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Ad Holding Companies Are Redefining Their Role in the Marketing Ecosystem

Gerry Murray — Thu, 21 May 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Perspective discusses ad holding companies that are redefining their role in the marketing ecosystem. Major advertising holding companies are fundamentally transforming their business models from traditional media buying and creative services to AI-driven systems integration, proprietary identity data, and autonomous agentic execution.

“The agency’s role is no longer defined by media buying or creative talent. It’s being redefined around AI-powered platforms. The new competitive moats are data, identity, orchestration, compression, and activation,” according to Gerry Murray, research director, Enterprise Marketing Apps and Agents.

IDC ProductScape: Worldwide Observability and AIOps Platforms, 2026

Shannon Kalvar — Thu, 21 May 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC ProductScape offers a comprehensive guide on the key functionalities of observability and AIOps platforms, featuring products from vendors ranging from Amazon to Zoho. The status of each functionality is categorized as fully supported, partially supported, partner provided, road map, or not supported, aiding technology purchasers in quickly identifying which vendors align with their changing requirements.

IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Life Sciences R&D Strategic Consulting Services 2026 Vendor Assessment

Nimita Limaye — Wed, 20 May 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Health Insights study is a refresher of the life sciences R&D IDC MarketScape, which has a specific focus on strategic consulting in the life sciences R&D space. This document seeks to compare major service providers with each other based on criteria that should be important to life sciences companies when considering the selection of a strategic consulting partner to help provide guidance for strategic, operational, and tactical transformation issues within the R&D space. The IDC MarketScape assessment of strategic consulting outsourcing in life sciences R&D was previously performed in 2011, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2021, and 2023.

"The life sciences strategic consulting market is undergoing a fundamental reset — driven by the convergence of agentic AI, mounting execution pressure, and a sharply more demanding buyer. Organizations are seeking business transformation partners that can close the AI-to-value gap, navigate regulatory complexity, and align their commercial models to client outcomes. The firms that can bridge a blend of scientific depth, digital fluency, organizational change capability, and a willingness to share risk will define the next era of strategic consulting," said Dr. Nimita Limaye, research VP, Life Sciences R&D Strategy and Technology, IDC Health Insights.

Pricing AI in Procurement Applications: Navigating the Monetization Maze

Patrick Reymann, Tiffany McCormick — Wed, 20 May 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Market Perspective examines the pricing strategies available to procurement application providers as they integrate generative AI and agentic AI into their platforms. Drawing on IDC’s 2025 Future Enterprise Resiliency and Spending (FERS) Survey data, it analyzes buyer expectations around cost predictability; evaluates the merits and risks of subscription, consumption, outcome-based, and hybrid pricing models; and offers practical guidance for structuring AI monetization frameworks. The central finding is that procurement buyers demand pricing architectures that balance innovation with cost certainty, and that hybrid models combining predictable subscription bases with bounded variable elements represent the most viable path forward. This document provides a pricing design checklist, messaging recommendations, and data-backed guardrails for providers seeking to optimize AI revenue without alienating risk-averse enterprise buyers.

“AI is no longer the hard part; pricing it is. In procurement, the providers that turn AI from an experimental surcharge into a predictable, value-grounded line item will drive the next phase of adoption,” said Patrick Reymann, research director, Procurement Applications and Agents at IDC.

Red Hat Summit 2026: Uniting the Enterprise AI Stack from Infrastructure to Agents

Jim Mercer — Wed, 20 May 2026 04:00:00 GMT

Red Hat Summit 2026, held in Atlanta, May 12–13, delivered a collection of announcements primarily focused on delivering a stack for running enterprise AI. The company used the event to assert its role as the open platform standard for the agentic AI era, much like it positioned itself during past Linux and Kubernetes technology cycles. Key themes included the general availability (GA) and advancement of Red Hat AI 3.4, the deepening of the NVIDIA partnership, a sweeping set of agent governance capabilities, OpenShift virtualization momentum, Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform as the trusted AI execution layer, a new RHEL Long Life add-on, hardened images, and an assortment of digital sovereignty announcements. Altogether, the event made the case that Red Hat is not merely responding to AI's rise but actively engineering the enterprise foundation upon which it will run.

ServiceNow Knowledge and FAD 2026: Customer, Partner, and Market Expansion — AI Adoption Is the Focus

Stephen Elliot, Snow Tempest, Melinda-Carol Ballou, Adam Reeves — Wed, 20 May 2026 04:00:00 GMT

ServiceNow recently held its Financial Analyst Day and Knowledge 2026 customer and partner event in Las Vegas with a record 25,000 attendees. The company set a subscription revenue target of over $30 billion by 2030 and a 2026 AI ACV target of $1.5 billion. ServiceNow announced over 20 AI specialists across IT, CRM, HR, and security and risk workflows; 30 new integrations in the AI Control Tower, ServiceNow Otto (a new AI experience), and ServiceNow Action Fabric (headless workflow execution); and plans to aggressively expand its fast-growing ($1+ billion ACV) security and risk and CRM customer footprints. Adoption is the customer and partner focus as the company announced a 100 day "AI go live" guarantee and a free year of AI Control Tower. Customers and partners must define their Ai strategy, placing AI at the center of their process and workforce reengineering work to optimize business outcomes. In 2026, the slope of AI improvement will compound AI results and quickly create large competitive moats.

The Post-S2P Era Will Be Here Sooner Than You Think — What Will Replace It?

Patrick Reymann — Wed, 20 May 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Market Perspective argues that monolithic S2P suites are giving way to an Intelligent Spend OS: an agent-native, composable layer that orchestrates existing tools, unifies stakeholder engagement, and governs AI agents across the spend life cycle. Orchestration and headless agentic platforms are already inserting themselves between buyers and suites, so incumbents must pivot to data-centric, governed, and open platforms with ISOS-aligned pricing to avoid commoditization.

“In the post-S2P era, will your procurement platform orchestrate intelligence and adapt, or become invisible behind agent-native layers? The race is not for another suite but for the operating system that governs enterprise spend.” — Patrick Reymann, research director, director, Procurement Applications and Agents, IDC

AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon Unite in Joint Venture Targeting Nationwide Wireless Dead Zones

Peter Chahal, Simon Baker, Ahmad Latif Ali, Jason Leigh — Tue, 19 May 2026 04:00:00 GMT

On May 14, 2026, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon announced an agreement in principle to form a joint venture (JV) to eliminate wireless dead zones across the United States. The JV will pool terrestrial spectrum resources and leverage satellite-based direct-to-device (D2D) technologies to extend mobile connectivity to rural, remote, and underserved communities where traditional cell infrastructure is absent or limited. While the venture remains subject to negotiating definitive agreements and satisfying customary regulatory closing conditions, it represents the most significant structural collaboration among the three dominant U.S. carriers in a generation.

Cisco FY 3Q26: Record Revenue, AI Infrastructure Surge, and Campus Refresh Drive Double-Digit Growth

Chris Barnard, Brandon Butler — Tue, 19 May 2026 04:00:00 GMT

On May 13, 2026, Cisco announced earnings for its fiscal third quarter of 2026, which generally coincided with the first calendar quarter of 2026. Cisco delivered a record fiscal third quarter, with double-digit top- and bottom-line growth that exceeded the high end of guidance, fueled by broad-based demand across AI infrastructure and campus networking.

Extreme Connect 2026: Extreme Networks Advances Its Enterprise Platform with AI, Security, and a Complete Wi-Fi 7 Portfolio

Brandon Butler, Mark Leary — Tue, 19 May 2026 04:00:00 GMT

At Extreme Connect 2026, Extreme Networks unveiled a second generation of AI-powered networking capabilities under the Extreme Agent ONE brand, completed its three-tier Wi-Fi 7 access point portfolio, and introduced a range of software capabilities, from enhanced Third-Party Management capabilities to stronger integrated security features. The announcements reflect a company with genuine momentum — SaaS ARR growing 29% year over year and Platform ONE bookings ahead of expectations — that is executing a coherent platform strategy across AI and enterprise networking while competing for enterprise share against larger, entrenched rivals in Cisco and HPE/Juniper.