2025 was a year of stark contrasts in tech. While companies like Microsoft committed billions to AI infrastructure, a brutal reality emerged: widespread layoffs and a stunning 95% failure rate for generative AI projects. The Seattle tech scene grappled with these shifts while questioning its own ide
The decision for enterprise voice AI is no longer just about which model is smartest. It’s a strategic architectural choice between cheap, fast “native” systems and slower, but auditable, modular stacks. A new “unified” approach is trying to bridge the gap.
Most retail and CPG companies are running AI pilots but failing to capture real value. The problem isn’t the tech, it’s the operating system. Winning in 2026 requires a fundamental shift in approach.
Huawei is reportedly moving to sell its Ascend AI chips to customers outside China for the first time, starting in South Korea next year. The company will offer cluster configurations, including its top Ascend 950 chip, as a complete “end-to-end” solution. This directly mirrors the competitive scena
In a major geopolitical twist, restrictive US policies on AI chips are strengthening China’s domestic tech sector instead of crippling it. Global investors, wary of a US AI bubble, are now rating Chinese tech as “most attractive,” pouring money into companies like Alibaba.
To launch in China, Apple’s AI must pass a strict government test. It has to refuse to answer at least 95% of 2,000 sensitive prompts. This reveals the immense control exerted over foreign tech.
AI coding agents from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google are powerful but problematic. They work by orchestrating multiple LLMs, but face huge “context” limits and can burn through tokens 15x faster than a chat. Understanding their architecture is key to using them without creating a mess.
Amazon is scrambling to adapt as AI agents from OpenAI, Google, and others change how people shop. The company is now hiring a leader to forge partnerships in this new “agentic commerce” space, a market McKinsey says could be worth $1 trillion by 2030.
ServiceNow is making its biggest acquisition yet, agreeing to pay $7.75 billion in cash for cybersecurity platform Armis. The deal, set to close in the second half of 2026, is a key piece of ServiceNow’s plan to build a proactive, AI-driven security stack.
Oracle’s newly launched AI-enhanced support portal is causing widespread frustration. Customers and support staff report broken searches, missing documents, and a chaotic user experience that’s hampering basic tasks.
