As digital transformation strategies mature across industrial sectors, the limitations of centralized cloud architectures are becoming harder to ignore. For critical applications in manufacturing, energy, finance, and healthcare, the need for real-time decision-making has propelled edge AI from a futuristic concept to a present-day operational requirement. Below are key takeaways from the webinar “Establishing a Framework for Transforming Industrial Operations with Real-Time Edge AI,” in which Penguin Solutions' John Chaves shared his perspectives on the emerging trajectory of innovation in industrial environments.

The Indian public cloud services (PCS) market, including infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), platform-as-a-service (PaaS) solutions, and software-as-a-service (SaaS), revenue totalled $10.9 billion for 2024, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Semi-annual Public Cloud Services Tracker, 2H 2024. The overall Indian public cloud services market is expected to reach $30.4 billion by 2029, growing at a CAGR of 22.6% for 2024-29.

The global focus in national security is pivoting away from counterterrorism and toward great power competition with adversaries such as China and Russia, driving significant change in the tools and techniques used in intelligence analysis. This is all occurring as artificial intelligence (AI), once viewed as a speculative enhancement to traditional tradecraft, has evolved into a critical factor for how U.S. intelligence professionals collect, process, and act on massive volumes of data.

Healthcare organizations are facing a perfect storm of cybersecurity threats, as legacy systems, budget constraints, and an expanding attack surface make them prime targets for increasingly sophisticated cybercriminals. As a result, the sector’s traditional defenses are no longer sufficient to match the capabilities of today’s attackers, according to Vince Crisler, Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) for Celerium, a cybersecurity firm that specializes in automated, active network defense.  

Worldwide smartphone shipments are forecast to grow 0.6% year-over-year (YoY) in 2025 to 1.24 billion units, according to the International Data Corporation Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker. The forecast was reduced from the 2.3% growth in the February forecast, due to high uncertainty, tariff volatility and macro-economic challenges such as inflation and unemployment across many regions leading to a slowdown in consumer spending. Growth will remain in low single digits throughout the forecast period, with a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 1.4% due to increasing smartphone penetration, lengthening refresh cycles, and cannibalization from used smartphones.

The report finds that since GenAI’s proliferation in 2022, productivity growth has nearly quadrupled in industries most exposed to AI (e.g. financial services, software publishing), rising from 7% from 2018-2022 to 27% between 2018-2024. In contrast, the rate of productivity growth in industries least exposed to AI (e.g. mining, hospitality) declined from 10% to 9% over the same period.

The life insurance industry is steadily overcoming long-standing friction to digital transformation as consumer expectations, regulatory demands, and operational inefficiencies converge with emerging technologies and viable AI-enabled business strategies. While historically slow to modernize—due in part to legacy systems, complex stakeholder relationships, and a risk-averse culture—the sector is now reaching a tipping point. Accelerated by the pandemic and reinforced by changing demographics, insurers are embracing tools that promise both efficiency and enhanced customer engagement. 

Forty-five percent of leaders in organizations with high AI maturity said their AI initiatives remain in production for three years or more to ensure sustained impact and value, according to a survey by Gartner, Inc. This compares to only 20% in low-maturity organizations.

As AI workloads move closer to the data source, organizations are being forced to reassess how they structure infrastructure, coordinate operations, allocate investment, and govern change. This shift was explored in depth during a webinar hosted by Penguin Solutions (formerly Stratus Technologies) titled “Establishing a Framework for Transforming Industrial Operations with Real-Time Edge AI,”.

Nearly half of Indian enterprises are now testing agentic AI solutions, signaling a major shift in how organizations approach workforce transformation and enterprise automation. According to the IDC report Augmenting Human Capabilities: The Role of Agentic AI in the Future of Work in India, agentic AI, defined by its ability to act autonomously, learn continuously, and operate with contextual intelligence is emerging as a transformative force at the heart of digital innovation

In this Q&A, Krauthamer explains the strategic context of the quantum threat, operational readiness challenges, cost dynamics, and how crypto-agility can serve as both a security enabler and a source of long-term risk reduction. Her insights are grounded in both national defense experience and enterprise adoption, making this conversation essential for cybersecurity and IT leaders navigating the quantum era in both private and public sectors.

The newly released ISG Market Lens Data and AI Programs study finds that three-quarters of companies expect to increase their annual budgets in the next two years for projects such as improving data quality, integration and security, even as most overall IT budgets remain flat. A majority of enterprises expect the value created by data initiatives to grow by more than 10 percent in that time. However, high spending in some areas has delivered low performance so far.

As digital transformation accelerates across the financial services sector, the life insurance industry—long characterized by legacy systems, complex regulations, and person-to-person interactions—is under increasing pressure to modernize. With shifting consumer expectations, regulatory complexities, and rising cost constraints, industry stakeholders are re-evaluating how life insurance is marketed, underwritten, and administered.

As artificial intelligence (AI) transforms nearly every industry, the property technology sector—PropTech—is seeing a surge in innovation across leasing, operations, asset management, and portfolio strategy. To better understand how AI is being deployed within commercial and residential property ecosystems, BizTechReports spoke with Carla Hinson, Vice President of Solution and Innovation at MRI Software. With nearly three decades of experience in real estate technology, Hinson offers grounded insight into how AI is moving from pilot to practice in a traditionally risk-averse industry.

Gartner, Inc. announced the top strategic trends in software engineering for 2025 and beyond. These trends enable organizations to accelerate innovation through AI-driven automation and adopt efficient, future-ready engineering practices.

“People talk about Q-Day like it’s a future event,” said Rebecca Krauthamer, Co-Founder and CEO of QuSecure, a cybersecurity company that provides post-quantum cryptography (PQC) solutions, in a recent executive conversation. “But from a risk management perspective, we’re already there. Data that’s being stolen now could be exposed later by quantum technology. This is worrisome for data that has a long shelf life, like medical records, intellectual property, or classified communications.”

The ISG Buyers Guides for Revenue Lifecycle Management, produced by ISG Software Research, provide the rankings and ratings of 42 software providers and their products to support revenue process needs, including configure price quote (CPQ), contract lifecycle management (CLM), revenue recognition, billing and the platforms to support these activities. The research finds that enterprises benefit from unified software platforms as they migrate from reliance on one-time sales to efficiently managed approaches that generate continuous revenue. Revenue lifecycle management platforms move beyond the outdated linear quote-to-cash process, combining processes previously carried out by separate tools. Aligning all systems allows for consistent sales and revenue engagement over time.

The property technology sector—PropTech—has entered a phase of accelerated disruption, driven by the convergence of artificial intelligence, legacy system modernization, and shifting economic pressures across residential, commercial, and industrial segments. What began as a fragmented landscape of point solutions is rapidly evolving into an interconnected ecosystem where strategic data access, automation, and predictive analytics define competitive advantage.

Autonomous delivery is poised to become a standard feature of logistics—but a key element of that ecosystem has long gone unaddressed: where do drones, robots, and unmanned vehicles actually deliver their payloads? According to Dan O’Toole, CEO of Arrive AI, the answer lies not in the sky, but at the curb.

The lack of intelligent, secure, and universally accessible delivery endpoints has emerged as a critical gap in the autonomous delivery ecosystem. Long overshadowed by the spectacle of unmanned aerial vehicles and sidewalk rovers, these “last-inch” infrastructure platforms may be the linchpin in the transition to autonomous delivery at scale.