In today's Cloud Wars Minute, I examine how Business Central is transforming ERP with strong financial returns and AI-driven capabilities. Highlights 00:10 — A new Forrester report commissioned by Microsoft, entitled "The Total Economic Impact of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central," has revealed some remarkable findings regarding the financial impact this standout cloud ERP is having on customers. 00:36 — And here's what it found: 209% ROI over three years, an estimated $464,000 net present...
Apr 03, 2026•3 min•Ep. 767
In this AI Agent & Copilot Minute, Mason Siefert explores how Dynamics 365 is evolving into the agentic era — transforming financial reconciliation and accounts payable into continuous, intelligent processes, and previews what’s ahead at Summit North America 2026. Key Takeaways Agent Evolution: The journey from manual processes to copilots and now fully autonomous agents marks a fundamental shift in enterprise finance. While early tools accelerated workflows, today’s agents proactively execu...
Apr 02, 2026•3 min•Ep. 765
In today's Cloud Wars Minute, I unpack how Oracle is redefining data activation with agentic AI capabilities. Highlights 00:03 — I recently talked about some big plans that Oracle has for fusing agentic AI into its applications and calling those Oracle agentic applications. Now it's extended its whole mantra from a couple of years ago that came from Chairman and Founder, Larry Ellison , where he said AI changes everything. 00:28 — Oracle's taken that very much to heart, and they're extending the...
Apr 02, 2026•5 min•Ep. 766
In this episode of Cloud Wars Live, Bob Evans sits down with Bonnie Tinder, Founder and CEO of Raven Intelligence, to unpack a whirlwind week in enterprise software. As AI reshapes the landscape at breakneck speed, the two explore major announcements from Oracle and Workday. Bonnie offers sharp analysis on the strategic differences between Workday’s user-centric AI assistant approach and Oracle’s autonomous, end-to-end agentic applications. Episode 59: Enterprise AI Showdown The Big Themes: Orac...
Apr 01, 2026•24 min•Ep. 763
In today's Cloud Wars Minute, I review SAP’s move toward AI usage-based pricing and what it means for the future of SaaS, customer engagement, and enterprise software delivery. Highlights 00:04 — SAP CEO Christian Klein has announced the company intends to shift away from a traditional subscription model towards a pricing model based on AI usage. Klein stated that pricing must reflect the actual usage of AI by customers now. 00:23 — Ultimately, Klein recognizes that the existing subscription mod...
Apr 01, 2026•2 min•Ep. 764
In today’s Cloud Wars Minute, I review SAP's acquisition of Reltio to enhance the Business Data Cloud, expand opportunities for customers, and continue its transformation to being an AI-first, data-first company. Highlights 00:07 — SAP made a big move to deepen its capabilities around data to power what it's doing in AI, with plans to acquire Reltio. The real goal of this is to be able to fuel SAP's ambitions for agentic AI, particularly as it moves to convert its vast portfolio of enterprise ap...
Mar 31, 2026•5 min•Ep. 761
In this episode of Cloud Wars Live, Bob Evans sits down with Pankaj Goel, CEO of Opkey, to explore how agentic AI is reshaping ERP implementations and the broader systems integrator landscape. Goel shares how Opkey’s platform automates the full lifecycle of enterprise applications — from design through testing and support — while addressing long-standing inefficiencies in implementation models. The discussion highlights the growing urgency for speed, cost efficiency, and business outcomes in the...
Mar 30, 2026•14 min•Ep. 752
In today's Cloud Wars Minute, I unpack the convergence of tech and energy and what it means for the future of business leadership. Highlights 00:00 — We are seeing here in 2026 the collapsing of traditional industry boundaries. AI is helping to drive this. A whole new way of doing business is powering this. And mostly what's happening is we're seeing visionary leaders in the tech industry, energy, utilities, power, and other places realize the old story that what got us here won't get us there. ...
Mar 30, 2026•5 min•Ep. 759
In today’s Cloud Wars Minute, I explore how Oracle is redefining enterprise software by fusing AI agents directly into applications. Highlights 00:03 — Again, busy days here in the early part of 2026. I had a great video interview with Oracle Executive Vice President Steve Miranda . He's been in charge of applications development at Oracle for more than 20 years, and Steve made a few key points about these new agenetic applications. 00:56 — And his main point was, you take all the existing value...
Mar 27, 2026•5 min•Ep. 757
In this episode of Cloud Wars Live, Bob Evans speaks with Steve Miranda, Executive Vice President of Applications Development at Oracle, about the company’s latest leap into AI-driven enterprise software . Miranda outlines Oracle’s introduction of “agentic applications,” a new category that blends AI agents , automation, and business workflows into outcome-driven systems. He explains how Oracle’s strategy has evolved from embedding AI into apps to building thousands of agents — and now to delive...
Mar 27, 2026•15 min•Ep. 754
In today's Cloud Wars Minute, I explore how Oracle is using AI to unify and transform the fragmented healthcare ecosystem. Highlights 00:03 — Early in 2026, we're seeing big strides made across all industries with AI, but in particular, there's enormous promise for AI in healthcare . So, I had a chance recently to speak with Oracle Executive Vice President Seema Verma. She's in charge of healthcare and health and life sciences. 01:06 —And one of the things that Seema talked about here is that, f...
Mar 26, 2026•5 min•Ep. 756
In this episode of Cloud Wars Live, Bob Evans speaks with Seema Verma, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Oracle Health and Life Sciences, about how AI is reshaping the healthcare industry. Drawing on her experience leading the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Verma explains how Oracle is tackling one of the world’s most complex sectors with an end-to-end, AI-driven approach. The conversation explores how automation, modern electronic health records, and intelligent agent...
Mar 26, 2026•22 min•Ep. 753
Key Takeaways Wellness-focused consumers are flooded with health data from wearable health tech and portals but lack the time and expertise to interpret what it actually means. To combat this, Copilot Health securely unifies data from hospitals, labs, and wearables to detect early health patterns and guide wellness decisions, making advanced medical insight accessible to everyone. Because hallucinations are dangerous in healthcare, Microsoft mitigated risk by embedding physician oversight into C...
Mar 24, 2026•3 min•Ep. 749
In this episode of Cloud Wars Live, Bob Evans speaks with Nathan Thomas , Senior Vice President of Product Management for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, about the explosive growth and transformative potential of Oracle’s multi-cloud database strategy. Thomas explains how Oracle is enabling customers to run mission-critical databases across AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud while unlocking new AI-driven innovation. Their discussion dives into how multi-cloud is reshaping enterprise mindsets, a...
Mar 24, 2026•16 min•Ep. 743
In today’s Cloud Wars Minute, I examine how AI and data access are accelerating unprecedented cooperation among cloud leaders. Highlights 00:03 — It's been two and a half years now since that momentous interview featuring Satya Nadella and Larry Ellison talking about their partnership to do multi-cloud between Oracle and Microsoft. And in some ways, I regard this as the multi-cloud miracle, because we've accepted it. 01:10 — It's opening up more ways in which competing tech vendors are going to ...
Mar 24, 2026•5 min•Ep. 750
In today’s Cloud Wars Minute, I discuss the significant leadership changes at Oracle and what they signal for the company’s future. Highlights 00:03 — One of the things that has become clear over the last several months is that there are big changes taking place at the top of Oracle. I wanted to go into that a little bit, particularly how this is all leading up to what is an excellent new adventure for company co-founder and chairman Larry Ellison. 00:21 — I think it's a remarkable time here. No...
Mar 23, 2026•5 min•Ep. 747
In today's Cloud Wars Minute, I examine how Health 100 signals a major shift toward AI-powered, patient-centric healthcare ecosystems. Highlights 00:03 —Google Cloud has partnered with CVS Health to launch an AI-driven health data platform called Health 100. The platform unifies patient data from a variety of sources, enabling more streamlined health management. CVS Health, which operates both an insurer and a pharmacy retailer, is embracing the spirit of the AI revolutions. 00:36 — Health 100 w...
Mar 20, 2026•3 min•Ep. 745
In this episode of the AI Agent & Copilot Podcast, Tom Smith is joined by Kieron Allen, an industry analyst and AI observer, who shares insights from the 2026 AI Agent & Copilot Summit NA in San Diego. Together, they unpack major themes from the event, including agent orchestration, workforce reskilling, MCP’s enterprise impact, and the evolving human-AI partnership. Key Takeaways Human + AI Orchestration Is the New Core Skill : Allen underscores that orchestration is not just about tech...
Mar 19, 2026•8 min•Ep. 746
In today’s Cloud Wars Minute, I question whether OpenAI’s $140 billion enterprise revenue target is a realistic strategy or a speculative leap. Highlights 00:03 — It was announced recently, or revealed recently, that OpenAI expects that its revenue will hit about $280 billion by the year 2030, half of that enterprise, half of it consumer. So that would mean that by 2030, OpenAI, according to this CNBC report citing anonymous, confidential sources, will have its enterprise revenue be about $140 b...
Mar 19, 2026•6 min•Ep. 744
Microsoft is redefining enterprise productivity by positioning Copilot, agents, and unified AI platforms as the operational backbone of next-generation “frontier firms.” Visit Cloud Wars for more.
Mar 18, 2026•3 min•Ep. 740
In this episode of the AI Agent & Copilot Podcast, host Tom Smith speaks with Vaishali Vinay, Data Scientist at Microsoft, and Raghav Bhatta, Data Scientist at Microsoft , about their upcoming masterclass at the 2026 AI Agent & Copilot Summit NA in San Diego. They discuss how AI can serve as a threat research partner for cybersecurity teams, augmenting human expertise in threat hunting and detection engineering while helping organizations proactively defend against increasingly sophistic...
Mar 17, 2026•8 min•Ep. 742
In today's Cloud Wars Minute, I look at why the AI economy is fueling unprecedented demand for cloud services and pushing the world’s top vendors into hypergrowth again. Highlights 00:03 — Things are off to a hot start here in early 2026 with the growth rates for the world's top cloud and AI vendors within the Cloud Wars Top 10 growing nicely across the board here because of the demand from customers for AI and cloud services. In fact, we're seeing the return of hypergrowth, 40% or higher growth...
Mar 17, 2026•5 min•Ep. 741
Key Takeaways Agent transactions : With models like the Universal Commerce Protocol, Google aims to control global agent transactions, relying on Mastercard’s verifiable financial infrastructure to make it viable. Filling voids : Similar to how MCP secures agent access to internal systems, verifiable intent enables agents to securely transact on behalf of humans by closing three gaps in the purchase flow; it secures transactions by validating agent identity, ensures strict adherence to user inst...
Mar 16, 2026•3 min•Ep. 735
In today’s Cloud Wars Minute, I explore how Oracle is embedding more than 1,000 AI agents into its applications to transform entire industry ecosystems. Highlights 01:18 — I think what we're seeing now here at the cusp of the agentic AI boom is the opportunity for modern technology to transform not just individual companies but entire industries and ecosystems. Oracle said it's now got more than 1,000 agents embedded within and working inside Oracle's applications. 02:21 — This is a big effort t...
Mar 16, 2026•6 min•Ep. 738
Key Takeaways Shift in AI focus : As Director of AI at Armanino, Montgomery explains that organizations are shifting from last year’s AI experimentation and demos toward defining real business use cases and operationalizing AI; embedding it into processes, insights, governance, and workforce interactions to transform how the business runs. Session overview : One of her sessions, "From Insight to Intuition: Designing Copilot Experiences that Understand People," will provide “a practical blueprint...
Mar 13, 2026•10 min•Ep. 736
Key Takeaways Smart friction : AI prioritizes speed and efficiency, but in retail experiences where shoppers value engagement, intentional friction can enhance customer satisfaction and ultimately drive better returns, giving rise to the idea of "smart friction." Use case : Trader Joe’s, for example, deliberately avoids self-checkout to create smart friction, using wait time to immerse customers in design, promote product discovery, and foster interactions with staff that enhance the overall bra...
Mar 13, 2026•3 min•Ep. 733
In this episode of the AI Agent & Copilot Podcast, Giuseppe Ianni, host of the show, is joined by Andrea Pinillos , Senior Technical Program Manager at Microsoft, to discuss practical strategies for enterprise adoption of AI agents and copilots. Pinillos shares insights from her work leading internal Microsoft tooling and previews her upcoming session at the 2026 AI Agent & Copilot Summit NA. Key Takeaways Democratizing AI with Simple Tools : Pinillos emphasizes that organizations don’t ...
Mar 13, 2026•9 min•Ep. 735
In today's Cloud Wars Minute, I explore how Microsoft is using Copilot Studio and multi-agent orchestration to dramatically improve customer support performance. Highlights 00:09 — Now, one of the best ways to assess the impact of Microsoft Copilot is to examine case studies of the technology in action. Microsoft has announced details of a recent project delivered through Copilot Studio, aimed at enhancing the customer support experience on microsoft.com, building on the Ask Microsoft web agent ...
Mar 13, 2026•2 min•Ep. 734
In this episode of Cloud Wars Live, Bob Evans speaks with Bonnie Tinder, founder and CEO of Raven Intelligence, about the surge of hype, confusion, and opportunity surrounding AI in enterprise technology. As headlines claim AI could replace traditional software and “vibe coding” threatens SaaS vendors, Tinder brings a grounded perspective from years of advising organizations on enterprise systems like Salesforce , Workday, and SAP. Their conversation explores what AI can realistically do today, ...
Mar 12, 2026•24 min•Ep. 724
Key Takeaways Session overview : AI is a transformative technology where security is lagging dangerously behind. Polino's session, " A Guide to Security Roles in AI Transformation (Implementation) ," will explore why it's critical for organizations to reassess current roles, controls, and systems and proactively design security strategies specifically for an AI-driven environment. Guardrails : AI systems can be easily manipulated through indirect prompts or parameter framing, making it essential...
Mar 12, 2026•12 min•Ep. 729
