{
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        {
            "post_type": "post",
            "post_id": 308091,
            "permalink": "https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/blogs\/cpaas-has-changed-and-the-next-transformation-is-just-starting\/",
            "title": "CPaaS Has Changed, And The Next Transformation Is Just Starting",
            "date": "Nov 13, 2026 14:02:06",
            "excerpt": "I want to share some exciting news: I\u2019m expanding my research coverage. In addition to my work on enterprise networking and telecommunications, I\u2019m now covering communications-platform-as-a-service (CPaaS) providers. For me, this is a natural evolution. I\u2019ve spent much of my career around communications, connectivity, and the technologies that bring businesses and their customers together, and […]",
            "body": "<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">I want to share some exciting news: I\u2019m expanding my research coverage. In addition to my work on enterprise networking and telecommunications, I\u2019m now covering communications-platform-as-a-service (CPaaS) providers. For me, this is a natural evolution. I\u2019ve spent much of my career around communications, connectivity, and the technologies that bring businesses and their customers together, and CPaaS increasingly sits at the intersection of all three.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">I\u2019m currently working on updating our Forrester Landscape report on CPaaS, planned for early 2027, and I\u2019m jumping into the market at an interesting point in its development. CPaaS has already moved well beyond its origins as APIs that developers use to embed messaging, voice, video, and other communications into applications. Low-code tools, omnichannel engagement, customer data, conversational AI, authentication, and orchestration are hardly new to the category. What\u2019s changing now is how these capabilities are coming together and beginning to redefine the role CPaaS plays in the enterprise technology stack.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Three developments particularly stand out:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-setsize=\"-1\" data-leveltext=\"\uf0b7\" data-font=\"Symbol\" data-listid=\"10\" data-list-defn-props=\"{&quot;335552541&quot;:1,&quot;335559685&quot;:720,&quot;335559991&quot;:360,&quot;469769226&quot;:&quot;Symbol&quot;,&quot;469769242&quot;:[8226],&quot;469777803&quot;:&quot;left&quot;,&quot;469777804&quot;:&quot;\uf0b7&quot;,&quot;469777815&quot;:&quot;hybridMultilevel&quot;}\" data-aria-posinset=\"1\" data-aria-level=\"1\"><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The first evolution of CPaaS has already happened, and the next one is starting.<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> Communications APIs remain foundational, but leading platforms have been steadily adding low-code tools, engagement workflows, data, AI, identity, security, and orchestration. The next phase goes further. AI agents, persistent interaction context, conversation and journey intelligence, fraud controls, and programmable network capabilities are starting to converge with those communications foundations. Providers are approaching this opportunity from very different directions, including communications infrastructure, customer engagement, cloud, contact center, and telecom networks. The question is no longer whether CPaaS will move up the stack. It already has. The question is <\/span><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">what CPaaS becomes<\/span><\/i> as those layers converge.<\/li>\n<li aria-setsize=\"-1\" data-leveltext=\"\uf0b7\" data-font=\"Symbol\" data-listid=\"10\" data-list-defn-props=\"{&quot;335552541&quot;:1,&quot;335559685&quot;:720,&quot;335559991&quot;:360,&quot;469769226&quot;:&quot;Symbol&quot;,&quot;469769242&quot;:[8226],&quot;469777803&quot;:&quot;left&quot;,&quot;469777804&quot;:&quot;\uf0b7&quot;,&quot;469777815&quot;:&quot;hybridMultilevel&quot;}\" data-aria-posinset=\"1\" data-aria-level=\"1\"><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Enterprise use of CPaaS is broadening along with it.<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> Embedding a message or phone call into an application remains important, but it represents only part of today\u2019s opportunity. Enterprises increasingly apply CPaaS to interactions triggered by business events, customer engagement throughout the lifecycle, sophisticated service conversations, trust and fraud prevention, acquisition and conversion, workflow orchestration, commerce, and emerging interactions in which AI agents communicate and act. As a result, CPaaS increasingly matters to business and technology stakeholders well beyond the developers who helped define the category.<\/span><\/li>\n<li aria-setsize=\"-1\" data-leveltext=\"\uf0b7\" data-font=\"Symbol\" data-listid=\"10\" data-list-defn-props=\"{&quot;335552541&quot;:1,&quot;335559685&quot;:720,&quot;335559991&quot;:360,&quot;469769226&quot;:&quot;Symbol&quot;,&quot;469769242&quot;:[8226],&quot;469777803&quot;:&quot;left&quot;,&quot;469777804&quot;:&quot;\uf0b7&quot;,&quot;469777815&quot;:&quot;hybridMultilevel&quot;}\" data-aria-posinset=\"1\" data-aria-level=\"1\"><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The capabilities that differentiate CPaaS are shifting.<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> Channel breadth and global communications reach still matter, but increasingly they aren\u2019t enough. Enterprises should pay more attention to how providers maintain context across interactions, orchestrate channels and workflows, integrate enterprise and customer data, apply AI to conversations and journeys, authenticate users and communications, combat fraud, expose network intelligence, and monitor communications performance. The competitive question is shifting from simply \u201c<\/span><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Which channels does the platform support?<\/span><\/i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u201d toward \u201c<\/span><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">How intelligently, securely, and reliably can the platform manage an interaction from beginning to end?<\/span><\/i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">These are exciting times for CPaaS because the market isn\u2019t abandoning its communications roots but building another layer on top of them. The early CPaaS market made communications programmable. Its next phase will increasingly make communications contextual, intelligent, trusted, orchestrated, and autonomous. That transformation is only beginning, and I\u2019ll have much more to share as we move toward the new Forrester CPaaS landscape report in early 2027. In the meantime, if these changes are affecting your communications strategy, reach out and book an inquiry by submitting a request to <\/span><a href=\"mailto:inquiry@forrester.com\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">inquiry@forrester.com<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">. Schedule a conversation with me \u2014 Octavio Garcia Granados \u2014 and let\u2019s talk CPaaS.<\/span><\/p>\n",
            "category": [
                {
                    "term_id": 2242,
                    "name": "Age of the Customer",
                    "slug": "age-of-the-customer",
                    "description": "",
                    "permalink": "https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/blogs\/category\/age-of-the-customer\/"
                },
                {
                    "term_id": 2638,
                    "name": "high tech",
                    "slug": "high-tech",
                    "description": "The challenge for high tech firms: Ditch the buzzwords, move past product talk, and develop a deep understanding of the issues and challenges of the buyers you are trying to serve. Read our advice.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"\/technology\/\">Discover how Forrester supports IT leaders.<\/a>",
                    "permalink": "https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/blogs\/category\/high-tech\/"
                },
                {
                    "term_id": 22010,
                    "name": "Information Technology",
                    "slug": "information-technology",
                    "description": "Information technology is the core of today's businesses. Read insights on transforming information technology from a service function to a key driver of business growth.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"\/technology\/\">Discover how Forrester supports IT leaders.<\/a>",
                    "permalink": "https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/blogs\/category\/information-technology\/"
                },
                {
                    "term_id": 34588,
                    "name": "mobile technology",
                    "slug": "mobile-technology",
                    "description": "Mobile technology has revolutionized business processes and consumer behavior. Read more to get the strategies and insights to foster internal and customer-facing mobile optimization.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"\/technology\/\">Discover how Forrester supports IT leaders.<\/a>",
                    "permalink": "https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/blogs\/category\/mobile-technology\/"
                },
                {
                    "term_id": 51561,
                    "name": "networking",
                    "slug": "networking",
                    "description": "",
                    "permalink": "https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/blogs\/category\/networking\/"
                }
            ],
            "meta_desc": "Forrester\u2019s new CPaaS analyst explores how AI, orchestration, data, security, and network intelligence are reshaping the CPaaS market.",
            "author": "Octavio Garcia Granados"
        },
        {
            "post_type": "post",
            "post_id": 308158,
            "permalink": "https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/blogs\/plain-language-is-a-total-experience-imperative\/",
            "title": "Plain Language Is A Total Experience Imperative",
            "date": "Nov 13, 2026 12:31:28",
            "excerpt": "Have you ever read a communication three times and still had no idea what it was trying to tell you? Maybe it was an explanation of benefits from your health insurer, a letter from your bank about a fee change, an order update from a retailer, or a notice from a government agency. When this [&hellip;]",
            "body": "<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Have you ever read a communication three times and still had no idea what it was trying to tell you? <\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Maybe it was an explanation of benefits from your health insurer, a letter from your bank about a fee change, an order update from a retailer, or a notice from a government agency. When this happens, we sometimes blame ourselves. <\/span><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Why don\u2019t I understand this?<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">I have news: The problem isn\u2019t you. Organizations routinely make customers work too hard to understand information. And it turns out that the resulting confusion and other negative feelings this creates damages the customer experience, customer loyalty, and brand perception.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">At Forrester, we study dozens of drivers that influence brand experience (BX) and customer experience (CX), two dimensions of a brand\u2019s <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/research\/total-experience-score\/\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">total experience<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">. \u201cCommunicates with me using plain language\u201d is among the top drivers of total experience for auto manufacturers, banks, health insurers, hotels, investment firms, and retailers. Yet in these industries, fewer than two-thirds \u2014 and in some cases, fewer than half \u2014 of customers say that brands communicate in plain language.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 aria-level=\"2\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">How To Communicate In Plain Language<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Plain language doesn\u2019t only benefit people with limited English proficiency, lower reading levels, or learning disabilities. It helps all customers understand what they need to know, feel confident about what to do next, and leave an interaction with a more positive impression of your brand.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">In our new report, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/report\/communicate-in-plain-language-to-improve-your-total-experience\/RES205378\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">Communicate In Plain Language To Improve Your Total Experience<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">, we identify six proven practices for communicating more clearly. They include:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-setsize=\"-1\" data-leveltext=\"\uf0b7\" data-font=\"Symbol\" data-listid=\"1\" data-list-defn-props=\"{&quot;335552541&quot;:1,&quot;335559685&quot;:720,&quot;335559991&quot;:360,&quot;469769226&quot;:&quot;Symbol&quot;,&quot;469769242&quot;:[8226],&quot;469777803&quot;:&quot;left&quot;,&quot;469777804&quot;:&quot;\uf0b7&quot;,&quot;469777815&quot;:&quot;hybridMultilevel&quot;}\" data-aria-posinset=\"1\" data-aria-level=\"1\"><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Avoid jargon (no, really) and scale plain language alternatives through your design system.<\/span><\/b> <span data-contrast=\"auto\">Think your brand already does this? Our data shows that it probably doesn\u2019t. Replace technical, legal, and internal jargon terminology with words your audience can understand. When technical terms are unavoidable, explain them using simple definitions, examples, or analogies. Scale the use of plain language alternatives for frequently used jargon by documenting words to use and avoid or \u201cdos\u201d and \u201cdon\u2019ts\u201d in your organization\u2019s <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/blogs\/you-still-need-a-design-system-now-more-than-ever\/\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">design system<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">. When using generative AI to create content, always require human review before publication to ensure that it\u2019s accurate, clear, and inclusive.<\/span><\/li>\n<li aria-setsize=\"-1\" data-leveltext=\"\uf0b7\" data-font=\"Symbol\" data-listid=\"1\" data-list-defn-props=\"{&quot;335552541&quot;:1,&quot;335559685&quot;:720,&quot;335559991&quot;:360,&quot;469769226&quot;:&quot;Symbol&quot;,&quot;469769242&quot;:[8226],&quot;469777803&quot;:&quot;left&quot;,&quot;469777804&quot;:&quot;\uf0b7&quot;,&quot;469777815&quot;:&quot;hybridMultilevel&quot;}\" data-aria-posinset=\"1\" data-aria-level=\"1\"><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Apply information design best practices.<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> The way you structure and present content matters as much as the words themselves. Use descriptive headings, concise paragraphs, lists, white space, and progressive disclosure to help customers find and understand what matters most. Apply visual emphasis (such as bolding content) selectively. Ensure text is easy to read by meeting <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/WCAG22\/\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">accessibility requirements<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> for color contrast and font size and making sure that text size scales based on user-defined settings.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 aria-level=\"2\">See What Plain Language Looks Like In Practice<\/h2>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Read <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/report\/communicate-in-plain-language-to-improve-your-total-experience\/RES205378\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">Communicate In Plain Language To Improve Your Total Experience<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> to explore all six best practices, understand why plain language has such an important influence on total experience, and see dozens of examples of how brands across industries communicate clearly in the moments that matter most.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 aria-level=\"2\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">Let\u2019s Connect<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">If you\u2019re a Forrester client, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/inquiry?bioId=BIO12904\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">book a guidance session with me<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> to discuss how to implement best practices in your organization and explore more examples of what good looks like. You can also <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/ginabhawalkar\/\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">connect with me on LinkedIn<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> if you\u2019d like.<\/span><\/p>\n",
            "category": [
                {
                    "term_id": 34346,
                    "name": "Accessible Design",
                    "slug": "accessible-design",
                    "description": "How accessible are your company's website and web materials to people with visual, physical, and other disabilities? Overlook this question, and you risk excluding vast groups of consumers who want to engage with your brand. Read our insights on accessible design principles and best practices.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"\/customer-experience\/\">Discover how Forrester supports customer experience professionals.<\/a>",
                    "permalink": "https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/blogs\/category\/accessible-design\/"
                },
                {
                    "term_id": 2242,
                    "name": "Age of the Customer",
                    "slug": "age-of-the-customer",
                    "description": "",
                    "permalink": "https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/blogs\/category\/age-of-the-customer\/"
                },
                {
                    "term_id": 52024,
                    "name": "Brand &amp; Communications",
                    "slug": "brand-communications",
                    "description": "",
                    "permalink": "https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/blogs\/category\/brand-communications\/"
                },
                {
                    "term_id": 2100,
                    "name": "customer experience",
                    "slug": "customer-experience",
                    "description": "Customer experience is a key driver of loyalty, satisfaction, and revenue. Mastering it is a complex and ever-changing proposition. Forrester's insights aid organizations to succeed with customer experience.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"\/customer-experience\/\">Discover how Forrester supports customer experience leaders.<\/a>",
                    "permalink": "https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/blogs\/category\/customer-experience\/"
                },
                {
                    "term_id": 52012,
                    "name": "Total Experience",
                    "slug": "total-experience",
                    "description": "Companies that align their brand experience, customer experience, and employee experience pull ahead \u2014 and stay ahead. Learn about Forrester's Total Experience Score and research and how they help firms across industries make meaningful, measurable improvements.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/research\/total-experience-score\/\">Learn More About Our Total Experience Research.<\/a>",
                    "permalink": "https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/blogs\/category\/total-experience\/"
                }
            ],
            "meta_desc": "Plain language doesn\u2019t only benefit people with limited English proficiency, lower reading levels, or learning disabilities. It helps all customers understand what they need to know, feel confident about what to do next, and leave an interaction with a more positive impression of your brand.",
            "author": "Gina Bhawalkar"
        },
        {
            "post_type": "post",
            "post_id": 308140,
            "permalink": "https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/blogs\/the-microsoft-outage-demands-an-end-to-vendor-concentration-risk-and-a-commitment-to-resilience\/",
            "title": "The Microsoft Outage Demands An End To Vendor Concentration Risk And A Commitment To Resilience",
            "date": "Nov 13, 2026 12:07:35",
            "excerpt": "Sometime around 1 p.m. ET yesterday, Microsoft services supporting Outlook, Teams, and many other services went offline. Attempts to apply patches or revert to a prior state didn\u2019t immediately work because servers were quickly overwhelmed by a backlog of traffic as they came online. Microsoft had to shed load and throttle downstream traffic, likely explaining [&hellip;]",
            "body": "<p>Sometime around 1 p.m. ET yesterday, Microsoft services supporting Outlook, Teams, and many other services went offline. Attempts to apply patches or revert to a prior state didn\u2019t immediately work because servers were quickly overwhelmed by a backlog of traffic as they came online. Microsoft had to shed load and throttle downstream traffic, likely explaining why some regions and services had only partial availability. This scenario isn\u2019t uncommon. Recovery from this kind of saturation can create a \u201cthundering herd\u201d on recovering servers, further extending the incident yet again. Google had this happen last year.<\/p>\n<p>The outage affected nearly every Microsoft service, from Outlook to Copilot to core security services like Defender. As of early Friday morning ET, services are starting to resume after a nearly 18-hour outage. Assuming recovery continues, tech and business leaders should now ask how they can better prepare for and reduce the risk of similar disruptions.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Concentration Risk Strikes Again \u2014 It\u2019s Time To Address Hyperconsolidation <\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>For a variety of reasons, including price bundling, customer service, integration, and knowledge sharing, companies have been consolidating their employee productivity and collaboration apps, as well as their business apps, general computing workloads, and security solutions, to a handful of tech giants and hyperscalers.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Consider diversifying or having alternatives for key productivity apps.<\/strong> It\u2019s unrealistic to diversify application by application \u2014 there\u2019s integration overhead to too much diversity, and CIOs need to be careful not to overinvest for a problem that is generally rare. For some industries, however, where doc management and communication is critical (i.e., law firms), it\u2019s not unreasonable to have backup options like Google Workspace (the closest 1:1 to Microsoft 365) and even Zoom (which also has an email solution).<\/li>\n<li><strong>Ensure that you have multiple communication options in place.<\/strong> Most enterprises should have a mass communication service in place like Everbridge and\/or employee communication tools independent of email (e.g., Firstup, Staffbase). Whether it\u2019s extreme weather or a catastrophic IT outage, you can trigger these solutions to send critical communications to customers, employees, and partners using multiple modes of communication from SMS to voice alerts. Additional messaging systems like Slack, Element, Wire, or Threema can be used to serve as a secure bidirectional chat across organizations. Critical industries (e.g., energy, government) should have additional redundancy through satellite and radio systems. All companies should offer continuous communication through their own websites, status, and social media updates.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Rearchitect for workload portability and vendor diversification.<\/strong> Use upcoming enterprise contract renewal cycles to critically assess vendor concentration risk. Consolidating productivity suites, identity management, security agents, and cloud infrastructure under one vendor creates systemic fragility. Design your long-term cloud strategy around containerization, multicloud or hybrid portability, and independent third-party backup solutions to ensure that a single vendor\u2019s service disruption never halts your core business operations.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Diversify your security tech stack.<\/strong> The move to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/report\/understand-the-benefits-and-drawbacks-of-cybersecuritys-platform-push\/RES184361\">platformatization<\/a>, deployment ease, and license bundling drove enterprises to adopt a single-vendor approach to security. Security leaders have long been reluctant to put all their eggs in a single-vendor basket for reasons such as the preference for multiple security approaches at different layers. With more security solutions being delivered from the cloud as a service, those tools are susceptible to outages. Security leaders should evaluate where it makes sense to diversify vendors in areas like data, endpoint, email and collaboration, and network security.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><strong>Design For Failure, But Engineer For Recovery <\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Technology leaders need to engineer resilience into the identity, security, authentication, and recovery services that allow the business to maintain control when a critical provider becomes unavailable.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Stabilize identity services during outages (immediate).<\/strong> Instruct your help desk to halt all mass password-reset advisories. During cloud identity provider outages (such as Microsoft Entra ID), automated or user-initiated resets cause cascading multifactor authentication (MFA) loops and widespread account lockouts the moment services begin to recover. These loops can not only impact business users\u2019 daily actions but also privileged users\u2019 access to on-prem, cloud infrastructure, and SaaS applications.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Capture telemetry and document SLA impact<\/strong> <strong>(immediate).<\/strong> Task your site reliability engineering and operations teams with aggregating system logs, error rates, and degraded service windows. Under Microsoft\u2019s financial-backed service-level agreements (SLAs), you have strict reporting windows to file claims for service credits. Detailed timestamp logs and quantified business-unit productivity losses are also essential for your executive postmortem and board reporting.<\/li>\n<li><strong>File your SLA claim ASAP (immediate).<\/strong> Microsoft will not apply SLA credits automatically to your bill \u2014 you must submit a claim within one month after the end of the outage month to receive credits. Have your Microsoft administrator document the services that suffered from outages, the number of seatholders that were impacted, and the duration of the outages, then submit an SLA credit request through M365 billing support. Note that credits are only awarded for the specific service impacted; if that service was bundled with other services that were not impacted, the credit will be prorated for just the impacted service. For services purchased through cloud solution provider partners, submit the claim through that partner.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Audit single points of authentication and infrastructure (medium-term).<\/strong> Evaluate where your enterprise has tightly coupled its operational dependencies to a single cloud ecosystem. Review your identity federation architecture to determine if secondary, independent identity providers or localized authentication failover mechanisms can be introduced. Ensure that critical operational runbooks and emergency documentation are mirrored to local or offline storage repositories that do not require an active cloud session.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Reassess usage of email OTPs for authentication (medium- to long-term).<\/strong> Organizations should reduce reliance on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/report\/the-forrester-tech-tide-tm-identity-and-access-management-q1-2026\/RES191040\">email-delivered one-time passwords (OTPs)<\/a> for authentication and recovery, particularly when the email service and identity ecosystem share common infrastructure dependencies that can fail together. Prioritize phishing-resistant methods such as passkeys while maintaining preenrolled, independent fallback methods for continuity; simply replacing email OTP with SMS OTP reduces one dependency but does not provide the security or resilience of stronger authentication methods. Minimally. for the duration of the outage, ensure that transitioning to other MFA factors or changing email addresses on users\u2019 accounts is possible without the user having access to their old email account.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Transition from static documentation to dynamic disaster recovery drills (medium-term).<\/strong> Traditional business continuity plans stored inside cloud-based document repositories become useless when those repositories go offline. Shift your resilience strategy toward automated chaos engineering and regular, unannounced tabletop exercises. Test your actual recovery time objectives and recovery point objectives with simulated multiregion cloud outages and endpoint failure scenarios to build operational muscle memory.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><strong>Use This Outage To Jump-Start Sovereign Alternatives<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The Microsoft outage is a quasi-natural experiment for stress-testing an organization\u2019s, or even an entire continent\u2019s, digital sovereignty. While not strictly a sovereignty issue, it shows what could happen if an interruption of services and tools availability was the direct consequence of a deliberate order from the foreign government whose jurisdiction a vendor depends on. Sovereign alternatives are not always available, equivalent, or sufficient. For instance, sovereign communication tools exist, but the real problem is the communication protocol that allows the communication exchanges. While full sovereignty is rarely achievable, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/report\/minimum-viable-sovereignty-from-theory-to-practice\/RES193184\">minimum viable sovereignty<\/a> is what you need. Here is how to proceed:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Map the dependencies on foreign vendors that really matter.<\/strong> Sovereignty is not just about where your data resides but about who controls the technologies that your business depends on. Identify critical dependencies across cloud infrastructure, identity, communications, AI, network, and software. For example, a sovereign cloud deployment may still depend on a foreign provider\u2019s authentication services. Prioritize the dependencies whose disruption would threaten essential operations, rather than pursuing sovereignty everywhere.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Build alternatives where they deliver real independence.<\/strong> Replacing a foreign technology provider with a domestic one does not automatically guarantee sovereignty or resilience. Alternatives must also be interoperable, operationally viable, and sufficiently independent. For example, adopting a sovereign collaboration platform offers limited protection if users cannot communicate with external partners or if it relies on the same underlying services. Diversify selectively and prioritize open standards, interoperability, and substitutability over provider nationality.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Stress-test your ability to operate without your foreign provider.<\/strong> Sovereignty is ultimately about retaining control when external dependencies become unavailable, whether accidentally or deliberately. For example, simulate a prolonged loss of access to your primary cloud or collaboration platform and assess whether essential operations can continue. Establish recovery thresholds, test alternative communication channels, and validate your ability to operate, recover, or switch providers before a disruption occurs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Schedule a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/inquiry\">guidance session or inquiry<\/a> call with us to discuss your strategy on how to improve your resilience discipline and jump-start your minimum viable sovereignty.<\/p>\n",
            "category": [
                {
                    "term_id": 2368,
                    "name": "Architecture &amp; Technology Strategy",
                    "slug": "architecture-technology-strategy",
                    "description": "Your architecture &amp; technology strategy determines whether your business uses technology effectively ... or falls behind competitors. Read Forrester's insights on best practices, trends, and emerging tech in the architecture &amp; technology space.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"\/technology\/\">Discover how Forrester supports technology executives. <\/a>",
                    "permalink": "https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/blogs\/category\/architecture-technology-strategy\/"
                },
                {
                    "term_id": 2351,
                    "name": "CIO insights",
                    "slug": "chief-information-officer-cio",
                    "description": "The Chief Information Officer (CIO) plays a crucial and complicated role in today's enterprises. Read insights on how to balance innovation with practicality; the power of big data with customer privacy; and the opportunities of new tech with its accompanying risks.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"\/technology\/\">Discover how Forrester supports technology executives. <\/a>",
                    "permalink": "https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/blogs\/category\/chief-information-officer-cio\/"
                }
            ],
            "meta_keywords": "resilience, minimum viable sovereignty",
            "author": "Stephanie Balaouras",
            "coauthors": "Courtney Nash, Dario Maisto, Joseph Blankenship, William McKeon-White, Mark Moccia, Greg Zorella"
        },
        {
            "post_type": "post",
            "post_id": 307872,
            "permalink": "https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/blogs\/define-your-businesss-operational-technology-before-attackers-do-it-for-you\/",
            "title": "Define Your Business\u2019s Operational Technology Before Attackers Do It For You",
            "date": "Nov 13, 2026 10:32:01",
            "excerpt": "Attackers increasingly know which connected systems can disrupt a business, even when defenders don\u2019t. Security leaders must identify and protect critical operational assets before their exposure becomes the next costly disruption.",
            "body": "<p>The cybersecurity industry does not need another reason for security leaders to lose sleep, but for those of you who crave insomnia, attackers are happy to feed your craving. The recent attacks against <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bleepingcomputer.com\/news\/security\/cyberattack-shuts-down-refrigerators-at-french-supermarkets\/\">supermarket refrigeration systems<\/a> across Europe generated predictable headlines about vulnerabilities, connected devices, and the growing risks facing operational technology (OT) environments.<\/p>\n<p>Those discussions are certainly important, but if your first thought is \u201cRefrigeration systems can be hacked,\u201d you\u2019ve missed the bigger lesson. The real issue is that many organizations still don\u2019t understand which systems actually run their business, but attackers most assuredly do, and they\u2019re just itching to show you.<\/p>\n<h2>OT Isn\u2019t Just Heavy Machinery<\/h2>\n<p>When people hear \u201coperational technology\u201d or \u201cindustrial control systems,\u201d they often imagine manufacturing plants, power generation facilities, or other types of massive industrial equipment. Those are certainly examples of OT, but they\u2019re not the only examples.<\/p>\n<p>Consider a healthcare provider: If MRI or CT scanning becomes unavailable, patient care is immediately disrupted. For a financial services firm, trading systems may be the assets that directly enable revenue generation. For a supermarket chain, refrigeration infrastructure is what allows frozen and chilled products to be sold safely. While they aren\u2019t traditionally seen as critical infrastructure or industrial control systems, if those systems go offline, that means business operations go offline. That\u2019s operational technology.<\/p>\n<p>By comparison, many IoT devices support the business rather than operate the business. Security cameras, environmental sensors, digital signage, or smart building controls are important. Their loss can be disruptive and inconvenient, and you learn how inconvenient their loss is when it\u2019s summer and you\u2019re a bank teller who\u2019s still working in a branch that hasn\u2019t had functioning air conditioning for three days. But the disruption of IoT devices typically doesn\u2019t stop revenue generation. That distinction matters and should influence how organizations prioritize protection strategies.<\/p>\n<h2>The Vulnerability Is Only Half The Story<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/fr.claroty.com\/team82\/research\/freeze-the-controller-defrost-the-food-uncovering-vulnerabilities-in-danfoss-refrigeration-controllers\">Research<\/a> into the Danfoss refrigeration weaknesses provides valuable insight into the vulnerabilities involved and the techniques used by attackers. Security professionals should absolutely review the technical findings, because they were pretty wild and you\u2019ll catch yourself saying, \u201cAre you kidding me?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But focusing exclusively on the vulnerabilities overlooks the reality that these systems were reportedly accessible from the internet and it didn\u2019t require an initial network breach to compromise them. In 2026, that shouldn\u2019t be a controversial statement. This reminds of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fbi.gov\/investigate\/cyber\/alerts\/2026\/malicious-cyber-actors-targeting-water-and-wastewater-sector-internet--facing-programmable-logic-controllers-causing-operational-disruptions\">water treatment PLCs<\/a> that were directly exposed earlier this year.<\/p>\n<p>More than two decades ago, organizations learned hard lessons about exposing IT systems directly to the internet without adequate security controls. Firewalls, network segmentation, access gateways, and remote-access protections became standard practices for enterprise IT environments. The fact that organizations still expose critical OT assets directly to the internet is not a sophisticated cybersecurity problem; it\u2019s a foundational security problem. Or, put another way, this isn\u2019t advanced threat defense \u2014 it\u2019s Cybersecurity 101.<\/p>\n<h2>Attackers Are Scaling Faster Than Defenders<\/h2>\n<p>Threat actors no longer need deep expertise to discover exposed systems. Tools that identify internet-facing assets are readily available and easy to use. As attack surface management capabilities have become more accessible, automated, and comprehensive, attackers benefit from these capabilities, too, because if they can find the device, they have their own tools that can probe and scan past the first exposure point to understand communication flows and other devices that are accessible. Now layer AI on top of that reality, and while defenders are beginning to leverage AI to improve asset discovery, vulnerability prioritization, threat detection, and operational efficiency (that\u2019s the good news), what\u2019s less encouraging news is that attackers have access to many of the same advantages.<\/p>\n<p>Security leaders should not view incidents like these in isolation. They are indicators of a broader trend. As discovery becomes easier and attack processes become more efficient, exposed operational systems will attract increasing attention not less.<\/p>\n<h2>Focus On Fundamentals Before The Next Incident<\/h2>\n<p>Security leaders don\u2019t need to boil the ocean to improve their OT security posture. Start with fundamentals:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Know what runs your business.<\/li>\n<li>Understand the vulnerabilities and risks.<\/li>\n<li>Reduce unnecessary exposure.<\/li>\n<li>Apply security controls consistently.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Organizations often search for the next breakthrough technology that will improve security outcomes and usually the answer is far less exciting. Sometimes the answer is simply <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/report\/the-architects-guide-to-iot-security\/RES189346\">protecting the systems<\/a> that keep your business running before someone else decides to turn them off.<\/p>\n<p>The recent refrigeration attacks are not about doom-mongering but are a reminder: Attackers are moving faster, discovering more, and targeting systems that organizations continue to overlook. The best time to address that problem was years ago. The second-best time is before the next attack. Don\u2019t wait until your connected CNC machine is hacked and the attacker has it create the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bleepingcomputer.com\/news\/security\/jigsaw-ransomware-decrypted-will-delete-your-files-until-you-pay-the-ransom\/\">Jigsaw face<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Forrester clients interested in discussing this topic further should <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/inquiry\">connect with us<\/a> via an inquiry or guidance session.<\/p>\n",
            "category": [
                {
                    "term_id": 51101,
                    "name": "CISO Trends",
                    "slug": "ciso-chief-information-security-officer",
                    "description": "The chief information security officer (CISO) role is growing in importance and remit. Discover the latest trends and analysis for CISOs and information security leaders.",
                    "permalink": "https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/blogs\/category\/ciso-chief-information-security-officer\/"
                },
                {
                    "term_id": 14963,
                    "name": "Cybersecurity Trends",
                    "slug": "cybersecurity",
                    "description": "Stay up-to-date on the cutting edge of cybersecurity with insights on Zero Trust, vendors, regulations, and other privacy &amp; security topics.",
                    "permalink": "https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/blogs\/category\/cybersecurity\/"
                },
                {
                    "term_id": 51787,
                    "name": "Security management",
                    "slug": "security-management",
                    "description": "",
                    "permalink": "https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/blogs\/category\/security-management\/"
                },
                {
                    "term_id": 2180,
                    "name": "security risk management",
                    "slug": "security-risk",
                    "description": "With the proliferation of data and the ubiquity of connected devices, organizations can move with unmatched efficiency, but simultaneously incur increased risks. Read our insights on how security &amp; risk professionals can succeed in this environment.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/technology\/security-risk\/\">Discover how Forrester supports IT and security and risk leaders.<\/a>",
                    "permalink": "https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/blogs\/category\/security-risk\/"
                }
            ],
            "author": "Paddy Harrington"
        },
        {
            "post_type": "post",
            "post_id": 308117,
            "permalink": "https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/blogs\/tokenomics-needs-a-taxonomy\/",
            "title": "Tokenomics Needs A Taxonomy",
            "date": "Nov 13, 2026 09:01:55",
            "excerpt": "The turquoise killifish reaches maturity in two weeks, faster than any other animal. The Tokenomics Foundation is growing up almost as fast. After launching less than five months ago with the mission of creating a shared discipline for managing AI and related token costs, it\u2019s quickly evolved into something much more ambitious: a methodology to [&hellip;]",
            "body": "<p>The turquoise killifish reaches maturity in two weeks, faster than any other animal. The Tokenomics Foundation is growing up almost as fast. After <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tokeneconomics.com\/insights\/launch-tokenomics-foundation\/\">launching less than five months ago<\/a> with the mission of creating a shared discipline for managing AI and related token costs, it\u2019s quickly evolved into something much more ambitious: a methodology to understand the <em>total<\/em> cost of AI and connect that cost to business value. In fact, this past September, the Tokenomics Foundation argued that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tokeneconomics.com\/insights\/total-cost-of-ai-tca\/\">token and API costs make up only 10%\u201325% of total AI spend<\/a>. This evolution creates a challenge: You can <em>measure<\/em> AI costs without a taxonomy, but you can\u2019t <em>connect them to business value<\/em> without one.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>ROI Needs A Defensible Cost<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The formula for AI ROI is simple: The numerator is the value created and the denominator is the cost required to create that value. The value side of the equation is already difficult for most. Organizations must determine whether an AI investment saves employee time, increases revenue, improves customer outcomes, or reduces risk. The report, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/report\/introducing-the-forrester-ai-value-matrix-a-framework-for-measuring-what-matters\/RES194340\">Introducing The Forrester AI Value Matrix: A Framework For Measuring What Matters<\/a>, is a good starting point to help make this determination.<\/p>\n<p>The denominator is tricker, consider an example using two agents: One agent improves the evaluation and routing of sales leads for Product A and Product B. The other expedites prep for sales meetings, creating more customer-facing time for salespeople for both products. The combined capabilities of these agents result in a $2 million lift in sales of Product A and a $1M lift in sales for Product B. As each agent is splitting its capabilities between both products, how should the organization attribute the impact of each agent on Product A and Product B for its ROI calculations?<\/p>\n<p>The first layer of the model <strong>categorizes AI costs<\/strong> (i.e., LLM costs, cloud services costs, on-premises capitalization costs, labor). The model then needs to <strong>attribute these costs to defined AI capabilities<\/strong> to understand the total cost of each agent (i.e., what combination AI costs map to each individual agent). Lastly, once we know the cost of each agent, the model must <strong>allocate its costs to defined business outcomes<\/strong>, in this case splitting them between Product A and Product B. This includes costs that aren\u2019t easily taggable like on-premises storage or non-timesheet labor. Only then will you have a defensible cost basis in which the cost and benefit sides of your ROI calculation align.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Tokenomics Can Learn From TBM<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Technology leaders have encountered this problem before. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tbmcouncil.org\">Technology business management (TBM)<\/a> doesn\u2019t attempt to connect a server or cloud instance directly to business value. Just like in the example above, it uses intermediate layers to translate technical resources and costs into applications, services, products, and ultimately the parts of the business consuming them.<\/p>\n<p>AI needs a similar connective tissue. Will it come via an extension of TBM? Will the Tokenomics Foundation create its own AI cost taxonomy? Could some other organization create a best practice? Time will tell \u2014 but what we\u2019ve learned from TBM is that, although these models are powerful, they are also difficult to implement and maintain. The reason is that they\u2019re not plug-and-play. As you progress through layers of the model, you have to make assumptions about how to break up blocks of costs across multiple stakeholders, and maintaining these model assumptions requires resources.<\/p>\n<p>For example, in the scenario presented above, it\u2019s not immediately obvious how to split the cost of each agent equitably between Product A and Product B. Rather, it requires a formula to split this cost based on some indicative metric (e.g., number of salespeople, number of units sold) and that formula needs to be agreed upon across all stakeholders, owned, and governed to create universal confidence in the model and the outcome.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>What You Can Do Now<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>You can\u2019t wait for a standard taxonomy to emerge \u2014 you need to make the right decisions on AI for your organization <em>now<\/em>. So create your own taxonomy until a broader standard evolves. Here\u2019s a simplified way of thinking through this to get you started, from which you can adapt to your own specific needs:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Start with the outcome.<\/strong> Define the nature of the benefit and the unit in which it will be measured.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Define and map AI capabilities to outcomes.<\/strong> Identify the agents contributing to each outcome, define the capabilities they provide, and establish allocation drivers where capabilities are shared.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Build the total cost of each capability.<\/strong>\u00a0Define your categories of AI spend and determine the total costs attributable to building\/running your agents. In some cases, this mapping will be clean, such as if your observability tools provide cost attribution by agent. In others, such as labor, the mapping may be less clear, so align with all stakeholders on the assumptions that will drive attributions of these cost categories.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Govern your assumptions.<\/strong> Document allocation methodologies, assign owners to maintain them, and secure agreement from stakeholders.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Do this for one use case first to demonstrate the methodology and build a base for broader buy-in. Then expand the model as you gain support across functions as well as up the org chart. Lastly, don\u2019t aim for perfect attribution on day one. The goal is to build enough structure between technical consumption and business outcomes that leaders can understand, challenge, and ultimately trust the economics.<\/p>\n<p>Want to talk more about building your model for AI spend attribution? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/inquiry\">Set up a guidance session<\/a> with me or email me at <a href=\"mailto:gzorella@forrester.com\">gzorella@forrester.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n",
            "category": [
                {
                    "term_id": 2352,
                    "name": "AI Insights",
                    "slug": "artificial-intelligence-ai",
                    "description": "<p class=\"text-body font-regular leading-[24px] pt-[9px] pb-[2px]\">The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing how organizations operate, offering unprecedented opportunities to boost efficiency and drive innovation. Yet, alongside this immense potential comes a layer of complexity that requires deliberate strategy. AI is doing more than just enhancing systems; it\u2019s reshaping how organizations allocate resources, advance capabilities, and achieve growth. Its influence touches every corner of an operating model, challenging leaders to not only capture the power of AI but to create meaningful value with it. The path forward is both exciting and intricate, filled with the promise of transformation and the need for thoughtful navigation. Get the latest AI insights and strategic perspectives from Forrester analysts and experts.<\/p>\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/technology\/data-ai-leaders\/\">Discover how Forrester supports data, AI, and analytics leaders. <\/a>",
                    "permalink": "https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/blogs\/category\/artificial-intelligence-ai\/"
                }
            ],
            "meta_desc": "Develop a cost model to drive trust in your AI ROI.",
            "author": "Greg Zorella"
        },
        {
            "post_type": "post",
            "post_id": 308090,
            "permalink": "https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/blogs\/nvidias-leadership-crisis-dont-overreact-confront-your-ai-concentration-risk\/",
            "title": "NVIDIA\u2019s Leadership Crisis: Don\u2019t Overreact \u2014 Confront Your AI Concentration Risk",
            "date": "Nov 12, 2026 13:31:43",
            "excerpt": "Jensen Huang, NVIDIA CEO, resigned today. While AI infrastructure implications and potential regulatory scrutiny will gain the media\u2019s attention, technology leaders shouldn\u2019t concern themselves with the personal dealings of Huang. He may have triggered this crisis, but this is about what it means for NVIDIA as the world\u2019s most important supplier of AI chips. Instead, [&hellip;]",
            "body": "<p>Jensen Huang, NVIDIA CEO, <a href=\"https:\/\/nvidianews.nvidia.com\/news\/nvidia-announces-ceo-transition\">resigned<\/a> today. While AI infrastructure implications and potential regulatory scrutiny will gain the media\u2019s attention, technology leaders shouldn\u2019t concern themselves with the personal dealings of Huang. He may have triggered this crisis, but this is about what it means for NVIDIA as the world\u2019s most important supplier of AI chips. Instead, take a hard look at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/blogs\/ai-is-hiding-concentration-risk-in-plain-sight\/\">AI concentration risk<\/a> and your exposure to it.<\/p>\n<p>Today, NVIDIA is deeply embedded in the infrastructure, economics, and direction of the AI boom. Its influence isn\u2019t confined to chips. Its power extends upward through the AI technology stack and into models and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/report\/ai-powers-a-new-computing-ecosystem\/RES186925\">AI computing ecosystem<\/a>. That means a leadership change can affect broader technology markets, financing relationships, enterprise AI plans, and the wider ecosystem.<\/p>\n<p>Our AI Bubble Model shows that NVIDIA\u2019s $7.4 billion of capital spending over the past year is about 1% of what the nine companies we track spent. Its exposure runs through its enterprise customers. NVIDIA is party to 15 of the circular-financing loops we track, more than any other company, including a guarantee of up to $105 billion on data center leases for an OpenAI affiliate and a $30 billion commitment to OpenAI itself. The guarantee cost impacts NVIDIA only if those customers can\u2019t pay, and Colette Kress, who oversaw these deals as CFO, keeps that job. Keep a close eye on whether financing relationships, investment commitments, and ecosystem deals change following this leadership transition.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/blogs\/the-ai-bubble-isnt-bursting-yet-heres-what-to-watch-using-our-model\/\">Forrester\u2019s AI Bubble Model<\/a> says a burst is not imminent, as most major players financing the build-out remain financially healthy. But the model shows extraordinary supply pressure and warns that circular financing can inflate demand. If NVIDIA stabilizes quickly, the AI boom will show resilience. If financial or ecosystem stress persists, fragility will grow.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Tech Leaders: Discuss Six Questions In Your Next Leadership Meeting<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Tech leaders shouldn\u2019t overreact, but they should treat this as a prompt to reassess concentration risk across their AI infrastructure, suppliers, and investments. Ask these six questions in your next leadership meeting:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Where are we dependent on NVIDIA?<\/strong> Even if you are not exposed to NVIDIA directly, you likely are dependent on them through your existing tech relationships. Look beyond GPUs to CUDA, architecture, models, cloud services, partners, and contractual commitments. Identify which dependencies would materially disrupt AI services if NVIDIA capacity, pricing, support, or product roadmaps changed. The goal is to find hidden lock-in, particularly where applications have been optimized so heavily for NVIDIA that switching hardware would require significant reengineering. In fact, well before this development unfolded, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/blogs\/predictions-2027-prepare-for-new-infrastructure-demands\/\">Forrester predicted<\/a> that a quarter of AI infrastructure RFPs will require non-NVIDIA accelerator options. Rather than replacing NVIDIA, we believe that organizations will segment workloads across accelerator types based on model size, latency, data sensitivity, and deployment location.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Where is there a credible alternative?<\/strong> Separate theoretical supplier diversity from options that can actually deliver the required capacity and performance. AMD\u2019s tech stack or custom accelerators from AWS, Google, Microsoft, and others may provide alternatives for particular workloads, but availability alone doesn\u2019t make them substitutes. Test alternatives against performance, capacity, compatibility, and cost. Identify which workloads can move in weeks or months, which require significant reengineering, and which effectively remain locked in.<\/li>\n<li><strong>How exposed are our investments to ecosystem and financing changes?<\/strong> Run your AI infrastructure plans against different financial, supply, and partner scenarios. This includes higher GPU or cloud prices, tighter credit, delayed data centers, capacity constraints, partner failures, and your organization\u2019s changing demand. Pay particular attention to multiyear capacity commitments based on aggressive utilization or ROI assumptions. The question isn\u2019t simply whether a supplier survives but whether changing economics could leave your organization paying for capacity that it no longer needs or unable to obtain capacity for what it does.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Have we sacrificed confidence in a leader for resilience of an ecosystem?<\/strong> Apply the lesson beyond NVIDIA. \u201cKey person\u201d risk belongs in technology concentration assessments just as supplier, architecture, geographic, and financial risk do. Ask what changes if an influential founder or CEO suddenly leaves, including relationships with governments, customers, investors, partners, and employees.<\/li>\n<li><strong>How else can we reduce our AI concentration risk?<\/strong> Even before this crisis, tech leaders should be asking themselves: How do we scale AI without allowing its economics to scale uncontrollably? Forrester has always recommended that tech leaders deploy AI workloads across endpoints, edge environments, private infrastructure, and public cloud based on cost, availability performance, latency, security, privacy, sovereignty, and data gravity. This not only optimizes costs but builds resilience and drastically reduces concentration risk.<\/li>\n<li><strong>How sovereign is our AI strategy?<\/strong> It\u2019s not clear yet what IP may have been leaked or if controlled NVIDIA chips were sold because of Jensen\u2019s dealings with an alleged spy, but tech leaders can be sure that it\u2019s going to lead to intense scrutiny and calls for more export controls and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/report\/global-sovereignty-forecast-2025-to-2030\/RES198005\">sovereignty<\/a>. Tech leaders must be prepared to test whether export controls, sanctions, data residency mandates, or geopolitical conflict could restrict access \u2014 and determine where sovereign or regionally controlled alternatives are necessary to maintain operational resilience.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Jensen Huang\u2019s resignation doesn\u2019t guarantee an AI boom collapse or even the end of NVIDIA\u2019s market leadership. NVIDIA has 38,000 employees who design and engineer some of the world\u2019s leading AI infrastructure. It also takes years to design today\u2019s AI chips, let alone the years it takes to then manufacture them and bring them to market. That expertise and capability can\u2019t be scaled overnight. But there is a real risk over time from reinvigorated competitors, a brain drain, and slowing of innovation. The lesson for technology leaders isn\u2019t to bet against NVIDIA but to stop treating concentration risk as merely a chip sourcing problem.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/inquiry\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">Schedule a guidance session or inquiry call<\/span><\/a> with us to discuss your broader AI strategy<span data-contrast=\"auto\">.<\/span><\/p>\n",
            "category": [
                {
                    "term_id": 2242,
                    "name": "Age of the Customer",
                    "slug": "age-of-the-customer",
                    "description": "",
                    "permalink": "https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/blogs\/category\/age-of-the-customer\/"
                },
                {
                    "term_id": 2352,
                    "name": "AI Insights",
                    "slug": "artificial-intelligence-ai",
                    "description": "<p class=\"text-body font-regular leading-[24px] pt-[9px] pb-[2px]\">The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing how organizations operate, offering unprecedented opportunities to boost efficiency and drive innovation. Yet, alongside this immense potential comes a layer of complexity that requires deliberate strategy. AI is doing more than just enhancing systems; it\u2019s reshaping how organizations allocate resources, advance capabilities, and achieve growth. Its influence touches every corner of an operating model, challenging leaders to not only capture the power of AI but to create meaningful value with it. The path forward is both exciting and intricate, filled with the promise of transformation and the need for thoughtful navigation. Get the latest AI insights and strategic perspectives from Forrester analysts and experts.<\/p>\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/technology\/data-ai-leaders\/\">Discover how Forrester supports data, AI, and analytics leaders. <\/a>",
                    "permalink": "https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/blogs\/category\/artificial-intelligence-ai\/"
                }
            ],
            "author": "Stephanie Balaouras",
            "coauthors": "Srividya Sridharan, Alla Valente, Brian Hopkins, Rowan Curran, Mike Gualtieri, Ted Schadler"
        },
        {
            "post_type": "podcast3",
            "post_id": 308001,
            "permalink": "https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/cx-cast\/473-the-ai-chief-customer-officer\/",
            "title": "473: The AI Chief Customer Officer",
            "date": "Nov 12, 2026 10:41:43",
            "excerpt": "AI agents are moving beyond customer service and into supply chain, operations, legal, HR, and other parts of the enterprise. Hosts Angelina Gennis and Martin Gill explore why CX leaders need to make customer obsession machine-readable. Featuring Martin Gill, VP, Research Director Show Notes: AI agents are moving beyond customer service and into supply chain, [&hellip;]",
            "body": "<p>AI agents are moving beyond customer service and into supply chain, operations, legal, HR, and other parts of the enterprise. Hosts Angelina Gennis and Martin Gill explore why CX leaders need to make customer obsession machine-readable.<\/p>\n<h2>Featuring<\/h2>\n<p>Martin Gill, VP, Research Director<\/p>\n<h2>Show Notes:<\/h2>\n<p>AI agents are moving beyond customer service and into supply chain, operations, legal, HR, and other parts of the enterprise. That creates a new customer experience (CX) problem: an AI system can successfully optimize the task it was given while making a terrible decision for the customer.<\/p>\n<p>Hosts Angelina Gennis and Martin Gill explore why CX leaders need to make customer obsession machine-readable. That means turning aspirational CX strategies into customer outcomes, decision rights, escalation thresholds, design standards, service principles, and other explicit context that AI systems can actually use.<\/p>\n<p>We discuss how to:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Turn customer obsession into instructions AI can act on.<\/li>\n<li>Spot where enterprise AI could undermine CX.<\/li>\n<li>Set the right boundaries for autonomous decisions.<\/li>\n<li>Give AI the customer context behind good decisions.<\/li>\n<li>Start small and make the approach practical.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n",
            "category": [
                {
                    "term_id": 51560,
                    "name": "The CX Cast",
                    "slug": "cx-cast",
                    "description": "",
                    "permalink": "https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/blogs\/category\/podcast\/cx-cast\/"
                }
            ],
            "image_url": "https:\/\/go.forrester.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/FMK_TheCXCast_DX_560x346px.webp",
            "image_width": 560,
            "image_height": 346
        },
        {
            "post_type": "post",
            "post_id": 308035,
            "permalink": "https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/blogs\/cheaper-ai-wont-save-a-product-built-on-the-wrong-problem\/",
            "title": "Cheaper AI Won\u2019t Save A Product Built On The Wrong Problem",
            "date": "Nov 11, 2026 08:16:57",
            "excerpt": "As the cost of AI products falls, the quality of the problem they solve becomes a more important determinant of value. Yet many product teams still start with a mandate to use AI and then look for a problem to justify it. That\u2019s the build trap. Product leaders must reverse the order. Validate the root [&hellip;]",
            "body": "<p>As the cost of AI products falls, the quality of the problem they solve becomes a more important determinant of value. Yet many product teams still start with a mandate to use AI and then look for a problem to justify it. That\u2019s the build trap. Product leaders must reverse the order. Validate the root cause, test solutions against it, and only then define the AI capabilities that the product needs.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Build The Product Around The Root Cause<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/report\/build-ai-products-that-solve-real-problems\/RES201704\">first report<\/a> in this series covers how to define the problem and validate its root cause. Product and digital teams first generate and compare several solutions, without assuming that AI is the answer. They then translate the strongest solution into the product and enterprise capabilities needed to deliver it reliably, responsibly, and at scale. In practice, that means:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Treat every solution as a hypothesis.<\/strong> Bring product, design, engineering, data, risk, and frontline teams together to generate options broadly, then narrow them on customer value, feasibility, commercial impact, and strategic fit. Netflix tackled viewer disengagement this way, developing multiple artwork variants per title, each a hypothesis about which visual cues signal relevance.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Ship the capabilities, not just the feature.<\/strong> A feature that uses AI is not the same as the capabilities that make it reliable, scalable, trusted, and economically viable. Those capabilities span people, process, data, governance, architecture, and technology. For Project Nemo, which automates food spoilage claims after natural catastrophes, Allianz had to build several of them alongside its AI agents.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Name how the product creates value.<\/strong> State the mechanism (productivity, conversion, retention, operating cost, or differentiation) before you build. Project Nemo cut Allianz\u2019s claims processing and settlement time by 80%. Yet Forrester found that only a handful of organizations prioritize the strategic mechanisms that decide whether AI strengthens their competitive position, brand equity, or adaptiveness.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Right-size each capability.<\/strong> Don\u2019t default to the most sophisticated model or the highest accuracy, because thresholds for precision, speed, autonomy, explainability, and human oversight differ even within one product. Southern California Permanente Medical Group\u2019s Kaiser Permanente Intelligent Navigator prioritizes precision for high-acuity risk and breadth for care navigation, achieving an approximately 54% booking success rate. Build the smallest viable capability configuration that produces the outcome and generates evidence.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Cheaper AI lowers the cost of building but compounds the cost when teams build the wrong thing. Read my <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/report\/translate-problems-into-ai-solutions-and-capabilities\/RES205133\">latest report<\/a> to move from a validated root cause to the capabilities that your AI product needs. Got a question? Book a guidance session with me.<\/p>\n",
            "category": [
                {
                    "term_id": 2242,
                    "name": "Age of the Customer",
                    "slug": "age-of-the-customer",
                    "description": "",
                    "permalink": "https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/blogs\/category\/age-of-the-customer\/"
                },
                {
                    "term_id": 2352,
                    "name": "AI Insights",
                    "slug": "artificial-intelligence-ai",
                    "description": "<p class=\"text-body font-regular leading-[24px] pt-[9px] pb-[2px]\">The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing how organizations operate, offering unprecedented opportunities to boost efficiency and drive innovation. Yet, alongside this immense potential comes a layer of complexity that requires deliberate strategy. AI is doing more than just enhancing systems; it\u2019s reshaping how organizations allocate resources, advance capabilities, and achieve growth. Its influence touches every corner of an operating model, challenging leaders to not only capture the power of AI but to create meaningful value with it. The path forward is both exciting and intricate, filled with the promise of transformation and the need for thoughtful navigation. Get the latest AI insights and strategic perspectives from Forrester analysts and experts.<\/p>\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/technology\/data-ai-leaders\/\">Discover how Forrester supports data, AI, and analytics leaders. <\/a>",
                    "permalink": "https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/blogs\/category\/artificial-intelligence-ai\/"
                },
                {
                    "term_id": 51984,
                    "name": "AI model",
                    "slug": "ai-model",
                    "description": "",
                    "permalink": "https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/blogs\/category\/artificial-intelligence-ai\/ai-model\/"
                },
                {
                    "term_id": 51276,
                    "name": "Product Management",
                    "slug": "product-management-fr",
                    "description": "Le paysage de la gestion des produits \u00e9volue rapidement. L'innovation et l'adaptativit\u00e9 sont des facteurs cl\u00e9s de succ\u00e8s, mais il en va de m\u00eame pour une compr\u00e9hension approfondie des besoins des clients. Lisez nos conseils pour cr\u00e9er et mettre en \u0153uvre des pratiques de d\u00e9veloppement, de gestion et d'innovation de produits centr\u00e9es sur l'acheteur.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/fr\/product-management\/\">D\u00e9couvrez comment Forrester soutient les leaders en Product Management.<\/a>",
                    "permalink": "https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/blogs\/category\/fr\/product-management-fr\/"
                }
            ],
            "author": "Zhi Ying Barry"
        },
        {
            "post_type": "post",
            "post_id": 308010,
            "permalink": "https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/blogs\/canva-shows-how-to-preserve-trust-and-employee-dignity-during-layoffs\/",
            "title": "Canva Shows How To Preserve Trust And Employee Dignity During Layoffs",
            "date": "Nov 10, 2026 17:45:51",
            "excerpt": "Layoffs aren\u2019t simply an operational exercise: They put a company\u2019s accumulated trust on display. Departing employees, those who remain, prospective hires, customers, partners, and investors are all watching to see whether its treatment of people matches its stated values. Canva\u2019s recent layoffs offer a prime example of how leaders can approach an inherently difficult event [&hellip;]",
            "body": "<p>Layoffs aren\u2019t simply an operational exercise: They put a company\u2019s accumulated trust on display. Departing employees, those who remain, prospective hires, customers, partners, and investors are all watching to see whether its treatment of people matches its stated values.<\/p>\n<p>Canva\u2019s recent layoffs offer a prime example of how leaders can approach an inherently difficult event with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/blogs\/reorg-ready-how-leaders-can-communicate-through-organizational-transformations\/\">transparency, empathy, accountability, and concern<\/a> for employees. By pairing clear communication with meaningful support, Canva demonstrates how companies can put their values into practice during moments that test employee and brand trust.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Employees Leave, But Their Experience Stays With Your Brand<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Companies invest significant time and resources in recruiting talent, developing employees, and building a culture people are proud to represent. That investment shouldn\u2019t end with a termination notice over a group video call and minimal severance. The exit experience reveals whether employees were genuinely valued or valued only while they were useful.<\/p>\n<p>Consider the difference between two accounts of the same event: \u201cI was let go and left to figure things out\u201d and \u201cMy role was eliminated, but the company offered support and helped me take my next step.\u201d Neither changes the reality of job loss. But they tell very different stories about the employer.<\/p>\n<p>The objective shouldn\u2019t be to purchase praise from departing employees. It\u2019s to give them an experience they can describe honestly without contradicting everything the company says it stands for.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Canva Put Its Values Into Action<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Canva\u2019s response illustrates several practices that help organizations preserve trust during workforce reductions:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Explain the decision candidly.<\/strong> CEO Melanie Perkins described what was changing, why leadership believed the restructuring was necessary, and how decisions about the organization preceded decisions about individual roles. That context helps employees understand the rationale rather than forcing them to fill an information vacuum.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Acknowledge the human impact.<\/strong> Canva explicitly recognized the disruption to employees, families, friends, and coworkers. It didn\u2019t rely on a detached corporate announcement to convey a deeply personal decision.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Make support tangible.<\/strong> Impacted employees received continued salary and healthcare, career and interview support, LinkedIn Premium, access to an alumni talent directory, and their company MacBooks. Canva also created grants for employees interested in starting a business or community project. These resources matter because they provide the necessary support that helps people move forward.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Preserve dignity and agency.<\/strong> Instead of immediately cutting off access, Canva allowed departing employees time to communicate with colleagues and say goodbye. It also planned individual conversations with senior leaders and broader all-hands meetings.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These choices don\u2019t erase questions about how the company arrived at the decision, nor do they guarantee goodwill. But they do demonstrate something fundamental: Empathy becomes credible when an organization supports it with action.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Treat The Exit Experience As A Brand Experience<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>A layoff tests whether a company\u2019s values hold when honoring them becomes difficult. Leaders should approach the departure experience with the same intention they bring to attracting employees:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Communicate the decision transparently and acknowledge what people are losing.<\/li>\n<li>Offer practical support that helps departing employees take their next step.<\/li>\n<li>Give people real conversations, clear information, and room to say goodbye.<\/li>\n<li>Ensure that the experience reinforces rather than contradicts the company\u2019s brand promise.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Trust isn\u2019t built by avoiding every difficult decision \u2014 it\u2019s built by demonstrating what values mean while making one. The employment relationship may be ending, but the employee\u2019s experience of the brand doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p>Forrester clients can learn more in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/report\/build-trust-through-strategic-communication-during-reorganizations\/RES190191\">Build Trust Through Strategic Communication During Reorganizations<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/inquiry\/guidance-session\">schedule a guidance session<\/a> with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/analyst-bio\/rani-salehi\/BIO15628\">Rani Salehi<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/analyst-bio\/karen-tran\/BIO18624\">Karen Tran<\/a>.<\/p>\n",
            "category": [
                {
                    "term_id": 2104,
                    "name": "B2B Marketing",
                    "slug": "b2b-marketing",
                    "description": "B2B marketing is increasingly expected to deliver the level of experience buyers are used to having as consumers. Success depends on marketers adapting \u2014 and quickly. Explore our B2B marketing insights to stay ahead.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/b2b-marketing\/\">Discover how Forrester supports B2B marketing leaders.<\/a>",
                    "permalink": "https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/blogs\/category\/b2b-marketing\/"
                },
                {
                    "term_id": 52024,
                    "name": "Brand &amp; Communications",
                    "slug": "brand-communications",
                    "description": "",
                    "permalink": "https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/blogs\/category\/brand-communications\/"
                },
                {
                    "term_id": 50632,
                    "name": "Marketing Operations",
                    "slug": "marketing-operations",
                    "description": "Executing on B2B marketing objectives requires optimal performance from people, processes, and technology. Marketing operations leaders and teams must stay focused on marketing and business strategy, but also be agile to adapt to changing conditions. Explore our insights to strengthen and streamline marketing operations.\r\n\r\nDiscover how Forrester supports\u00a0<a href=\"\/b2b-marketing\/\">B2B<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"\/b2c-marketing\/\">B2C<\/a>\u00a0marketing leaders.",
                    "permalink": "https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/blogs\/category\/marketing-operations\/"
                },
                {
                    "term_id": 34349,
                    "name": "organizational design",
                    "slug": "organizational-design",
                    "description": "It's easy enough to embrace the idea of customer obsession. Yet putting it into practice may require radically changing deeply rooted processes and longstanding silos. Find advice for transforming your organizational design, and learn the steep paybacks for doing so.",
                    "permalink": "https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/blogs\/category\/organizational-design\/"
                }
            ],
            "meta_title": "Canva Shows How To Preserve Employee Dignity During Layoffs",
            "meta_desc": "Canva\u2019s recent layoffs offer a prime example of how leaders can approach an inherently difficult event with transparency and accountability.",
            "author": "Karen Tran",
            "coauthors": "Rani Salehi"
        },
        {
            "post_type": "post",
            "post_id": 307982,
            "permalink": "https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/blogs\/amazon-ads-unboxed-2026-amazon-makes-its-pitch-for-outcome-based-advertising\/",
            "title": "Amazon Ads unBoxed 2026: Amazon Makes Its Pitch For Outcome-Based Advertising",
            "date": "Nov 10, 2026 17:11:42",
            "excerpt": "Agentic commerce and agentic advertising were on full display at Amazon Ads unBoxed 2026. Amazon demonstrated how predictive, generative, and agentic AI can take on the work of helping consumers decide what to buy and helping advertisers turn business objectives into media outcomes. Over the course of the event, we heard directly from Amazon\u2019s leaders [&hellip;]",
            "body": "<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Agentic commerce and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/blogs\/agentic-advertisings-productivity-paradox\/\">agentic advertising<\/a> were on full display at Amazon Ads unBoxed 2026. Amazon demonstrated how predictive, generative, and agentic AI can take on the work of helping consumers decide what to buy and helping advertisers turn business objectives into media outcomes. Over the course of the event, we heard directly from Amazon\u2019s leaders and customers, met one on one with product SMEs, and spoke with partners working across Amazon Ads\u2019 ecosystem.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Here are our four takeaways:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-setsize=\"-1\" data-leveltext=\"\uf0b7\" data-font=\"Symbol\" data-listid=\"2\" data-list-defn-props=\"{&quot;335552541&quot;:1,&quot;335559685&quot;:720,&quot;335559991&quot;:360,&quot;469769226&quot;:&quot;Symbol&quot;,&quot;469769242&quot;:[8226],&quot;469777803&quot;:&quot;left&quot;,&quot;469777804&quot;:&quot;\uf0b7&quot;,&quot;469777815&quot;:&quot;hybridMultilevel&quot;}\" data-aria-posinset=\"1\" data-aria-level=\"1\"><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Amazon wants advertisers to buy outcomes, not ad products.<\/span><\/b> <span data-contrast=\"auto\">Amazon Ads Agent, DVA+, and its Full-Funnel Campaigns offering reduce the need for advertisers to translate business goals into disparate campaigns, channels, audiences, and creative decisions. For example, Full-Funnel Campaigns uses predictive AI to determine the channel mix and target audiences, creative variables, and optimization levers likely to hit a marketer-specified objective. But greater automation risks advertisers giving Amazon more control while getting less visibility into the logic underlying media outcomes. Advertisers should dictate where Amazon\u2019s optimization authority begins and ends, requiring transparency into why its systems moved dollars, favored certain inventory, or pursued one outcome over another, especially as Amazon owns the media, marketplace, and, increasingly, the decisioning layer.<\/span><\/li>\n<li aria-setsize=\"-1\" data-leveltext=\"\uf0b7\" data-font=\"Symbol\" data-listid=\"2\" data-list-defn-props=\"{&quot;335552541&quot;:1,&quot;335559685&quot;:720,&quot;335559991&quot;:360,&quot;469769226&quot;:&quot;Symbol&quot;,&quot;469769242&quot;:[8226],&quot;469777803&quot;:&quot;left&quot;,&quot;469777804&quot;:&quot;\uf0b7&quot;,&quot;469777815&quot;:&quot;hybridMultilevel&quot;}\" data-aria-posinset=\"1\" data-aria-level=\"1\"><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Brands can have a say in AI-powered shopping conversations.<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> Branded Conversations lets brands provide information about their products, differentiators, use cases, and complementary products that Alexa for Shopping (formerly known as Rufus) can surface as consumers research and compare options. But Amazon will need to avoid turning a helpful shopping experience into another sponsored results page. Treat AI shopping as a new consideration surface. Start by asking what Amazon already knows about your products, then engineer the information you contribute around specific consumer decisions, such as why a shopper should pay more for your product. Run Branded Conversations as an incrementality experiment by measuring whether exposure changes consideration, branded search, add-to-cart rates, and conversions across shoppers.<\/span><\/li>\n<li aria-setsize=\"-1\" data-leveltext=\"\uf0b7\" data-font=\"Symbol\" data-listid=\"2\" data-list-defn-props=\"{&quot;335552541&quot;:1,&quot;335559685&quot;:720,&quot;335559991&quot;:360,&quot;469769226&quot;:&quot;Symbol&quot;,&quot;469769242&quot;:[8226],&quot;469777803&quot;:&quot;left&quot;,&quot;469777804&quot;:&quot;\uf0b7&quot;,&quot;469777815&quot;:&quot;hybridMultilevel&quot;}\" data-aria-posinset=\"1\" data-aria-level=\"1\"><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Performance measurement now goes beyond immediate sales.<\/span><\/b> <span data-contrast=\"auto\">Amazon\u2019s long-term sales metric gives advertisers a longer view of campaign impact through Ads Agent. This methodology attempts to capture the impact of upper-funnel advertising on future revenue and does so by assigning value to intermediate actions (e.g., product detail page visits, video views) based on how likely those actions are to result in a sale beyond the typical attribution window. Extending the clock like this captures more of the value of advertising, but without controlling for outside factors and non-Amazon advertising activity, it is not causal measurement. Advertisers should treat Amazon\u2019s long-term sales metric as one signal in a broader measurement system, not the ultimate scoreboard for business impact. Reconcile Amazon-reported performance against independent incrementality testing, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/report\/make-marketing-mix-modeling-a-strategic-anchor\/RES198587\">marketing mix models<\/a>, customer lifetime value, new customer acquisition, and your own first-party sales data.<\/span><\/li>\n<li aria-setsize=\"-1\" data-leveltext=\"\uf0b7\" data-font=\"Symbol\" data-listid=\"2\" data-list-defn-props=\"{&quot;335552541&quot;:1,&quot;335559685&quot;:720,&quot;335559991&quot;:360,&quot;469769226&quot;:&quot;Symbol&quot;,&quot;469769242&quot;:[8226],&quot;469777803&quot;:&quot;left&quot;,&quot;469777804&quot;:&quot;\uf0b7&quot;,&quot;469777815&quot;:&quot;hybridMultilevel&quot;}\" data-aria-posinset=\"1\" data-aria-level=\"1\"><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Sponsored Services is the proving ground for Amazon\u2019s non-endemic ambitions.<\/span><\/b> <span data-contrast=\"auto\">This solution connects shoppers directly with local service providers through Amazon\u2019s partnership with Yelp. For example, a consumer purchasing a TV can also schedule installation. For service providers, the near-term opportunity is to intercept consumers who are already signaling high-value intent inside Amazon and turn that demand into leads and bookings. Expect Amazon to extend this model to categories like financial services, insurance, travel, home services, and healthcare by using its rich understanding of consumer intent to connect discovery, advertising, and downstream commercial activity.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Amazon Ads\u2019 latest announcements promise to limit friction across media planning, buying, and measurement. They also give Amazon more control over which consumers advertisers reach, which messages they see, where budgets flow, and which metrics define success. As an advertiser, embrace automation, but stay vigilant. Set hard guardrails around budget allocation and optimization, maintain independent measurement wherever possible, and pressure-test Amazon\u2019s recommendations against incrementality and business outcomes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Please book a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/inquiry\">guidance session or inquiry<\/a> with us to discuss agentic advertising strategies, the changing adtech landscape, and what it means for your organization.<\/span><\/p>\n",
            "category": [
                {
                    "term_id": 2119,
                    "name": "Advertising",
                    "slug": "advertising",
                    "description": "Digital has upended traditional advertising. What's shaking out after the digital shakeup? Read our insights to find out.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"\/b2c-marketing\/\">Discover how Forrester supports B2C marketing leaders.<\/a>",
                    "permalink": "https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/blogs\/category\/advertising\/"
                },
                {
                    "term_id": 2242,
                    "name": "Age of the Customer",
                    "slug": "age-of-the-customer",
                    "description": "",
                    "permalink": "https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/blogs\/category\/age-of-the-customer\/"
                },
                {
                    "term_id": 52023,
                    "name": "Agentic AI",
                    "slug": "agentic-ai",
                    "description": "AI agents promise to transform business processes, applications, and experiences, but realizing their value takes vision and discipline. Explore Forrester\u2019s agentic AI insights to help separate reality from hype, identify high-value use cases, and build the architecture, data foundations, governance, and controls needed to scale safely.",
                    "permalink": "https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/blogs\/category\/artificial-intelligence-ai\/agentic-ai\/"
                },
                {
                    "term_id": 2103,
                    "name": "B2C Marketing",
                    "slug": "b2c-marketing",
                    "description": "B2C marketing is navigating choppy waters. The tactics that drive short-term gains are alienating customers over the long-term, eroding loyalty and affinity. Read our insights to learn more about how B2C marketing teams can thrive in the midst of this tension.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"\/b2c-marketing\/\">Discover how Forrester supports B2C marketing leaders.<\/a>",
                    "permalink": "https:\/\/www.forrester.com\/blogs\/category\/b2c-marketing\/"
                }
            ],
            "author": "Emily Collins",
            "coauthors": "Nikhil Lai, Brad Haag, Fiona Swerdlow"
        }
    ]
}