I just returned from Oracle Cloud World 2024 in Vegas. Of all the Oracle conferences I’ve attended over the years, this one had a palpable buzz. You could feel the momentum in the room — as if Oracle has figured out a few things and is ready to make some big plays. There was an energy that was hard to ignore. So, here are my observations, notes, and a few anecdotes from the show that I think are worth sharing.
Enterprise Suites Going for the Win
Oracle is clearly leaning hard into the “open” message, now even offering its Oracle Database on Amazon Web Services. Yes, you heard that right — Oracle on AWS. They’ve recognized that a multi-cloud future is inevitable, and they’re setting it up to make it easier to choose Oracle.
But here’s the twist: while Oracle acknowledges the need for multi-cloud, they’re also betting big on the end of the best-of-breed era in enterprise software. Why? Because they believe AI will lead us back to the mega enterprise suites. Think about it: with AI, you want all your data in one place. Fragmenting data across multiple platforms just won’t cut it anymore. And you know what? Larry Ellison might be onto something there.
There will probably be two types of customers moving forward. The first group will opt for simplicity, buying everything from a single vendor where AI is seamlessly integrated. The second group, likely the larger and more complex businesses, will find themselves with data across multiple vendors. These companies will need an AI aggregator — much like what Ida does today.
Fragmenting data across multiple platforms just won’t cut it anymore
AI “Agents” Everywhere
It wouldn’t be a tech conference in 2024 without a heavy dose of AI. I’d say AI appeared in 60% of the session titles — and that might be a conservative estimate. But here’s the thing: while there was plenty of AI content, there was also a lot of redundancy, and at times, conflicting messages between sessions.
This redundancy is going to confuse customers. And speaking of confusion, let’s talk about “AI Agents.” The classic definition of an AI Agent is a bot that “gets things done” rather than just answer questions. At CloudWorld, the term Agent was passed out a bit too liberally. Never mind no one understanding where the term “Digital Assistant” now fits.
To add to the confusion, every new AI feature in Fusion was dubbed an “Agent.” Most of these were just summarization tasks — like automatically generating a job posting description based on metadata. That’s not really what I’d call an “Agent.” Maybe we should hit pause on overusing the term “Agent” before we end up with a market even more bewildered than it already is.
Oracle Database 23ai: A Game Changer
Now, let’s talk about one of the most exciting announcements: Oracle Database 23ai. Oracle has made it so its database can natively act as a source of information for conversational AI. This is a huge deal. It means you can keep your secured enterprise data under your exclusive control while still feeding it to AI systems. No more preprocessing data or copying it elsewhere, which often involves losing security controls.
Oracle Cloud is now offering dedicated AI LLM models that customers can use exclusively. Yes, they’re pricey, but they’re also the most secure option available. This means you can run your secure enterprise data through a private model without any data sharing between clients within the Oracle Cloud. This is something only Oracle can do right now. Watch out, Workday!
Redwood UX: A Surprise and a Delight
I’ve worked with Oracle software for quite some time, and let me be honest: it hasn’t always been all roses and puppies, especially when it comes to UX. But, the Redwood team at Oracle has seriously impressed me. Just, bravo!
The discipline with which Oracle is maintaining consistency across the Redwood UX framework and not allowing any application in Fusion to stray off-pattern is nothing short of impressive. I saw a glimpse of Redwood’s future vision for navigation and AI integration into Fusion, and I must say — it will change the game.
…the Redwood team at Oracle has seriously impressed me.
Building Bots or Agents: A Costly Affair
There were a ton of sessions on how companies are building their own bots, but the quotes I heard were a reality check. “We had a team of 18” and “We’ve been working on this for 8 months” — yikes! Even with all the advancements in AI, building your own bot is still a very expensive endeavor.
The tech and industry change so rapidly that companies will struggle to keep up. Instead, it might be wiser to partner with a product like Ida and focus on your data and process quality to get the best AI return on investment.
AI is changing so rapidly that companies will struggle to keep up with it on their own
In Closing
The energy level at CloudWorld 2024 was the best I’ve seen in 15 years. Oracle has momentum, and their cloud strategies are finally starting to show some real dividends. They are uniquely positioned to be a leader in AI, especially compared to other SaaS companies, because they are both a tech and an apps company with more data centers than anyone.
If you’d like to dive deeper into any of these topics or discuss how they might apply to your business, feel free to contact us below. Let’s keep the conversation going!
