AI Agents Take Center Stage: How Enterprise Giants and Startups are Reshaping the Future of Work

The enterprise technology landscape is rapidly evolving, with AI agents emerging as a key area of focus for both established players and innovative startups. This week has seen significant developments in the AI agent space, from new product announcements to strategic hires and funding rounds.

Enterprise Stalwarts Embrace AI Agents

While cloud giants often dominate the AI conversation, traditional enterprise tech providers are also making significant strides in the realm of AI agents. IBM and ServiceNow are leading the charge, integrating AI agents into their core offerings to enhance capabilities and expand their market reach.

IBM Unveils New AI Agent Capabilities

IBM recently unveiled a suite of AI agent capabilities designed to accelerate adoption across various industries. These new features aim to streamline workflows, automate tasks, and provide more intelligent insights to users. Dave Vellante and John Furrier from TheCUBE have provided in-depth analysis of IBM's AI strategy, highlighting the company's focus on practical, enterprise-grade AI solutions.

ServiceNow Enters the CRM Arena with AI Agents

ServiceNow is making a bold move into Salesforce's territory by introducing AI agents into its customer relationship management (CRM) platform. This strategic move aims to provide a more integrated and intelligent CRM experience, leveraging AI to enhance customer interactions and improve overall efficiency. Additionally, ServiceNow is debuting AI agents to bolster security, offering better risk management and autonomous enterprise defense.

The Rise of AI-Powered Search and the Challenge to Google

The search landscape is also undergoing a transformation, with AI playing an increasingly prominent role. Anthropic, a leading AI research company, is venturing into search with an API that allows its AI models to access the web. This move poses a direct challenge to Google's dominance in the search market.

Adding fuel to the fire, Apple's SVP of Services, Eddy Cue, suggested in court that AI is beginning to replace traditional Google search. While Google has refuted these claims with its own statistics, the statement underscores the growing perception that AI is poised to disrupt the search industry.

Startups Position AI Agents as Virtual Employees

Several startups are vying to establish AI agents as integral members of the workforce. Companies like RelevanceAI and Signals are developing platforms that enable businesses to deploy and manage AI agents as if they were human employees. These AI employees can handle a variety of tasks, from customer engagement to data analysis, potentially freeing up human workers to focus on more strategic initiatives.

However, the widespread adoption of AI employees is not without its challenges. As previously noted, significant work remains to ensure that AI agents can function reliably and effectively in complex enterprise environments. Issues such as data security, bias mitigation, and ethical considerations must be addressed before AI employees can become a mainstream reality.

OpenAI Appoints Fidji Simo as CEO of Applications

OpenAI, the company behind groundbreaking AI models like GPT-4, has appointed Fidji Simo, former Instacart CEO and Facebook executive, as the CEO of Applications. This strategic hire signals OpenAI's intent to focus on developing revenue-generating applications that leverage its AI technology. Simo's experience in advertising and consumer-facing products will be invaluable as OpenAI seeks to expand its commercial footprint.

The Cloud Industry Grapples with Power Consumption

The rapid growth of AI is placing unprecedented demands on cloud infrastructure, particularly in terms of power consumption. As Dave Vellante points out, cloud providers are facing a seemingly endless need for more power to run their data centers and support AI services. The financial implications of this power demand are significant, raising questions about the long-term sustainability of the cloud model.

It is becoming increasingly unclear whether even the largest cloud providers can afford to continue building data centers at the current pace. This challenge may lead to new approaches to data center design, energy efficiency, and resource allocation.

Tariffs and the Enterprise Tech Supply Chain

The ongoing trade tensions between the United States and other countries continue to impact the enterprise tech industry. While most mainstream tech suppliers have so far avoided the worst effects of tariffs, some companies are beginning to feel the pinch. Guidance from certain suppliers suggests that the impact of tariffs will worsen unless trade policies change.

Cybersecurity Firm CrowdStrike Announces Job Cuts

In a surprising move, cybersecurity leader CrowdStrike announced layoffs affecting approximately 500 employees, or 5% of its workforce. While the company cited AI as a factor in the restructuring, the job cuts may also reflect the intense competition in the cybersecurity market, despite the ever-growing need for better security solutions.

Looking Ahead: Cisco Earnings and Upcoming Events

Next week, Cisco Systems will be reporting its earnings, providing insights into the company's performance and outlook. Additionally, TheCUBE will be hosting live coverage of Boomi World and Qlik Connect, offering in-depth analysis and interviews with industry leaders.

AI and Data: The Latest Developments

New Models and Services

• IBM unveils capabilities meant to accelerate AI agent adoption
• Anthropic jumps into internet search, increasing pressure on Google
• Mistral AI adds Medium 3 to its family of models, claiming low cost and high performance
• ServiceNow debuts customer relationship management platform, new AI tools
• Amazon announces Q Developer preview in GitHub for AI-powered code generation and review
• Google enhances coding capabilities in Gemini 2.5 Pro Preview before I/O dev conference
• Microsoft will support Google’s Agent2Agent open protocol that enables AI agents to talk to each other

Hiring AI ‘Employees’

• Signals launches cloud-based ‘AI employees’ to rethink customer engagement
• RelevanceAI and Stack AI get millions in funding to bring AI agents into the workforce
• Salesforce brings AI agents to employee support with Agentforce for HR Service
• SAS ups AI development and governance capabilities
• AI startup Zencoder launches coding agent platform
• OpenSearch revs up AI workloads with GPU-accelerated vector search
• 10Web’s generative AI website builder is now accessible via an API
• Lightricks shakes up AI video creation with powerful open-source model

Policy

• After backlash, US scraps Biden administration’s curb on AI chip exports
• Family uses AI video in court to allow victim to give impact statement

Money Matters

• OpenAI abandons plan to spin off for-profit arm
• Databricks reportedly could acquire serverless database startup Neon for $1B+
• Weeks after IPO, CoreWeave reportedly seeking $1.5B in debt financing
• AI code editor startup Anysphere reportedly closes $900M funding round
• Snowflake challenger ClickHouse targets $6B valuation
• Parloa raises $120M at $1B valuation to expand enterprise AI agent platform
• Andrew Ng’s AI Fund closes oversubscribed $190M Fund II to co-found AI startups
• AI data provider Toloka raises $72M in funding
• WisdomAI launches with $23M to bring agentic AI insights to business
• Construction tech startup Field Materials raises $10.5M to automate materials procurement

Around the Enterprise: Power to Run AI Costs Cloud Providers

Analysis and Opinion

• Breaking Analysis: Power-hungry clouds: Inside tech’s most expensive quarter
• Why tech vendor conferences are a must-attend for the modern innovator

Money Matters

• Chipmakers AMD, GlobalFoundries and Cirrus Logic post solid earnings and guidance, easing tariff fears
• Arm tops $1B quarterly sales milestone, but its stock falls on soft guidance
• Robust chip demand boosts profit at Chinese chipmaker SMIC.
• Supermicro cuts outlook after earnings results disappoint
• DigitalOcean shares drop despite strong first quarter
• Rackspace’s operational turnaround accelerates, despite more revenue declines
• Big-data company Informatica’s stock falls on mixed results and soft guidance
• Kyndryl beats quarterly revenue estimates on AI push, stock rises 2%
• Palantir shares dip despite Q1 revenue beat and raised full-year outlook
• Cyber roundup: Cloudflare, NetScout and AvePoint shares rise on steady earnings and solid guidance
• Fortinet stock slips as soft outlook overshadows earnings beat
• Datadog lifts annual revenue forecast on AI-driven cloud security demand
• Arista Networks beats expectations in its latest results, but stock moves lower
• Qualys beats Q1 estimates with double-digit revenue growth and higher earnings
• Appian shares rise on better-than-expected first quarter
• JFrog earnings and revenue top estimates, stock edges up after-hours
• Dropbox earnings beat but revenue falls short, stock stays flat
• D-Wave delivers surprise adjusted profit after quantum computer sale
• Rivian tops earnings forecast, cuts delivery target amid Trump tariffs
• Uber shares decline on mixed earnings results
• Amplitude shares tick up after earnings results slightly beat estimates
• Fastly shares up over 3% as Q1 earnings exceed expectations, outlook raised
• Backblaze shares fall 7% despite earnings and revenue beats
• Coinbase reports Q1 revenue below expectations with 19% drop in transaction revenue
• Lyft stock jumps as adjusted earnings top estimates and ride volumes surge
• RingCentral earnings and revenue top estimates but stock edges down
• Hubspot beats on earnings, but stock falls 8%

Other Money Matters

• Fintech company AvidXchange acquired for $2.2B by TPG and Corpay
• Workforce management startup Rippling raises $450M at $16.8B valuation
• Amazon to invest $4B in Chile data center region
• BrowserStack acquires Requestly to expand developer testing capabilities
• Twist Bioscience spins out Atlas Data Storage, a DNA storage company, as independent company with $155M in seed financing
• Statsig secures $100M for its software testing platform
• App monitoring startup AppSignal targets US after raising $22M and hiring a new CEO
• RightRev lands $13M to meet growing demand for intelligent revenue recognition

New Products and Services

• Nutanix targets cloud-native and AI workloads and offers migration enticements to VMware customers
• Juniper expands Mist AI platform with client-to-cloud digital twins and self-driving network tools
• Safe Software adds data virtualization and augmented reality to FME Platform to boost enterprise integration
• Google is getting into the filmmaking business to promote a more positive view of tech

Cyber Beat: Trump Wants to Cut CISA’s Budget

Analysis

• AI agents may battle AI attackers, but it’s still about improving security workflow at RSAC 2025

Policy

• Trump administration proposes $491M cut to CISA in 2026 budget plan
• Signal app clone used by Trump officials was hacked in less than 30 mins
• Meta and NSO court battle over WhatsApp hack ends with Meta winning $167 million in damages

New Services

• ServiceNow debuts AI agents for security and risk to support autonomous enterprise defense
• Barracuda adds multimodal AI to boost threat detection accuracy and speed
• Nozomi Networks adds support for Nvidia BlueField DPUs to enhance OT and IoT security
• SonicWall debuts new firewalls and managed cybersecurity service
• Coralogix adds ‘Continuous Profiling’ for low-impact real-time performance monitoring
• Coro expands cybersecurity platform with integrated user training to reduce human error

Money Matters

• CrowdStrike cuts 500 jobs as AI reshapes company operations
• Microsoft backs $60M round for application security startup OX Security
• Valarian raises $7M to isolate and compartmentalize mission-critical computing environments
• Tesseral launches with $3.3M to simplify B2B authentication for software developers

Elsewhere Around Tech: Cisco Aims at Quantum Computing

• Democrats block stablecoin bill as they raise concerns about Trump’s crypto ventures
• Cisco debuts prototype quantum networking chip to accelerate future – and existing – applications
• Amazon introduces Vulcan: an AI-powered warehouse robot with a sense of touch
• Coinbase to acquire major crypto derivatives platform Deribit for $2.9B
• Waymo will double robotaxi production at new plant in Arizona

Comings and Goings

• OpenAI appoints former Instacart, Meta executive Fidji Simo CEO of Applications
• Robert Fergus will lead Meta’s Fundamental AI Research lab he co-founded, succeeding Joelle Pineau
• Former T-Mobile exec Clint Patterson joined Amazon’s Project Kuiper satellite internet unit as chief marketing officer
• AI startup 11x’s CEO Hasan Sukkar stepped down, replaced by Chief Technology Officer Prabhav Jain
• Teradata appointed John Ederer, former chief financial officer of Model N, as CFO.
• Content management firm Hyland Software appointed Tim McIntire CTO.

What’s Next

Events

• May 12-15: Boomi World, Dallas
• May 13-15: Qlik Connect, Orlando
• May 13-15: SaaStra AI, San Mateo, California
• May 15: AWS Financial Services Symposium, New York City

Earnings

• Monday, May 12: Rapid7
• Tuesday, May 13: CyberArk
• Wednesday, May 14: Cisco
• Thursday, May 15: Teradata