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Source: https://www.computerworld.com/feed/

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<title>Does agentic AI spell doom for SaaS? – Computerworld</title>
<link>https://www.computerworld.com</link>
<description>Making technology work for business</description>
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<title>Does agentic AI spell doom for SaaS?</title>
<pubDate>Tue, 13 May 2025 11:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
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<p>Concurrent with the rise of artificial intelligence in recent years has been an uptick in fear of it. With every new use of artificial intelligence comes the fear that it will cost jobs. Now that fear has expanded to not only costing humans their jobs, but killing off software as a service (SaaS) applications as well.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.infoworld.com/article/2338115/what-is-generative-ai-artificial-intelligence-that-creates.html" target="_blank">Generative AI</a> was the first boogieman, and now concern is growing around the impact of <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3846150/how-ai-agents-work.html">AI agents</a>, otherwise known as agentic AI. <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3843138/agentic-ai-ongoing-coverage-of-its-impact-on-the-enterprise.html">Agentic AI</a> is an artificial intelligence system designed to operate autonomously or semi-autonomously on behalf of a user or organization to perform specific tasks.</p>
<p>AI agents take initiative and make decisions based on data input from other applications or sensors. They can adjust their behavior based on context, user preferences, new data, or environmental changes.</p>
<p>It is growing at a decent rate. By 2028, <a href="https://www.engineering.com/gartner-identifies-top-10-strategic-technology-trends-for-2025/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Gartner estimates</a> that at least 15% of day-to-day work decisions will be made by autonomous AI agents, up from 0% in 2024. This has led to the fear that AI agents will replace SaaS apps by rendering the software irrelevant. A simple search under the phrase “Will AI agents replace SaaS?” yields dozens of articles and postings asking that same question, fueled in part by remarks Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella made to podcasters Bill Gurley and Brad Gerstner on their <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NtsnzRFJ_o" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">BG2 podcast</a> in December.</p>
<p>“I think the notion that business applications exist — that’s probably where they’ll all collapse in the agent era. Because if you think about it, they are essentially CRUD [create, read, update, delete] databases with a bunch of business logic,” Nadella said.</p>
<p>“The business logic is all going to these agents, and these agents are going to be multi-repo CRUD. So they’re not going to discriminate between what the back end is. They’re going to update multiple databases, and all the logic will be in the AI tier, so to speak. Once the AI tier becomes the place where all the logic is, then people will start replacing the back ends,” he said.</p>
<p>But Nadella went on to discuss how AI agents could be used in cooperation with business apps, where apps like Excel and Word act as specialized canvases for the agents. “So yes, I think there will be disruption,” he said, but AI agents are more likely to complement apps than to eliminate them.</p>
<p>“I think that we’re a long way away from AI agents replacing SaaS,” said Tom Coshow, senior director and analyst at Gartner. “It’s important to remember that inside SaaS platforms, there are automated workflows that people have built that they still want to use. The SaaS platform still serves as a system of record for them.”</p>
<p>AI agents may make it so that people can do their work without going into a SaaS app’s user interface, he added, but the app will still be in use. “[Agentic AI] is going to enhance it [SaaS], it’s not going to replace it,” he said.</p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="the-relationship-between-agents-and-saas">The relationship between agents and SaaS</h2>
<p>The reason agentic AI is perceived as a threat to SaaS and not traditional apps is that traditional apps have all but disappeared, replaced in favor of on-demand versions of former client software.</p>
<p>But it goes beyond that. AI is considered a potential threat to SaaS for several reasons, mostly because of how it changes who is in control and how software is used. <a href="https://www.cio.com/article/3966870/how-it-leaders-use-agentic-ai-for-business-workflows.html" target="_blank">Agentic AI changes how work gets done</a> because agents act on behalf of users, <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3968681/real-world-use-cases-for-agentic-ai.html">performing tasks across software platforms</a>.</p>
<p>If users no longer need to open and use SaaS apps directly because the agents are doing it for them, those apps lose their engagement and perceived usefulness. That ultimately translates into lost revenue, since SaaS apps typically charge either per user or by usage.</p>
<p>An advanced AI agent can automate the workflows of an entire department, which may be covered by multiple SaaS products. So instead of all those subscriptions, you just use an agent to do it all. That can lead to significant savings in software costs. (See also: <a href="https://www.cio.com/article/3624540/how-will-ai-agents-be-priced-cios-need-to-pay-attention.html" target="_blank">How will AI agents be priced? CIOs need to pay attention</a>)</p>
<p>On top of the cost savings are time savings. Jeremiah Stone, CTO with enterprise integration platform vendor SnapLogic, said agents have resulted in a 90% reduction in time for data entry and reporting into the company’s Salesforce system.</p>
<p>“That doesn’t mean that we’re going to see an impact to the workforce, per se, but rather, we’re going to remove a lot of the drudgery, so that people can do their jobs more effectively,” he said.</p>
<p>Mike Wertz, program engineering lead at Optio.ai, developer of a customer data platform designed to help organizations integrate and analyze customer data, said that because agentic AI has the ability to learn, it can adapt and modify the rules that a SaaS application operates by.</p>
<p>So, for example, suppose a form has multiple data entry windows for variables like name, address, phone number, etc., and the form layout changes. Inputs have been moved around the screen and are in different places. Perhaps new data entry elements have been added.</p>
<p>A SaaS app would require a change to the rules for input and data entry, but the AI agent would simply learn the new structure and adapt. Agents don’t use the UI; they use the back-end interface and have the ability to learn changes to data input.</p>
<p>“In using AI, it’s adapting to changes within that document,” said Wertz. “The more you use it, the more you train models. They learn. That’s the benefit of agentic AI: it gains flexibility.”</p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="the-state-of-agentic-ai">The state of agentic AI</h2>
<p>The current maturity level of agentic AI is low, Gartner’s Coshow said, and as such, there are potential <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3727412/the-next-ai-wave-agents-should-come-with-warning-labels.html">drawbacks, risks, and other potential issues</a> to note. The main pitfall of AI agents is that most people are building them using <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/1627101/what-are-large-language-models-and-how-are-they-used-in-generative-ai.html?utm=hybrid_search">large language models</a> (LLMs), and LLMs are probabilistic. That means that you might be working with data that is incomplete or biased, so you might get an answer that is not as precise as you want — or worse, biased in some way.</p>
<p>“What’s happening in an AI agent is you’re giving it data so that it can make a decision, and if the data itself is biased or wrong, then you’re going to ultimately get a wrong action,” said Coshow. He advises gradual use of data-driven AI agents until a company or entity has its data “in shape,” as it were. (See also: <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3856502/ai-agents-can-and-will-be-scammed.html">AI agents can (and will) be scammed</a>)</p>
<p>Another question to ask is: is that data properly secured? To function, AI agents need access to data — sometimes highly restricted data. “If you build an AI agent using your permissions, and I get my hands on the agent, can I now see data that I shouldn’t be able to see?” he asked. “I would say, make sure your data is secured before you start building AI agents, and that the user security will stay in force from the data level up to the agent level.”</p>
<p>While agentic AI is still a maturing technology, SaaS providers like Salesforce and ServiceNow are rapidly closing the gap by building no-code AI agent platforms that promise to make it easy for enterprises to automate parts of a workflow. “So as we go through this year, I think we’ll see more and more workflows being automated and a lot of time saved,” Coshow said.</p>
<p>The agentic AI market is a mix of startups, large established players, and homegrown, privately developed applications, said Coshow. “All the big players are going to be building in the ability to create AI agents inside their platform, and for obvious reasons. If I’m using a software platform and I can’t build automation, I can go someplace else to build that automation,” he said.</p>
<p>“I would say that AI agents inside SaaS platforms is a relationship that is going to evolve… The relationship between AI agents, the SaaS platform, and the human beings that work in that environment is going to be an evolution that will be really interesting to watch, but it will definitely be gradual,” he added.</p>
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<link>https://www.computerworld.com/article/3981415/does-agentic-ai-spell-doom-for-saas.html</link>
<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">3981415</post-id><category>Artificial Intelligence, Enterprise Applications, Generative AI, SaaS</category><enclosure url="https://www.computerworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/3981415-0-86882600-1747134198-road-under-dark-sky-by-pixabay-via-pexels-416920.jpg?quality=50&strip=all" length="733341" type="image/jpeg" />
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<title>Google to unveil AI agent for developers at I/O, expand Gemini integration</title>
<pubDate>Tue, 13 May 2025 10:32:58 +0000</pubDate>
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<p>Google is expected to unveil a new AI agent aimed at helping software developers manage tasks across the coding lifecycle, including task execution and documentation.</p>
<p>The tool has reportedly been demonstrated to employees and select external developers ahead of the company’s annual I/O conference, scheduled for May 20 in Mountain View, California, according to a report by <a href="https://www.theinformation.com/articles/google-developing-software-ai-agent-pinterest-like-feature-ahead-o?rc=79pt9n" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Information</a>.</p>
<p>The report also said that Google is testing voice-enabled interactions powered by its Gemini AI on upcoming XR devices.</p>
<p>These developments highlight Google’s broader strategy to embed <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3981390/how-gen-ai-can-make-your-business-work-faster-really.html">generative AI</a> more deeply across its software ecosystem, as the company seeks to deliver measurable returns on its AI investments.</p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="googles-enterprise-ai-push">Google’s enterprise AI push</h2>
<p>While still emerging, the enterprise AI market is becoming an intense battleground for cloud giants racing to define the future of workplace productivity. Google, though not the first mover, is positioning itself with a potent mix of advantages.</p>
<p>According to IDC, developers spend a significant portion of their time on operational tasks such as performance monitoring, system management, and navigating complex CI/CD pipelines.</p>
<p>“Developers spend approximately only 16% of their time on development, 14% on writing requirements and test cases, and the rest on operational activities, according to an IDC study,” said Sharath Srinivasamurthy, associate vice president of research at IDC. “There is a tremendous opportunity to automate some of these tasks, and agentic AI can play a role in that. Software development is one of the popular use cases for generative AI.”</p>
<p>That opportunity is ripe for companies that can move beyond simple chatbot functionality toward intelligent agents capable of automating real developer workflows. Google appears to be aiming squarely at that gap.</p>
<p>“While Google is a relatively late entrant, it brings formidable strengths — a native cloud-first architecture, deep Workspace integration, and powerful foundation models via Gemini,” said Prabhu Ram, VP of the industry research group at Cybermedia Research. “Its upcoming AI agent represents a strategic shift from passive assistance to active orchestration, aligning with the emerging trend of autonomous workplace agents that proactively execute tasks across workflows.”</p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="a-double-edged-sword">A double-edged sword?</h2>
<p>While Google’s deeper AI integration promises major productivity gains, it also brings new challenges. As the company embeds AI more tightly across its platforms, enterprise IT leaders would weigh the benefits against potential risks related to control, compliance, and security.</p>
<p>“Google’s deep integration approach offers clear advantages, including centralized policy enforcement, unified audit trails, and streamlined identity management,” Ram said. “However, it also raises important concerns around data sovereignty, model training boundaries, and zero-trust security.”</p>
<p>To win over enterprises, Ram noted, Google will need to go beyond technical performance and prioritize transparency, non-retention of proprietary data, and robust governance frameworks. In the long run, its success in the enterprise space may hinge as much on trust and regulatory alignment as on innovation itself.</p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="challenging-copilot">Challenging Copilot</h2>
<p>Google may lead in product innovation and contextual data, but it must bridge the enterprise trust gap to compete with established rivals like Microsoft’s Copilot, according to Jonty Padia, practice director at Everest Group.</p>
<p>“Microsoft Copilot benefits from deep incumbency, tight integration with legacy systems like SharePoint and Dynamics, and a broad partner ecosystem,” Ram said. “Google’s challenge will be to build enterprise trust quickly, deliver measurable ROI, and differentiate through a more intuitive user experience and AI-driven sophistication.”</p>
<p>Srinivasamurthy added that both companies are well-positioned in terms of developer tools and integration with productivity suites. “I see both of them coming up with technology advancements to make their developers more productive and processes less complex,” he said.</p>
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<link>https://www.computerworld.com/article/3984016/google-to-unveil-ai-agent-for-developers-at-i-o-expand-gemini-integration.html</link>
<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">3984016</post-id><category>Generative AI, Google</category><enclosure url="https://www.computerworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/3984016-0-55345800-1747132416-Google-erweitert-Gemini-Portfolio-mit-kosteneffizienten-Modellen.jpg?quality=50&strip=all" length="216226" type="image/jpeg" />
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<title>Workday wins, then loses, contract with US Office for Personnel Management</title>
<pubDate>Mon, 12 May 2025 17:59:33 +0000</pubDate>
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<p>Workday (<a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/WDAY/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nasdaq:WDAY</a>) won a contract to replace the HR systems at the US Office for Personnel Management (OPM) — and then a few days later it lost it, despite having no competition.</p>
<p>Two words on the US government’s System for Award Management (SAM) website put an end to the short-lived single source contract: “canceled justification.”</p>
<p>The contract, awarded on May 2 without a vendor bidding process, and cancelled on May 9, would have been for twelve months of services including core HR processing, payroll and benefits integration with audit-ready reporting, time and attendance tracking, talent acquisition and performance management, and compliance with federal-specific requirements such as FedRAMP, Title 5, electronic SF-52 routing, and audit trails. Compatibility with existing federal IT systems also figured in the requirements.</p>
<p>The implementation was to be complete within 90 days.</p>
<p>At just $342,200 it was a relatively small contract, but it could have led to a larger one given the services OPM provides to other government departments via its current system.</p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="operational-failures">Operational failures</h2>
<p>In its justification document for the original contract award <a href="https://sam.gov/opp/269248c04b31453c983532a46e27d9ba/view">on SAM</a>, OPM said, “A sole-source award to Workday is necessary due to an urgent confluence of operational failures and binding federal mandates that require immediate action. OPM’s fragmented and outdated HR systems have reached a critical failure point, resulting in payroll errors, benefits disruptions, and a manual workload that is no longer sustainable.”</p>
<p>OPM used the document to defend its decision to award the contract without a competition, saying, “This acquisition is not the result of poor planning, but rather a response to an unanticipated acceleration of operational crises and federally imposed deadlines. Workday is the only responsible source capable of delivering the required capabilities within the time available, and full and open competition with other vendors would result in unacceptable delays, noncompliance, and mission failure.”</p>
<p>At the end of the contract period, OPM said, it intended to conduct a “full and open competition,” although it added that this would only occur “if no justifiable sole-source condition exists.”</p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="rule-of-law">Rule of law</h2>
<p>The contract award drew criticism from current and former employees of OPM, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-federal-hr-agency-leading-doge-job-cuts-cancels-sole-source-workday-award-2025-05-09/">Reuters reported</a>, as well as from the Information Technology Acquisition Advisory Council, which makes recommendations to improve federal IT contracting.</p>
<p>IT-AAC director John Weiler thanked the OPM “for upholding the rule of law and taking corrective action” in a <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/posts/joweiler_us-federal-hr-agency-leading-doge-job-cuts-activity-7326923572419977217-u49_/">post on LinkedIn</a>, adding, “OPM escaped a bruising protest that would have further delayed its HR modernization journey. Hopefully this is a lesson for others looking for shortcuts that the rule of law is not the problem. It’s how we implement!”</p>
<p>Asked about the contract cancellation, a Workday representative would only say that the company “remains committed to supporting the federal government with its HR modernization efforts.”</p>
<p>The OPM did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.</p>
<p>More Workday news:</p>
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><a href="https://www.cio.com/article/3821624/workday-aims-to-manage-ai-agents-like-employees.html">Workday aims to manage AI agents like employees</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3817887/workday-to-cut-1750-jobs-shift-focus-to-ai-and-global-expansion.html">Workday to cut 1,750 jobs, shift focus to AI and global expansion</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.cio.com/article/3478064/why-are-salesforce-and-workday-building-an-ai-employee-service-agent-together.html">Why are Salesforce and Workday building an AI employee service agent together?<br></a></li>
</ul>
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<link>https://www.computerworld.com/article/3983347/workday-wins-then-loses-contract-with-us-office-for-personnel-management.html</link>
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<title>Jamf brings Android into its Apple MDM orbit</title>
<pubDate>Mon, 12 May 2025 12:18:24 +0000</pubDate>
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<p>Jamf (<a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/JAMF/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nasdaq:JAMF</a>) wants to make enterprise support for Android as easy as it has become for Apple and plans to expand into Android device management beginning in July, the company said.</p>
<p>The new support will be featured within the Jamf for Mobile solution, with the idea behind this integration to make it much easier for Apple-based enterprises to also support Android devices in use alongside their iPhone, iPad, and Mac fleets.</p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Raising all the boats</strong></h2>
<p>Enterprise tech will be able to manage Apple and Android platforms from within the same Jamf console they already use. The company stressed that the addition of Android support should improve its offer to Apple-based businesses.</p>
<p>“For years, we’ve helped organizations do more with mobile by focusing on the best platform for work: Apple,” said Henry Patel, chief strategy officer at Jamf. “By adding basic Android enrollment to Jamf for Mobile, we’re enabling Apple-first organizations to eliminate friction — so a few Android devices don’t stand in the way of delivering exceptional Apple experiences at scale.” </p>
<p>Patel stressed that the upcoming Android support should be considered a positive additive to the company’s existing Apple focus, rather than reflecting any thawing ardor for the company’s computing platforms. “This addition helps us support customers who primarily use Apple, but also have some Android in their environment — without forcing them into a one-size-fits-all UEM platform,” he said.</p>
<p>I expect Jamf wants to approach that challenge with its customary “consumer simple” mindset, intentionally ensuring that supporting Android alongside Apple creates no additional friction and is convincingly easy to use. “Jamf’s commitment to Apple remains unwavering,” he added.</p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Apple MDM has become a diverse market</strong></h2>
<p>It is, of course, also true that the Apple device management space is becoming increasingly competitive, with many new players achieving market traction. <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/2507875/hexnode-ceo-enterprises-must-get-ready-for-app-sideloading.html">Hexnode</a>, <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/1611686/fleet-adds-windows-support-to-its-apple-first-mdm-software.html">Fleet</a>, and others each desire clear product positioning to help their services stand out. And while the Apple-in-the-enterprise market is growing swiftly enough to sustain multiple providers, Jamf is clearly not blind to the reality that several competitors now offer support across multiple platforms — some support every platform.</p>
<p>Not that this reality appears to have dented Jamf much. </p>
<p>The company’s most recent financial report <a href="https://ir.jamf.com/static-files/75b52587-03d3-4124-8a86-c46fddfdac61" data-type="link" data-id="https://ir.jamf.com/static-files/75b52587-03d3-4124-8a86-c46fddfdac61" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">revealed a 10% increase in revenue</a>, exceeding estimates to reach $167.6 million for $37.6 million non-GAAP operating income. Highlights in that quarter included the <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3837585/jamf-to-acquire-identity-automation-for-dynamic-id.html">acquisition of Identity Automation</a> and international revenue growth of 16%. The company expects FY 2025 revenue to increase 10%-11% year-on-year. </p>
<p>From the perspective of the <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/1719750/apple-s-expanding-enterprise-ecosystem.html">Apple MDM industry</a>, Jamf doesn’t seem to be under pressure — yet. But as one of the premium Apple MDM services, the company must continue to polish its offerings to help maintain its leadership reputation. </p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Building reputations, one announcement at a time</strong></h2>
<p>In business, halos seldom shine without a little bit of help, and the addition of Android support to the service Jamf provides to enterprises managing 1,000+ devices is a convenience for those managing diverse fleets. It’s a way the company can continue to help its products stand out.</p>
<p>That also means Jamf won’t be alone in making service optimization news in the coming months; the all-important enterprise buying season is upon us, which means I expect most credible Apple-in-the-enterprise service providers to make announcements in the coming weeks. </p>
<p>Looking forward, Apple’s enterprise partners will also be anxious to hear about any business-focused announcements at the company’s forthcoming <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3853790/apples-worldwide-developers-conference-set-for-june-9.html">Worldwide Developer’s Conference</a> (WWDC) next month. Will Apple fix some of the pain points, such as more automated deployment tools, enhancements to Declarative Device Management, or introduce more granular controls to limit or constrain use of AI on managed devices?</p>
<p>Only time — and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@AppleDeveloper/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Apple’s keynote</a> and developer’s presentations — will tell. Meanwhile, Android-for-enterprise evangelists can now look forward to their devices gaining a little more credibility, thanks to <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/1718644/apple-has-become-an-hr-issue-for-enterprise-it.html">Apple’s long-time enterprise deployment partner</a>. </p>
<p><em>You can follow me on social media! Join me on <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/jonnyevanssays.bsky.social" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">BlueSky</a>, <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/jonnyevans" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">LinkedIn</a>, and <a href="https://social.vivaldi.net/@jonnyevans" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Mastodon</a>.</em></p>
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<link>https://www.computerworld.com/article/3983124/jamf-brings-android-into-its-apple-mdm-orbit.html</link>
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<title>OpenAI’s IPO aspirations prompt rethink of Microsoft alliance</title>
<pubDate>Mon, 12 May 2025 11:59:22 +0000</pubDate>
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<p>Microsoft and OpenAI are renegotiating their multibillion-dollar partnership deal to better align with each company’s evolving goals in the artificial intelligence race, the <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/8d9e5149-7e4f-4886-a035-9d200204972a" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Financial Times reported.</a></p>
<p>The talks center on a critical balancing act. OpenAI wants to set the stage for a potential IPO by restructuring into a more traditional for-profit entity. Microsoft aims to secure long-term access to OpenAI’s technology beyond their current contract’s 2030 expiration date.</p>
<p>“A critical issue in the deliberations is how much equity in the restructured group Microsoft will receive in exchange for the more than $13 billion it has invested in OpenAI to date,” according to the FT report.</p>
<p>The companies are at a crossroads. What started as a straightforward <a href="https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2025/01/21/microsoft-and-openai-evolve-partnership-to-drive-the-next-phase-of-ai/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">funding relationship in 2019</a> has grown more complex as OpenAI’s ambitions have expanded.</p>
<p>“Microsoft’s interests go beyond equity — it’s about return on investment, sustained AI infrastructure growth, and maintaining Copilot’s edge by anchoring it on OpenAI models,” said Neil Shah, VP for research and partner at Counterpoint Research. “Microsoft would like to continue having a big slice of it, being one of the key initial supporters and investors.”</p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="whats-in-it-for-microsoft">What’s in it for Microsoft?</h2>
<p>Microsoft is reportedly willing to give up some equity in OpenAI’s restructured business. In exchange, it wants guaranteed access to OpenAI’s future AI models – even those developed after their current contract ends in 2030.</p>
<p>“If Microsoft trades equity for extended model access, it’s signaling a pragmatic pivot from ownership to operational leverage,” said Abhivyakti Sengar, practice director at Everest Group. “This would give Microsoft continued dominance across enterprise applications without the burden of influencing OpenAI’s increasingly complex governance structure, especially if OpenAI transitions to a Public Benefit Corporation.”</p>
<p>The Redmond-based tech giant has already integrated OpenAI’s technology across its product lineup, from Bing search to Office applications. This integration strategy has helped Microsoft position itself as an AI leader despite arriving relatively late to the <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3981390/how-gen-ai-can-make-your-business-work-faster-really.html">generative AI</a> boom.</p>
<p>“This renegotiated partnership will further help Microsoft enhance Azure’s AI capabilities by prioritizing technological access over equity, providing financial flexibility for OpenAI to expand its enterprise solutions and scale operations,” said Charlie Dai, VP and principal analyst at Forrester.</p>
<p>“Microsoft’s rumored willingness to reduce its OpenAI equity in favor of longer-term tech access signals a shift from financial patronage to platform pragmatism,” noted Sanchit Gogia, chief analyst at Greyhound Research. “We see this as Microsoft doubling down on AI enablement over AI ownership — a move that could widen its appeal while containing regulatory risk.”</p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="openais-transformation-and-growing-independence">OpenAI’s transformation and growing independence</h2>
<p>OpenAI’s journey from non-profit research lab to potential public company highlights the enormous capital requirements of cutting-edge AI development.</p>
<p>The ChatGPT-maker recently <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3978378/openai-reaffirms-nonprofit-control-scales-back-governance-changes.html">reaffirmed nonprofit control</a> – a structure that would allow it to pursue both social good and profits. This structure would make a future IPO possible while maintaining some connection to its original mission.</p>
<p>“For Microsoft, stepping back from equity while securing longer-term access could reduce risk exposure while preserving its core advantage: exclusive commercialization rights embedded in its enterprise stack,” Sengar said.</p>
<p>Simultaneously, OpenAI has been building independence from Microsoft. The company has pursued enterprise customers directly – potentially competing with Microsoft – while developing its own computing infrastructure called “<a href="https://www.networkworld.com/article/3807392/openai-softbank-oracle-lead-500b-project-stargate-to-ramp-up-ai-infra-in-the-us.html">Stargate</a>” with partners such as SoftBank and Oracle.</p>
<p>“Considering the rapidly evolving AI landscape with what DeepSeek has shown, it would be prudent also for Microsoft to diversify and hedge its bets beyond OpenAI to boost Copilot capabilities with multiple models and give its enterprise customers more choice,” Shah pointed out.</p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="mission-versus-money">Mission versus money</h2>
<p>At its core, OpenAI’s transformation illustrates the fundamental tension between its original mission to develop “AGI that benefits humanity” and the commercial realities of current AI development.</p>
<p>“The implication for PBC structure stems from what is OpenAI’s future vision on how it wants to position the company and make greater strides in AGI, which requires greater focus on ethics, fairness, safety, accessibility, and governance,” Shah added.</p>
<p>Forrester’s Dai said OpenAI’s potential transition to a nonprofit corporation could prioritize accountability and transparency for ethical AI development over pure profit, driving the AI industry to rebalance innovation with societal safeguards in AI’s rapid evolution.</p>
<p>“Investor patience and AGI’s uncertain timeline will be the key challenge to balance mission alignment with capital needs, while the reliance on enterprise revenue and ethical governance will determine long-term viability,” he added.</p>
<p>Regulatory hurdles add another layer of complexity. Delaware’s attorney-general, Kathy Jennings, according to the report, announced plans to review whether OpenAI’s new structure ensures “the non-profit entity retains appropriate control over the for-profit entity.”</p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="whats-next">What’s next?</h2>
<p>Despite the tensions, both companies recognize their mutual dependence. Industry observers believe the outcome will have far-reaching implications.</p>
<p>“That transition, if successful, may establish a new hybrid model for the AI sector, where mission alignment coexists with commercial scale,” Sengar added. “But the real test will be whether OpenAI can maintain investor trust while pursuing long-horizon goals like AGI, which have uncertain timelines and ethical landmines.”</p>
<p>“Investor patience and AGI’s uncertain timeline will be the key challenge to balance mission alignment with capital needs, while the reliance on enterprise revenue and ethical governance will determine long-term viability,” Dai said.</p>
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<link>https://www.computerworld.com/article/3983133/openais-ipo-aspirations-prompt-rethink-of-microsoft-alliance.html</link>
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<title>Q&A: Ernst & Young exec details the good, bad and future of genAI deployments</title>
<pubDate>Mon, 12 May 2025 10:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
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<p>Betting that generative artificial intelligence (genAI) is top of mind for every IT manager and corporate executive would be a smart move. An equally smart take would be to realize that most organizations still <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3489912/generative-ai-is-sliding-into-the-trough-of-disillusionment.html">remain reticent</a> to fully embrace the technology and <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3825376/qa-manpowergroup-exec-explains-how-to-manage-an-ai-workforce.html">its automation capabilities</a>.</p>
<p>Given the <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3603636/ai-is-dumber-than-you-think.html?utm=hybrid_search" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3603636/ai-is-dumber-than-you-think.html?utm=hybrid_search">AI hallucinations</a>, output errors, organizational data fragmentation and a <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3814707/technology-skills-gap-plagues-industries-and-upskilling-is-a-moving-target.html" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3814707/technology-skills-gap-plagues-industries-and-upskilling-is-a-moving-target.html">lack of skilled IT talent to manage it</a>, corporate leaders have good cause to be pensive. Yet, there’s not likely a consultant worth their salt that would advise an organization to not explore <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3488637/idc-expect-ai-spending-to-more-than-double-to-632b.html">AI’s efficiencies</a>, <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/1612282/the-roi-in-ai-and-how-to-find-it.html">cost-savings</a> and production-enhancing capabilities.</p>
<p>Julie Teigland is a managing partner and the global vice chair of alliances and ecosystems at professional services firm Ernst & Young (EY). In her previous role at the company, she led 150,000 employees in a business region that encompassed 98 countries, including Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa. In February, Teigland began her current duties — focusing on how businesses drive transformation amid new technologies, a key one of which is genAI.</p>
<p>As part of her responsibilities, Teigland is especially focused on technology consulting and strategy all across all EY business lines.</p>
<p><em>Computerworld</em> spoke with her about why genAI and related technologies haven’t been more widely embraced and how organizations can find their AI sweet spots. The following are excerpts from that interview.</p>
<div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Julie-1.jpg?quality=50&strip=all&w=1024" alt="Julie Teigland is a managing partner and the global vice chair of Alliances & Ecosystems" class="wp-image-3980271" srcset="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Julie-1.jpg?quality=50&strip=all 9149w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Julie-1.jpg?resize=300%2C205&quality=50&strip=all 300w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Julie-1.jpg?resize=768%2C524&quality=50&strip=all 768w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Julie-1.jpg?resize=1024%2C699&quality=50&strip=all 1024w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Julie-1.jpg?resize=1536%2C1048&quality=50&strip=all 1536w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Julie-1.jpg?resize=2048%2C1398&quality=50&strip=all 2048w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Julie-1.jpg?resize=1021%2C697&quality=50&strip=all 1021w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Julie-1.jpg?resize=246%2C168&quality=50&strip=all 246w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Julie-1.jpg?resize=123%2C84&quality=50&strip=all 123w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Julie-1.jpg?resize=703%2C480&quality=50&strip=all 703w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Julie-1.jpg?resize=527%2C360&quality=50&strip=all 527w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Julie-1.jpg?resize=366%2C250&quality=50&strip=all 366w" width="1024" height="699" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption"><p>Julie Teigland, managing partner and the global vice chair of Alliances and Ecosystems at consultancy Ernst & Young.</p></figcaption></figure><p class="imageCredit">Ernst & Young</p></div>
<p><strong>Has there been a sea change around generative AI this year? </strong>“I think back last year to Davos [<a href="https://www.weforum.org/stories/2023/12/davos-2024-what-to-expect-and-whos-coming/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">World Economic Forum meeting</a>], I was listening to just the CEO chatter and talking to our clients, and I felt like every CEO had an AI pet project. They were all talking about their cool pilots and what they’re doing.</p>
<p>“And I think that’s changed. I think AI is going broader. It’s moving from much more experimental projects to being mainstream and being deployed across the industry, where people are looking at how to really leverage it and get widespread allocation, widespread deployment. At the same time, I really feel that AI has not been embraced.”</p>
<p><strong>Why hasn’t it been fully embraced by organizations?</strong> “I think there’s three things that are getting in the way. The first is the skill set. The skill sets aren’t there. And with those skill sets not being there, it’s making it difficult to deploy.</p>
<p>“The second is the data. And, having your data in order enterprise-wide — and tools to be able to leverage that.</p>
<p>“And the third thing I’d mentioned is the infrastructure cost, which you know — it’s an issue. It’s a real issue in terms of making sure that companies are making those investments, and those are Capex investments at a time when the world is in such a volatile place. I think companies are at least considering those investments, pacing themselves and being certain before they deploy it.”</p>
<p><strong>So, is the investment in AI technology worth it, or are the risks too big?</strong> “The upside is huge, so I don’t think risk is going to stop them [organizations], but I think it does give them pause.”</p>
<p><strong>You mentioned skill sets, but what are the skill sets they’re seeking? Are they seeking the data scientists, data analysts, prompt engineers? Or are they actually seeking the AI experts at this time? </strong>“I think they’re seeking all of the above. I personally think data scientists are still in high demand. If you think about it, data is the foundation for any type of utilization for AI getting those data structures. The job opportunities in the AI field for AI scientists have gone up massively.</p>
<p>“There is a huge skills gap in data science in terms of the number of people that can do that well, and that is not changing. Everywhere else we can talk about what jobs are changing and where the future is. But AI scientists, data scientists, continue to be the top two in terms of what we’re looking for. I do think organizations are moving to partner more in terms of trying to leverage those skills gap….”</p>
<p><strong>I’ve heard you use the term AI ecosystems. What does that mean? </strong>“I see companies going out and partnering with other companies in order to try to make sure that they’re employing everything from gig workers to leveraging hyperscalers, to partnering in doing joint projects to put things together. You’re seeing some of that. I would not say that’s the widespread key to success, but you do see that in the market.”</p>
<p><strong>So, do you think more companies are successful when they don’t partner and instead deploy AI unilaterally across an organization?</strong> “I do think you’re going to need a long-term plan to deploy it unilaterally. And you need the three things that I mentioned. You need a data strategy. You need some level of infrastructure. And you need skilled people.</p>
<p>“Now, you could go hire those skilled people, but then you have to make sure that you have somebody afterwards to run it. And that’s a strategy you have to consider, too – that you’ll have to have somebody else help transform the function and then give it to somebody else to run it on your behalf. I personally think that’s the new definition of a captive, but that’s my personal perspective.”</p>
<p><strong>How will AI impact software engineering jobs? We’re seeing a lot about “</strong><a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3975705/from-prompts-to-production-ai-will-soon-write-most-code-reshape-developer-roles.html" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3975705/from-prompts-to-production-ai-will-soon-write-most-code-reshape-developer-roles.html"><strong>vibe coding</strong></a><strong>” right now, where people use natural language prompts to tell genAI what they want out of code, and then it just goes and does it. Do you see it impacting the number of jobs? Or is it just going to allow more creativity for people doing that sort of work? </strong>“It is going to impact jobs in terms of what people do. I think you will see much less standard base code. But let’s be honest, when that code comes out, it still needs to be checked, reviewed and adapted. The code AI produces is not perfect, and I know that we’ve been experimenting at EY. So, there’s a quality aspect there, too.</p>
<p>“AI tools allow us to be much more efficient in coding, but it doesn’t mean that we can release the [developers] yet. Right now, you just allow people to explore what they can do with the technology.”</p>
<p><strong>How is EY exploring AI internally? </strong>“We are leveraging as many AI tools as we can to create more efficiencies, and to explore uses — and to drink our own champagne. To be honest, I think that’s really important. How could I convince a client that they need to do an AI project when I can’t say we’ve tried it?”</p>
<p><strong>Let’s talk ROI. Are businesses anywhere near finding ROI in AI deployments? And, if not, how are they going to get there? </strong>“I definitely think they are finding it now. I think we’re at the beginning stages of this, but we do see productivity gains. And when I look at our own business and how it’s leveraging some of the tools, there are productivity gains that allow our people to focus more on the creative aspect of their jobs and to go faster in certain base tasks, to improve the quality by having AI help pre-check work.</p>
<p>“The issue is how do we quantify that ROI and how is it changing the overall model? That said, there definitely are productivity gains to be had, and we’re starting to see those. I think the question is, are there enough to justify the investments that’s required, and those investments are the three that I mentioned before.</p>
<p>“The question people need to ask is, ‘Does it justify the hiring of new people with AI skills? Does it justify the infrastructure that’s required and enterprise-wide data access?’”</p>
<p><strong>Are there some verticals that will find AI ROI faster than others? If so, what are they?</strong> “Absolutely. The more specific the case for the use of AI, the more easily you can calculate the ROI.</p>
<p>“Healthcare is going to be ripe for it. I’ve talked to a number of doctors who are leveraging the power of AI and just doing their documentation requirements, using it in patient booking systems, workflow management tools, supply chain analysis. There, there are clear productivity gains, and they will be different per sector.</p>
<p>“Are we also far enough along to see productivity gains in R&D and pharmaceuticals? Yes, we are. Is it the Holy Grail? Not yet, but we are seeing gains and that’s where I think it gets more interesting.</p>
<p>“Are we far enough along to have systems completely automated and we just work with AI and ask the little fancy box in front of us to print out the balance sheet and everything’s good? No, we’re a hell of a long way away from that.</p>
<p>“When I talk to some of the startups in the AI space, they’re convinced that we’re going to have that soon…, but I think it’s going to take a little bit longer than they think. I’m old enough to say I’ve seen this movie before [with the cloud, mobile and internet].”</p>
<p><strong>Speaking of those technologies. Would you compare the impact of AI to that of the internet, the cloud, smartphones? What would you compare this tech to in terms of being a game changer? </strong>“Oh, it’s a game changer. I think it’s different than all of those. It’s going to revolutionize the way we think, especially if I look at my own business with professional services. I can remember when the internet came out, people said, ‘Oh, professional services is over.’</p>
<p>“Professional services sold transformation. We still sell insights and transformation. But that’s evolved, and we are evolving with it. That’s why I think this [AI] is another tool in the toolbox. It’s going to force us to evolve.</p>
<p>“With the Model T, Henry Ford created the assembly line and forced companies to rethink how they produce automobiles. That was revolutionary.</p>
<p>“I think AI is a fantastic tool. Is it the be all to end all? No. Is quantum computing the be all to end all? No. But with AI, quantum computing is going to be pretty powerful.</p>
<p>“I’ve been out looking at some of those early-stage quantum companies that are on the edge of coming through with some fantastic breakthroughs. That’s some pretty powerful stuff. If you can say what’s happening in a natural world and combine it with AI that can do the math and the algorithms faster, and we can and put those two together, oh my gosh, that’s going to be a wow moment.</p>
<p>“That’s going to change the world when it comes to medicine, creating new natural compounds and saving us from climate change and all kinds of things.</p>
<p>“AI today is going to change how we due process work. It’s going to change how we look at data and insights, and it’s going to make us more intelligent. But, I still think we got the name wrong. Why the hell is it called artificial intelligence? It feels like a name created by a guy who was watching a sci-fi movie because anybody else would say it’s augmented intelligence.</p>
<p>“It’s going to make us smarter and faster, but it’s not going to replace us – at least not yet.”</p>
<p><strong>Why is quantum computing so important to this, and is the technology even there to be used for AI at this point? </strong>“Quantum computing is leveraging the answers and seeking the answers that we see in the natural world, and it’s far more specific and far more fine than we could ever do with our current compute power.</p>
<p>“When you combine the two — the ability to query and run analysis and simulation and predictive views in a probabilistic manner with AI next to the computer that can really understand and do the math using the laws of nature — that is powerful for what we need to do to understand the world we live in. And we do not have that technology today.</p>
<p>“We’ve already got really good test cases out there. I went out to see a company…in Paris and they have five [quantum computers] running. They are refining things as they go, but they’re up there running. They’ve proven it can work. They are really close to a breakthrough. I would say, realistically, it’s still 18 months away, though.</p>
<p>“Right now, quantum computing and AI is a race. There’s only five companies in the world that are really close to this. But it is coming and that is going to be really exciting.</p>
<p>“Now, is that going to worry an accounting firm like mine or the Big Four? No. Is it going to worry the business world? Probably not. Is it going to change how we do R&D? Absolutely. It’s going to change how we look at pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, chemical compounds, sustainability, and climate change. We will be able to solve some amazing problems. And, it will be necessary. </p>
<p>“Will everyone want a quantum computer? Hell no. Why? Because you don’t need it. But will some need it…and they will be immensely important. So, I’m super excited about how far the [quantum computing] world’s coming along.</p>
<p>“It changes how we work. It’s going to change the jobs we have. It doesn’t mean that there’s less jobs, but there’s going to be different jobs, and that’s where I get so excited.”</p>
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<link>https://www.computerworld.com/article/3980268/qa-ernst-young-exec-details-the-good-bad-and-future-of-genai-deployments.html</link>
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<title>How gen AI can make your business work faster — really</title>
<pubDate>Mon, 12 May 2025 07:27:00 +0000</pubDate>
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<h2 id="going-with-the-flow">Going with the flow</h2>
<p>The biggest story with readers of CIO this week was <a href="https://www.cio.com/article/3966870/how-it-leaders-use-agentic-ai-for-business-workflows.html" target="_blank">this article about how IT leaders are using agentic AI to accelerate business workflows</a>. It’s the Holy Grail for many organizations — introduce AI agents to an existing workflow and by so doing create efficiency and velocity across the business. </p>
<p>Easy to say, hard to do. The article shared real-world examples of where agentic had been proven to improve workflows, but the readers wanted more — asking Smart Answers how to identify processes that could be improved by agentic AI. Fueled by many years of human reportage our AI chat bot has the insights. </p>
<p>Short answer: you need a process that maps to business goals, and is well defined. Long answer below. </p>
<p><strong>Find out: </strong><a href="https://www.cio.com/smart-answers/?q=How%20to%20know%20if%20a%20business%20process%20is%20ripe%20for%20agentic%20AI%3F&qs=article_cio_3966870" target="_blank"><strong>How to know if a business process is ripe for agentic AI?</strong></a><strong> </strong> </p>
<h2 id="how-to-earn-30k-more-working-in-it">How to earn $30k more, working in IT</h2>
<p>It’s a theme of this column that people with jobs like to get paid. Ideally: we’d all like to get paid more. (It’s these kinds of searing insights that bring in the readers.) </p>
<p>The biggest story on CIO.com in the past week was <a href="https://www.cio.com/article/3976800/the-rising-value-of-it-certifications.html" target="_blank">our report on the rising value of IT certifications</a>. </p>
<p>We said that getting certified can benefit IT professionals and the organizations that employ them, boosting productivity and engagement, while also closing skills gaps. And, yes, in many cases certifications boost earning potential. That’s the bit our readers latched on to, naturally. </p>
<p>One stat suggests that certification can be worth as much as $30k on top of the certified professional’s salary. CIO readers asked Smart Answers if this is true. To find out, you’ll need to ask, too. </p>
<p><strong>Find out: </strong><a href="https://www.cio.com/smart-answers/?q=What%20percentage%20of%20IT%20executives%20estimated%20%2430%2C000%20certification%20value%20in%20the%20most%20recent%20report%3F&qs=article_cio_3976800" target="_blank"><strong>What percentage of IT executives estimated $30,000 to be value of IT certification?</strong></a><strong> </strong> </p>
<h2 id="ai-in-the-cloud">AI in the cloud</h2>
<p>In another big story this week, we interviewed the CIO of Johnson Controls who is <a href="https://www.cio.com/article/3970113/johnson-controls-rethinks-it-for-the-cloud-native-ai-era.html" target="_blank">rethinking IT for the cloud-native and AI era</a>. In explaining how the company is building in-house IT capacity and know-how after years of over reliance on tech partners, we prompted our readers to ask about cloud in support of AI.</p>
<p>As infrastructure needs escalate to take advantage of AI, many organizations are moving to cloud or a hybrid cloud solution. Smart Answers (an AI tool that lives in the cloud), can explain why. </p>
<p><strong>Find out: </strong><a href="https://www.cio.com/smart-answers/?q=Why%20are%20companies%20adopting%20hybrid%20cloud%20for%20AI%20workloads%3F&qs=article_cio_3970113" target="_blank"><strong>Why are companies adopting hybrid cloud for AI workloads?</strong></a><strong> </strong> </p>
<p><em>About Smart Answers</em> </p>
<p><em>Smart Answers is an AI-based chatbot tool designed to help you discover content, answer questions, and go deep on the topics that matter to you. Each week we send you the three most popular questions asked by our readers, and the answers Smart Answers provides. </em> </p>
<p><em>Developed in partnership with Miso.ai, Smart Answers draws only on editorial content from our network of trusted media brands—CIO, Computerworld, CSO, InfoWorld, and Network World—and was trained on questions that a savvy enterprise IT audience would ask. The result is a fast, efficient way for you to get more value from our content.</em> </p>
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<link>https://www.computerworld.com/article/3981390/how-gen-ai-can-make-your-business-work-faster-really.html</link>
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<title>Surfshark study probes data hunger of web browsers</title>
<pubDate>Fri, 09 May 2025 21:22:47 +0000</pubDate>
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<p>A new survey by VPN provider Surfshark has found that Chrome collects the most information from users’ phones, while “TOR stands out as the most privacy-centric browser by collecting no data at all.”</p>
<p>The two were among 10 that researchers analyzed, after using <a href="https://appmagic.rocks/?hl=en" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">AppMagic</a>, a market intelligence tool, to select the most popular browser apps on Apple phones in the US in 2025, they said in a <a href="https://surfshark.com/research/chart/data-collection-mobile-browsers" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">post</a> outlining their findings.</p>
<p>The researchers noted, “Chrome is the most data-hungry, collecting 20 different data types across numerous categories. These include contact info, financial details, location, browsing history, search history, user content, identifiers, usage data, diagnostics, and other types of data. Chrome is the only browser that collects financial information, such as payment methods, card numbers, or bank account details.”</p>
<p>It is also, they stated, the only browser that collects a list of contacts from the user’s phone, address book, or social graph.</p>
<p>The researchers said that the remaining browsers each only collect an average of six data types, with Bing having the second-largest appetite, collecting 12 data types. Apple’s Safari browser collects eight. </p>
<p>Other findings revealed that:</p>
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>40% of the analyzed browsers apps collect users’ locations. Safari, Chrome and Opera “collect coarse location, which refers to a user’s or device’s location with less precision than exact latitude and longitude. Bing is the only app that collects precise location data.”<br>The report pointed out that 60% of the apps don’t collect any location information, suggesting that it is not necessary for a browser app to collect user location in order to function. “This raises concerns about why some browsers collect this data and how it is used,” the researchers wrote.</li>
<li>Only Opera, Bing, and Pi Browser ads collect data used for third-party advertising.</li>
<li>Pi Browser, Edge, and Bing collect data that is used to track an individual.</li>
<li>DuckDuckGo and Firefox fall into a moderate category in terms of data collection, the study found; they avoid collecting the most sensitive data. They do gather information such as user contact information, identifiers such as device ID, usage data, and diagnostics.<br> “These browsers may suit users with moderate privacy concerns but still require robust browsing capabilities,” the researchers noted.</li>
<li>In terms of worldwide market share on Apple devices, Chrome and Safari account for 90% of the total.</li>
</ul>
<p>When asked for his reaction to the findings, Forrester Senior Analyst Andrew Cornwall said, “If you’re interested in privacy, a mobile device is not your friend. Both Apple and Google learn a lot about you through your interactions with your phone. Android users expect some level of snooping in return for subsidized hardware and software. Apple users expect more privacy but leave a similar digital trail that Apple can follow.”</p>
<p>Most users, said Cornwall, “are willing to trade some privacy for ease of use. They like not having to enter passwords manually. They may be willing to let Chrome remember their credit card details if it means the browser will fill in the field for them when they’re paying bills online. They use Gmail as their email provider. However, users don’t realize how much information about them is collected.”</p>
<p>Safayat Moahamad, research director at Info-Tech Research Group, said, “mobile browsers are uniquely positioned to observe user behavior. Companies like Google and Microsoft use the data they collect (such as search terms, visited sites, and geolocation) to personalize services, improve features, and more crucially, power targeted advertising.”</p>
<p>The more granular the data, he said, the more valuable it becomes for ad revenue and product stickiness, as well as for inferences about user intent that drive business decisions. </p>
<p>Asked if the current regulatory gaps allow browsers to collect data without adequate oversight, and could new laws change the game, he said that the answer is yes and no: “The recent <a href="https://iapp.org/news/a/4-critical-compliance-areas-companies-should-review-after-cppas-honda-settlement/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Honda–CPPA settlement</a> is a prime example. Regulators found that cookie consent practices lacked symmetry. Users weren’t given equal options to accept or reject tracking.”</p>
<p>This highlights a broader problem, said Moahamad “which is that many browsers enable tracking that circumvents true consent through dark patterns or deceptive settings. Despite laws like GDPR and CCPA setting important guardrails, new laws, like the EU’s Digital Markets Act and enforcement action such as US FTC’s settlement with Honda, aim to close these gaps and give users actionable control.”</p>
<p>What it all means, he said, is that there are “absolutely security risks for the users, and they’re growing. Browsers store session cookies that keep you logged in, and hackers are now stealing those cookies at scale, 17 billion<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/daveywinder/2025/03/19/2fa-code-warning-as-hackers-steal-17-billion-cookies-to-use-in-attacks/"></a> and counting.”</p>
<p>According to Moahamad, “this lets <a href="https://www.varonis.com/blog/cookie-bite" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">attackers bypass passwords and even MFA</a>, slipping silently into your accounts. Malware, rogue extensions, and phishing links are all entry points. Users may feel safe with <a href="https://www.csoonline.com/article/563753/two-factor-authentication-2fa-explained.html">2FA</a>, but if your browser is compromised, your defenses fall apart.”</p>
<p>When it comes to the collection of personal data via browsers, said Cornwall, “there are no technical solutions, only mitigations. Deleting cookies, disabling location, and renewing location/advertising IDs on device can help, but Apple and Google still know your device ID.”</p>
<p>Strong data protection legislation, he said, “has been enacted in some jurisdictions, with financial penalties to enforce user privacy rights. However, that leaves opportunities for multinationals to hide amidst a patchwork of laws.”</p>
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<link>https://www.computerworld.com/article/3982319/surfshark-study-probes-data-hunger-of-web-browsers.html</link>
<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">3982319</post-id><category>Browsers, Data Privacy</category><enclosure url="https://www.computerworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/3982319-0-99275500-1746825809-shutterstock_2190330899.jpg?quality=50&strip=all" length="8565059" type="image/jpeg" />
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<title>It’s in the national interest for Apple to design its own silicon</title>
<pubDate>Fri, 09 May 2025 10:32:00 +0000</pubDate>
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<p>In a surprise to nobody, Apple is <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-05-08/apple-is-developing-specialized-chips-for-glasses-new-macs-and-ai-servers" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">developing</a> even more processors for use in its devices. It makes total sense. In case you hadn’t noticed, silicon is becoming a national and international strategic priority to governments everywhere that have identified, correctly, that computer chips are as essential as energy if you want to enter a new age of AI-driven digital efficiency. </p>
<p>With that in mind, is it any wonder that America’s biggest beleaguered company, Apple (no, that’s not Microsoft anymore), is focusing the skill and power of its silicon development teams on designing and developing all the processors used across its systems?</p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Designed by Apple in California and beyond</strong></h2>
<p>Think about it and that’s not so surprising.</p>
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>We know Apple’s team develops the A- and M-series processors used inside Apple iPhones, iPads, and Macs. </li>
<li>We also know the company makes the C-series 5G modems it is beginning to put inside devices. </li>
<li>It also makes S-series chips for Apple Watch, R1 chips for use in Vision Pro, T-series System Management chips used inside Intel Macs, W processors as used in wearables, H chips in AirPods, and U inside AirTags. </li>
<li>Apple also makes/has made additional system components from time to time, such as the M-series motion co-processors the company made until about 2017. (The M-series was subsequently applied to Apple’s chips for iPads and Macs.) </li>
<li>The ill-fated AirPower project also leaned into custom-designed chips, but not much is known about those.</li>
</ul>
<p>That’s a lot of design, a lot of iteration, and a lot of silicon already coming out of the company. Making more of it is a no-brainer.</p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Made all over the place, really</strong></h2>
<p>Except Apple doesn’t really make anything. Apple doesn’t have its own factories churning out hardware or processors. Instead it gets <a href="https://www.applemust.com/apple-expands-apple-silicon-partnership-with-amkor-in-us/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">manufacturing partners</a> to make them to its design and on its behalf. </p>
<p>TSMC is the biggest Apple chip manufacturer at this time — Apple accounts for about a quarter of its business and is TSMC’s biggest customer. Those chips have until recently been manufactured at TSMC factories far away, but this is beginning to change as TSMC’s first US chip-making factory <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3547197/apple-amkor-and-tsmc-neath-the-arizona-skies.html#:~:text=Hello%2C%20and%20thanks%20for%20dropping,BlueSky%2CMastodon%2C%20and%20LinkedIn.">begins to churn out chips in Arizona</a>. </p>
<p>That factory was built in response to the first Trump administration’s push to bring manufacturing into the US and is now online popping processors out for Apple’s phones. Discussing that arrangement at the time, <a href="https://www.applemust.com/apple-expands-apple-silicon-partnership-with-amkor-in-us/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Apple COO Jeff Williams said</a>: “Apple is deeply committed to the future of American manufacturing, and we’ll continue to expand our investment here in the United States.” </p>
<p>What drove the US to try to persuade TSMC to do this wasn’t just to feed a desire to create a few hundred specialized jobs and flash a fanciful good news story to voters; instead it reflects the strategic importance of silicon design to the US economy. It’s hard for governments to ignore that the vast majority of chips used in any electronics device are made in the strategically sensitive Asia Pacific region. That’s even before grappling with the challenge of <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/1623060/apple-accelerates-use-of-recycled-materials-across-all-its-products.html">obtaining the rare earth</a> and other materials used inside processors, which are — like wealth — unevenly distributed. </p>
<p>Just like the vast majority of people on our planet have little or no money, most nations have little or no access to the rare earths used in silicon design. But designing the chips that make use of those materials is a big part of the story. As is <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/1624765/why-you-should-pay-more-attention-to-apples-green-slide.html">recycling</a>: reusing material that is already in the US makes total sense as companies seek to source rare materials elsewhere.</p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Advantage, Apple</strong></h2>
<p>Apple arguably has the <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/1640114/how-to-think-about-apple-silicon.html">best silicon development team</a> in the world — at least, outside Arm. The chips used in iPhones and Macs lead the industry, generating performance per watt that no one out there can match. It’s a strategic advantage for Apple, which in itself can be seen as an advantage for the US on a national basis. A US company owns those designs, which seals one aspect of digital dominance. </p>
<p>With that in mind, it’s inevitable that Apple will want to maintain its focus on processor design. Doing so gives the company a competitive advantage while also propping up national security, at least to some extent. </p>
<p>If that is the case, then it is interesting that one of the new processors it is making is suitable for use in wearable devices — for Apple, that’s the AR glasses it has <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/1714569/what-problems-will-apple-s-ar-glasses-need-to-solve.html">hoped to develop for years</a> as it competes against Meta. Apple is also developing next-generation chips for Macs and iPhones, which is no surprise at all, and processor chips for <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3600953/apple-is-back-in-the-server-business.html">Apple Intelligence servers</a>. To some extent, the only surprise there is that the company is building a new low-power, high-performance processor capable of delivering the tough tasks required for spatial computing in spectacles.</p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Furthur</strong></h2>
<p>Of course, once the company has made spatial computing systems that exist in wearable glasses, then the promise of visionOS becomes far greater. Even now we’re seeing visionOS devices <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3833715/apples-vision-pro-enters-industry-4-0-with-dassault-systemes.html">used across a range of enterprises</a>, from medical to law enforcement. Being able to wear a <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3975111/hands-on-with-the-new-apple-mac-studio-m4-max.html">real computer</a> (as opposed to a gaming and ads platform) <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/1670416/one-day-you-ll-wear-your-mac-like-sunglasses.html">like sunglasses</a> will be of key importance across a range of industries of tomorrow. Surveillance-as-a-service firms <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3980198/that-168m-fine-isnt-enough-to-stop-nso-spies.html">will make billions</a>. Which makes wearables strategically significant. </p>
<p>Apple’s purpose in all of this matches an international drive toward <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/1489297/apple-s-next-innovation-3d-gesture-based-computing-puts-the-post-in-post-pc.html">discreet computing</a>, or the minimization of computer interfaces. These agendas dovetail with Apple’s need to perpetually plan the <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/1642554/does-the-apple-silicon-development-road-map-look-like-this.html">future of its business</a>, and, increasingly, also with US economic and military security. </p>
<p>That’s quite a lot of food for thought in one slice of silicon.</p>
<p><em>You can follow me on social media! Join me on <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/jonnyevanssays.bsky.social" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">BlueSky</a>, <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/jonnyevans" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">LinkedIn</a>, and <a href="https://social.vivaldi.net/@jonnyevans" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Mastodon</a>.</em></p>
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<link>https://www.computerworld.com/article/3982030/its-in-the-national-interest-for-apple-to-design-its-own-silicon.html</link>
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<title>Perplexity AI’s quiet coup</title>
<pubDate>Fri, 09 May 2025 10:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
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<p>“Just Google it.” That’s how most people found information they were interested in for more than a quarter-century. </p>
<p>All that is changing now. Today, the main reason fewer people are “Googling it” is that users are turning to AI chatbots like <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3609002/study-chat-gpt-is-better-than-doctors-at-diagnosing-illness.html?utm=hybrid_search" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3609002/study-chat-gpt-is-better-than-doctors-at-diagnosing-illness.html?utm=hybrid_search">ChatGPT</a>, <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3963652/anthropics-claude-ai-can-now-search-through-your-gmail-account-for-research.html">Claude</a>, <a href="https://www.jasper.ai" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.jasper.ai" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jasper</a>, <a href="https://chat-sonic.ai" data-type="link" data-id="https://chat-sonic.ai" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Chatsonic</a>, <a href="https://huggingface.co/chat/" data-type="link" data-id="https://huggingface.co/chat/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">HuggingChat</a>, <a href="https://lens.google/#homework" data-type="link" data-id="https://lens.google/#homework" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Socratic</a>, <a href="https://x.ai/grok" data-type="link" data-id="https://x.ai/grok" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Grok</a>, <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3815603/deepseek-latest-news-and-insights.html?utm=hybrid_search" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3815603/deepseek-latest-news-and-insights.html?utm=hybrid_search">DeepSeek</a>, <a href="https://www.ibm.com/products/watsonx-assistant" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.ibm.com/products/watsonx-assistant" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">IBM watsonx Assistant</a>, <a href="https://pi.ai/onboarding" data-type="link" data-id="https://pi.ai/onboarding" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Pi</a>, and <a href="https://character.ai" data-type="link" data-id="https://character.ai" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Character AI</a>. </p>
<p>Or even more powerfully, they’re using tools that integrate old-fashioned search results with LLM-powered chatbot information, including Google Search (with Gemini), Microsoft Bing (with Copilot), You.com, and <a href="https://www.perplexity.ai/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Perplexity AI</a>.</p>
<p>Old-school search engines used to give you links to websites that contained the information people were seeking. Nowadays, more and more want the answers directly — even if the tool also provides links.</p>
<p>This just-give-me-the-answer idea is perfect for a future in which people will ask an always-present assistant for the kind of information they used to get from Google. Smart glasses, of course, will be the main interface to arbitrary information, but other wearables, mobile devices, IoT devices and general purpose computers will enable a personal assistant that knows all about the world and knows all about us, individually and personally. </p>
<p>I’ve been living in this future recently, and I can tell you that it will prove irresistible to most people. </p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="perplexitys-great-leap-forward">Perplexity’s great leap forward</h2>
<p>Perplexity AI is a <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/1611871/how-rag-makes-generative-ai-tools-even-better.html?utm=hybrid_search">Retrieval-Augmented Generation</a> (RAG) system launched in 2022 that answers questions directly by searching the web in real time, pulling from news sites, academic journals, and databases, then writing up a summary with accompanied search links. It uses AI models like GPT-4 and Claude 3 to understand your question, find the best information, and explain it in plain English. In February, Perplexity added a feature called “Deep Research,” which reads hundreds of sources, and reasons through the material to produce a very detailed, well-organized report. </p>
<p>Then in April, Perplexity unveiled a <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/perplexity-ask-anything/id1668000334" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">new version of the company’s iPhone app</a>, which provides a glimpse into the future of getting information from an always-present assistant. For starters, it became an actual assistant, rather than just being an AI search tool. It can now <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3826143/the-unbearable-lateness-of-apple-intelligence.html?utm=hybrid_search" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3826143/the-unbearable-lateness-of-apple-intelligence.html?utm=hybrid_search">do things even Siri, Apple’s own assistant, can’t do</a> — which is somewhat astonishing, given how closed and Apple-centric the company’s operating systems tend to be. </p>
<p>For example, you can use your voice to ask Perplexity on your iPhone to play a song from Apple Music, open a podcast, set reminders, schedule calendar events, or even book a ride with Uber. It can scan your Apple Calendar and read out your appointments or add a reminder. It can bring up Apple Maps and give you directions or send an email through Apple Mail. </p>
<p>Perplexity also goes beyond what Siri can do by opening third-party apps like OpenTable or YouTube and pre-filling reservation requests or video searches. For example, if you ask it to find a dinner reservation, it’ll fill in the date, time, and number of guests in OpenTable, so all you have to do is tap “Book.” If you want to find a specific moment in a YouTube video, just describe it, and Perplexity will queue it up instantly.</p>
<p>One of the most practical features is that Perplexity saves every conversation as a “Thread” in the app, so you can revisit or continue a previous task anytime. You can even add shortcuts to Perplexity on your home or lock screen for fast access.</p>
<p>Of course, there are limits to what Apple lets Perplexity do. It can’t send text messages directly, set alarms, control core iPhone functions like muting notifications, or access the camera for live object recognition. </p>
<p>At this point, Android users are yawning at the mention of these features. The Android version of Perplexity got many of these capabilities and more back in January. On Android, Perplexity Assistant can write emails, set reminders, book rides, make reservations, play media, and even use your phone’s camera to answer questions about what it sees or what’s on your screen. It acts as a layer on top of your device, integrating with many apps so you don’t have to switch between them, and supports multimodal input and multi-app actions. Some features, like screen sharing and camera access for contextual awareness, are available on Android though not yet on iOS.</p>
<p>But the most futuristic thing Perplexity can do, it can do on iPhone exclusively. </p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="the-persistent-assistant">The persistent assistant</h2>
<p>Perplexity AI’s new iPhone app offers something the company calls “persistent listening.” When enabled, the assistant keeps listening for your voice even after you leave the app or switch to something else. You tap the voice icon or use the Action Button to start, and from that point, the assistant keeps the microphone open, so you don’t have to keep pressing anything or reopening the app to continue the conversation. </p>
<p>This continuous listening works as long as the app or its background process is allowed by iOS to run, which means it can keep going for extended periods unless you close the app or revoke microphone access. The assistant is designed to pick up your voice even with background noise (it doesn’t always work). </p>
<p>It doesn’t use a wake word like “Hey Siri,” so it won’t accidentally respond to other conversations; it’s only listening for input after you’ve started a session. If you stop interacting for about a minute or so, or close the session, it stops listening; until that point, it holds onto the context and keeps the channel open, making it feel like a real assistant that doesn’t lose track of what you were talking about.</p>
<p>Lately, I’ve been taking advantage of the continuous listening feature via both my Ray-Ban Meta glasses and my AirPods. And this combination of continuous listening and hearing the answers privately from close-to-the-ears speakers, feels very much like something we’re all going to do all the time in the near future. </p>
<p>Perplexity’s quiet coup is quite a feat. It’s actually got me never using Siri anymore, even to do things like set reminders in Apple’s Reminders app. (I’m also no longer using Meta AI in my <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3496284/the-ai-glasses-market-comes-into-focus.html?utm=hybrid_search">Ray-Ban Meta glasses</a> anymore, at least for arbitrary information.)</p>
<p>The tech industry is currently fighting a brutal, winner-take-all war for the future of personal assistants that do things for us, use our apps for us, get information for us and generally help us out all day, every day, even when we’re walking around, driving or doing the dishes. Once the public gets in the habit of using one specific tool, it could be another quarter-century before that habit can be changed by new technologies. </p>
<p>I’d have to say that — for now — Perplexity AI is winning that war. </p>
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<link>https://www.computerworld.com/article/3977562/perplexity-ais-quiet-coup.html</link>
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<title>Where Apple falls short for enterprise IT</title>
<pubDate>Fri, 09 May 2025 10:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
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<p>Apple now slots well into corporate life because it made a conscious and concerted effort years ago to ensure its products were enterprise friendly. By and large, the effort has been extremely successful. But that doesn’t mean the company always hits the mark — and sometimes it doesn’t even seem to be aiming at the mark. </p>
<p>In its <a href="https://sixcolors.com/post/2025/04/apple-in-the-enterprise-a-2025-report-card/">annual enterprise report card on Apple</a>, Six Colors found that Apple actually slid backwards in IT leader satisfaction for two-thirds of categories surveyed. The worst areas involved software reliability and innovation followed closely by macOS identity management. Opinions about enterprise programs in general — and the future of Apple in the enterprise — were also lower than in 2024, as was service and support, which has emerged as a real pain point. </p>
<p>It wasn’t entirely bad news. In the report card, Apple saw modest gains in hardware reliability and innovation, deployments, and its MDM protocol and infrastructure. The latter underlines the fact that Apple sees at least the core needs of enterprise IT and, with the help of third-party vendors, can meet those needs. </p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="documentation-doesnt-cut-it">Documentation doesn’t cut it</h2>
<p>Documentation is an across-the-board failure. Apple does provide a broad range of documentation for enterprise use, but much of it isn’t particularly detailed. Apple also doesn’t provide much in the way of videos, webinars and other media beyond written guides. </p>
<p>Finding documentation can also be a challenge. There is no single stop where you can find everything neatly organized. Information might be included with developer documentation, on Apple’s training site or designated for enterprise support. In many cases, finding where needed details live (if they exist in a document at all) usually comes from other Apple IT admins or from calls to AppleCare for enterprise. Thankfully, there is a large and welcoming Apple IT/Mac Admin community online, along with additional resources to consult. </p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="software-reliability-is-a-victim-of-the-annual-release-cycle">Software reliability is a victim of the annual release cycle</h2>
<p>A problem that affects more than just enterprise users is Apple’s relentless annual release cadence, something that plagues software far more than hardware. Apple Intelligence is one shining example of <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3826143/the-unbearable-lateness-of-apple-intelligence.html?utm=hybrid_search">Apple overreaching and not being able to deliver</a>, as is the climb to make <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/1612418/what-is-apple-stage-manager-and-how-is-it-used.html?utm=hybrid_search">Stage Manager</a> truly useful. </p>
<p>While Apple’s seeming rush to release dazzling new features every year impacts software design and reliability for all users, it hits enterprise IT especially hard for a couple of reasons. </p>
<p>First, enterprise tools in many ways could be considered a niche area of software. As a result, enterprise functionality doesn’t get the same attention as more mainstream features. This can be especially obvious when Apple tries to bring consumer features into enterprise use cases — like <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/1634040/managed-apple-ids-icloud-and-the-shadow-it-connection.html?utm=hybrid_search">managed Apple Accounts</a> and their intended integration with things like Continuity and iCloud, for example — and things like MDM controls for new features such a Apple Intelligence and low-level enterprise-specific functions like <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/1629194/at-wwdc-apple-hones-in-on-device-management.html?utm=hybrid_search">Declarative Device Management</a>.</p>
<p>The second reason is obvious: any piece of software that isn’t ready for prime time — and still makes it into a general release — is a potential support ticket when a business user encounters problems. </p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="security-and-privacy-banner-advantages-that-lead-to-banner-fatigue">Security and privacy — banner advantages that lead to banner fatigue</h2>
<p>Apple tends to score well when it comes to security and privacy protection. But sometimes it goes overboard. Anyone who’s set up a new Mac will see alert after alert asking for permissions and warning about potential pitfalls. Yes, that demonstrates Apple is trying to keep everything locked down and secure. But when there’s a pile-up of security messages, IT admins’ eyes glaze and they stop registering what they’re seeing — and what they’re allowing. </p>
<p>In a work environment, users who don’t have the right permissions set could find themselves without access to some part of macOS or its file system. (Given Apple’s identity management on iOS, this tends to be a bigger challenge on Mac.) Permissions issues mean…another support call for IT.</p>
<p>Some of this can be mitigated with proper deployment planning and using management tools like MDM profiles, but there’s a limit to what those approaches can achieve. </p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="deployment-is-good-but-needs-more-work">Deployment is good, but needs more work</h2>
<p>Deployment features were one area where Apple generally got high marks— and deservedly so, given how smooth Automated Device Enrollment (ADE), Device Enrollment Program (DEP) and MDM can make things. But there’s room for improvement, Six Colors found in its report. </p>
<p>Among the issues: ADE and patch management reliability dropped for some organizations; documentation of deployment workflows didn’t provide enough information; tools like Apple Configurator still require one device at a time registration (for devices that aren’t able to utilize ADE and DEP); and there aren’t APIs available for automation of <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3633178/so-you-want-to-manage-apple-devices-without-using-mdm-heres-how.html?utm=hybrid_search">Apple Business Manager</a> and related deployment processes. </p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="automation-limitations">Automation limitations</h2>
<p>Deployment might be where the lack of automation is clearest, but the issue runs through most aspects of Apple device and user onboarding and management. Apple Business Manager doesn’t offer any APIs that vendors or IT departments can tap into to automate routine tasks. This can be anything from redeploying older devices, onboarding new employees, assigning app licenses or managing user groups and privileges. </p>
<p>Although Apple Business Manager is a great tool and it functions as a nexus for device management and identity management, it still requires more manual lifting than it should.</p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="identity-management-has-never-been-apples-strong-suit-and-it-still-isnt">Identity management has never been Apple’s strong suit – and it still isn’t</h2>
<p>The battle to marry network user accounts to managed Apple devices is a long and bloody one that goes back decades with a lot of it centering on the need to bind (join) devices to Active Directory and, now, Microsoft Entra. </p>
<p>Apple has made some strides in recent years by replacing outdated mechanisms with its Platform SSO framework (and with it support for additional identity management providers beyond Microsoft). But the functionality tends to be fragmented and requires a patchwork approach for many IT teams. Apple also relies heavily on identity management providers to integrate its platform SSO, which can limit its usefulness. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/1634040/managed-apple-ids-icloud-and-the-shadow-it-connection.html">Managed Apple Accounts</a> can also fall victim to identity management issues. While Apple has pushed for their adoption, getting them to function with network identities is not a sure thing.</p>
<p>There are tools for managing identity — they’re just not from Apple. <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3543444/jnuc-2024-jamf-brings-ai-and-more-to-apple-enterprise.html?utm=hybrid_search">Jamf</a> and TwoCanoes both having offerings but they aren’t <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3847110/the-complete-it-toolbox-you-need-to-manage-macs-in-the-enterprise.html?utm=hybrid_search">native tools built into Apple’s OSes</a>. </p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="some-mdm-controls-remain-mia">Some MDM controls remain MIA</h2>
<p>Apple’s MDM controls and commands are quite robust, but the company often releases new features without releasing MDM controls for them. It often (but not always) <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3623377/apple-updates-mdm-tools-for-new-apple-intelligence-features.html?utm=hybrid_search">addresses this issue after release</a>, but that still leaves enterprise customers unable to restrict or manage those features for an undefined length of time. </p>
<p>There’s also the problem of granularity. Many MDM controls allow the disabling of feature sets as a whole, but don’t allow IT to configure or manage specific features. </p>
<p>In recent years, as part of its efforts to move to <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/1626216/wwdc22-apple-brings-declarative-device-management-to-the-mac.html?utm=hybrid_search">Declarative Device Management</a>(DDM), Apple has deprecated, removed or altered a number of MDM controls and payloads — and not always in a consistent way (or with adequate preparation/documentation). Over the last year, changes in MDM controls for network-related features were one particular pain point for Mac IT admins. </p>
<p>There’s also the challenge of dealing with Apple’s public beta releases and how MDM controls and commands can be applied to them. I’m all for allowing workers to try the preview software each year — it helps IT prepare for the coming final release — but they pose an ongoing challenge. </p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="declarative-device-management-needs-more-adoption">Declarative Device Management needs more adoption</h2>
<p>Apple unveiled DDM as a <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/1615256/how-apple-is-changing-mdm-in-ios-15.html">modernization of the aging MDM protocol in 2021</a>; it allows devices to manage themselves based on set conditions rather than constantly polling an MDM server. That’s good and Apple has made serious investments in DDM over the past four years. But some of those advances are too infrequently trickling down to many organizations. The biggest stumbling block is getting MDM vendors to fully embrace DDM and enable it effectively for their customers. </p>
<p>You can argue that the fault here is less with Apple and more with specific vendors, but Apple is the ultimate authority and could be doing more to prod vendors to embrace its vision in a coherent way. </p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="the-lack-of-apple-intelligence-management-tools">The lack of Apple Intelligence management tools</h2>
<p>The rollout of Apple Intelligence has felt like anything but intelligent. While some features have trickled out, the ability to manage them in enterprise environments is lagging. Any new MDM controls released for Apple Intelligence have not been particularly granular, especially when you consider where Apple Intelligence is going (or supposed to be going). </p>
<p>It’s clear that Apple is going to rely on additional generative AI providers beyond OpenAI’s ChatGPT. It remains to be seen whether Apple will offer granular controls for each potential AI’s features (or even allow pre-setting or requiring a specific LLM). Apple has invested in privacy with its <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/2142244/wwdc-apples-private-cloud-compute-is-what-all-cloud-services-should-be.html?utm=hybrid_search">Private Cloud Compute</a>servers that act as an intermediary between device and LLM. And the company is expected to move more and more AI tasks to its devices. But there’s been no indication yet about whether IT will be able to control how business data is used (allowing only on-device AI or mandating tools run on Apple’s privacy servers). </p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Does Apple even <em>want</em> feedback?</h2>
<p>One of the biggest criticisms Apple gets from IT pros is that it doesn’t seem interested in their needs or concerns. The Feedback Assistant app is a particular sore point: it functions like a black hole — problems, concerns, requests all go into it, never to be seen again. The problem isn’t just with that one feedback channel. Even Apple’s enterprise support teams have limited ability to address issues or shepherd feedback to the company. </p>
<p>It’s easy to think, “Well this <em>is </em>Apple, a company that always thinks it knows what’s best despite what customers think ought to happen.” And that’s true. This is par for the course in Apple’s customer relationship. But while that might fly with consumers, businesses with thousands of Macs, iPhones, iPads and other Apple devices should be a bit of a different story. </p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="apple-needs-to-be-clear-about-its-enterprise-commitment">Apple needs to be clear about its enterprise commitment</h2>
<p>One theme that surprised me in the Six Colors report card was that IT leaders continue to question Apple’s commitment to enterprise customers. </p>
<p>I’ve been following Apple’s approach to enterprise and education since the turn of the century. The investments it’s made since 2000 show Apple is serious about this market segment. The launch of MDM in 2010 was the point where Apple really proved it wanted to be a serious enterprise player and could even be a leader in some cases. </p>
<p>But that commitment hasn’t been consistent. Apple has pulled the rug out from under enterprise IT pros by making dramatic changes without warning, deprecating or eliminating features that many large customers depended on and radically changing direction when it comes to specific technologies. The <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/1545797/opinion-what-apple-s-xserve-abandonment-really-means.html">fate of the Xserve</a> and <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/1624151/rip-macos-server.html">macOS Server</a>, while logical in hindsight due to the explosion of cloud computing, shows how Apple can spend years building enterprise demand for a solution — and then almost casually throw everything out the window. </p>
<p>Consistency is probably the biggest thing Apple needs to work on when it comes to its enterprise customers. It’s made serious strides in the past couple of decades, but often with a step back, or to the side, or even off into a different direction. The path deeper into the heart of the enterprise needs to be straightforward for Apple to succeed.</p>
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<link>https://www.computerworld.com/article/3978812/where-apple-falls-short-for-enterprise-it.html</link>
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<title>Microsoft OneDrive move may facilitate accidental sensitive file exfiltration</title>
<pubDate>Fri, 09 May 2025 04:19:50 +0000</pubDate>
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<p>Microsoft’s upcoming OneDrive sync change will give enterprise users an easy way to sync both their personal and corporate OneDrive accounts on business devices. But cybersecurity officials do not <em>want</em> to make syncing easier, as it can create lots of security and IT headaches.</p>
<p>The rollout was originally scheduled for this weekend (May 11), but sometime late on Thursday, the Microsoft page about the feature was changed to say that it was being pushed out in June. </p>
<p>Microsoft did not immediately explain the delay, but discussions on LinkedIn and other social media platforms expressed serious misgivings from IT and security professionals about the rollout.</p>
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<link>https://www.csoonline.com/article/3981760/microsoft-onedrive-move-may-facilitate-accidental-sensitive-file-exfiltration.html</link>
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<title>OpenAI hires Instacart CEO Fidji Simo to oversee customer-facing apps</title>
<pubDate>Fri, 09 May 2025 01:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
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<p>OpenAI was founded a decade ago with a focus on research, but it has since expanded into products and infrastructure. Now it is looking to again broaden its presence into user-facing apps.</p>
<p>The company announced this week that Fidji Simo will join as CEO of applications, a newly-created position.</p>
<p>Simo is the current CEO and chair at grocery delivery company Instacart. She will begin her new role at OpenAI later this year, reporting directly to Sam Altman, who will remain overall CEO and oversee research, compute, and applications.</p>
<p>In creating this new position, OpenAI is signaling its move from a pure research lab to a full-stack company with a deeper focus on building out applications around its models, scaling enterprise offerings, and interacting more closely with end users.</p>
<p>“This helps bring a focus to more specific applications and use cases for OpenAI,” said Jimmie Lee, founder and CEO at JLEE and Associates. “Overall, the shift is now to operationalization, rather than just be a product-led, innovation-led company. Now it can focus more on sales-led growth with a specific roadmap and strategy centered around the user.”</p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="moving-from-research-to-more-productized-offerings">Moving from research to more productized offerings</h2>
<p>OpenAI was founded as a non-profit research lab in 2015, but has since evolved into a product company with its growing family of <a href="https://www.infoworld.com/article/3962966/openai-gpt-4-1-models-promise-improved-coding-and-instruction-following.html" target="_blank">ChatGPT models</a>, as well as an infrastructure company, notably with the $500 billion <a href="https://www.networkworld.com/article/3807392/openai-softbank-oracle-lead-500b-project-stargate-to-ramp-up-ai-infra-in-the-us.html" target="_blank">Stargate Project</a> to build out its data centers.</p>
<p>The company’s applications division brings together business and operations teams that turn OpenAI’s research into products used by enterprises worldwide. In her new role, Altman wrote in a <a href="https://openai.com/index/leadership-expansion-with-fidji-simo/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">blog post</a> this week, Simo will focus on “enabling our ‘traditional’ company functions to scale as we enter a next phase of growth.”</p>
<p>He noted that Simo brings a “rare blend of leadership, product and operational expertise.”</p>
<p>The new CEO of operations has been on OpenAI’s board since March 2024. She was head of Instacart when the company went public in 2023 and was integral to the growth of its advertising business. Previous to Instacart, she was VP at Facebook/Meta overseeing the Facebook App, after leading key Facebook products including Ads, Marketplace and Video.</p>
<p>“Her background at Meta and Instacart shows deep experience in scaling digital platforms, optimizing user engagement, and monetizing at scale,” said Kaveh Vahdat, founder and president of RiseOpp, a fractional CMO and SEO services company.</p>
<p>The hire seems to signal an intent to mature OpenAI’s application strategy beyond ChatGPT into a broader suite of user-facing tools, likely aimed at both consumer and enterprise markets, he noted. “For enterprise buyers, this may indicate that OpenAI’s roadmap will involve more structured, productized offerings rather than raw API access alone.”</p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="prioritizing-user-experience">Prioritizing user experience</h2>
<p>OpenAI’s decision to hire a senior executive from a digital-only customer-facing business shows a strategic pivot that prioritizes customer and user experience, said Manish Jain, principal research director at Info-Tech Research Group.</p>
<p>“In the competitive genAI landscape, it seems to reflect the realization that customer satisfaction and usability have become a differentiation across channels of its offerings,” he said. “This move may intend to put user needs and preferences at the center of their development roadmap.”</p>
<p>However, he noted, while Simo’s experience at Instacart and Facebook could make her the top person at OpenAI who deeply understands customers and their needs and wants, it is yet to be seen if that can also help foster public trust and deliver products that do public good, a point the non-profit has been driving home recently.</p>
<p>“Even though it is a significant development in the governance of OpenAI, I’d like to wait and see how significant an impact it may have on the direction OpenAI is taking,” said Jain.</p>
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<link>https://www.computerworld.com/article/3981662/openai-hires-instacart-ceo-fidji-simo-to-oversee-customer-facing-apps.html</link>
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<title>Google’s AI agent protocol is becoming the language for digital labor</title>
<pubDate>Thu, 08 May 2025 15:51:12 +0000</pubDate>
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<p>Google’s recently released <a href="https://www.infoworld.com/article/3958032/googles-agent2agent-open-protocol-aims-to-connect-disparate-agents.html" target="_blank">Agent2Agent protocol</a> has emerged as a top contender to facilitate communication and collaboration between AI agents in models and enterprises.</p>
<p>Microsoft this week adopted the A2A protocol in Copilot Studio and Azure AI Foundry for developers to build shared agents that can interact with each other.</p>
<p><a href="https://developers.googleblog.com/en/a2a-a-new-era-of-agent-interoperability/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Introduced</a> last month, Google’ open-source A2A protocol allows networks of agents to structurally set goals, reason, take action, and return results across clouds, enterprises, and data silos, said Yina Arenas, vice president of product for Azure AI Foundry, and Bas Brekelmans, chief technology officer of Copilot Studio, in a joint <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-cloud/blog/2025/05/07/empowering-multi-agent-apps-with-the-open-agent2agent-a2a-protocol/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">blog entry</a>.</p>
<p>“As customers scale these systems, interoperability is no longer optional,” the blog authors said.</p>
<h6 class="wp-block-heading">[ <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3843138/agentic-ai-ongoing-coverage-of-its-impact-on-the-enterprise.html">Agentic AI: Ongoing coverage of its impact on the enterprise</a> ]</h6>
<p>Like Microsoft, AI services company Glean, which provides AI-based collaborative tools, is in the process of implementing A2A, Steve Calvert, software engineer at Glean, told <em>Computerworld</em>.</p>
<p>“Many enterprises are still trying to adopt agents, and A2A is really laying the foundation for the next generation of AI-powered collaboration,” Calvert said.</p>
<p>Calvert said the A2A open protocol helps agents communicate and work together, regardless of which vendor or system they’re built on. Today’s agents are designed to handle specific or a class of tasks, but A2A will change that, he said.</p>
<p>“For example, a sales agent supporting prospecting work, or an engineering agent generating postmortems — in the future, customers will want those agents to talk to one another, so they can solve even more complex problems,” Calvert said.</p>
<p>A2A is emerging at a time Anthropic’s MCP (model context protocol), another agent-to-agent protocol, is gaining steam.</p>
<p>A2A enables the orchestration of multiple agents, while MCP gives agents access to tools, Calvert said.</p>
<p>In practice, this means that agents will work with one another using A2A and interact with other systems using MCP, Calvert said.</p>
<p>A2A and MCP don’t compete, as they fill different requirements and “kind of need each other for the agents to work together,” said Bob Parker, senior vice president at IDC.</p>
<p>AI agents need middleware to understand and contextualize data in complex large-scale deployments, which is where MCP fits in. A2A is “more of asynchronous communication between agents themselves” that is emerging as a default protocol in the AI industry, Parker said.</p>
<p>For example, agents within M365 can talk directly within apps or services using A2A, which is a “more immediate mechanism to benefit productivity,” Parker said.</p>
<p>“I think long term, the MCP is going to be perhaps more impactful when you get outside of what you have on your desktop. When you start to talk about enterprise applications… MCP will be important,” Parker said.</p>
<p>Salesforce, which developed the A2A standard with Google, is also moving forward with the technology.</p>
<p>The A2A standard “allows AI agents to work together seamlessly across <a href="https://www.cio.com/article/3518646/salesforce-unveils-agentforce-to-help-create-autonomous-ai-bots.html" target="_blank">Agentforce</a> and other ecosystems to turn disconnected capabilities into orchestrated [implementations],” said Gary Lerhaupt, vice president of product architecture at Salesforce, in an email statement to <em>Computerworld</em>.</p>
<p>The development of A2A is being watched closely by Read.AI, which has products that integrate with productivity and process tools from Salesforce, Atlassian, Google, and Slack. </p>
<p>“There’s a lot of buzz around A2A — and MCP too, for that matter — and like so much of AI, these protocols are going to be transformative and the changes will happen fast,” Elliott Waldron, co-founder and vice president of data science at Read.AI, told <em>Computerworld</em>.</p>
<p>But it’s still early in terms of implementation for the company, Waldron said. “We require a tighter integration of different sources to achieve the highest level of fidelity for our products. So we’re not moving yet, but we are definitely paying close attention,” Waldron said.</p>
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<link>https://www.computerworld.com/article/3981391/googles-ai-agent-protocol-is-becoming-the-language-for-digital-labor.html</link>
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<title>Tech CEOs warn Senate: Outdated US power grid threatens AI ambitions</title>
<pubDate>Thu, 08 May 2025 13:09:28 +0000</pubDate>
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<p>In a stark warning to lawmakers, technology leaders from the nation’s biggest AI companies will testify Thursday that the US’ aging infrastructure is unprepared for the massive energy demands of AI, potentially jeopardizing US competitiveness in the rapidly evolving technology race.</p>
<p>US Senator Ted Cruz, who will lead the hearing, in a <a href="https://www.commerce.senate.gov/2025/5/winning-the-ai-race-strengthening-u-s-capabilities-in-computing-and-innovation_2">statement</a>, emphasized the strategic importance of removing barriers to AI development, “Growth and development of new AI technologies will bolster our national security, create new jobs, and stimulate economic growth. This hearing will help us find ways to remove restraints on the AI supply chain and unleash American dominance in machine learning and next-generation computing.”</p>
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<link>https://www.networkworld.com/article/3981216/tech-ceos-warn-senate-outdated-us-power-grid-threatens-ai-ambitions.html</link>
<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">3981244</post-id><category>Artificial Intelligence, Technology Industry</category><enclosure url="https://www.computerworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/3981244-0-25484300-1746709809-shutterstock_2443980471.jpg?quality=50&strip=all" length="15512121" type="image/jpeg" />
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<title>Apple plans a life after Google</title>
<pubDate>Thu, 08 May 2025 12:59:42 +0000</pubDate>
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<p>Google could lose a third of its business if the courts force it to relinquish its default search deal for Apple’s Safari. It could lose the same thing if Apple voluntarily switches to AI-driven search services from other parties, including Apple itself.</p>
<p>There is no doubt that Google will be the <a href="https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/alphabet-slides-apple-eyes-google-085930527.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">biggest casualty</a> if US courts force it to stop paying Apple roughly $20b a year to be included as the default search engine in Safari. That’s bad news for Apple, but given that Google currently pays Apple <a href="https://www.engadget.com/google-reportedly-pays-apple-36-percent-of-ad-search-revenues-from-safari-191730783.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">36% of search ads revenue</a> generated by searches via the Apple browser, it’s existentially grim news for Google. It’s doubtful a company seeing its revenue savaged in such a way can easily survive — at least, not in its present form. </p>
<p>The outcome for Apple is also grim, though perhaps not quite so existentially challenging. Sure, Apple may find itself short of a hugely damaging $20b it is used to receiving from Google, but it still has options, including the creation of its own search service based on the huge quantity of data it has gathered using its own <a href="https://www.applemust.com/what-is-applebot-and-what-does-it-do/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Applebot</a> across the years. </p>
<p>This search feature <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3267993/apples-siri-the-only-search-engine-youll-need.html">already exists</a> inside Spotlight search. Apple also has its own ad sales business, so it’s not at all beyond imagining that the company could claw back some of the lost revenue using its own resources.</p>
<p>It’s just that it probably wouldn’t be as good. </p>
<p>Which leaves it looking for other options. </p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Thinking outside the box</strong></h2>
<p>Apple SVP Eddy Cue threw feral cats among the Google’s plump little pigeons when he told a US court this week that Apple is looking to <a href="https://www.applemust.com/apple-may-add-ai-search-as-an-option-svp-eddy-cue-tells-courts/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">add AI search to Safari</a>. The company has already met with third parties who may be able to provide such tools, he said, and while the company didn’t announce anything, he did particularly point to <a href="https://www.perplexity.ai/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Perplexity</a> as a potential running mate.</p>
<p>Cue was trying to persuade the court not to demand that Google put an end to its Apple payments, but the inference was also pretty clear: If Apple isn’t making money with search, don’t expect search to remain the same. Google’s current search competitors won’t be in the running should Apple switch to AI-based search, as they don’t yet produce a search AI worth talking to.</p>
<p>Google almost does. OpenAI already does. And Apple says Perplexity and Anthropic (which may soon <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3977439/apple-taps-anthropics-claude-for-ai-app-development.html">appear within Xcode</a> in some form) seem promising. </p>
<p>Apple will probably find some way to generate a revenue stream from the provision of AI in search, and while the current in that income stream may not match the torrent of dollars the company attracts from Google’s search traffic, it’s still going to mitigate the problem a little. Cue’s bound to have come up with a plan of some kind — he told the court that thinking about the problem has kept him awake at night, and Cue strikes me as the kind of man who likes to pick up stress, toy with it a little, and turn it into planning.</p>
<p>Of course, Apple doesn’t want to lose its Google income — and Google is working to turn its search service into an AI-driven search service, one devasted ad revenue-deprived web publisher at a time.</p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Apple has the options here</strong></h2>
<p>Hey, why do you think the AI companies want to <a href="https://societyofauthors.org/2025/02/25/uk-creative-industries-launch-copyright-fightback-against-global-tech-firms-ai-models/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">erode copyright protection</a>? The future of the creative industries certainly doesn’t seem to rank particularly highly on the AI industry radar. </p>
<p>Other than unfolding horror as those industries are steadily subsumed and replaced by machine intelligence, Apple is the company with the options here. </p>
<p>Not only does it already have a pile of search data of its own, but it has a strong ecosystem. Even if Eddy Cue can see that we <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3536872/what-if-jony-ive-builds-the-human-interface-for-ai.html">may not have iPhones</a> in a decade, the company has a proven capacity to reinvent itself. If Google finds itself forced to divest itself of part of its business — search, or even Gemini — don’t be too surprised to see Apple take a slice of what’s left behind. It will not relinquish a $20b opportunity without attempting to claw some of that income back.</p>
<p>It’s the latest salvo in the ongoing war between government and Big Tech. Apple and Google face big problems with regulators who seem keen to <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3968555/brussels-fines-apple-and-meta-500-million-and-200-million-euros-respectively-for-non-compliance-with-the-digital-markets-law.html?utm=hybrid_search">make an example</a> of the biggest names in tech, even as Apple complains that in some cases, such as in Europe, regulators seem to have <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/apple-to-appeal-e500m-digital-fine-over-eus-silence-in-compliance-talks/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">decided on their approach</a> to the company’s guilt with little positive consultation.</p>
<p>That’s the kind of approach to regulation that can make a trillion-dollar company paranoid, and like any other entity, paranoid creatures fight vicious and hard. Whatever the outcome, Apple’s existential struggles are nowhere near complete, but it’s very, very far from being out of options. It’s a little less clear how resilient Google might be, however — and investor sentiment <a href="https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/alphabet-slides-apple-eyes-google-085930527.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">seems to reflect this</a>.</p>
<p><em>You can follow me on social media! Join me on <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/jonnyevanssays.bsky.social" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">BlueSky</a>, <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/jonnyevans" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">LinkedIn</a>, and <a href="https://social.vivaldi.net/@jonnyevans" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Mastodon</a>.</em></p>
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<link>https://www.computerworld.com/article/3981155/apple-plans-a-life-after-google.html</link>
<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">3981155</post-id><category>Apple, Artificial Intelligence, Generative AI, Google, Regulation, Web Search</category><enclosure url="https://www.computerworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/3981155-0-04133200-1746709283-safari-recent-searches.jpg?quality=50&strip=all" length="537244" type="image/jpeg" />
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<title>20 genuinely useful AI apps for Android</title>
<pubDate>Thu, 08 May 2025 11:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
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<p>AI is everywhere right now — but let’s be honest: It’s easy to slap some sort of silly text generation button onto an app and call it “AI.” It’s much more difficult to come up with a truly compelling way this type of technology can <em>actually </em>be helpful.</p>
<p>And once you move away from <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/2505365/ai-powered-apps-that-actually-save-time.html">web-based AI utilities</a> and start focusing specifically on Android, the pool of commendable candidates only gets smaller.</p>
<p>Don’t despair, though: There <em>are</em> some standout <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/1718291/must-have-android-apps-for-business.html">Android apps</a> that put artificial intelligence to genuinely intelligent use. They range from multipurpose chatbots to tools for smarter note-taking and reminder-making, image analysis and manipulation, and even personal memory enhancement — among other useful tasks.</p>
<p>Just keep in mind that, by its very nature, much of this <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3627484/whats-next-for-generative-ai-in-2025.html">generative AI technology</a> is still woefully <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3952838/how-enterprise-it-can-protect-itself-from-genai-unreliability.html">unreliable and inaccurate</a>. You really have to double-check what it tells you, especially when it comes to more info-oriented uses — and/or you have to think carefully about <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3853747/the-secret-to-using-generative-ai-effectively.html">the best way to interact with it</a> to get the results you need.</p>
<p>But the apps here all have some manner of redeeming value when it comes to professional productivity — particularly if you think carefully about how you’re using them and why. And I’ll try to guide you toward the <em>types </em>of uses that are generally most reliable and beneficial for each specific item.</p>
<p>All of the tools listed here are either free or with a reasonably robust free tier, too, unless otherwise noted.</p>
<p>Shall we?</p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><a></a>AI on Android part I: On-demand assistance</h2>
<p>We’ll start with the simplest and most well-known form of AI, in this current incarnation, and that’s the humble and at times hilariously off-kilter chatbot.</p>
<p>Within that arena, the first and most easily accessible option is Google’s own<strong> (1)</strong> <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.bard&hl=en_US" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong>Gemini</strong></a> Android assistant (which may well be on your device whether you install it or not). Gemini can do all the standard AI chatbot stuff, in terms of answering questions, generating images, and providing general information — with all the standard asterisks, too, that the info it gives you <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3806751/google-amazon-ai.html">may not always be entirely accurate</a> — but where Gemini really shines is in its ability to help control your device and interact with your data from various Google services.</p>
<p>💡 <strong>Try this: </strong></p>
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Ask Gemini to read your notifications out loud</li>
<li>Ask it to summarize your recent emails</li>
<li>Activate the Google Workspace integration (by tapping your profile picture in the upper-right corner and then selecting “Apps”) and then ask Gemini questions about your Docs, Drive, Calendar, Keep, or Tasks activity</li>
</ul>
<p>Of course, Gemini isn’t the only AI chatbot option you’ve got on Android. OpenAI’s <strong>(2)</strong> <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.openai.chatgpt&hl=en_US" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong>ChatGPT</strong></a> app gives you access to the interface that arguably kickstarted the current AI revolution. Even on its free level, it can be helpful for summarizing long PDFs or documents (via the plus button in its main prompt area), giving you the high points of articles and other pages online (if you send their links into the app via your browser’s regular sharing function), and finding trends within large sets of data (if you share a spreadsheet into the app or upload it using the plus icon).</p>
<div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-01-chatgpt.jpg?quality=50&strip=all&w=1024" alt="chatgpt response on android" class="wp-image-3965330" srcset="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-01-chatgpt.jpg?quality=50&strip=all 2160w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-01-chatgpt.jpg?resize=300%2C291&quality=50&strip=all 300w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-01-chatgpt.jpg?resize=768%2C745&quality=50&strip=all 768w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-01-chatgpt.jpg?resize=1024%2C994&quality=50&strip=all 1024w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-01-chatgpt.jpg?resize=1536%2C1490&quality=50&strip=all 1536w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-01-chatgpt.jpg?resize=2048%2C1987&quality=50&strip=all 2048w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-01-chatgpt.jpg?resize=718%2C697&quality=50&strip=all 718w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-01-chatgpt.jpg?resize=173%2C168&quality=50&strip=all 173w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-01-chatgpt.jpg?resize=87%2C84&quality=50&strip=all 87w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-01-chatgpt.jpg?resize=495%2C480&quality=50&strip=all 495w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-01-chatgpt.jpg?resize=371%2C360&quality=50&strip=all 371w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-01-chatgpt.jpg?resize=258%2C250&quality=50&strip=all 258w" width="1024" height="994" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption"><p>The ChatGPT Android app excels as summarizing long documents and identifying trends in large sets of data.</p>
</figcaption></figure><p class="imageCredit">JR Raphael / Foundry</p></div>
<p>Beyond that, Microsoft’s <strong>(3) </strong><a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.microsoft.copilot&hl=en_US" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong>Copilot</strong></a> puts the same ChatGPT brains into a somewhat friendlier interface that includes seamless integration with Microsoft apps and services; <strong>(4)</strong> <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ai.perplexity.app.android&hl=en_US" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong>Perplexity</strong></a> positions itself as more of a smart search companion for both general web-based info and your own uploaded documents, with clear citations and explanations; and Anthropic’s <strong>(5)</strong> <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.anthropic.claude&hl=en_US" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong>Claude</strong></a> is particularly skilled at creating code and weighing out different viewpoints to help you consider a complex topic.</p>
<p>Honestly, in this specific area, all of the options have an awful lot in common — and the trickiest part is just figuring out which one you prefer in general or want to use for any given scenario. That’s where <strong>(6)</strong> <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kagi.search&hl=en_US" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong>Kagi</strong></a> can come in handy. At its core, Kagi is <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/91268933/google-alternatives-kagi" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a privacy-centric, quality-focused alternative to Google Search</a>. But beyond basic queries, its <a href="https://kagi.com/pricing" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$25-a-month Ultimate plan</a> includes access to something called the Kagi Assistant, which lets you access the underlying intelligence from Gemini, ChatGPT, Claude, and other AI engines in a single streamlined spot and with the added advantage of complete privacy and custom filtering to help refine the results.</p>
<p>And speaking of privacy, the independent<strong> (7) </strong><a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pocketpalai" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong>PocketPal AI</strong></a> app makes it easy to download different AI models directly onto your device for isolated, secure access.</p>
<div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-02-pocketpal.jpg?quality=50&strip=all&w=1022" alt="pocketpal app models and settings on android" class="wp-image-3965333" srcset="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-02-pocketpal.jpg?quality=50&strip=all 2160w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-02-pocketpal.jpg?resize=150%2C150&quality=50&strip=all 150w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-02-pocketpal.jpg?resize=300%2C300&quality=50&strip=all 300w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-02-pocketpal.jpg?resize=768%2C770&quality=50&strip=all 768w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-02-pocketpal.jpg?resize=1022%2C1024&quality=50&strip=all 1022w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-02-pocketpal.jpg?resize=1532%2C1536&quality=50&strip=all 1532w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-02-pocketpal.jpg?resize=2043%2C2048&quality=50&strip=all 2043w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-02-pocketpal.jpg?resize=1240%2C1240&quality=50&strip=all 1240w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-02-pocketpal.jpg?resize=695%2C697&quality=50&strip=all 695w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-02-pocketpal.jpg?resize=168%2C168&quality=50&strip=all 168w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-02-pocketpal.jpg?resize=84%2C84&quality=50&strip=all 84w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-02-pocketpal.jpg?resize=479%2C480&quality=50&strip=all 479w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-02-pocketpal.jpg?resize=359%2C360&quality=50&strip=all 359w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-02-pocketpal.jpg?resize=249%2C250&quality=50&strip=all 249w" width="1022" height="1024" sizes="(max-width: 1022px) 100vw, 1022px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption"><p>PocketPal puts powerful AI models right on your device for fully local and highly customizable interactions.</p>
</figcaption></figure><p class="imageCredit">JR Raphael / Foundry</p></div>
<p>💡 <strong>Try this:</strong></p>
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Look in PocketPal’s main three-line menu to find the “Models” section and click the “Download” option to bring a few of the available options onto your device</li>
<li>Create your own custom and completely local “Pal” that’ll take on practically any personality, focus, and style of answering you like</li>
<li>Tap the three-dot menu icon in the app’s upper-right corner while chatting with any model and select the “Generation settings” option to fine-tune all sorts of intricate parameters about how exactly the chatbot works — including how short or long its responses are and how “creative” vs. focused its communication should be</li>
</ul>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><a></a>AI on Android part II: Smarter notes and reminders</h2>
<p>If you’ve got a Google-made Pixel device, Google’s installed-by-default <strong>(8)</strong> <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.recorder&hl=en_US" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong>Recorder</strong></a> app is an invaluable AI resource. Recorder is hands-down the easiest and most effective way to record speaking — be it your own rambling thoughts or an important conversation — and then get an instant searchable transcription that’s available both on your phone <em>and</em> <a href="https://recorder.google.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">on the web</a> from any other device where you’re signed in.</p>
<p>For everyone else — or for any Pixel owners who need even more audio-recording oomph — <strong>(9) </strong><a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aisense.otter&hl=en_US" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong>Otter</strong></a> is an excellent option. Otter similarly records speaking but is designed even more with <em>meetings </em>in mind, thanks to its thoughtful features around summarization, key point highlighting, image integration, and team-wide collaboration. It can also transcribe your own uploaded audio and video files, though that capability and certain other advanced features require <a href="https://otter.ai/pricing" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a paid subscription</a> (starting at about $100 per user per year).</p>
<p>An independent-developer creation called <strong>(10) </strong><a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.audiopen.android&hl=en_US" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong>AudioPen</strong></a>, meanwhile,is less about simply <em>saving </em>your spoken words and more about <em>extracting value </em>out of ’em — basically like a dictation-centric note tool that does all the heavy lifting for you. Just say whatever’s on your mind, and AudioPen will transform your thoughts into clear, concise notes in whatever length and style you like. The service’s free plan is generous and quite usable, though some of the more advanced options do require <a href="https://audiopen.ai/prime" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">an annual paid subscription</a>.</p>
<div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-03-audiopen.jpg?quality=50&strip=all&w=1022" alt="audiopen app on android" class="wp-image-3965335" srcset="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-03-audiopen.jpg?quality=50&strip=all 2160w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-03-audiopen.jpg?resize=150%2C150&quality=50&strip=all 150w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-03-audiopen.jpg?resize=300%2C300&quality=50&strip=all 300w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-03-audiopen.jpg?resize=768%2C770&quality=50&strip=all 768w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-03-audiopen.jpg?resize=1022%2C1024&quality=50&strip=all 1022w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-03-audiopen.jpg?resize=1532%2C1536&quality=50&strip=all 1532w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-03-audiopen.jpg?resize=2043%2C2048&quality=50&strip=all 2043w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-03-audiopen.jpg?resize=1240%2C1240&quality=50&strip=all 1240w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-03-audiopen.jpg?resize=695%2C697&quality=50&strip=all 695w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-03-audiopen.jpg?resize=168%2C168&quality=50&strip=all 168w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-03-audiopen.jpg?resize=84%2C84&quality=50&strip=all 84w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-03-audiopen.jpg?resize=479%2C480&quality=50&strip=all 479w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-03-audiopen.jpg?resize=359%2C360&quality=50&strip=all 359w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-03-audiopen.jpg?resize=249%2C250&quality=50&strip=all 249w" width="1022" height="1024" sizes="(max-width: 1022px) 100vw, 1022px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption"><p>AudioPen leans on AI to clean up and organize your spoken memos.</p>
</figcaption></figure><p class="imageCredit">JR Raphael / Foundry</p></div>
<p>💡 <strong>Try this:</strong></p>
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Tap the box with an upward-facing arrow icon while viewing any note — as seen in the lower-right corner in the first screenshot above — to share its entire contents to any other app on your device</li>
<li>Tap the gear-shaped settings icon in the app’s upper-right corner — as seen in the second screenshot above — to configure the exact intensity and style of rewriting you prefer (if you’re using AudioPen’s paid version)</li>
<li>Input specific words — like names — into the “Special words” area of that same settings section to ensure they’re always transcribed and spelled correctly (also available only in the paid version)</li>
</ul>
<p>When it comes to voice <em>phone</em> calls, Google’s Pixel devices are again positioned for success with the fully featured version of the simply named<strong> (11)</strong> <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.dialer&hl=en_US" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong>Phone by Google</strong></a> app. Among <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/1613551/google-pixel-phone-calling-features.html">other useful capabilities</a>, the Phone app packs a supremely useful Call Notes feature that can summarize key points from any call for you as you’re speaking. It’s thus far available only on the newest flagship-level Pixel 9 devices, but it’s built in and ready to roll on those gadgets without any extra costs or caveats.</p>
<p>Samsung’s <strong>(12) </strong><a href="https://galaxystore.samsung.com/prepost/000004312796" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong>Phone</strong></a> app offers a similar sort of system on the latest Galaxy S25 device. And if you’ve got any other Android phone model, you can emulate the same concept <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3488652/google-pixel-9-call-notes-android.html">with a pinch of creative thinking</a>.</p>
<p>Finally, for the Pixel-palmin’ pals among us, don’t miss out on the<strong> (13)</strong> <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.pixel.agent&hl=en_US" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong>Pixel Screenshots</strong></a> system built into the latest Pixel 9 flagship phone models. The app’s most prominent feature is its ability to automatically analyze and catalog all of your screenshots, which is fine — but where it <em>really</em> shines is in <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3496909/google-pixel-9-feature.html">the super-simple on-demand reminder system</a> it adds right into Android’s foundation.</p>
<p>Just capture a screenshot, anywhere and anytime (by pressing your phone’s power and volume-down buttons together), then tap the little bell icon in the confirmation dialogue in the corner of your screen — and you’ll be able to set an instant reminder around whatever you were seeing that’ll pop up at any future date and time you desire.</p>
<div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-04-pixel-screenshots.jpg?quality=50&strip=all&w=1024" alt="setting a reminder in pixel screenshots app on android" class="wp-image-3965332" srcset="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-04-pixel-screenshots.jpg?quality=50&strip=all 2160w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-04-pixel-screenshots.jpg?resize=150%2C150&quality=50&strip=all 150w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-04-pixel-screenshots.jpg?resize=300%2C300&quality=50&strip=all 300w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-04-pixel-screenshots.jpg?resize=768%2C767&quality=50&strip=all 768w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-04-pixel-screenshots.jpg?resize=1024%2C1024&quality=50&strip=all 1024w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-04-pixel-screenshots.jpg?resize=1536%2C1536&quality=50&strip=all 1536w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-04-pixel-screenshots.jpg?resize=2048%2C2046&quality=50&strip=all 2048w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-04-pixel-screenshots.jpg?resize=1240%2C1240&quality=50&strip=all 1240w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-04-pixel-screenshots.jpg?resize=698%2C697&quality=50&strip=all 698w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-04-pixel-screenshots.jpg?resize=168%2C168&quality=50&strip=all 168w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-04-pixel-screenshots.jpg?resize=84%2C84&quality=50&strip=all 84w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-04-pixel-screenshots.jpg?resize=480%2C480&quality=50&strip=all 480w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-04-pixel-screenshots.jpg?resize=360%2C360&quality=50&strip=all 360w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-04-pixel-screenshots.jpg?resize=250%2C250&quality=50&strip=all 250w" width="1024" height="1023" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption"><p>Pixel Screenshots can analyze and organize your screenshots, but its most useful feature is the simple reminder system it adds onto your device.</p>
</figcaption></figure><p class="imageCredit">JR Raphael / Foundry</p></div>
<p>No Pixel? No problem. You can <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3807790/pixel-productivity-upgrade-android.html">emulate the automated screenshot cataloguing piece of the puzzle</a> on <em>any</em> Android device with a clever little creation called <strong>(14)</strong> <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=aculix.pixelshot.app&hl=en_US" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong>PixelShot</strong></a>, and you can cook up something vaguely similar to the seamless screenshot reminder system with <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3497607">the right kind of crafty configuring</a>.</p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><a></a>AI on Android part III: Image analysis and manipulation</h2>
<p>All this AI obsession may be a relatively recent phenomenon, but the long-standing <strong>(15) </strong><a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.ar.lens&hl=en_US" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong>Google Lens</strong></a> app has been at it for ages already — and it’s <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/1635589/google-lens-android.html">every bit as impressive now</a> as it was when it debuted nearly eight years ago. Lens lets you do everything from analyzing and identifying objects within images to copying text from the real world and then pasting it anywhere you want or even sending it to your computer’s clipboard.</p>
<p>💡 <strong>Try this:</strong></p>
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Open Lens, aim your phone’s camera at something, and tap the big search button to analyze and identify it</li>
<li>Tap anywhere on the results to select and copy text from inside the image</li>
<li>Point your camera at a QR code or barcode within Lens to have it instantly read and optionally also to open any associated links</li>
</ul>
<p>It may seem obvious, but I’d be remiss not to mention the<strong> (16)</strong> <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.photos&hl=en_US" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong>Google Photos</strong></a> Android app as a part of this collection. Photos has all sorts of impressive tools for editing and enhancing images, removing elements from photos, and even analyzing images and allowing you to interact with text inside of them via its integration with the aforementioned Lens technology.</p>
<div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-05-google-photos.jpg?quality=50&strip=all&w=1018" alt="working with images in google photos and google lens apps on android" class="wp-image-3965337" srcset="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-05-google-photos.jpg?quality=50&strip=all 2160w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-05-google-photos.jpg?resize=150%2C150&quality=50&strip=all 150w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-05-google-photos.jpg?resize=298%2C300&quality=50&strip=all 298w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-05-google-photos.jpg?resize=768%2C773&quality=50&strip=all 768w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-05-google-photos.jpg?resize=1018%2C1024&quality=50&strip=all 1018w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-05-google-photos.jpg?resize=1527%2C1536&quality=50&strip=all 1527w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-05-google-photos.jpg?resize=2036%2C2048&quality=50&strip=all 2036w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-05-google-photos.jpg?resize=693%2C697&quality=50&strip=all 693w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-05-google-photos.jpg?resize=167%2C168&quality=50&strip=all 167w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-05-google-photos.jpg?resize=83%2C84&quality=50&strip=all 83w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-05-google-photos.jpg?resize=477%2C480&quality=50&strip=all 477w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-05-google-photos.jpg?resize=358%2C360&quality=50&strip=all 358w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-05-google-photos.jpg?resize=249%2C250&quality=50&strip=all 249w" width="1018" height="1024" sizes="(max-width: 1018px) 100vw, 1018px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption"><p>Photos is filled with AI-powered editing tools and intelligent image interaction utilities.</p>
</figcaption></figure><p class="imageCredit">JR Raphael / Foundry</p></div>
<p>And finally, <strong>(17) </strong><a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.canva.editor&hl=en_US" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong>Canva</strong></a> is a fantastic all-around option for on-the-go graphic design work — be it creating a quick image for web use or social media sharing, whipping up a flyer to send out to colleagues or clients, or editing existing images to get ’em ready for public posting.</p>
<p>The app’s core features are free, but most of the AI-specific elements — including the ability to add and replace objects, expand existing images, and easily change the style of individual elements — require a $15-a-month or $120-a-year <a href="https://www.canva.com/pro/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Pro upgrade</a> (which is also <a href="https://www.canva.com/pricing/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">available in team-friendly plans</a>).</p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><a></a>AI on Android part IV: Text and memory enhancers</h2>
<p>Need a helping hand with your two-thumbed typing? Both <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.inputmethod.latin&hl=en_US" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Google’s Gboard keyboard</a> and <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.touchtype.swiftkey&hl=en_US" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Microsoft’s SwiftKey Keyboard</a> now boast built-in rewriting features in their respective toolbars, but <strong>(18)</strong> <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.grammarly.android.keyboard&hl=en_US" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong>Grammarly</strong></a> takes things up a considerable notch with <a href="https://theintelligence.com/38432/android-text-editing/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">the most advanced and versatile text-enhancing engine</a> available on Android.</p>
<p>Grammarly now works with whatever keyboard you’re already using and pops up a little green “G” button on the side of your screen anytime your keyboard is active. It’ll show you editing suggestions as you go, or you can also highlight any text you’ve entered anywhere and then tap that same button to ask for more specific word wrangling assistance — from general improvements to creating more persuasive or even more confident-sounding prose within the context of what you’ve already started.</p>
<div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-06-grammarly.jpg?quality=50&strip=all&w=1024" alt="generative ai powered writing suggestions in grammarly android app" class="wp-image-3965331" srcset="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-06-grammarly.jpg?quality=50&strip=all 2160w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-06-grammarly.jpg?resize=150%2C150&quality=50&strip=all 150w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-06-grammarly.jpg?resize=300%2C297&quality=50&strip=all 300w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-06-grammarly.jpg?resize=768%2C761&quality=50&strip=all 768w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-06-grammarly.jpg?resize=1024%2C1015&quality=50&strip=all 1024w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-06-grammarly.jpg?resize=1536%2C1522&quality=50&strip=all 1536w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-06-grammarly.jpg?resize=2048%2C2029&quality=50&strip=all 2048w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-06-grammarly.jpg?resize=704%2C697&quality=50&strip=all 704w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-06-grammarly.jpg?resize=170%2C168&quality=50&strip=all 170w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-06-grammarly.jpg?resize=85%2C84&quality=50&strip=all 85w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-06-grammarly.jpg?resize=484%2C480&quality=50&strip=all 484w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-06-grammarly.jpg?resize=363%2C360&quality=50&strip=all 363w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-06-grammarly.jpg?resize=252%2C250&quality=50&strip=all 252w" width="1024" height="1015" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption"><p>Grammarly shows writing suggestions alongside any Android keyboard and can pull up more ambitious rewriting prompts as you’re typing, too.</p>
</figcaption></figure><p class="imageCredit">JR Raphael / Foundry</p></div>
<p>If you tend to have trouble recalling specific details of your online activity, a brilliant little AI app called <strong>(19) </strong><a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.github.mthli.snapseek" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong>Snapseek</strong></a> is exactly the companion you need. Snapseek works kind of like <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3615775/microsoft-windows-recall-hands-on.html">Microsoft’s Windows Recall feature</a>, only without as many <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/2128281/microsoft-windows-recall-privacy.html">privacy worries</a> — as it’s present only if <em>you </em>go out of your way to install it, and it collects activity only within the specific individual apps you authorize. Plus, it stores all data solely on your own device and doesn’t save or share anything with anyone.</p>
<p>When you first set up Snapseek, you’ll have to grant it a series of permissions that are pertinent to its operation. Then, you’ll be able to select which apps you want it to watch.</p>
<p>In the app’s free version, you can pick two. If you pay for a one-time $4 in-app upgrade, that limitation is lifted, and you can select as many apps as you want.</p>
<p>Once that’s done, Snapseek will <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3962080/android-memory.html">automatically collect screenshots of every action you take</a> and every screen you see within your selected apps. You won’t even notice it running in the moment — nor will its screenshots clutter up your standard Photos or Gallery app — but anytime you want to remember something you did on your device, you can open Snapseek up and search through its history.</p>
<p>The app will show you any screenshots with matching text within ’em for a swift ‘n’ simple recall.</p>
<div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-07-snapseek.jpg?quality=50&strip=all&w=1020" alt="choosing which apps to snapshot in snapseek app on android" class="wp-image-3965336" srcset="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-07-snapseek.jpg?quality=50&strip=all 2160w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-07-snapseek.jpg?resize=150%2C150&quality=50&strip=all 150w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-07-snapseek.jpg?resize=300%2C300&quality=50&strip=all 300w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-07-snapseek.jpg?resize=768%2C771&quality=50&strip=all 768w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-07-snapseek.jpg?resize=1020%2C1024&quality=50&strip=all 1020w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-07-snapseek.jpg?resize=1530%2C1536&quality=50&strip=all 1530w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-07-snapseek.jpg?resize=2040%2C2048&quality=50&strip=all 2040w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-07-snapseek.jpg?resize=1240%2C1240&quality=50&strip=all 1240w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-07-snapseek.jpg?resize=694%2C697&quality=50&strip=all 694w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-07-snapseek.jpg?resize=167%2C168&quality=50&strip=all 167w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-07-snapseek.jpg?resize=84%2C84&quality=50&strip=all 84w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-07-snapseek.jpg?resize=478%2C480&quality=50&strip=all 478w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-07-snapseek.jpg?resize=359%2C360&quality=50&strip=all 359w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-07-snapseek.jpg?resize=249%2C250&quality=50&strip=all 249w" width="1020" height="1024" sizes="(max-width: 1020px) 100vw, 1020px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption"><p>Snapseek keeps tabs on any apps you want and then helps you search through your activity within those apps to find important info.</p>
</figcaption></figure><p class="imageCredit">JR Raphael / Foundry</p></div>
<p>💡 <strong>Try this:</strong></p>
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Set Snapseek to watch your Android web browser and email or messaging app, then use it to find and reference details about pages you’ve viewed or conversations you’ve had</li>
<li>Look in the app’s settings (via the three-dot menu icon on its main screen) to make the screenshots it saves higher resolution for even more detail</li>
<li>Look in that same settings section to configure how long the app should wait before auto-deleting everything it saves for security</li>
</ul>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><a></a>AI on Android part V: Simple visual pleasures</h2>
<p>Last but not least in our list is an AI-centric Android app that’s more about pleasure than productivity. But hey, putting yourself in a positive brain-space is bound to make it easier to get work done, right?</p>
<p>The app is called <strong>(20) </strong><a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sharpregion.tapet&hl=en_US" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong>Tapet</strong></a>, and it’s an on-demand AI-based image generator for your device’s wallpapers. A longtime favorite of my <a href="https://theintelligence.com/insider/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Intelligence Insider tech enthusiast community</a>, Tapet lets you swipe through all sorts of different patterns and styles of geometric wallpaper designs — all created on the fly as you see ’em.</p>
<div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-08-tapet.jpg?quality=50&strip=all&w=1020" alt="ai-generated wallpapers in tapet app on android" class="wp-image-3965334" srcset="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-08-tapet.jpg?quality=50&strip=all 2160w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-08-tapet.jpg?resize=150%2C150&quality=50&strip=all 150w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-08-tapet.jpg?resize=300%2C300&quality=50&strip=all 300w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-08-tapet.jpg?resize=768%2C771&quality=50&strip=all 768w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-08-tapet.jpg?resize=1020%2C1024&quality=50&strip=all 1020w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-08-tapet.jpg?resize=1530%2C1536&quality=50&strip=all 1530w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-08-tapet.jpg?resize=2040%2C2048&quality=50&strip=all 2040w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-08-tapet.jpg?resize=1240%2C1240&quality=50&strip=all 1240w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-08-tapet.jpg?resize=694%2C697&quality=50&strip=all 694w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-08-tapet.jpg?resize=167%2C168&quality=50&strip=all 167w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-08-tapet.jpg?resize=84%2C84&quality=50&strip=all 84w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-08-tapet.jpg?resize=478%2C480&quality=50&strip=all 478w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-08-tapet.jpg?resize=359%2C360&quality=50&strip=all 359w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-ai-apps-08-tapet.jpg?resize=249%2C250&quality=50&strip=all 249w" width="1020" height="1024" sizes="(max-width: 1020px) 100vw, 1020px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption"><p>Tapet serves up an endless array of interesting and original AI-generated wallpaper designs.</p>
</figcaption></figure><p class="imageCredit">JR Raphael / Foundry</p></div>
<p>It brings some refreshing visual variety to whatever Android device you’re using and makes any phone feel endlessly engaging and ready for serious business.</p>
<p><strong><em>NEXT: </em></strong><a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/1699499/must-have-android-widgets-for-busy-professionals.html"><strong><em>Discover 22 must-have Android widgets for busy professionals</em></strong></a><em> and bring even more added efficiency onto your favorite phone’s home screen!</em></p>
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<link>https://www.computerworld.com/article/3965296/genuinely-useful-ai-apps-for-android.html</link>
<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">3965296</post-id><category>Android, Artificial Intelligence, Generative AI, Mobile Apps</category><enclosure url="https://www.computerworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/3965296-0-84680200-1746702194-android-ai-apps.jpg?quality=50&strip=all" length="84524" type="image/jpeg" />
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<title>Will genAI businesses crash and burn?</title>
<pubDate>Thu, 08 May 2025 10:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
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<p>I don’t know about you, but I’m already tired of all the generative AI (genAI) hype. I’ve been using the technology for a while now, and I’ve found ways it can be helpful — primarily as a search engine replacement — but it’s not everything it’s supposed to be. </p>
<p>This isn’t just cranky, cynical old me. In a recent IBM survey of 2,000 CEOs, Big Blue found that “<a href="https://newsroom.ibm.com/2025-05-06-ibm-study-ceos-double-down-on-ai-while-navigating-enterprise-hurdles" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">only 25% of AI initiatives have delivered expected ROI</a> [Return on Investment] over the last few years.” Further, “just over half (52%) of CEO respondents say their organization is realizing value from generative AI investments beyond cost reduction.”</p>
<p>Adding insult to injury: “64% of CEOs surveyed acknowledge that the risk of falling behind drives investment in some technologies before they have a clear understanding of the value they bring to the organization, but only 37% say it’s better to be ‘fast and wrong’ than ‘right and slow’ when it comes to technology adoption.” </p>
<p>Really? Yes, I know about moving fast and breaking things, but are CEOs really paid big bucks to make expensive IT moves <em>based on fear of missing out</em>? I could do that, and I’d be willing to accept less money than the average CEO. Win! Win!</p>
<p>Seriously, though, some in the industry have been doing the business math — and they’re finding genAI isn’t delivering on its promises. </p>
<p>For example, Microsoft’s been making <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/1629974/m365-copilot-microsofts-generative-ai-tool-explained.html">Copilot the center of its end-user plans</a>. There’s a teeny-weeny problem with that: users aren’t adopting Copilot. Period. As reported in <a href="https://www.newcomer.co/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Newcomer</a>, “At Microsoft’s annual executive huddle last month, the company’s chief financial officer, Amy Hood, put up a slide that charted the number of users for its Copilot consumer AI tool over the past year. It was essentially <a href="https://www.newcomer.co/p/microsofts-big-ai-hire-cant-match" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a flat line, showing around 20 million weekly users</a>.”</p>
<p>Flatlining, as anyone who’s ever watched a medical show knows, is a bad thing. </p>
<p>Even Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella realizes that some things are fundamentally wrong with AI. He recently acknowledged there’s <a href="https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/26/microsofts_nadella_wants_to_see/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">no killer app for AI</a>. And he said this, may I remind you, after pouring more than $10 billion into genAI. Here’s some free advice for you, Satya: Simply adding Copilot features to every last program in the Microsoft portfolio is clearly not the way to profitability. </p>
<p>Even as businesses look to reshape themselves using the technology, they’re grappling with significant hurdles in turning innovation into sustainable profits. Despite soaring investments and rapid revenue growth in some sectors, many genAI businesses struggle with high operational costs and uncertain paths to long-term financial success.</p>
<p>One of the most glaring challenges is the staggering cost of running genAI operations. OpenAI, the leading generative AI company, reportedly spent $9 billion in 2024 to generate about $4 billion in revenue, with the bulk of expenses tied to compute power for training and running AI models. This means, as Ed Zitron, well-known tech maven and cynic, said that <a href="https://www.wheresyoured.at/wheres-the-money/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">OpenAI loses money on every paying customer</a>, burning billions annually despite rising subscription numbers.</p>
<p>But what they lose on each one, they’ll make up on volume, right?</p>
<p>OpenAI, by the way, is the most successful genAI startup to date. I wonder what the balance sheets of the lesser firms look like. </p>
<p>True, some smaller genAI companies such as <a href="https://www.tempus.com/?srsltid=AfmBOop75Lvym2nUUjyzn9xwF8yLxH2Z_RFtClVRO86EDuVSSAPGHa7r" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Tempus AI</a>, which applies the technology in precision medicine, <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250506572067/en/Tempus-Reports-First-Quarter-2025-Results" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">show promising financial momentum</a>. It reported a 75% revenue increase year-over-year. Most of the others are still light years from profitability. </p>
<p>What’s the difference? Rather than some vague idea that genAI will magically make everything better, Tempus focuses on a particular business case in which it could improve. There’s a lesson here for anyone who wants to use genAI tools successfully. </p>
<p>Sure, Nvidia is doing great guns, but it’s not selling to businesses or consumers that use genAI. It sells to the companies that want to sell you AI services — there’s a big difference. </p>
<p>So long as startups such as OpenAI and Anthropic raise tens of billions of dollars, Nvidia will be fine. If venture capitalists ever start to wonder whether there’s a profit at the end of the business rainbow (rather than just eternal growth with no discernible business benefit), it will be another story. </p>
<p>Remember the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s and early 2000s? I do. I see the genAI bubble getting bigger and bigger, and every bubble eventually pops. </p>
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<link>https://www.computerworld.com/article/3980239/will-genai-businesses-crash-and-burn.html</link>
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<title>Microsoft 365: A guide to the updates</title>
<pubDate>Thu, 08 May 2025 06:59:00 +0000</pubDate>
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<p><a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/1614302/office-to-be-rebranded-microsoft-365.html">Microsoft 365</a> (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.</p>
<p>Following are summaries of the updates to <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/1691110/microsoft-365-explained.html">Microsoft 365/Office 365</a> for Windows over the past year, with the latest releases shown first. We’ll add info about new updates as they’re rolled out.</p>
<p><em>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 <a href="https://insider.microsoft365.com/en-us/blog" data-type="link" data-id="https://insider.microsoft365.com/en-us/blog" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Microsoft 365 Insider blog</a>.</em></p>
<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="version-2504-build-18730-20142">Version 2504 (Build 18730.20142)</h3>
<p><strong>Release date: </strong>May 6,<strong> </strong>2025</p>
<p>This build includes various bug and performance fixes.</p>
<p>Get more info about <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/current-channel#version-2504-may-06" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Version 2504 (Build 18730.20142)</a>.</p>
<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="version-2504-build-18730-20122">Version 2504 (Build 18730.20122)</h3>
<p><strong>Release date: </strong>April 29,<strong> </strong>2025</p>
<p>This build fixes a wide variety of bugs, including one in which PowerPoint was unable to open a file from a network mapped drive from File Explore, another in which Word closed unexpectedly when opening .doc files, and another for the entire Office suite in which large 3D files couldn’t be inserted.</p>
<p>Get more info about <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/current-channel#version-2504-april-29" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Version 2504 (Build 18730.20122)</a>.</p>
<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="version-2503-build-18623-20208">Version 2503 (Build 18623.20208)</h3>
<p><strong>Release date: </strong>April 17,<strong> </strong>2025</p>
<p>This build fixes a bug that could cause Excel to stop responding.</p>
<p>Get more info about <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/current-channel#version-2503-april-17" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Version 2503 (Build 18623.20208)</a>.</p>
<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="version-2503-build-18623-20178">Version 2503 (Build 18623.20178)</h3>
<p><strong>Release date: </strong>April 8,<strong> </strong>2025</p>
<p>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 <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/microsoft365-apps-security-updates#march-11-2025" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here for details</a>.</p>
<p><strong>What IT needs to know:</strong> 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.</p>
<p>Get more info about <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/current-channel#version-2503-april-08" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Version 2503 (Build 18623.20178)</a>.</p>
<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="version-2503-build-18623-20156">Version 2503 (Build 18623.20156)</h3>
<p><strong>Release date: </strong>April 2,<strong> </strong>2025</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Get more info about <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/current-channel#version-2503-april-02" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Version 2503 (Build 18623.20156)</a>.</p>
<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="version-2502-build-18526-20168">Version 2502 (Build 18526.20168)</h3>
<p><strong>Release date: </strong>March 11,<strong> </strong>2025</p>
<p>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: <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/microsoft365-apps-security-updates#march-11-2025" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">see details</a>.</p>
<p><strong>What IT needs to know:</strong> 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.</p>
<p>Get more info about <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/current-channel#version-2502-march-11" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Version 2502 (Build 18526.20168)</a>.</p>
<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="version-2502-build-18526-20144">Version 2502 (Build 18526.20144)</h3>
<p><strong>Release date: </strong>March 5,<strong> </strong>2025</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Get more info about <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/current-channel#version-2502-march-05" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Version 2502 (Build 18526.20144)</a>.</p>
<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="version-2501-build-18429-20158">Version 2501 (Build 18429.20158)</h3>
<p><strong>Release date: </strong>February 11,<strong> </strong>2025</p>
<p>This build removes the option to display Track Changes balloons in left margin in Word. It also includes a variety of security updates. See “<a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/microsoft365-apps-security-updates#february-11-2025" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Release notes for Microsoft Office security updates</a>” for details.</p>
<p><strong>What IT needs to know:</strong> 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.</p>
<p>Get more info about <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/current-channel#version-2501-february-11" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Version 2501 (Build 18429.20158)</a>.</p>
<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="version-2501-build-18429-20132">Version 2501 (Build 18429.20132)</h3>
<p><strong>Release date: </strong>January 30,<strong> </strong>2025</p>
<p>In this build, the advanced Track Changes option to set the margin for balloons in Word has been removed.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p> Get more info about <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/current-channel#version-2501-january-30" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Version 2501 (Build 18429.20132)</a>.</p>
<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="version-2412-build-18324-20194">Version 2412 (Build 18324.20194)</h3>
<p><strong>Release date: </strong>January 16,<strong> </strong>2025</p>
<p>This build fixes one bug, in which apps would exit unexpectedly when running on Windows Server 2016.</p>
<p>Get more info about<a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/current-channel#version-2412-january-16" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> Version 2412 (Build 18324.20194)</a>.</p>
<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="version-2412-build-18324-20190">Version 2412 (Build 18324.20190)</h3>
<p><strong>Release date: </strong>January 14,<strong> </strong>2025</p>
<p>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 <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/microsoft365-apps-security-updates#january-14-2025" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Release notes for Microsoft Office security updates</a> for details.</p>
<p><strong>What IT needs to know:</strong> 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.</p>
<p>Get more info about <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/current-channel#version-2412-january-14" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Version 2412 (Build 18324.20190)</a>.</p>
<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="version-2412-build-18324-20168">Version 2412 (Build 18324.20168)</h3>
<p><strong>Release date: </strong>January 7,<strong> </strong>2025</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Get more info about <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/current-channel#version-2412-january-07" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Version 2412 (Build 18324.20168)</a>.</p>
<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="version-2411-build-18227-20162">Version 2411 (Build 18227.20162)</h3>
<p><strong>Release date: </strong>December 10,<strong> </strong>2024</p>
<p>This build fixes a bug in Word and Outlook where characters didn’t render correctly when using <em>Save Selection to Text Box Gallery</em>. It also includes a variety of security updates. See <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/microsoft365-apps-security-updates" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Release notes for Microsoft Office security updates</a> for details.</p>
<p><strong>What IT needs to know:</strong> 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.</p>
<p>Get more info about <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/current-channel#version-2411-december-10" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Version 2411 (Build 18227.20162)</a>.</p>
<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="version-2411-build-18227-20152">Version 2411 (Build 18227.20152)</h3>
<p><strong>Release date: </strong>December 5,<strong> </strong>2024</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Get more info about <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/current-channel#version-2411-december-05" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Version 2411 (Build 18227.20152)</a>.</p>
<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="version-2410-build-18129-20158">Version 2410 (Build 18129.20158)</h3>
<p><strong>Release date: </strong>November 12,<strong> </strong>2024</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>This build also includes a variety of security updates. See <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/microsoft365-apps-security-updates" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Release notes for Microsoft Office security updates</a> for details.</p>
<p><strong>What IT needs to know:</strong> 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.</p>
<p>Get more info about <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/current-channel#version-2410-november-12" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Version 2410 (Build 18129.20158)</a>.</p>
<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="version-2410-build-18129-20116">Version 2410 (Build 18129.20116)</h3>
<p><strong>Release date: </strong>October 28,<strong> </strong>2024</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Get more info about <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/current-channel#version-2410-october-28" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Version 2410 (Build 18129.20116)</a>.</p>
<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="version-2409-build-18025-20160">Version 2409 (Build 18025.20160)</h3>
<p><strong>Release date: </strong>October 15,<strong> </strong>2024</p>
<p>This build fixes a single bug in Word, in which emails with linked SVG content couldn’t be saved or sent.</p>
<p>Get more info about<a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/current-channel#version-2409-october-15" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> Version 2409 (Build 18025.20160)</a>.</p>
<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="version-2409-build-18025-20140">Version 2409 (Build 18025.20140)</h3>
<p><strong>Release date: </strong>October 8,<strong> </strong>2024</p>
<p>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.”</p>
<p>This build also includes multiple security updates. See <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/microsoft365-apps-security-updates#october-08-2024" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Release notes for Microsoft Office security updates</a> for details.</p>
<p><strong>What IT needs to know:</strong> 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.</p>
<p>Get more info about <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/current-channel#version-2409-october-08" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Version 2409 (Build 18025.20140)</a>.</p>
<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="version-2409-build-18025-20104">Version 2409 (Build 18025.20104)</h3>
<p><strong>Release date: </strong>September 25,<strong> </strong>2024</p>
<p>This build fixes a single bug, in which when you saved a file in Word, the save status was missing from the Title bar.</p>
<p>Get more info about <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/current-channel#version-2409-september-25" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Version 2409 (Build 18025.20104)</a>.</p>
<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="version-2409-build-18025-20096">Version 2409 (Build 18025.20096)</h3>
<p><strong>Release date: </strong>September 23,<strong> </strong>2024</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.”</p>
<p>Get more info about <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/current-channel#version-2409-september-23" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Version 2409 (Build 18025.20096)</a>.</p>
<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="version-2408-build-17928-20156">Version 2408 (Build 17928.20156)</h3>
<p><strong>Release date: </strong>September 10,<strong> </strong>2024</p>
<p>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 <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/microsoft365-apps-security-updates" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here for details</a>.</p>
<p><strong>What IT needs to know:</strong> 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.</p>
<p>Get more info about <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/current-channel#version-2408-september-10" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Version 2408 (Build 17928.20156)</a>.</p>
<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="version-2408-build-17928-20114">Version 2408 (Build 17928.20114)</h3>
<p><strong>Release date: </strong>August 26,<strong> </strong>2024</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Get more info about<a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/current-channel#version-2408-august-26" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> Version 2408 (Build 17928.20114)</a>.</p>
<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="version-2407-build-17830-20166">Version 2407 (Build 17830.20166)</h3>
<p><strong>Release date: </strong>August 13,<strong> </strong>2024</p>
<p>This build includes a variety of security updates for Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Project, Visio, and the entire Office suite. See Microsoft’s <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/microsoft365-apps-security-updates#august-13-2024" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Release notes for Office security updates</a> for details.</p>
<p><strong>What IT needs to know:</strong> 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.</p>
<p>Get more info about<a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/current-channel#version-2407-august-13" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> Version 2407 (Build 17830.20166)</a>.</p>
<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="version-2407-build-17830-20138">Version 2407 (Build 17830.20138)</h3>
<p><strong>Release date: </strong>August 1,<strong> </strong>2024</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Get more info about <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/current-channel#version-2407-august-01" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Version 2407 (Build 17830.20138)</a>.</p>
<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="version-2406-build-17726-20160">Version 2406 (Build 17726.20160)</h3>
<p><strong>Release date: </strong>July 9,<strong> </strong>2024</p>
<p>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 <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/microsoft365-apps-security-updates" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Release notes for Microsoft Office security updates</a>.</p>
<p><strong>What IT needs to know:</strong> 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.</p>
<p>Get more info about <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/current-channel#version-2406-july-09" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Version 2406 (Build 17726.20160)</a>.</p>
<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="version-2406-build-17726-20126">Version 2406 (Build 17726.20126)</h3>
<p><strong>Release date: </strong>June 26,<strong> </strong>2024</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Get more info about<a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/current-channel#version-2406-june-26" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> Version 2406 (Build 17726.20126)</a>.</p>
<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="version-2405-build-17628-20164">Version 2405 (Build 17628.20164)</h3>
<p><strong>Release date: </strong>June 19,<strong> </strong>2024</p>
<p>This build includes a variety of unspecified bug and performance fixes.</p>
<p>Get more info about<a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/current-channel#version-2405-june-19" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> Version 2405 (Build 17628.20164)</a>.</p>
<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="version-2405-build-17628-20144">Version 2405 (Build 17628.20144)</h3>
<p><strong>Release date: </strong>June 11,<strong> </strong>2024</p>
<p>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 <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/microsoft365-apps-security-updates" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Release notes for Microsoft Office security updates</a>.</p>
<p><strong>What IT needs to know:</strong> 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.</p>
<p>Get more info about <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/current-channel#version-2405-june-11" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Version 2405 (Build 17628.20144)</a>.</p>
<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="version-2405-build-17628-20110">Version 2405 (Build 17628.20110)</h3>
<p><strong>Release date: </strong>May 30,<strong> </strong>2024</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Get more info about<a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/current-channel#version-2405-may-30" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> Version 2405 (Build 17628.20110)</a>.</p>
<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="version-2404-build-17531-20152">Version 2404 (Build 17531.20152)</h3>
<p><strong>Release date: </strong>May 14,<strong> </strong>2024</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>It also fixes a number of security holes. For details, see <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/microsoft365-apps-security-updates" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Release notes for Microsoft Office security updates</a>.</p>
<p><strong>What IT needs to know:</strong> 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.</p>
<p>Get more info about <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/current-channel#version-2404-may-14" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Version 2404 (Build 17531.20152)</a>.</p>
<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="version-2404-build-17531-20140">Version 2404 (Build 17531.20140)</h3>
<p><strong>Release date: </strong>May 7,<strong> </strong>2024</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Get more info about<a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/current-channel#version-2404-may-07" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> Version 2404 (Build 17531.20140) </a>.</p>
<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="version-2404-build-17531-20120">Version 2404 (Build 17531.20120)</h3>
<p><strong>Release date: </strong>April 29, 2024</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Get more info about <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/current-channel#version-2404-april-29" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Version 2404 (Build 17531.20120) </a>.</p>
<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="version-2403-build-17425-20176">Version 2403 (Build 17425.20176)</h3>
<p><strong>Release date: </strong>April 9,<strong> </strong>2024</p>
<p>This build fixes a number of security holes. For details, see <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/microsoft365-apps-security-updates" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Release notes for Microsoft Office security updates</a>.</p>
<p><strong>What IT needs to know:</strong> 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.</p>
<p>Get more info about<a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/current-channel#version-2403-april-09" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> Version 2403 (Build 17425.20176)</a>.</p>
<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="version-2402-build-17328-20184">Version 2402 (Build 17328.20184)</h3>
<p><strong>Release date: </strong>March 12, 2024</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>This build also fixes a number of security holes. For details, see <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/microsoft365-apps-security-updates" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Release notes for Microsoft Office security updates</a>.</p>
<p><strong>What IT needs to know:</strong> 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.</p>
<p>Get more info about<a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/current-channel#version-2402-march-12" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank"> Version 2402 (Build 17328.20184)</a>.</p>
<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="version-2402-build-17328-20162">Version 2402 (Build 17328.20162)</h3>
<p><strong>Release date: </strong>March 4, 2024</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Get more info about<a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/current-channel#version-2402-march-04" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank"> Version 2402 (Build 17328.20162)</a>.</p>
<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="version-2402-build-17328-20142">Version 2402 (Build 17328.20142)</h3>
<p><strong>Release date: </strong>February 28, 2024</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Get more info about<a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/current-channel#version-2402-february-28" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank"> Version 2402 (Build 17328.20142)</a>.</p>
<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="version-2401-build-17231-20236">Version 2401 (Build 17231.20236)</h3>
<p><strong>Release date: </strong>February 13, 2024</p>
<p>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 <em>Click trust for content add-in</em> was selected.</p>
<p>This build also fixes a number of security holes. For details, see <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/microsoft365-apps-security-updates" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Release notes for Microsoft Office security updates</a>.</p>
<p><strong>What IT needs to know:</strong> 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.</p>
<p>Get more info about <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/current-channel#version-2401-february-13" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Version 2401 (Build 17231.20236)</a>.</p>
<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="version-2401-build-17231-20194">Version 2401 (Build 17231.20194)</h3>
<p><strong>Release date:</strong> February 1, 2024</p>
<p>This build fixes a single bug in which expanded groups in the message list collapsed when users changed which column they were arranged by.</p>
<p>Get more info about <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/current-channel#version-2401-february-01" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Version 2401 (Build 17231.20194)</a>.</p>
<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="version-2401-build-17231-20182">Version 2401 (Build 17231.20182)</h3>
<p><strong>Release date: </strong>January 30, 2024</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Get more info about <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/current-channel#version-2401-january-30" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Version 2401 (Build 17231.20182)</a>.</p>
<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="version-2312-build-17126-20132">Version 2312 (Build 17126.20132)</h3>
<p><strong>Release date: </strong>January 9, 2024</p>
<p>This build fixes a number of security holes. For details, see <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/microsoft365-apps-security-updates" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Release notes for Microsoft Office security updates</a>.</p>
<p><strong>What IT needs to know:</strong> 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.</p>
<p>Get more info about <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/current-channel#version-2312-january-09" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Version 2312 (Build 17126.20132)</a>.</p>
<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="version-2312-build-17126-20126">Version 2312 (Build 17126.20126)</h3>
<p><strong>Release date: </strong>January 4, 2023</p>
<p>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.”</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Get more info about <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/current-channel#version-2312-january-04" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank"> Version 2312 (Build 17126.20126)</a>.</p>
<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="version-2311-build-17029-20108">Version 2311 (Build 17029.20108)</h3>
<p><strong>Release date: </strong>December 12, 2023</p>
<p>This build fixes one bug in Outlook, in which the message list was blank when switching between the “Focused” and “Other” views.</p>
<p>It also fixes a number of security holes. For details, see <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/microsoft365-apps-security-updates#december-12-2023" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Release notes for Microsoft Office security updates</a>.</p>
<p><strong>What IT needs to know:</strong> 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.</p>
<p>Get more info about <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/current-channel#version-2311-december-12" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Version 2311 (Build 17029.20108)</a>.</p>
<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="version-2311-build-17029-20068">Version 2311 (Build 17029.20068)</h3>
<p><strong>Release date: </strong>November 29, 2023</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Get more info about <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/current-channel#version-2311-november-29" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Version 2311 (Build 17029.20068)</a>.</p>
<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="version-2310-build-16924-20150">Version 2310 (Build 16924.20150)</h3>
<p><strong>Release date: </strong>November 14, 2023</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>It also fixes a number of security holes. For details, see <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/microsoft365-apps-security-updates#november-14-2023" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Release notes for Microsoft Office security updates</a>.</p>
<p><strong>What IT needs to know:</strong> 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.</p>
<p>Get more info about <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/current-channel#version-2310-november-14" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Version 2310 (Build 16924.20150)</a>.</p>
<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="version-2310-build-16924-20124">Version 2310 (Build 16924.20124)</h3>
<p><strong>Release date: </strong>Oct. 31, 2023</p>
<p>This build fixes a bug that caused Outlook to exit unexpectedly when clicking the <em>More</em> link in the Search results list.</p>
<p>Get more info about <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/current-channel#version-2310-october-31" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Version 2310 (Build 16924.20124)</a>.</p>
<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="version-2310-build-16924-20106">Version 2310 (Build 16924.20106)</h3>
<p><strong>Release date: </strong>Oct. 25, 2023</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Get more info about <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/current-channel#version-2310-october-25" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Version 2310 (Build 16924.20106)</a>.</p>
<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="version-2309-build-16827-20166">Version 2309 (Build 16827.20166)</h3>
<p><strong>Release date: </strong>October 10, 2023</p>
<p>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 <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/microsoft365-apps-security-updates" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Release notes for Microsoft Office security updates</a>.</p>
<p><strong>What IT needs to know:</strong> 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.</p>
<p>Get more info about <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/current-channel#version-2309-october-10" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Version 2309 (Build 16827.20166)</a>.</p>
<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="version-2309-build-16827-20130">Version 2309 (Build 16827.20130)</h3>
<p><strong>Release date: </strong>September 28, 2023</p>
<p>This build introduces two new features, including <a href="https://insider.office.com/blog/control-data-conversions-in-excel" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">the ability to disable specific types of automatic data conversions in Excel</a> and support for the “Present in Teams” button to present local files in PowerPoint Live in Microsoft Teams.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Get more info about <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/current-channel#version-2309-september-28" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Version 2309 (Build 16827.20130)</a>.</p>
<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="version-2308-build-16731-20234">Version 2308 (Build 16731.20234)</h3>
<p><strong>Release date: </strong>September 12, 2023</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>It also fixes a number of security holes. For details, see <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/microsoft365-apps-security-updates" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Release notes for Microsoft Office security updates</a>.</p>
<p><strong>What IT needs to know:</strong> 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.</p>
<p>Get more info about <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/current-channel#version-2308-september-12" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Version 2308 (Build 16731.20234)</a>.</p>
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<link>https://www.computerworld.com/article/1710697/office-365-a-guide-to-the-updates.html</link>
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<title>OpenAI offers help promoting AI outside the US, but analysts question why countries would accept</title>
<pubDate>Thu, 08 May 2025 00:26:36 +0000</pubDate>
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<p>OpenAI, acting as part of the US government-led Stargate AI project, on Wednesday rolled out a program called OpenAI for Countries. The idea is for Stargate to help other countries create their own genAI environments, including data centers and genAI models.</p>
<p>But analysts argue that other countries might be hesitant to join a US government-led effort, given the sensitive issues of data privacy and business intellectual property.</p>
<p>Alvin Nguyen, a senior analyst with Forrester, said that this might not be the ideal time to champion the United States as the technology beacon to emulate.</p>
<p>“If it is tied to the US government, there will be questions in terms of what gets shared to move the models forward. That is going to be important,” Nguyen said. OpenAI “may not be able to fully separate itself from Stargate.”</p>
<p>Nguyen said that various governments might want to explore alternative approaches to partnering with a US government-led effort. “I don’t know if that is in their interest right now, <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3975408/microsoft-tries-to-reassure-europe-that-it-can-resist-the-us-government-europe-has-doubts.html/amp/" target="_blank">given the state of geopolitics</a>.”</p>
<p>Gartner analyst Arun Chandrasekaran agreed. </p>
<p>“Several countries already have parallel sovereign AI efforts, and whether they choose to partner with OpenAI is yet to be seen,” Chandrasekaran said. “Countries are striving to create a vibrant AI ecosystem that isn’t dependent on a single provider – which is an undercurrent that OpenAI and its partners need to navigate.”</p>
<p>Chandrasekaran added, “there is not a compelling reason that this would resonate [with other countries]. OpenAI has a very steep chasm to cross in terms of convincing these customers about the data sovereignty aspect. This is not going to be an easy thing to pull off.”</p>
<p>The <a href="https://openai.com/global-affairs/openai-for-countries/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">statement issued </a>by OpenAI was not clear whether the effort is solely from OpenAI or from the <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3809779/trumps-move-to-lift-biden-era-ai-rules-sparks-debate-over-fast-tracked-advances-and-potential-risks.html?utm=hybrid_search" target="_blank">US government-led coalition for AI called Stargate</a>, which has as charter members OpenAI, Oracle, and Softbank. It appeared to be introduced by OpenAI, but with OpenAI acting as a key member of Stargate and not on its own as an AI vendor. </p>
<p>The statement said that the initiative is in response to requests from foreign governments.</p>
<p>“We’ve heard from many countries asking for help in building out similar AI infrastructure—that they want their own Stargates and similar projects,” it said. “It’s clear to everyone now that this kind of infrastructure is going to be the backbone of future economic growth and national development.”</p>
<p>The statement did not identify any of these countries, and OpenAI did not respond to a Computerworld request for an interview.</p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="statement-phrasing-could-prove-unhelpful">Statement phrasing ‘could prove unhelpful’</h2>
<p>Analysts and other industry observers said that the language OpenAI used in the statement might itself cause hesitation among potential government partners, especially in Europe.</p>
<p>“We want to help these countries, and in the process, spread democratic AI, which means the development, use and deployment of AI that protects and incorporates long-standing democratic principles,” the statement said. “We believe that partnering closely with the US government is the best way to advance democratic AI” and “provide a clear alternative to <a href="https://www.csoonline.com/article/3965056/will-politicization-of-security-clearances-make-us-cybersecurity-firms-radioactive.html" target="_blank">authoritarian</a> versions of AI that would deploy it to consolidate power.”</p>
<p>Forrester’s Nguyen said the phrasing might prove unhelpful to OpenAI’s sales efforts. “Saying ‘US led’ and ‘Democratic AI,’ that may not be universally desired by every government, every country out there,” Nguyen said.</p>
<p>The OpenAI for Countries effort includes several elements, including helping to build “in-country data center capacity,” delivering “customized ChatGPT,” and to “raise and deploy a national start-up fund.” </p>
<p>In exchange, the statement said, “partner countries also would invest in expanding the global Stargate Project—and thus in continued US-led AI leadership and a global, growing network effect for democratic AI.”</p>
<p>The statement said that the group’s goal “is to pursue 10 projects with individual countries or regions as the first phase of this initiative and expand from there.” </p>
<p>Another benefit to OpenAI in this effort would be the opportunity to gather as much non-English data as possible to train future model versions. The <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3810687/cios-grapple-with-subpar-global-genai-models.html" target="_blank">lack of non-English training data</a> has weakened the effectiveness of the genAI models from just about all of the major model makers. </p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="data-protection-crucial">Data protection crucial</h2>
<p>Christian Khoury is the CEO of a Toronto-based AI company called Easy Audit, which sells compliance automation platforms. </p>
<p>“Most genAI models outside English are half-baked at best. I’ve seen firsthand how broken these tools get when applied to anything multilingual or local,” Khoury said. “OpenAI acknowledging that and putting serious resources into solving it is a big deal.”</p>
<p>Khoury argued that data protections are going to be critical if OpenAI’s global efforts have a chance of working.</p>
<p>“The countries that are going to be implementing and installing OpenAI models need real data sovereignty with enforceable contracts,” Khoury said, acknowledging that it can be challenging to enforce legal contracts across national borders.</p>
<p>“There’s a fine line between infrastructure support and digital colonization. If these partnerships are just democracy-washed ways to expand US AI dominance, countries will catch on fast,” Khoury added. “To make this work, OpenAI has to treat local data, languages, and governance as assets and not just variables to plug into a US-built model. Sovereign AI means local control, not just local hosting.”</p>
<p>He also said that he is “watching how this plays with their safety commitments. ‘Democratic AI’ sounds great, but the hard part is making sure it can’t be quietly flipped to authoritarian ends down the line. Infrastructure is easy. Guardrails are hard. The world doesn’t need another digital <a href="https://www.cfr.org/china-digital-silk-road/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Belt and Road</a>.”</p>
<p>To make it work, Khoury said, “third-party audits need to happen and I need to choose my own third-party auditors to have red teams to stress test the models for bias and manipulation. We are trying to avoid US intelligence tampering with the model.”</p>
<p>Khoury stressed that data protections must not only be strict, but must be transparent. </p>
<p>“Who gets to keep what data? And how are you protecting those things? What measures are being put in place to safeguard each country’s intellectual property?” Khoury asked. “How do you install a fence around that data to ensure that it doesn’t get out?”</p>
<p>Brian Jackson, principal research director at Info-Tech Research Group, also questioned how foreign governments would view OpenAI’s take on data sovereignty.</p>
<p>“OpenAI says it would help countries build sovereign data center capacity. But would a data center built with a foreign partner truly be trusted as sovereign?” he asked. “And OpenAI says it will raise and deploy a national start-up fund that includes its own capital. But would we really expect that fund to be supportive of local AI efforts to compete with OpenAI offerings? The conflicts of interest are apparent and problematic.”</p>
<p>Victor Tabaac, the chief revenue officer at AI consulting firm All In Data, agreed that data controls are where this OpenAI effort will go. </p>
<p><strong>“</strong>Governments will demand control over data and outputs, potentially creating conflicts with OpenAI’s principles. There’s also a risk of vendor lock-in, as countries may prefer open-source alternatives,” Tabaac said. “Partnering with governments isn’t just about better data—it’s a geopolitical minefield. Countries will demand control over how models are trained and used. Will they allow Saudi Arabia to censor outputs on religion? Or let the EU retroactively edit models under GDPR? Transparency will make or break trust here.”</p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="potential-conflict-of-interest">Potential conflict of interest</h2>
<p>Jackson pointed out that there are plenty of potential conflicts of interest in what OpenAI said it was trying to do.</p>
<p>“OpenAI is saying that it can help govern AI or evolve ‘security and safety controls.’ However, clearly, as a company that stands to profit from AI adoption, there could be a conflict of interest here. If this partnership program is successful, it continues a trend that we’re seeing away from public sector-supported frameworks to govern technology and toward private-sector best practices,” he said. “We should also consider how seriously other countries will take OpenAI’s claim that it will be an ally in providing democratic AI, something it hasn’t even clearly defined. It makes it clear that its primary partner is the US government. What are other countries that have recently entered into trade disputes or even more serious conflicts with the US to make of that association?”</p>
<p>Jackson felt particularly strongly about where the current AI trends may lead if OpenAI delivers on its stated goals.</p>
<p>“Let’s look at it from the perspective of the services that OpenAI is offering to bring to citizens through partnering with governments. There’s a concept called disintermediation, which examines how technology companies are usurping the relationships that democratic governments have with their citizens by providing the key information and services that citizens historically depended on the state for. What OpenAI is proposing would without a doubt represent a power shift from the state to a private company for a pretty considerable range of informational interactions,” he said. “For example, OpenAI suggests it could provide ‘customized ChatGPT to citizens,’ which would localize language and imbue cultural considerations into the service. The implication is that the partner government would then use this platform to deliver some set of services to those citizens. However, instead of [the government] owning the relationship with citizens, OpenAI captures that.”</p>
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<link>https://www.computerworld.com/article/3980440/openai-offers-help-promoting-ai-outside-the-us-but-analysts-question-why-countries-would-accept.html</link>
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