the changes in each update and know when they’re available. We’re doing this for you, so you don’t have to.

Following are summaries of the updates to Microsoft 365/Office 365 for Windows over the past year, with the latest releases shown first. We’ll add info about new updates as they’re rolled out.

Note: This story covers updates released to the Current Channel for Microsoft 365/Office 365 subscriptions. If you’re a member of Microsoft’s Office Insider preview program or want to get a sneak peek at upcoming features, see the Microsoft 365 Insider blog.

Version 2503 (Build 18623.20208)

Release date: April 17, 2025

This build fixes a bug that could cause Excel to stop responding.

Get more info about Version 2503 (Build 18623.20208).

Version 2503 (Build 18623.20178)

Release date: April 8, 2025

This build fixes a single bug in Word in which users may have encountered an issue with saving, seeing the message “saving…” in the title bar. It  also includes a variety of security updates. Go here for details.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2503 (Build 18623.20178).

Version 2503 (Build 18623.20156)

Release date: April 2, 2025

This build lets you use Dark Mode in Excel, which darkens your entire sheet, including cells, and may reduce eye strain. It also fixes several bugs, including one in Word in which opening specific files that contain many tracked changes and comments resulted in poor performance, and one in PowerPoint in which the app was not displaying the icon for an inserted PDF object.

Get more info about Version 2503 (Build 18623.20156).

Version 2502 (Build 18526.20168)

Release date: March 11, 2025

This build fixes several bugs, including one in which some Word files with numerous tracked changes and comments were slow. It also includes a variety of security updates: see details.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2502 (Build 18526.20168).

Version 2502 (Build 18526.20144)

Release date: March 5, 2025

This build fixes a wide variety of bugs, including one in Word in which the default font size may not be 12pt as expected, and another in which PowerPoint automatically closed when the system went into hibernate or sleep mode.

Get more info about Version 2502 (Build 18526.20144).

Version 2501 (Build 18429.20158)

Release date: February 11, 2025

This build removes the option to display Track Changes balloons in left margin in Word. It also includes a variety of security updates. See “Release notes for Microsoft Office security updates” for details.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2501 (Build 18429.20158).

Version 2501 (Build 18429.20132)

Release date: January 30, 2025

In this build, the advanced Track Changes option to set the margin for balloons in Word has been removed.

A wide variety of bugs have also been fixed, including one in which ActiveX controls used an excessive amount of GDI handles in PowerPoint, and another for the entire Office suite in which images couldn’t be pasted from SharePoint.

 Get more info about Version 2501 (Build 18429.20132).

Version 2412 (Build 18324.20194)

Release date: January 16, 2025

This build fixes one bug, in which apps would exit unexpectedly when running on Windows Server 2016.

Get more info about Version 2412 (Build 18324.20194).

Version 2412 (Build 18324.20190)

Release date: January 14, 2025

This build fixes a bug in Word in which the layout of tables were changed unexpectedly. It also includes a variety of security updates. See Release notes for Microsoft Office security updates for details.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2412 (Build 18324.20190).

Version 2412 (Build 18324.20168)

Release date: January 7, 2025

This build makes tables in Outlook more accessible for screen readers. It also fixes a wide variety of bugs, including one in Word in which a document saved to a network shared folder and set to “Always Open Read-Only” would open in “Editing” mode, and another for the entire Office suite in which application didn’t render the grid properly after switching from page break preview to normal view.

Get more info about Version 2412 (Build 18324.20168).

Version 2411 (Build 18227.20162)

Release date: December 10, 2024

This build fixes a bug in Word and Outlook where characters didn’t render correctly when using Save Selection to Text Box Gallery. It also includes a variety of security updates. See Release notes for Microsoft Office security updates for details.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2411 (Build 18227.20162).

Version 2411 (Build 18227.20152)

Release date: December 5, 2024

This build fixes a wide variety of bugs, including one in Excel in which some cells might not be rendered properly upon scrolling in a worksheet using freeze panes, one in Word which prevented emails with linked SVG content from saving or sending, and one in which some PowerPoint presentations created by third-party tools didn’t open correctly and some content was removed.

Get more info about Version 2411 (Build 18227.20152).

Version 2410 (Build 18129.20158)

Release date: November 12, 2024

This build fixes a variety of bugs, including one in Word in which all characters didn’t appear correctly when creating an Outlook task from OneNote, and one in PowerPoint in which embedded BMP images in the PowerPoint slide were not opening.

This build also includes a variety of security updates. See Release notes for Microsoft Office security updates for details.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2410 (Build 18129.20158).

Version 2410 (Build 18129.20116)

Release date: October 28, 2024

This build enables filtering capabilities for the comment pane in Excel and fixes a variety of bugs, including one in Word in which the title bar no longer showed a “Saved” status for locally saved files, and one in PowerPoint in which a graphics-related issue caused the app to close unexpectedly at times.

Get more info about Version 2410 (Build 18129.20116).

Version 2409 (Build 18025.20160)

Release date: October 15, 2024

This build fixes a single bug in Word, in which emails with linked SVG content couldn’t be saved or sent.

Get more info about Version 2409 (Build 18025.20160).

Version 2409 (Build 18025.20140)

Release date: October 8, 2024

This build fixes a variety of bugs, including one in Word in which text wasn’t clearly visible in High Contrast Mode when using “Draft with Copilot” and referencing a meeting under “Reference your content.”

This build also includes multiple security updates. See Release notes for Microsoft Office security updates for details.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2409 (Build 18025.20140).

Version 2409 (Build 18025.20104)

Release date: September 25, 2024

This build fixes a single bug, in which when you saved a file in Word, the save status was missing from the Title bar.

Get more info about Version 2409 (Build 18025.20104).

Version 2409 (Build 18025.20096)

Release date: September 23, 2024

This build improves the user experience for selecting which users should have which permissions when a sensitivity label configured for user-defined permissions is applied to a file or when configuring standalone Information Rights Management through the Restrict Access feature. This change affects Excel, PowerPoint, and Word.

The build also fixes a variety of bugs, including one in Word in which Document Mode would switch from “editing” to “viewing” if user enabled “Track Changes” and set “For Everyone.”

Get more info about Version 2409 (Build 18025.20096).

Version 2408 (Build 17928.20156)

Release date: September 10, 2024

This update will remove Flip video support when the service goes offline on October 1, 2024. The build also includes a variety of security updates. Go here for details.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2408 (Build 17928.20156).

Version 2408 (Build 17928.20114)

Release date: August 26, 2024

This build allows you to disable connected experiences for privacy concerns without impacting data security policies, such as sensitivity labels. Services associated with Microsoft Purview (e.g., sensitivity labels and rights management) are no longer controlled by policy settings to manage privacy controls for Microsoft 365 Apps. Instead, these services will rely on their existing security admin controls in Purview portals.

The build also fixes a variety of bugs, including one in Outlook that caused default SMIME labels to fail to apply when a user replied to or forwarded an unlabeled message, and one for the entire suite in which people couldn’t install Microsoft 365 apps on an enrolled device.

Get more info about Version 2408 (Build 17928.20114).

Version 2407 (Build 17830.20166)

Release date: August 13, 2024

This build includes a variety of security updates for Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Project, Visio, and the entire Office suite. See Microsoft’s Release notes for Office security updates for details.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2407 (Build 17830.20166).

Version 2407 (Build 17830.20138)

Release date: August 1, 2024

This build fixes a wide variety of bugs, including one in which coauthoring on text boxes in Excel sometimes gave unexpected results, another in PowerPoint in which line widths were not preserved when exporting arrow shapes to PDF, and another in Word in which revisions were sometimes skipped when reviewing using VBA.

Get more info about Version 2407 (Build 17830.20138).

Version 2406 (Build 17726.20160)

Release date: July 9, 2024

This build fixes several bugs, including one in Word and Excel in which characters don’t appear correctly in Text Box Gallery. It also fixes a number of security holes. For details, see Release notes for Microsoft Office security updates.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2406 (Build 17726.20160).

Version 2406 (Build 17726.20126)

Release date: June 26, 2024

This build fixes a wide variety of bugs, including one in which Excel documents might be unexpectedly edited when a mandatory sensitivity label has not been applied, one that caused Outlook to exit unexpectedly shortly after launch for some users, and one in which pasting data from Word or Excel to an Outlook template as a link would cause an error message to appear.

Get more info about Version 2406 (Build 17726.20126).

Version 2405 (Build 17628.20164)

Release date: June 19, 2024

This build includes a variety of unspecified bug and performance fixes.

Get more info about Version 2405 (Build 17628.20164).

Version 2405 (Build 17628.20144)

Release date: June 11, 2024

This build fixes one bug, which prevented users from sending mail for a few hours after updating add-ins with on-send events. It also fixes a number of security holes. For details, see Release notes for Microsoft Office security updates.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2405 (Build 17628.20144).

Version 2405 (Build 17628.20110)

Release date: May 30, 2024

This build fixes a wide variety of bugs, including one in Excel in which an embedded workbook in .xls format might not have closed properly, one that that caused Outlook to close when using Copilot Summarize, one in Word in which content controls may have been removed when coauthoring, and one for the entire Office suite in which the Organization Chart Add-In for Microsoft programs was not loading properly.

Get more info about Version 2405 (Build 17628.20110).

Version 2404 (Build 17531.20152)

Release date: May 14, 2024

This build fixes a number of bugs, including one in Word where content controls might be removed when coauthoring, and one that caused Sovereign users to be unable to create ToDo tasks from Outlook.

It also fixes a number of security holes. For details, see Release notes for Microsoft Office security updates.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2404 (Build 17531.20152).

Version 2404 (Build 17531.20140)

Release date: May 7, 2024

This build fixes two bugs in Outlook, one in which it closed unexpectedly using the Scheduling Assistant when creating a new meeting or viewing an existing meeting, and another that caused add-in developers to hit timeouts when retrieving notifications from an Outlook client context.

Get more info about Version 2404 (Build 17531.20140) .

Version 2404 (Build 17531.20120)

Release date: April 29, 2024

This build reduces workbook size bloat from unnecessary cell formatting with a new “Check Performance” task pane. In addition, it fixes a wide variety of bugs, including one in Excel in which the default font could not be set; one in Outlook in which custom forms from MAPI form servers stopped responding; one in PowerPoint in which online videos did not play in some cases; one in which when opening certain Word documents would cause the error, “Word experienced an error trying to open the file”; and one in which the Office update installer appeared to be unresponsive.

Get more info about Version 2404 (Build 17531.20120) .

Version 2403 (Build 17425.20176)

Release date: April 9, 2024

This build fixes a number of security holes. For details, see Release notes for Microsoft Office security updates.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2403 (Build 17425.20176).

Version 2402 (Build 17328.20184)

Release date: March 12, 2024

This build fixes three bugs: one in which Access closed unexpectedly, one in which Excel closed unexpectedly when opening files with pivot tables and table design in macro-enabled files, and one in which Word closed unexpectedly when the undo function was used.

This build also fixes a number of security holes. For details, see Release notes for Microsoft Office security updates.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2402 (Build 17328.20184).

Version 2402 (Build 17328.20162)

Release date: March 4, 2024

This build fixes several bugs, including one that crashed Outlook when a link was clicked on, and another for the entire Office suite in which opened Office apps didn’t automatically start when a laptop was reopened, and an error message appeared after manual relaunch.

Get more info about Version 2402 (Build 17328.20162).

Version 2402 (Build 17328.20142)

Release date: February 28, 2024

This build fixes a variety of bugs, including one that caused Outlook to exit unexpectedly when expanding a conversation in the search results from a search of “All Mailboxes,” and another in which users were not able to create a bullet list with hyphens in PowerPoint.

Get more info about Version 2402 (Build 17328.20142).

Version 2401 (Build 17231.20236)

Release date: February 13, 2024

This build fixes several bugs, including one in which macros were being corrupted when saving Excel files and another that affected the entire Office suite in which add-ins would not load after Click trust for content add-in was selected.

This build also fixes a number of security holes. For details, see Release notes for Microsoft Office security updates.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2401 (Build 17231.20236).

Version 2401 (Build 17231.20194)

Release date: February 1, 2024

This build fixes a single bug in which expanded groups in the message list collapsed when users changed which column they were arranged by.

Get more info about Version 2401 (Build 17231.20194).

Version 2401 (Build 17231.20182)

Release date: January 30, 2024

This build fixes a wide variety of bugs, including one in which Excel would stop responding when saving changes, one in PowerPoint in which Notes and Slide layout would open with incorrect proportions when a file was opened from a protected view, and one in Word in which comment cards appeared too wide and cut off text when changing or switching the screen in use.

Get more info about Version 2401 (Build 17231.20182).

Version 2312 (Build 17126.20132)

Release date: January 9, 2024

This build fixes a number of security holes. For details, see Release notes for Microsoft Office security updates.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2312 (Build 17126.20132).

Version 2312 (Build 17126.20126)

Release date: January 4, 2023

This build introduces a new sensitivity toolbar in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint that helps users understand the security policies that apply to their documents. It’s available when users are creating copies of their documents in File / Save As. In addition, Office now had a new default theme, which Microsoft says is “more modern and accessible.”

It also fixes a wide variety of bugs, including one in Excel in which Custom Menu text was truncated when right-clicking in a cell, one in PowerPoint in which restoring a previous version of a presentation was not working as expected when using Version History, and one in Word in which the content control end tag was marked at the end of the document automatically if the document was edited in Word Online and then opened in Word desktop.

Get more info about  Version 2312 (Build 17126.20126).

Version 2311 (Build 17029.20108)

Release date: December 12, 2023

This build fixes one bug in Outlook, in which the message list was blank when switching between the “Focused” and “Other” views.

It also fixes a number of security holes. For details, see Release notes for Microsoft Office security updates.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2311 (Build 17029.20108).

Version 2311 (Build 17029.20068)

Release date: November 29, 2023

This build automatically inserts image captioning for Excel’s images. When you insert an image into a spreadsheet, accessibility image captioning is automatically generated for you.

It also fixes a wide variety of bugs, including one in Excel in which list box controls would not respond to mouse clicks after scrolling using the mouse wheel, and one in Word in which the language of a presentation was not retained when saving or exporting the presentation to a PDF file.

Get more info about Version 2311 (Build 17029.20068).

Version 2310 (Build 16924.20150)

Release date: November 14, 2023

This build fixes several bugs, including one in which Outlook failed to comply with the default browser settings for some users, and another in which new lines were added to an Outlook signature when pressing Enter in the body of the email.

It also fixes a number of security holes. For details, see Release notes for Microsoft Office security updates.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2310 (Build 16924.20150).

Version 2310 (Build 16924.20124)

Release date: Oct. 31, 2023

This build fixes a bug that caused Outlook to exit unexpectedly when clicking the More link in the Search results list.

Get more info about Version 2310 (Build 16924.20124).

Version 2310 (Build 16924.20106)

Release date: Oct. 25, 2023

In this build, the Teams Meeting App works in Outlook, too. With it, you’ll be able to configure a meeting app while scheduling an invite in Outlook. The meeting app will be ready to use when you chat or join the meeting on Teams.

A wide variety of bugs have also been fixed, including one in Excel where certain Pivot Tables would load slowly; one in which OneNote would close unexpectedly when rapidly navigating from one .PDF file to another .PDF file between different sections, or when performing an undo operation on a .PDF printout insertion; and one in the entire Office suite that caused unexpected black borders to appear around screen captures added with the Insert Screenshot functionality.

Get more info about Version 2310 (Build 16924.20106).

Version 2309 (Build 16827.20166)

Release date: October 10, 2023

This build fixes two bugs, one in which users were missing their Outlook add-ins, and another in Word in which subheading numbering with a custom Style would disappear if the file was saved and reopened. It also fixes a number of security holes. For details, see Release notes for Microsoft Office security updates.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2309 (Build 16827.20166).

Version 2309 (Build 16827.20130)

Release date: September 28, 2023

This build introduces two new features, including the ability to disable specific types of automatic data conversions in Excel and support for the “Present in Teams” button to present local files in PowerPoint Live in Microsoft Teams.

Several bugs have also been fixed, including one in which the setting to control how Outlook opens previous items at start-up was missing from the Options window, and another in Word in which the Add-ins tab was not visible when using custom toolbar information.

Get more info about Version 2309 (Build 16827.20130).

Version 2308 (Build 16731.20234)

Release date: September 12, 2023

This build fixes several bugs, including one that caused Outlook to close unexpectedly when viewing an email, and another in PowerPoint in which the presenter view slide section zoomed in and out when zooming in the notes section.

It also fixes a number of security holes. For details, see Release notes for Microsoft Office security updates.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2308 (Build 16731.20234).

Apple and Google know that smart glasses will replace the smartphone as the main device people use the most, according to recent news. And the two leading smartphone platform makers don’t want Meta to own the future of mobile computing, but they know Meta is leading the race so far. 

Meta is the current and surprising leader in AI glasses that don’t show a screen to the user.

The best rough estimates are that Meta has shipped 2 million Ray-Ban Meta glasses and earned $600 million in revenue. This is small potatoes compared to smartphone sales, but far ahead of any other player in the market. 

Competitors fear that Meta will expand its lead in non-visual AI glasses like Ray-Ban Meta glasses and then leverage that lead into AR glasses. 

Meta is reportedly working on a few smart glasses with displays integrated into the lenses. One, code-named “Hypernova,” is expected to be an advanced version of the current Ray-Ban Meta glasses, featuring a screen in the right lens, specifically in the lower-right quadrant. This display will show a home screen similar to the Meta Quest interface, allowing for apps and notifications. These glasses could cost between $1,000 and $1,400 and could launch in the latter half of 2025. They’re expected to include an upgraded camera and will almost certainly offer voice and multimodal access to Meta’s AI assistant. 

In addition to voice commands, users might be able to control the glasses via capacitive touch sensors on the sides and a “neural wristband” for hand gestures. A second-generation model, code-named “Hypernova 2” is planned for release around 2027, with displays in both lenses. Meta is also developing Oakley-branded smart glasses designed for athletic use, which might include a display. 

According to Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman, Apple CEO Tim Cook is “hell bent” on launching true augmented reality glasses before Meta can get there. 

Gurman’s reporting suggests that Cook has made the clobbering of Meta in this market his top priority, spending most of his time on it and seeing it as the company’s future. In other words, Cook has an obsession today with AR that his predecessor, Steve Jobs, had with the iPad in the early 2000s.

Apple’s vision is clear: lightweight, all-day wearable glasses that overlay digital information onto the real world. This product could one day replace the iPhone as the company’s flagship device. 

Unfortunately, Apple is still years away from delivering such a product. Several key technologies —l ike ultra-high-resolution displays, powerful-yet-efficient chips, and tiny batteries that last all day — are simply not yet ready. 

Apple is also working on two new versions of its pricey Vision Pro headset, a kind of stop-gap product to attract users and developers while Apple makes the real AR product. 

Meanwhile, Google has re-entered the conversation around AR glasses in a big way. At TED2025 in Vancouver last week, Google’s head of Android XR, Shahram Izadi, took the stage wearing a prototype of the company’s new AI-powered AR glasses. The demo was impressive: the glasses translated spoken Farsi into English in real-time, scanned a book cover for contextual information, and even helped the wearer find a lost hotel key card using a “memory” feature powered by Gemini, Google’s latest AI assistant. 

Unlike the original Google Glass, these new glasses look like regular eyewear, with a lightweight frame and a small, embedded display. All the heavy processing is offloaded to a connected smartphone, which keeps the glasses comfortable and stylish. 

Google’s approach is to make the glasses a natural extension of the phone, streaming data back and forth and giving users access to Android apps and Google services without ever looking down at a screen. 

According to reports from TED2025 and The Korea Economic Daily, these glasses are being developed in partnership with Samsung. Samsung will handle manufacturing and marketing, and a full release is planned for 2026.

If you take the projections at face value (which you shouldn’t), Meta will be first, and Apple will be last in getting to market with AR glasses that can be worn all day in public. 

The hard reality is that Meta, Google, and Apple all face the same technical barriers that have slowed progress for years. 

According to Bloomberg, Apple’s engineers are still struggling to shrink high-resolution displays and batteries down to a size and weight that people would actually want to wear all day, while also making the glasses powerful enough to run advanced AI and AR features. 

Because of these technical barriers, the device many Silicon Valley insiders say will replace the smartphone will depend entirely on smartphones to function for the foreseeable future. 

Building glasses that are light, stylish, and comfortable enough to wear all day, while also packing in high-res displays, cameras, microphones, speakers, and a battery that lasts, is a massive engineering challenge. 

At least for the next few years, such glasses can be affordable or powerful and appealing to wear, but they can’t be both. 

Still, the recent flurry of news, demos, and leaks show that the industry is more serious than ever about making AR glasses a reality. Apple is pouring billions into R&D, Google is betting on AI and partnerships, and Samsung is gearing up for a major hardware launch.

The next few years will be critical, but the nirvana of slipping on a pair of glasses and seeing the digital world blend seamlessly with the real one remains, as always, just out of sight. 

Are you confused about what President Donald J. Trump is doing with tariffs? Join the crowd; we all are. But if you’re in charge of buying PCs for your company (because Windows 10 officially reaches end-of-life status on Oct. 14) all this confusion is quickly turning into worry. 

Before diving into what this all means, let’s clarify one thing: you will be paying more for your technology gear — period, end of statement. 

As Ingram Micro CEO Paul Bay said in a CRN interview: “Tariffs will be passed through from the OEMs or vendors to distribution, then from distribution out to our solution providers and ultimately to the end users.” 

It’s already happening. Taiwan-based computing giant Acer’s CEO, Jason Chen, recently spelled it out cleanly: “10% probably will be the default price increase because of the import tax. It’s very straightforward.”

When Trump came into office, we all knew there would be a ton of tariffs coming our way, especially on Chinese products such as Lenovo computers, or products largely made in China, such as those from Apple and Dell. The question was: “Exactly how big will they be?” 

The answer seems to vary from day to day. And that’s a problem for any company trying to plan for the rest of the year.

Trump’s first move was to sharply increase tariffs on imports from China, imposing rates as high as 125% to 145% on a wide range of goods, including many electronics. Then a week or so later, the administration announced key exemptions: smartphones, computers (including laptops and desktops), and several other electronic devices and components, including semiconductors, memory cards, and flat-panel displays. All were excluded from these new “reciprocal” tariffs. 

Note: electronics from China would still be subject to a 20% tariff, while those from other countries incur a 10% surcharge. 

But wait! It gets even murkier. Apparently that tariff “relief” is temporary and partial. US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has already said that sector-specific tariffs targeting electronics are forthcoming, “probably a month or two.” Just to keep things entertaining, Trump himself has at times contradicted his own officials about the scope and duration of the exclusions. 

Then, on April 15, Trump signed an executive order that would impose a total tariff of up to 245% on all Chinese imports to the United States. Would you be willing to pay $2,478 for an iPhone 16 Pro? You might get to find out by year’s end. 

It’s not just equipment from China. Take America’s ally, Taiwan. On March 26, Trump announced a new 25% tariff on imports of autos, auto parts, and computers. This was followed on April 2 by a separate 32% tariff on all other Taiwanese imports. Then, just a week later, that 32% tariff was reduced to 10% — for a 90-day negotiation period. 

What it all adds up to is that, as of now, Taiwanese computers are exempt from the new reciprocal tariffs and the 10% global tariff for at least the time being. But wait, there’s more! Under a Section 232 Tariff, a separate 25% surcharge on computers remains in effect. This tariff specifically targets all computers — there are no exemptions from the 232 tariffs for Taiwan or anyone else so far. 

Got all that? 

At least we’re not alone. As Francisco Jeronimo, vice president of client devices for IDC, told CNN: “It’s completely impossible for any company to plan. So, the best, the only thing they can do at the moment is… ship as many products as they can while the exemption lasts to the US.”

Oh, and lest I forget, full tariffs remain in effect for all the smaller peripherals our computers need. So, if you need USB charging cables, portable battery packs, headphones, or video game consoles, be ready to pay more — much more. 

What can you do? Buy. Buy now. Prices won’t be getting any better anytime soon. Even if you accept Trump’s economic theories — that this will all lead to a resurgence of American high-tech manufacturing, which I don’t believe for one minute — it will be years before US-based computer and component factories are ramped up and releasing hardware. If you need a computer (or a fleet of PCs), you don’t have time for that.

What else could you do? Look for OEMs from countries that have relatively low tariffs. Unfortunately, the only thing we can say for certain is that it won’t be a company based in China. Other than that, we don’t have a clue. Trump can brag all he wants about everyone wanting to make a trade deal with him, but the simple fact is that no such deals have been made so far. 

If you don’t want to move to Windows 11 or haven’t bought into the AI PC hype, you can try to make the most of your existing hardware. True, Windows 10 is only months away from its end of support, but those computers can still perform their jobs safely if you want to pay for support after October, but that’s whole different calculation. Or perhaps you could migrate them from Windows to ChromeOS Flex or Linux.

Is that what you want to do? Probably not – but considering where new PC prices are likely to be by the fall, it might be your most affordable option.

In a landmark decision, a US District Judge has ruled that Google illegally monopolized the ad tech market.

A federal judge in Virginia has found that the tech giant established “monopoly power” for two online advertising markets: publisher ad servers and ad exchanges that sit between buyers and sellers.

The ruling in the second-largest antitrust case of the century could mean that Google will have to break up its advertising products or change its business practices.

Google is said to have earned nearly $265 billion in 2024 alone through ad placement and sales. The company has said it will appeal the decision.

Google was previously the center of the century’s largest antitrust case, and was found guilty of being a “monopolist” with its search business. The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has made it clear that it wants the company to sell off its Chrome browser. That issue goes to trial next week.

[ Google US antitrust trials: A timeline ]

Thursday’s ruling will likely have a significant impact on the ad tech market, not to mention on Google’s business model and structure. That being said, the lengthy appeals process means the market isn’t going to feel seismic changes anytime soon.

“Google’s integration across ad serving, exchange, and buying platforms created efficiency, but it also limited competition and transparency,” said Julie Geller, principal research director at Info-Tech Research Group. “This decision forces a closer look at how market power is exercised through vertical control.”

Decision: monopoly in two of the three areas

The core of the case was Google’s alleged monopoly over three markets in the ad tech space — one for publishers, one for advertisers, and one that connects the two.

US District Judge Leonie Brinkema ruled today that Google had a monopoly on two of those markets (the publisher market and the ad exchange market), but sided with Google in finding that there is no separate advertiser market for online ads. She also ruled that the company’s acquisition of  advertising company DoubleClick in 2008 was not anticompetitive.

Google took this as a partial win, with the company’s VP for regulatory affairs, Lee-Anne Mulholland, stating: “We won half of this case and we will appeal the other half. The Court found that our advertiser tools and our acquisitions, such as DoubleClick, don’t harm competition. We disagree with the Court’s decision regarding our publisher tools. Publishers have many options and they choose Google because our ad tech tools are simple, affordable, and effective.”

Geller called the ruling a “major inflection point” for digital advertising, as it confirms that Google’s dominance wasn’t just about market share: It was reinforced by unlawful practices like tying DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP) with Google Ad Exchange.

“Structural separation is no longer theoretical, it’s moving forward,” she said. “For advertisers and publishers, the implications are real.”

She pointed out that a breakup would reshape how media is bought, how value flows, and how trust is built across the ad ecosystem, and potentially, search as well.

“It’s not just about Google,” said Geller. “It’s about whether the digital market can evolve toward something more open, accountable, and competitive.”

Bid to ‘restore competition’ to the web

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) and a coalition of eight states initially brought the case against Google in 2023, saying the tech giant engaged in monopolistic behavior, strategically acquiring particular companies and controlling the industry’s most popular tools and exchanges. The lawsuit sought to “restore competition” to the web.

The company avoided a jury trial, instead going before a judge only in a “bench trial,” by making a roughly $2.3 million payment to the DOJ that covered a portion of damages to the plaintiffs.

The trial took place last fall, with lawyers for the government arguing that Google has been looking to monopolize control of the ad network, server, and exchange markets since its DoubleClick purchase. This and other moves gave Google a monopoly over the three markets in the ad tech space, the DOJ alleged.

Google, for its part, argued that the feds didn’t understand advertising market economics and were just focusing on a narrow sliver of it (banner ads at the top and sides of web pages). The company described the industry as “intensively competitive” and claimed that its share in the market has decreased even as its revenues have increased.

There’s a lot of finger-pointing going on between providers trying to explain this week’s two-hour outage of Zoom’s American service.

On its website, Zoom says its zoom.us domain wasn’t available on Wednesday because of a “communications error” between Zoom’s domain registrar, Markmonitor, and GoDaddy Registry, “which resulted in GoDaddy Registry mistakenly shutting down zoom.us domain.”

For its part, a spokesperson for GoDaddy said the problem was between Markmonitor and Zoom.

“The GoDaddy registry team notified an account person at Markmonitor of an inquiry, and Markmonitor failed to notify Zoom that we had made the contact about the inquiry,” Kristy Nicholas told Computerworld. “[It was] something that we noticed and wanted to bring their [Markmonitor’s] attention to.”

She couldn’t clarify whether the communication was by phone or email. But, she said, GoDaddy waited several days to get a reply from Zoom.

“MarkMonitor acknowledged our communication,” Nicholas said, “and so we presumed information had been relayed to Zoom. That presumption was incorrect, that information had not been relayed to Zoom.”

She wouldn’t detail what the issue was, only that “we noticed something, we made contact with Markmonitor and Markmonitor failed to pass that information on to Zoom.”

“GoDaddy followed its protocol for ‘if it makes contact and no action is taken’, and put the server block in place.”

 This sort of communications problem is “not uncommon” with many customers, she added..

Asked for comment, Markmonitor’s parent company, Newfold Digital, which owns diverse providers offering web hosting, web design, and online marketing, sent this statement: “Markmonitor did include the client on our communications with GoDaddy Registry. That said, we believe there are opportunities to improve co-ordination and communication between GoDaddy Registry and Markmonitor, and we are committed to making that happen.”

Computerworld emailed Zoom for a response to Nicholas’ statement that Markmonitor allegedly hadn’t passed its message to them. No answer was received by press time.

“I think the lesson GoDaddy learned,” said Nicholas, “particularly with a customer the size of Zoom, is if we made contact with a registrar and we don’t know if that contact has been passed along to their customer, then we would go directly to Zoom and make contact with them before we put a server block in place.

“We’ll definitely analyze this situation for opportunities to improve the process, to try to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”

Communication issues are somewhat common but usually do not lead to service outages, said Johannes Ullrich, dean of research at the SANS Institute.

“Initially, the ‘whois’ system was intended to provide up-to-date contact information for technical and business contacts associated with a particular domain,” he said. “However, this system never worked well and was often flooded with spam, or the information was out of date. More recently, most domains use “privacy protected” whois records that no longer list actual contact information. In the case of Zoom, they elected to have Markmonitor manage any communications. Sadly, it looks like somewhere along the line, the ball was dropped, and the message from GoDaddy did not reach Zoom.”

OpenAI has released o3 and 04-mini, two reasoning AI models designed to be extra good at programming, math, and science and that can use images to “think,” according to Engadget, This means that users can upload sketches or diagrams, for example, and even if they are of low quality, o3 and 04-mini will understand what is meant.

The new models are also capable of generating images and browsing on their own.

A Chat GPT Plus, Pro or Team subscription is required to use the o3- and 04-mini models. And OpenAI said a more powerful o3-pro variant will be released in a few weeks. The company first released o3-mini in January.

Things are getting serious regarding Apple security. This shouldn’t really surprise you, given the normalization of chaos we’re enduring, as confusion always makes people more vulnerable. It’s easier to be hoodwinked into clicking that particular malware link when your head’s all over the place, you can’t think, and you don’t know whether you’ll still be in business tomorrow.

That’s because threats don’t need to be aligned or even harmonized to work together. Insecurity in one space breeds less security elsewhere, and then the whole house of dominoes falls on the strength of a single malicious whisper. Just last week, Ric Derbyshire, principal cybersecurity researcher at Orange Cyberdefense, warned that the digital world is at risk. 

Apple fixes two zero-days

Then, as if on cue, Apple rushes out its iOS 18.4.1 security patch to fix a pair of zero-day attacks it thinks are being actively used. The patch has also been made available to Macs, iPads, and other Apple devices.

More importantly – and in a sign of the severity with which the normally secure company views this attack — the update has also been made available to older devices, including macOS Sequoia, the iPhone XS, Apple TV HD, and other devices the company doesn’t usually patch. The fact that it has patched these devices should be seen as a red flag, upon which you’ll see written in VERY BIGLY WORDS: “Install these security patches today”.

You should heed that advice immediately for your fleet of Apple devices.

Apple rushed out a security bulletin to explain that the patches were released in response to an “extremely sophisticated attack” that took place against “specific targeted individuals.”

These attacks exploited a flaw in CoreAudio that could be used to execute remote code on vulnerable devices. They also used a flaw in Apple’s Remote Participant Audio Control framework. This let hackers with read and write access bypass iOS security protections that help protect memory. These two flaws also let attackers figure a way into your devices so they could steal data and spy on what you do.

These are just the latest zero-day attacks to have been identified and protected against on Apple’s platforms. But the growing frequency of these exploits should act as a visible barometric measure reflecting intense heat in the battle between white, black, and occasionally grey hat hackers.

Vast resources are being piled into attempts to undermine digital security, and the highest value attacks aren’t aimed at the contents of Aunt Bessie’s bank account – state secrets, military plans, intelligence in various forms, all are now up for grabs. 

A fragile peace

The threat environment is now so febrile that many of the top brass in business already travel with single-use devices, as they recognize the inherent risk when visiting some nations. That big picture of risk is intensifying, as the UK, EU and other governments take steps that, bit by bit, further undermine notions of digital security.

We’re in a race against the clock to protect what we’ve got, while waiting in the wings you can now see a future of attackers armed with quantum computers, ready to exploit every single vulnerability that exists and hasn’t yet been identified. 

Given this is the true security environment, it’s laughable that the most popular passcode used in the world continues to be 123456 — it’s as if people really don’t want to understand that to protect other people you’ve got to protect yourself. Because if these exploits are being used against targeted, high-value individuals today, I’d bet my last dollar (if I still had a last dollar) they will be weaponized for use against ordinary Joes and Joelles tomorrow.

There’s always going to be someone who doesn’t get the memo and doesn’t protect themselves – and if that is you, then rest assured, these attacks are coming for you.

Update your Apple devices now.

You can follow me on social media! Join me on BlueSky,  LinkedIn, and Mastodon.

AI agents are more than a productivity boost; they’re fundamentally reshaping customer interactions and business operations. And while there’s still work to do on trust and accuracy, the world is beginning a new tech era — one that might finally deliver on the promises seen in movies like Minority Report and Iron Man, according to Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff.

Benioff, who recently spoke with Foundry’s “Today In Tech” host Keith Shaw on a variety of IT topics, differentiates AI agents from just generative AI (genAI), calling agents “the magical layer” that turns raw AI potential into real business value. He emphasized their ability to handle tasks with context, personality, and deep data awareness — something earlier AI tools lacked.

Much of the Today in Tech conversation focused on AI agents, the software programs powered by AI that can make decisions, take actions, and interact with people or systems — often autonomously — to complete a business task or goal.

“When a lot of people think of [AI] agents, they think of Jarvis in the Iron Man movies, and that’s what we want. We want a personal assistant who can go and do all of these things for us.” — Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff

Benioff mentioned a scene from Minority Report where customers walk into a futuristic Gap store and a hologram greets them by name and recommends products based on what they’ve bought before. He said current AI technology isn’t that advanced yet, but it’s definitely heading in that direction.

“I know what the Gap store is going to look like in the future,” Benioff said. “When a lot of people think of [AI] agents, they think of Jarvis in the Iron Man movies, and that’s what we want. We want a personal assistant who can go and do all of these things for us.”

GenAI tools like ChatGPT, Grok, or Gemini “are impressive,” but they still make mistakes. With more data and context, they’ll keep getting better, he said.

Salesforce’s take on genAI and AI agents

Salesforce has deeply embedded AI into its CRM product ecosystem through a strategy it calls the “Einstein 1 Platform.” It also offers Agentforce, a platform that enables businesses to create and deploy autonomous AI agents across various functions such as sales, service, marketing, and commerce.  

Salesforce has also integrated genAI into its platform through Einstein GPT and Einstein Copilot, which function as intelligent assistants within applications. They can draft emails or customer responses, summarize case histories, auto-fill CRM records, and answer internal questions by leveraging a company’s own knowledge and data.

Using Salesforce clients such as Singapore Airlines as examples, Benioff said when an AI agent is layered atop corporate data, it creates a hybrid customer support service with both humans and AI, offering an overall better experience.

A customer can say, “Book me a flight to New York, and make sure it’s on Delta,” and an AI agent will check the passenger’s calendar, search flights, and book it with their loyalty number. It will then email anitinerary, all without the person ever clicking on a single button.

Benioff also pointed to Lennar Corp., a Florida-based homebuilder that ran a hackathon after Salesforce’s Dreamforce and developed five AI agent use cases to improve customer service and save money. And he noted how Disney uses AI agents to help employees understand its vast ecosystem and personalize customer experiences in real-time — even rerouting guests to other rides if one breaks down.

“Disney is an amazing company but let me tell you a secret about Disney that a lot of people don’t really think about, which is it’s really hard for their employees to understand all their products,” Benioff said. “This idea that an employee has to understand all those products, to talk to the customer, to put together the perfect package, the perfect idea for that customer. That’s pretty complicated.”

Pandora Jewelry, he said, uses Salesforce AI agents to recommend products based on a customer’s existing purchases, enhancing real-time retail interactions.

Data security and trust remain issues

While AI agents are powerful, issues like privacy, data security, and trust still need to be solved.

Though many companies consider AI agents as still in the experimental stage that comes with risk, others are looking to quickly adopt the tech anyway in the hopes of creating new efficiencies. As the adoption of autonomous AI agents explodes, vulnerabilities that allow them to be gamed or even weaponized are already emerging.

Salesforce’s AI agents, Benioiff said, operate within strict security and data-sharing rules, so they only access what each user is allowed to see. Because the genAI tools are built directly into the platform, they understand both data and metadata, ensuring accurate, secure, and compliant responses — essential for sensitive industries like banking or airlines.

The accuracy of Salesforce’s AI tech, Benioff acknowledged, currently stands at about 85%. But while current agentic AI is not perfect, next-gen “multisensory” models could change that.

Benioff admitted that early genAI tools like Microsoft’s Copilot were overhyped in the enterprise, but said newer tools like Cursor and Surf Rider are surpassing earlier models. He also praised open-source AI, cost-saving innovations like Mixture of Experts (MoE), and said he supports emerging alternatives like DeepSeek.

Most current genAI tools based on large language models (LLMs) are little more than next-word predictors based on patterns in text.  However, in the same way humans can draw on past experiences, and everything around them – sight, sound and touch – next-gen AI will be able to consider metadata, past experiences and information shared with AI models or multi-sensory inputs.

The rise of genAI in healthcare

And the technology is expected to improve healthcare by enabling a more complete patient diagnosis through near-instantaneous access to a vast depth of history and diagnostic tests. Patients will also be able to use the tech to be their own best advocates.

Last September, Benioff said he ruptured his Achilles tendon, and his doctor suggested surgery. Taking advice from GPT, Benioff instead told the doctor he was going with a self-regenerative approach inspired by Tony Robbins’ book Life Force. Six months later, he said, his Achilles is fully healed.

“I’m walking around without a boot and it regenerated. My doctor…is like, whoa. How’d you do that?” Benioff said. “It’s not magic.”

“Think about if the agent is really there to help guide you and make help you have those decisions, make the right steps and go forward,” he continued. “You know cancer patients who are dealing with complex treatments like chemotherapy and others, being able to have that  24/7 care, I think, is going to make a huge difference.”

In rural areas with limited access to specialists, genAI could augment orthopedic surgeons and others, helping them make better, data-driven decisions about treatments like surgery or regenerative options. That said, the technology remains limited in its abilities. Until there is a “multi-sensory model,” which is the next generation of AI, it will continue to be good, “but not perfect,” Benioff said.

GenAI and the workforce

One subject that has had the IT industry on edge is in recent years involves workforce reduction brought about by AI. As the technology becomes more competent at automating tasks, the fear is that human employees will be replaced.

In the interview, Shaw referenced an opinion column Benioff wrote for Wall Street Journal in which he said a Morgan Stanley report showed a 20% to 50% cost savings from AI developments, largely from reduced headcount, office space, and overhead.

“I think that we have to deal with reality here,” Benioff said. “So, I think it would be a huge mistake for me to not directly address this issue head on and to really talk about what is happening. That is that, yes, this is doing some of the roles that are being done by human beings. So, we need to start to adjust. We need to look at what is really going on.”

“I think that it’s all about education that we’re going to need to make sure people are well trained, well educated — they can reskill.” — Marc Benioff

Companies, he said, have to invest in reskilling workers, rather than just “making promises” there won’t be layoffs. Salesforce, he said, is investing in reskilling, but he also stressed the importance of corporate responsibility for helping to advance public education. “You can’t just talk about it; you have to fund it,” he said.

“Our biggest grantee is our San Francisco and Oakland public schools, because I think that it’s all about education that we’re going to need to make sure people are well trained, well educated, they can reskill,” he said. “And reskilling is another area that we put a huge amount of money into the last 20 years, and this is important. And yes, we’re all going to have to think about this.”

Despite its size, Benioff sees Salesforce as a startup at heart that’s focused on emerging tech and driven by vision, values, and innovation. He recalled the early days — bootstrapping with angel investors like IDG founder Pat McGovern, and how industry events like IDG’s DEMO shaped the company’s beginnings. Notable products introduced at DEMO include Salesforce.com itself, TiVo, VMware, Evernote, E*Trade, WebEx, and Fusion-io. (Until last month, Foundry was owned by IDG.)

“Salesforce started in a super adverse environment where funding was highly constrained. So, we had to raise all our money — you know, privately. No venture capitalists would even invest in the company, which was amazing,” Benioff said. “And that’s why people like Pat McGovern…[were] angels in technology investing.”

​

Enterprise users are receiving unprovoked offers to upgrade to Windows 11 due to an issue in Microsoft’s device management tools.

The issue is with Microsoft’s Intune software, which typically allows system administrators to manage mobile devices. Intune governs the use of Windows, macOS, and Android devices attached to enterprise environments.

The news was first reported by Bleeping Computer, which also noted that a code-fix was being deployed to systems. The problem was a “latent code issue,” which was then being fixed.

It is unclear how Windows systems were offered upgrades to Windows 11. Intune typically determines the usage policies for devices and provisions hardware and software updates.

Microsoft didn’t respond to questions from Computerworld about the issue or when it would be resolved.

An advisory posted on Microsoft’s website also said system administrators must manually roll back updates to Windows 11 caused by the bug. Enterprises should also pause Windows Updates.

Device management can be a problem if system administrators don’t have proper controls, or if rollouts are not compatible with the device management tools in place, said Jack Gold, principal analyst at J. Gold Associates.

One example is rolling out a driver update that may not work or has zero capability to roll it back, like what happened with Crowdstrike, Gold said.

The rollback from Windows 11 due to the Intune glitch should be tested on a limited basis and rolled out to the entire fleet of affected systems after ensuring no glitches show up, Gold said.

The unintentional upgrade notices to Windows 11 come despite Microsoft’s recent announcement of automation and AI features for Intune, designed to automate device management and patch updates.

Last month, the company announced the addition of AI agents to Security Copilot, which is designed to prevent security attacks. A Copilot feature for Intune called “Vulnerability Remediation Agent” makes it easier to prioritize patch management and the remediation of security issues on devices.

Microsoft last month also announced the preview of Windows 365 Frontline, which sets up a temporary “shared mode” for the cloud-based OS. An Intune automated feature prepares the virtual PC policies that include app access and other provisions.

Gold said security and patch management, which is already unforgiving for sysadmins, will get even tougher with AI deployments on devices.

Beyond managing devices, system administrators will need to take charge on managing the bits of data accessible to enterprise users for AI.

“For the most part, rolling out AI should be no more difficult than other apps, but we’ve seen in the past that apps don’t always play nice together on the same system,” Gold said.

Nvidia now expects new US government restrictions on exports of its H20 chip to China will cost the company as much as $5.5 billion, Reuters reports.

Nvidia’s H20 chip is used for AI development; the US government has said it wants to restrict exports of the chip to China because of concerns it could be used to build a supercomputer. The H20 chip is the most advanced that Nvidia has been allowed to sell in China, though it is not as fast as the chips the company sells outside China.

AMD’s MI308 chip and its counterparts have also been restricted, a move the company estimates will cost it $800 million, Techcrunch reports.

The European Commission has issued so-called burner phones and simple laptops to certain staffers traveling to the US to reduce the risk of espionage, according to The Financial Times.

The Commission issued the new guidelines to commissioners and senior officials traveling to the International Monetary Fund and World Bank spring meetings next week. The EU has in the past used the same approach for staffers traveling to China.

“They are worried about the US getting into the Commission’s system,” an anonymous source told the Times.

The European Commission confirmed it recently updated its security advice for travel to the US, but said no specific instructions on burner phones were given in writing. Those instructions for travel to the US recommend turning off the phone at the border and placing it in a special bag to protect it from spying if it is unattended.

The US White House has not commented on the matter.

Editor’s note: After this story was published earlier today, CISA signed a contract extension that averts a shutdown of the MITRE CVE program.

A CISA spokesperson sent CSO (a sister publication to Computerworld) a statement saying: “The CVE Program is invaluable to cyber community and a priority of CISA. Last night, CISA executed the option period on the contract to ensure there will be no lapse in critical CVE services. We appreciate our partners’ and stakeholders’ patience.” (Sources indicate the contract extension will last 11 months.)

The story below reflects the state of events prior to the contract extension.

In what may yet be seen by some as a triumph of some kind, funding for the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) system, the world-renowned security service trusted and used by Apple and other tech firms across the planet, has been summarily cut.

CVE numbers are part of a globally recognized system used to identify and track vulnerabilities. Weakening it might save the US government budget a few dollars — at the cost of creating havoc across a security community already stretched by a politically-driven spike in cyberattacks. See also: CVE program averts swift end after CISA executes 11-month contract extension

What it is and why it matters

The CVE service provides a really easy way for individuals and organizations to report security vulnerabilities they find in any product. You can tell how important it is, given that a CVE number has pretty much become the market standard for identifying such problems. The numbers act as a common language and ensure everyone is referring to the same bug. But federal funding for the program has been cut, which could leave tech users less safe than before. 

In a letter to board members, MITRE Corporation (a not-for-profit, federally-funded group that supports CVE) warned that a break in the service might generate multiple bad impacts, “including deterioration of national vulnerability databases and advisories, tool vendors, incident response operations, and all manner of critical infrastructure.”

Mitre laid off more than 400 employees in anticipation of the cuts earlier this month; the funding reduction comes as the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) continues to struggle to stay on top of the accelerating number of vulnerabilities disclosures.

No times like the present

With an accelerating number of active vulnerability disclosures and a growing volume of attacks, chaos in the language used by researchers to describe and act against these attacks can’t help but weaken ongoing security protection by slowing reaction times as new flaws are reported. 

Critics of the CVE system exist, and the people running it will admit that it was designed for a time when the level and scale of threat was lower. But the system is internationally accepted, works, and provides a level of infrastructure security on which researchers depend.

A funding cut with little warning will cause chaos in the community – though hopefully the big companies that rely on CVE for their own work will dig deep into their revenue to finance the organization. Doing so is, after all, in their own interests – the very rich, will, after all, be the only real beneficiaries of any tax cuts coming down the pipe in exchange for changes such as these.

It isn’t clear what Apple’s reaction will be, but given it has been referencing CVE numbers for years, there’s little doubt the system is important to the company and its network of independent security researchers. Before the system emerged, security researchers each used their own unique terminology to refer to risks, creating a lot of confusion when securing platforms. Weakening the system now makes little sense to professionals in the field.

“CVE is a cornerstone of cybersecurity, and any gaps in CVE support will put our critical infrastructure and national security at unacceptable risk,” Luta Security founder and CEO Katie Moussouris told The Register. “All industries worldwide depend on the CVE program to keep their heads above water when it comes to managing threats, so an abrupt halt like this would be like depriving the cybersecurity industry of oxygen and expecting it to spontaneously sprout gills.”

Not giving up yet

The people behind the effort aren’t giving up. One group of CVE board members immediately repositioned themselves as a nonprofit group to be called the CVE Foundation, which will continue the mission. “CVE, as a cornerstone of the global cybersecurity ecosystem, is too important to be vulnerable itself,” said Kent Landfield, an officer of the foundation. “Cybersecurity professionals around the globe rely on CVE identifiers and data as part of their daily work — from security tools and advisories to threat intelligence and response. Without CVE, defenders are at a massive disadvantage against global cyber threats.” 

Other entities are also stepping up to mitigate the inevitable damage. “VulnCheck is actively monitoring the MITRE situation, and will ensure that our customers, partners, and the entire cybersecurity community will have continued access to timely, accurate vulnerability data,” said Anthony Bettini, founder and CEO of VulnCheck. “We recognize the critical role that the CVE program plays in the cybersecurity ecosystem, and we are actively preparing for any potential disruptions.”

We’ll see how this develops, but one way most everyone using digital devices could help maintain security is by being much more careful when clicking links in emails or elsewhere. Those aren’t the only attack vectors, of course, but when you can’t rely on the tech to save itself, you need to gather the fruit closest to the floor. Now is a good time to be more security aware, on any platform.

You can follow me on social media! Join me on BlueSky,  LinkedIn, and Mastodon.

This article was originally published with the headline “CVE funding shut down, giving the security community jitters.”

South Korean AI startup Upstage is ramping up global expansion in the US and Japan, positioning its full-stack AI platform to serve enterprise clients. With a focus on boosting productivity through proprietary technologies, the AI firm is trying to replicate its domestic success in two of the world’s most advanced AI markets.

Co-founded in 2020 by Sung Kim, former AI development lead at Naver, the startup announced its global expansion strategy, aimed at helping countries build “sovereign AI” models based on their business productivity-focused AI technologies, reported Yonhap News Agency.

In April last year, Upstage raised 100 billion won ($72 million) from investors including SK Networks and KT Corp to fuel its expansion. Kim said the funding would help accelerate the development of purpose-trained LLMs and strengthen the company’s global presence.

Upstage’s strategy is built around its own AI technologies, like the OCR “DP” technology and the large language model “Solar.” Kim pointed out that these innovations are central to their goal of using AI to boost productivity across industries.

The company believes its control over the entire AI stack sets it apart. The latest Solar Pro model, with 22 billion parameters, has shown substantial improvements in key benchmarks. Upstage plans to introduce a multimodal AI model in June that will integrate its DP technology and Solar LLM, along with a new inference AI model.

Their latest language model, Solar Pro 1.3, claims to have the “highest benchmark performance” among Korean AI, and they’re promising even more muscle with the 33-billion-parameter “Solar Pro 1.5,” expected to arrive in June 2025.

In the US, Upstage plans to leverage its expertise in document parsing, especially within industries like insurance, where it has successfully deployed solutions for Korean insurers such as Samsung Life Insurance.

Upstage’s DP technology can process documents at approximately 0.6 seconds per page, translating to 100 pages in under a minute.

This ability to quickly convert unstructured documents into structured data is especially relevant for US sectors such as legal, healthcare, and finance, which routinely handle large volumes of text. The structured output supports downstream AI applications like summarization, question answering, and intelligent search capabilities increasingly sought by document-heavy enterprises.

As part of its global growth strategy, Upstage has also been involved in a project to develop a Thai-language-specific LLM.

Syn-ergy in Japan

The company, which counts South Korean firms such as Samsung Card and Hanwha Life among its clients, is focusing on Japan’s extensive document-driven enterprise market. To make inroads, the company is working on a Japanese-specific language model with local partners. It has recently appointed Hiroyuki Matsushita, who has held senior roles at Panasonic and AWS, as head of its Japanese operations.

A key offering from the company for the Japanese market is “Syn,” a compact language model co-developed with the Japanese chatbot startup Karakuri. Designed specifically for sectors like finance, healthcare, manufacturing, and legal services, Syn aims to enhance operational efficiency for Japanese companies.  

Full-stack AI

Upstage is pursuing a full-stack approach to AI by developing and managing its core technologies in-house. Its proprietary ecosystem spans the entire AI adoption journey—from data ingestion to model deployment—anchored by its Document Parse (DP) engine and Solar large language model, which are designed to work in tandem to address specific enterprise needs.

By building these foundational tools internally, Upstage aims to offer more integrated, customizable solutions, with the added benefit of faster iteration and seamless system integration. To support broader adoption, the company is also organizing developer hackathons in key regions such as the US, alongside its ongoing R&D efforts. In June 2025, Upstage plans to roll out a multimodal AI model that combines its DP engine and Solar LLM to process both structured documents and unstructured text. The launch is part of its broader push to deliver scalable AI solutions tailored for enterprise environments.

The last few months have seen an explosion of new agentic-like AI tools that can automate workflows within productivity applications, but analysts are recommending that enterprises carefully assess deployment risks before adopting them.

“Enterprise leaders need to come up with a strategy for thinking about agentic AI in its true sense, and also governance for these solutions,” said JP Gownder, vice president and principal analyst on Forrester’s Future of Work team.

Gownder said these tools aren’t truly agentic AI, but “agent-ish” tools, which is how Forrester is terming these applications. “Agent-ish solutions can solve point problems, but they aren’t the ‘digital coworkers’ that vendors are talking about, at least not yet,” Gownder said.

Google and Microsoft have been developing AI plugins for their productivity suites, and third parties are providing their own AI plugins for the applications.

At last week’s Google Cloud Next, Google introduced new AI tools for its Workspace suite to automate work across productivity apps. Workspace Flows can automate a stream of jobs involved in document reviews, customer support requests, or product analysis. The “help me analyze” feature in Google Sheets can take information from tables and provide instant data analysis and insights.

Microsoft celebrated its 50th anniversary earlier this month with a gaggle of unique Copilot automation features that can work with the 365 productivity suite or independently. 

The company’s Microsoft 365 roadmap touts an exhaustive list of upcoming Copilot automation features, including automation tools to write Word documents, learning companions based on learning needs, and automated HR tools.

This week, Anthropic introduced the integration of its Claude AI model with Gmail and Calendar, in addition to Google Docs, which helps “gain deeper insight into your work context” by searching emails, reviewing documents, and scanning the calendar, the company said via email.

“Whether you’re managing projects, planning trips, or handling personal and family tasks, Claude now understands your full context to provide better assistance. Navigate to settings to connect to the Google Workspace beta,” Anthropic said.

And Adobe is developing an Adobe Express AI agent for Microsoft 365  that can create multimedia and presentations via Copilot.

Deploying these specific AI plugins in productivity applications safely could involve years of fine-tuning and implementation; first, enterprises need to understand what the tools do, understand potential security issues, and prepare guardrails, analysts said.

A technical rollout of AI systems and agents doesn’t mean enterprises are doing the right thing — they could be moving too quickly.

“We’re at the very beginning of the journey toward agentic AI, but vendors like to use the term ‘agent,’ even though they lack the autonomy and actionability they will eventually possess,” Gownder said.

Microsoft Copilot Agents are good for tapping into specific data sources — such as a SharePoint site — to ensure that the right data sources are being queried, Gownder said. “It’s helpful for a sort of RAG (retrieval augmented generation) model of computing. But these aren’t complex agents,” he said.

Agents can be stacked so that one agent calls another to do a special task, a process that could include several agents before a result is shown to the end user, said Jack Gold, principal analyst at J. Gold Associates.

As with any new technology, enterprises need to learn how to best use the technology, including asking the right questions in the right sequence so that the agent itself is productive. “It’s also critical that the questions asked are succinct, because agents have a tendency to ‘wander’ if you don’t give them specific criteria,” Gold said.

The “user training” process will likely include trial-and-error, and it can be quick or not, depending on the role and complexity. “The biggest challenge will be: can you trust the results that the agents just provided you,” Gold said.

As with any enterprise-class system, the CISO needs to be involved to determine any danger points, and HR and legal teams might also need to be involved in rollouts that involve corporate data.

“But with AI, it’s amplified by the ability for these systems to actually enhance the types of information that can be retrieved by surmising new data from the old. It’s a different level of requirements,” Gold said.

One big risk to watch out for is agent “anarchy,” in which the prospect of thousands of poorly orchestrated agents could collide and cause vicious loops of automated interactions, said Jason Wong, vice president and analyst on the App Design and Development team at Gartner. “Without proper planning and supervision, agent anarchy is a near-term and serious threat to the stability of enterprise applications,” he said.

Employees with access to genAI tool builders such as Copilot Studio Agent Builder or Google AI Studio — when mixed with other agents that come with applications — can also create issues.

It typically takes at least three months to change ingrained behavior for most employees using genAI, Wong said. “Sysadmins must upskill to become more of an enablement function to the building and management of agents, rather than just focusing on administering operations.”

Anthropic has introduced two new features to its Claude AI assistant — Research and Google Workspace integration — marking its latest effort to position its AI assistant as a collaborative enterprise AI partner.

These features, now in beta for select paid plans, enable Claude to autonomously search the web and organizational content while connecting to Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Docs to enhance contextual understanding and streamline workflows.

“In line with our vision for Claude as your collaborative partner that delivers hours of work in minutes, we’re continuing to expand the context that Claude has access to,” Anthropic said in a statement.

The move signals Anthropic’s intent to sharpen its edge in the increasingly crowded AI assistant market, where rivals such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, and Google’s Gemini are pushing deeper into enterprise integrations.

“Claude is based on ‘constitutional AI’ training and brings in unique capabilities complementing Google’s Gemini — from handling longer contexts, effective reasoning to focus on privacy and security,” said Neil Shah, VP for research and partner at Counterpoint Research. “Enterprises using Workspace now have multiple model choices, from Gemini to Claude, to get the best possible output—safely and speedily.”

“Anthropic’s latest upgrades — Claude’s Research agent and Workspace-native integration — shift the competitive centre of enterprise AI,” said Sanchit Vir Gogia, chief analyst and CEO at Greyhound Research. “No longer content with fast answers, CIOs are demanding audit-ready, multi-document synthesis.”

Research: agentic exploration with citation

Claude’s new Research feature moves beyond reactive question-answering by conducting autonomous, multi-step investigations into user queries, pulling insights from both internal documents and the open web. Responses come with inline citations, supporting auditability and fact verification, the statement added.

“Anthropic’s emphasis on citation-backed reasoning and secure document retrieval is more than an academic choice — it’s a compliance lever,” Gogia said.

Unlike standard web search tools, Research applies reasoning to synthesize findings and deliver holistic, source-backed summaries, making it particularly useful for enterprise scenarios such as market analysis, technical due diligence, or executive briefings.

“By focusing on citation-backed responses and secure document retrieval, Claude addresses the critical needs of regulated industries where transparency and compliance are non-negotiable,” said Abhivyakti Sengar, practice director at Everest Group.

Workspace integration and enterprise features

Anthropic’s integration with Google Workspace tools allows Claude to securely access a user’s Gmail, Calendar, and Docs, enabling it to retrieve relevant files, extract meeting highlights, and summarize follow-up emails without repeated manual input.

Anthropic emphasized that data access is permission-based and session-limited, ensuring users retain control over their information, an important consideration for enterprises prioritizing compliance.

“This move strengthens Claude’s ability to learn more about enterprise workflows and become more proactive and autonomous — from processing extensive documentation to integrating citation and verification workflows,” Shah added.

For enterprise users, Claude now supports advanced document cataloging, building a searchable index across organizational files that allows Claude to surface specific information buried in long documents or scattered across multiple formats.

“When cataloging is enabled, Claude leverages a specialized index of your organization’s documents to find the information you need,” Anthropic statement added.

At the technical level, Claude’s Research and cataloging capabilities are powered by Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), a framework that augments large language models with real-time information retrieval.

Anthropic noted that Claude’s access to both Workspace tools and document repositories is strictly permission-controlled, and access is not retained after sessions unless explicitly configured, helping maintain compliance with enterprise policies.

“Unless vendors like OpenAI and Google match Claude’s standards for sandboxed context and retrieval integrity, enterprise AI adoption will continue to be throttled by fear, not lack of functionality,” Gogia said.

Anthropic outlined how the new features can support a variety of enterprise functions. In marketing, Claude can analyze strategy documents and external sources to shape product launch plans. Sales teams can use it to compile briefings by summarizing past correspondence and surfacing relevant updates. Engineers may streamline technical planning by referencing design documents and external API specifications in a unified view.

Strategic positioning against competitors

These updates bring Claude into closer competition with Microsoft Copilot and Google Gemini, though Claude differentiates itself through agentic research workflows and explicit source citations — features designed to build trust in environments where decision-making relies on verifiable data.

“Anthropic does have an edge when it comes to retrieving safe, compliant, and verified outputs, especially in regulated verticals such as finance, healthcare, or even education, research, where Google Workspace is the strongest,” Shah pointed out. “For example, Claude on Google Cloud’s Vertex AI is now authorized for FedRAMP High and IL2 workloads, making it more apt for these verticals. Google’s recent deal with the government gives a very good runway for Claude. So, timing is perfect.”

Anthropic has crossed the threshold from assistant to analyst, pressuring rivals like Copilot and ChatGPT Enterprise to catch up on defensibility—not just capability, Gogia added.

While Microsoft and Google benefit from tight ecosystem lock-in with Office 365 and Google Workspace respectively, Claude aims to provide a more flexible overlay across platforms. Anthropic’s bet is that organizations working across diverse toolsets and managing complex document repositories will value Claude’s autonomy and interpretability over deep native integration.

“Google, being one of the key investors in Anthropic, it is natural to help Anthropic extend its reach in a more controlled way, complementing Gemini and at the same time, offering more choice to users based on the AI tasks in the Workspace,” Shah explained. “So, this combination gives Google an edge in enterprise vs standalone agents or agentic workflows such as CoPilot or OpenAI.”

Availability

The Research capability is now in early beta for users on Claude’s Max, Team, and Enterprise plans in the US, Japan, and Brazil. Web search functionality, which launched in the US in March, is now also available in Japan and Brazil. The Google Workspace integration is available in beta for all paid users. “These enhancements are only the beginning,” Anthropic said in the statement. “In the coming weeks, we’ll expand the range of content sources available and the ability for Claude to do research in more depth.”

When Microsoft was founded 50 years ago this month, it wasn’t clear the company would last 50 weeks, much less 50 years. Since then, it’s grown from a three-person company with barely any revenue to one worth approximately $1 trillion, depending on the day’s stock price, with 228,000 employees in 190 countries.

These seven game-changers paved the way for the company’s success. (In my next column, I’ll look at Microsoft biggest bombs over the years.)

Gates declares war on share-and-share alike

In the earliest days of the PC revolution during the early-to-mid 1970s, 1960s-style idealism reigned. Many of the earliest techies believed technology could usher in a more equitable world, and as a model for that, they shared knowledge and work with each other freely. Nowhere was this more true than in the influential Homebrew Computer Club, in which people traded tips and advice on how to use the earliest PC, the Altair 8800 (which had to be assembled by hand).

Microsoft’s first product was a version of the BASIC programming language for the machine. Much to Gates’ chagrin, though, people weren’t paying for it. Instead, they shared copies of it with each other for free.

So in February 1976 he wrote an open letter to the Homebrew Computer Club titled “An Open Letter to Hobbyists.” It was a declaration of war on those he saw as thieves, and laid the operating principles that would later grow his company (then called Micro-Soft) into a behemoth.  Gates wrote, in part:

“The amount of royalties we have received from sales to hobbyists makes the time spent on Altair BASIC worth less than $2 an hour.

“As the majority of hobbyists must be aware, most of you steal your software…. Who cares if the people who work on it get paid?

“Who can afford to do professional work for nothing? What hobbyist can put 3 man- years into programming, finding all bugs, documenting his product and distribute for free?…Most directly, the thing you do is theft.”

So much for the share-and-share-alike ethos of the 1960s. The letter worked. After it, Microsoft had a solid cash flow.

Microsoft hits big with MS-DOS

For its first few years, Microsoft continued to write and sell programming languages for personal computers. It was a profitable niche. But that’s all it was…a niche, and a small one at that. Gates had bigger things in mind.

The company’s first big breakthrough came in 1981 when he convinced IBM to pay Microsoft $430,000 to develop an operating system and provide other services for its still-secret, yet-to-be released new PC. IBM thought it was getting a great deal — it had expected to pay even more. But Gates outsmarted Big Blue. He negotiated terms that allowed Microsoft to sell the same operating system to other personal computer makers. (Microsoft called IBM’s operating system DOS and its own compatible operating system MS-DOS.) 

So-called “clones” of the IBM PC flooded the market, and Microsoft got a royalty for every one of them sold because they all needed an operating system compatible with IBM’s PC. The company soon was rolling in money.

Microsoft didn’t have to spend much time or money developing DOS and MS-DOS. It paid $50,000 to a company for an existing operating system called QDOS (short for “quick-and-dirty operating system”) and tweaked it to run on IBM’s PC and clones.

Windows 3.0 and 3.1 rule the world

To run MS-DOS and DOS you had to use a command line, which was no one’s idea of a good time and not particularly easy to do. While IBM PCs and clones were stuck in the old world, Apple was creating a new one with its graphically based operating system for the Lisa computer in 1983, and then the groundbreaking Macintosh operating system in 1984. It became clear graphical OSes were the future, and Microsoft eventually released its first version of one, Windows, in 1985. But it didn’t run as an operating system; instead, it ran as an application inside DOS. The same was true for Windows 2.0. 

Neither version of Windows went anywhere fast.

Then, in 1990 Microsoft released Windows 3.0 and two years later, the improved version called Windows 3.1. The operating systems were far easier to use than MS-DOS. But they were also inelegant and awkward, kludgy, crashed far too often and at times were head-scratchingly confusing to use. But they were good enough to replace MS-DOS as the standard for PCs, and they cemented Microsoft’s worldwide monopoly over operating systems. 

They might not have been pretty, easy-to-use or reliable, but they accomplished their primary purpose: printing cash by the billions for Microsoft.

Microsoft aims for its next target, businesses

By the late 1980s, it was clear the PC revolution that had begun in the 1970s for hobbyists had gone big-time in the business world. Microsoft went after the market with a vengeance, launching Office in 1990. It included not just a software suite (Word, Excel and PowerPoint), but server software as well. Gates swept away the competition with shark-like tactics, some of which were found to violate antitrust laws.  

Microsoft followed suit with countless other business services and software, including SQL Server, Power BI, Dynamics 365, Power Platform and many more. Microsoft soon owned the enterprise market.

Satya Nadella replaces Steve Ballmer as CEO

In 2000, Steve Ballmer replaced Gates as CEO. Under his hard-charging, sometimes clownish leadership that focused obsessively on Windows to the detriment of other products and technologies, Microsoft slowly drifted into irrelevance. It missed out on the mobile revolution and became an also-ran in the internet and social media. Ballmer tried to solve most problems with the bluster and business tactics that did well in the 1970s through 2000, but failed miserably in the 21st century.

Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer during a meeting in the ’90s.

Microsoft

He lasted until 2014, when Satya Nadella took over. Many people’s first reaction to the choice was “Who?” Nadella didn’t brag and shout like Ballmer or swagger and resort to illegal tactics like Gates. Instead, with a calm demeanor, he dragged the company into the new century, killing flailing multi-billion-dollar projects like Windows Mobile, turning the company into a smooth operation rather than a series of warring fiefdoms, and pouring billions into new technologies that would eventually make Microsoft a tech leader again.

Nadella turns to the cloud 

Microsoft launched Azure, its cloud platform, under Ballmer in 2010. But it took Nadella to see its importance. He refocused the company away from Windows and towards the cloud. By 2024, its Intelligent Cloud division tallied $100 billion in sales. But that vastly understates how much cloud-related revenue the company brings in, because software and services like Office (now called Microsoft 365) have become cloud services as well.

Satya Nadella addresses the Microsoft Build event in Seattle on May 21, 2024.

Dan DeLong / Microsoft

In essence, Microsoft became a cloud company.

Microsoft bets big on AI

Six years ago, Microsoft made what was at the time something of an under-the-radar investment: $1 billion into the startup OpenAI. Few people took notice. Three years later, in November 2022, OpenAI’s ChatGPT took the world by storm — thanks in part to $12 billion more in Microsoft investments. A year after that, Microsoft released its own version of ChatGPT, called Copilot, for enterprises. 

Now, Copilot is integrated into virtually every part of the company, and Microsoft is building its own AI team and products separate from OpenAI. It’s become the world leader in AI, with no end in sight — a solid starting point for the company’s next 50 years.

I’ve got a better way to scroll on Windows — especially on large monitors. This instantly boosted my productivity and fixed a major annoyance I had with Windows 11. And you can try it yourself in just a few seconds.

This isn’t just a typical tech article about Windows. This is one that offers a better way to use Windows. It’s not an existing tool that you will find elsewhere, in other words — it’s a new way to use the Windows desktop you can install right now, written just for this column.

I’ll be honest: I made this script for me, first and foremost. I’ll be using this script for years to come. But I think it’s amazing, and I hope you’ll get use out of it, too.

Want more Windows PC tweaks? Check out my free Windows Intelligence newsletter. I’ll send you free in-depth Windows Field Guides (a $10 value) as a special welcome bonus!

Why scrolling on Windows 11 is so annoying

Here’s the issue: Windows 11’s scrolling system is pretty bad. Microsoft shrunk the scroll bars from past Windows versions. The larger your monitor, the more annoying those tiny scroll bars are. If you move your mouse cursor to the right edge of the screen, you’re grabbing the window border — not the tiny scroll bar. You have to carefully position your mouse cursor over those little scroll bars.

And sure, you could simply spin the wheel on your mouse instead, but that’s too slow for scrolling longer distances. You could middle-click and move the mouse, too, but that feels awkward. Or you could aim at those scroll bars and wonder why the targets are so small.

While thinking over how annoying this all is, I realized the way the scroll wheel should work. And so I built a script.

Meet ‘Grab to Scroll,’ a transformative AutoHotkey script

The result is an incredibly simple script for AutoHotkey, a free Windows automation framework. It’s called Grab to Scroll. You can download it here.

You’ll just need to install the core AutoHotkey 2.0 program first; you then double-click the script to run it. That’s all.

Here’s how it works:

• Position your mouse cursor anywhere over a window — Chrome, Slack, Excel, or any open program.
• Click and hold the middle mouse button. (That’s usually the mouse wheel itself.)
• Move the mouse up, down, left, or right — not the scroll wheel, but the mouse itself.
• The script translates your mouse movements into quick, precise scrolling.
• Release the middle mouse button when you’re done.

That’s a lot of words to describe something so simple that it immediately feels like how mice should work in Windows in the first place.

srcset="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Grab-to-Scroll-animation.webp?quality=50&strip=all 800w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Grab-to-Scroll-animation.webp?resize=300%2C210&quality=50&strip=all 300w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Grab-to-Scroll-animation.webp?resize=768%2C538&quality=50&strip=all 768w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Grab-to-Scroll-animation.webp?resize=240%2C168&quality=50&strip=all 240w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Grab-to-Scroll-animation.webp?resize=120%2C84&quality=50&strip=all 120w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Grab-to-Scroll-animation.webp?resize=686%2C480&quality=50&strip=all 686w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Grab-to-Scroll-animation.webp?resize=514%2C360&quality=50&strip=all 514w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Grab-to-Scroll-animation.webp?resize=357%2C250&quality=50&strip=all 357w" width="800" height="560" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px">Here’s how Grab to Scroll looks in action — but it’s a lot smoother, of course.

Chris Hoffman, IDG

Because of how this works, the script takes over your middle-mouse button. That means middle-clicking won’t work in the usual way while it’s running. I’ve built in a bypass: When you hold down the Ctrl key and middle-click, the script will send a normal middle-click action. That way, you can hold Ctrl and middle-click to close browser tabs, for example.

Want to stop using it altogether? Just locate the green AutoHotkey icon in your system tray, right-click it, and select “Exit.”

srcset="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AutoHotkey-in-system-tray.png?quality=50&strip=all 800w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AutoHotkey-in-system-tray.png?resize=300%2C127&quality=50&strip=all 300w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AutoHotkey-in-system-tray.png?resize=768%2C325&quality=50&strip=all 768w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AutoHotkey-in-system-tray.png?resize=150%2C64&quality=50&strip=all 150w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AutoHotkey-in-system-tray.png?resize=640%2C271&quality=50&strip=all 640w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AutoHotkey-in-system-tray.png?resize=444%2C188&quality=50&strip=all 444w" width="800" height="339" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px">To stop running the script, close AutoHotkey from your system tray.

Chris Hoffman, IDG

I’ve built in a few preferences you can fine tune, if you like — just in case the scrolling feels too fast or slow with your particular PC and mouse.

It’s pretty self-explanatory: You just need to change the numbers on a few lines and save the script file. It includes comments that explain how to tweak it. You can use Notepad, Notepad++, or your text editor of choice to change its settings. (Then, be sure to right-click the green AutoHotkey icon in your system tray and select “Reload Script.)

The joy of ‘vibe-coding’

I could have written this myself if I put serious time into it. But I didn’t. I used generative AI (genAI).

The reality is that I’m a writer, not a programmer. I wrote every single word in this article myself. But I didn’t write the script by hand.

Given some time, I probably could have taught myself how to put this script together. But I didn’t have to do that.

Instead, I “vibe-coded” this Grab to Scroll script. That’s a new term for describing a problem you have and a solution you want and having an genAI tool put together the code for you. It wasn’t a one-shot solution: The tool got it wrong at first, and there was some back and forth. 

The critical insight was knowing how I wanted scrolling on Windows to work. That was all me, not genAI. I came up with a vision — one so convenient that it seems obvious to me in retrospect. But with genAI handling the grunt work, I was able to quickly throw together a script that works so shockingly well I’m writing it up for Computerworld the same day.

The entire process — from “Windows 11’s scrolling sure is annoying on a big monitor, how can I fix this?” to a working script that transforms scrolling everywhere in Windows and implements a vision that came from my own brain — took less than an hour. And now I’m sharing it with you.

The cool thing isn’t just this script. It’s that you can also now tweak it to work in whatever way you want. You can take the script I created to a chatbot like ChatGPT, copy-paste it in, and ask for your own custom changes. You can follow this same sort of process to develop another script that makes Windows work the way you want it to, even if you’re not a programmer.

To me, “vibe-coding” is a bit of a stretch at the moment — especially if you don’t have prior programming experience. But “vibe-scripting” — throwing together lightweight problem-solving solutions like this? That’s well within reach.

At my previous home, How-To Geek, we used to share AutoHotkey scripts — simple little things that disabled the Caps Lock key, for example. Now you can build that type of thing — whatever you like — with plain English. No digging through documentation necessary!

In short, if you’re annoyed about something in Windows, you might be able to fix it yourself with a similar process.

AI’s brain-augmenting abilities

This is two articles in one, but they’re the same article. Grab to Scroll is an awesome script that I will be using for years to come. And it’s one I hope other people will love, too. I hope people copy it and this type of thing spreads far and wide.

But, again, I used genAI to make it all happen. That matters because it shows what’s possible when you think about genAI the right way. You can use these tools as an accelerator for your brain. You can test an idea in seconds when it normally would have taken hours of research to find out just how to write the script.

Sure, you can use AI to shut off your brain and avoid thinking entirely, for better or worse. But you can also use it to accelerate your brain — to be more creative, to get more done, to test and explore more things. Grab to Scroll is just one example of what’s now within your reach.

The way genAI tools are advertised is often boring — another email summarizer, another customer service chatbot that isn’t particularly helpful, and so on. But you can use the tools to do so much more.

To get started, revisit our previous discussion around the secret to using generative AI effectively. But also, I hope you enjoy Grab to Scroll. Scrolling now feels so much better on my big monitor! And of course it does: I custom-designed the ideal solution that works specifically for me.

There’s more where this came from! Sign up for my free Windows Intelligence newsletter, and I’ll send you three new things to try each Friday. Plus, you’ll get free copies of Paul Thurrott’s Windows Field Guides as a welcome gift.

Tell me if this sounds familiar: You stumble onto something scintillating during your various digital dalliances — something you think might be a useful nugget of knowledge for work or maybe even a pertinent update for your personal life.

Maybe it’s in an article you encounter somewhere online — in your browser, in a news app of some sort, in your Google Discover feed. Maybe it’s something someone mentioned to you in Slack or in Google Messages. Maybe it’s something someone emailed you or posted onto LinkedIn. With all the places we all bounce between these days, who the hell can remember?

And there’s the rub: When that moment arises that your battered ol’ butter-brain comes back to the thing in question, you inevitably won’t remember where exactly you saw it — or what exactly it was called, for that matter. You’ll dance from app to app trying to retrace your steps and rediscover where and how you’d encountered whatever it was that’s on your tip of your amygdala but not quite coming through. And no matter where you look or what words you search for, somehow, the right thing never seems to resurface.

We’ve all been there — some of us more than others (insert awkwardly self-aware eye-darting here). So what if there were some sort of magic-seeming system that’d quietly observe all our online wanderings, take private notes about everything we’re seeing, and make it impossibly easy to retrace those steps and find anything we encountered along the way, no matter where it was or in what context we first saw it?

My friend and fellow mushy-brained mammal, have I got just the treat for you.

[Hey — want even more advanced Android knowledge? Check out my free Android Shortcut Supercourse to learn tons of time-saving tricks for your phone.]

Your Android recall advantage

Oh ye Android-appreciating animal, allow me to introduce you to a crafty little creation called Snapseek.

Snapseek is a simple Android app that’s similar on the surface to Microsoft’s eternally under-development Windows Recall feature — only as an optional external add-on, the privacy worries surrounding it seems far less pronounced (and the app provides plenty of assurances about how it protects you, too).

In short, Snapseek runs quietly in the background of your favorite Android device and works to capture frequent behind-the-scenes screenshots of everything you’re doing, in whichever apps you select for it to follow. Each screenshot gets saved only locally, on your device and within the app itself, with on-the-fly optical character recognition to process all the visible words and make ’em easily searchable later.

The result is a virtual breadcrumb trail of all your online meanderings in whichever areas you authorize. You can browse through that history anytime — or, in the especially useful memory advantage, you can simply search for any word imaginable and see an instant list of every screen you interacted with where that specific term appeared.

Snapseek lets you search through all of your Android activity in any apps where it’s active.

JR Raphael, Foundry

Critically, Snapseek looks only at apps that you ask it to monitor — something you select when you first set up the app and can easily adjust later.

It’s up to you to decide exactly which apps Snapseek watches and makes available for future searching.

JR Raphael, Foundry

Out of the box, the free version of Snapseek lets you select up to two apps for ongoing following. And it’s perfectly functional for those two apps, with no other asterisks or limitations.

If you want to be able to create memory trails for more than two apps, you’ll have to make a one-time $4 upgrade to the app’s pro version. That’s it — just the one-time $4 charge, with no subscriptions or ongoing payments.

An optional $4 upgrade unlocks Snapseek’s two-app limitation.

JR Raphael, Foundry

To emphasize a key factor here: Snapseek stores all of its data only locally on your own device. It doesn’t collect any manner of private info or share any personal data in any way. There are no ads or trackers involved in the app. You can require biometric authentication to protect your history from prying eyes, and you can tell Snapseek to automatically delete all of the screenshots it saves every seven, 14, 30, or 90 days, if you don’t want your history to stick around forever.

It’s an interesting way to enhance your memory and give yourself a sleek, swift, ‘n’ simple new searching superpower — one that’s bound to be a lifesaver the next time you know you saw something significant but can’t for the life of you remember where or what it was.

Erm, right. What were we talking about, again?

Get six full days of advanced Android knowledge with my free Android Shortcut Supercourse. You’ll learn tons of time-saving tricks for your phone!

Over the next few years, agentic AI is expected to bring not only rapid technological breakthroughs, but a societal transformation, redefining how we live, work and interact with the world. And this shift is happening quickly.

“By 2028, 33% of enterprise software applications will include agentic AI, up from less than 1% in 2024, enabling 15% of day-to-day work decisions to be made autonomously,” according to research firm Gartner.

Unlike traditional AI, which typically follows preset rules or algorithms, agentic AI adapts to new situations, learns from experiences, and operates independently to pursue goals without human intervention. In short, agentic AI empowers systems to act autonomously, making decisions and executing tasks — even communicating directly with other AI agents — with little or no human involvement.

One key driver is the growing sophistication of large language models (LLMs), which provide the “brains” for these agents. Agentic AI will enable machines to interact with the physical world with unprecedented intelligence, allowing them to perform complex tasks in dynamic environments, which could be especially useful for industries facing labor shortages or hazardous conditions.

The rise of agentic AI also brings security and ethical concerns. Ensuring these autonomous systems operate safely, transparently and responsibly will require governance frameworks and testing. Preventing the law of unintended consequences will also require human vigilance.

Because job displacement is a potential outcome, strategies for retraining and upskilling workers will be needed as the technology necessitate a shift in how people approach work, emphasizing collaboration between humans and intelligent machines.

To stay on top of this evolving technology, follow this page for ongoing agentic AI coverage from Computerworld and Foundry’s other publications.

Agentic AI news and insights Agentic AI might soon get into cryptocurrency trading — what could possibly go wrong?

April 15, 2025: Agentic AI promises to simplify complex tasks such as crypto trading or managing digital assets by automating decisions, enhancing accessibility, and masking technical complexity.

Agentic AI is both boon and bane for security pros

April 15, 2025: Cybersecurity is at a crossroads with agentic AI. It’s a powerful tool that can create reams of code in a blink of an eye, find and defuse threats, and be used so decisively and defensively. This has proved to be a huge force multiplier and productivity boon. But while powerful, agentic AI isn’t dependable, and that is the conundrum. 

AI agents vs. agentic AI: What do enterprises want?

April 15, 2025:  Now that this AI agent story has morphed into “agentic AI,” it seems to have taken on the same big-cloud-AI flavor that enteriprise already rejected. What do they want from AI agents, why is “agentic” thinking wrong, and where is this all headed?

Google adds open source framework for building agents to Vertex AI

April 9, 2025: Google is adding a new open source framework for building agents to its AI and machine learning platform Vertex AI, along with other updates to help deploy and maintain these agents. The open source Agent Development Kit (ADK) will make it possible to build an AI agent in under 100 lines of Python code. It expects to add support for more languages later this year.

Google’s Agent2Agent open protocol aims to connect disparate agents

April 9, 2025: Google has taken the covers off a new open protocol — Agent2Agent (A2A) — that aims to connect agents across disparate ecosystems.. At its annual Cloud Next conference, Google said that the A2A protocol will enable enterprises to adopt agents more readily as it bypasses the challenge of agents that are built on different vendor ecosystems not being able to communicate with each other.

Riverbed bolsters AIOps platform with predictive and agentic AI

April 8, 2025: Riverbed unveiled updates to its AIOps and observability platform that the company says will transform how IT organizations manage complex distributed infrastructure and data more efficiently. Expanded AI capabilities are aimed at making it easier to manage AIOps and enabling IT organizations to transition from reactive to predictive IT operations.

Microsoft’s newest AI agents can detail how they reason

March 26, 2025: If you’re wondering how AI agents work, Microsoft’s new Copilot AI agents provide real-time answers on how data is being analyzed and sourced to reach results. The Researcher and Analyst agents take a deeper look at data sources such as email, chat or databases within an organization to produce research reports, analyze strategies, or convert raw information into meaningful data.

Microsoft launches AI agents to automate cybersecurity amid rising threats

March 26, 2025: Microsoft has introduced a new set of AI agents for its Security Copilot platform, designed to automate key cybersecurity functions as organizations face increasingly complex and fast-moving digital threats. The new tools focus on tasks such as phishing detection, data protection, and identity management.

How AI agents work

March 24, 2025: By leveraging technologies such as machine learning, natural language processing (NLP), and contextual understanding, AI agents can operate independently, even partnering with other agents to perform complex tasks.

5 top business use cases for AI agents

March 19, 2025: AI agents are poised to transform the enterprise, from automating mundane tasks to driving customer service and innovation. But having strong guardrails in place will be key to success.

Nvidia launches AgentIQ toolkit to connect disparate AI agents

March 21, 2025: As enterprises look to adopt agents and agentic AI to boost the efficiency of their applications, Nvidia this week introduced a new open-source software library — AgentIQ toolkit — to help developers connect disparate agents and agent frameworks..

Deloitte unveils agentic AI platform

March 18, 2025: At Nvidia GTC 2025 in San Jose, Deloitte announced Zora AI, a new agentic AI platform that offers a portfolio of AI agents for finance, human capital, supply chain, procurement, sales and marketing, and customer service.The platform draws on Deloitte’s experience from its technology, risk, tax, and audit businesses, and is integrated with all major enterprise software platforms. 

The dawn of agentic AI: Are we ready for autonomous technology?

March 15, 2025: Much of the AI work prior has focused on large language models (LLMs) with a goal to give prompts to get knowledge out of the unstructured data. So it’s a question-and-answer process. Agentic AI goes beyond that. You can give it a task that might involve a complex set of steps that can change each time.

How to know a business process is ripe for agentic AI

March 11, 2025: Deloitte predicts that in 2025, 25% of companies that use generative AI will launch agentic AI pilots or proofs of concept, growing to 50% in 2027. The firm says some agentic AI applications, in some industries and for some use cases, could see actual adoption into existing workflows this year.

With new division, AWS bets big on agentic AI automation

March 6, 2025: Amazon Web Services customers can expect to hear a lot more about agentic AI from AWS in future with the news that the company is setting up a dedicated unit to promote the technology on its platform.

How agentic AI makes decisions and solves problems

March 6, 2025: GenAI’s latest big step forward has been the arrival of autonomous AI agents. Agentic AI is based on AI-enabled applications capable of perceiving their environment, making decisions, and taking actions to achieve specific goals. 

CIOs are bullish on AI agents. IT employees? Not so much

Feb. 4, 2025: Most CIOs and CTOs are bullish on agentic AI, believing the emerging technology will soon become essential to their enterprises, but lower-level IT pros who will be tasked with implementing agents have serious doubts.

The next AI wave — agents — should come with warning labels. Is now the right time to invest in them?

Jan.13, 2025: The next wave of artificial intelligence (AI) adoption is already under way, as AI agents — AI applications that can function independently and execute complex workflows with minimal or limited direct human oversight — are being rolled out across the tech industry.

AI agents are unlike any technology ever

Dec. 1, 2024: The agents are coming, and they represent a fundamental shift in the role artificial intelligence plays in businesses, governments, and our lives.

AI agents are coming to work — here’s what businesses need to know

Nov. 21, 2024: AI agents will soon be everywhere, automating complex business processes and taking care of mundane tasks for workers — at least that’s the claim of various software vendors that are quickly adding intelligent bots to a wide range of work apps.

Agentic AI swarms are headed your way

November 1, 2024: OpenAI launched an experimental framework called Swarm. It’s a “lightweight” system for the development of agentic AI swarms, which are networks of autonomous AI agents able to work together to handle complex tasks without human intervention, according to OpenAI. 

Is now the right time to invest in implementing agentic AI?

October 31, 2024: While software vendors say their current agentic AI-based offerings are easy to implement, analysts say that’s far from the truth.