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Adopting Dual-Use Technologies in Defense Tech

Alan Webber — Fri, 19 Dec 2025 05:00:00 GMT

This IDC Perspective discusses how defense and allied agencies and ministries should move forward with the acquisition of dual-use IT technologies while addressing the challenges both the government and commercial vendors face. Dual-use technologies are not new to government, just an under-realized resource as DoD shifts to be more agile and innovative. Manifesting this hybrid approach of using dual-use technologies in all but the most unique and specific defense applications will require close collaboration between government program managers, acquisition professionals, and commercial technology vendors.

"For government technology leaders, the dual-use era demands a shift in mindset — from procurement of hardware to management of digital ecosystems as agility, transparency, and interoperability are now mission imperatives. Those programs that operationalize hybrid architectures, automate compliance, and adopt outcome-driven procurement will set the pace for defense modernization across the United States, NATO, and Five Eyes nations." — Alan Webber, program vice president, National Security, Defense, and Intelligence, IDC

Agentic Commerce: The Essential Tech Buyer Guide (What to Know Before You Buy)

Heather Hershey — Fri, 19 Dec 2025 05:00:00 GMT

This IDC Perspective discusses:

A proposed general definition of "agentic commerce" with simple conditions
The difference between automation and autonomy, and why you need to understand the distinction before investing in agentic AI for business
The most common practical pain points reported by buyers of digital commerce technology, some of which can be resolved with AI
An exhaustive accounting of the current competing (and often incomplete) definitions of "agentic commerce" in the public commons
Easy ways to spot what is (and what is not) agentic anything
Debunk common myths and "truisms" about the changing nature of digital discovery and user query intent; we also discuss why this matters a great deal in the context of agentic commerce
The merchant's prisoner's dilemma in the context of LLM-native conversational commerce
The logical fallacy (non sequitur fallacy) that currently plagues "agentic commerce" marketing narratives
Why B2B digital commerce isn't a natural fit for agentic commerce, either
An executive summary of select protocols and direct partnerships as of November 2025

"As AI reshapes the top of the funnel, LLM platforms still lack the mature, reliable commerce infrastructure required for seamless transactions," explains Heather Hershey, research director of AI-Enabled Digital Commerce at IDC. "Companies must balance traditional SEO with AEO for agentic discovery and evaluate carefully whether participating in LLM marketplaces is worth the potential trade-offs in data ownership, margin protection, and long-term strategic control over the customer experience."

Breaking the Silos — Why a Connected Cloud-Data Strategy Is Critical for AI Everywhere

Archana Venkatraman — Fri, 19 Dec 2025 05:00:00 GMT

This IDC Perspective focuses on the value of joining cloud and data transformation strategies together for AI success. Modern architectures need to serve both traditional business intelligence and advanced AI, GenAI, and agentic AI needs. Isolated cloud and data architectures are not able to effectively meet business needs and AI mandates, requiring organizations to design a unified cloud data architecture.

"A synchronized cloud and data architecture can act as a double engine for AI dominance. Embracing a unified vision helps with the design of a data-centric cloud architecture to overcome the long-standing barriers of data silos, vulnerabilities, and complexities to truly turn data into a strategic asset for AI success." — Archana Venkatraman, senior research director, cloud data management and platforms and cloud governance, IDC Europe

CIO Peer Perspective — How Tech Leaders Can Use Agentic AI to Enable the Front Lines of the Business

Teodora Snoddy, Aly Pinder — Fri, 19 Dec 2025 05:00:00 GMT

This IDC Perspective discusses how tech leaders can use agentic AI to enable the front lines of the business. In 2025, CEOs ranked improving customer experience as their top business priority, while investing in AI continues to lead the C-suite's tech agenda. That means CIOs are tasked with evaluating how to elevate customer experience with AI. To explore how tech leaders can use agentic AI to enable the front lines of the business, IDC brought together the CIO Research Advisory Board to discuss the latest data and gather real-world perspectives.

"Agentic AI has the power to elevate customer experiences, but only if the tech leader builds the right foundation. That means robust infrastructure to run on, skilled workforce to operate new systems, and a clear strategy to drive business outcomes. The CIO will be a pivotal decision-maker to enable the front lines of the business." — Teodora Snoddy, research manager, C-Suite Tech Agenda, IDC

Edge AI Inferencing, 2025: Five Steps to Readiness

Jennifer Cooke — Fri, 19 Dec 2025 05:00:00 GMT

This IDC Tech Buyer Presentation provides an overview of AI inferencing at the edge, including what it is, why it is important, and how it will be achieved. Five key steps to readiness are outlined to provide the technology buyer with information on building an effective strategy to enable edge AI inferencing.

Five Actions Digital Retailers Must Take Now to Win in the Era of AI-Driven Shopping

James McCormick, Heather Hershey, Roger Beharry Lall, Gerry Murray — Fri, 19 Dec 2025 05:00:00 GMT

This IDC Perspective explains why the traditional search playbook is losing relevance and why digital retailers must adapt before AI-mediated discovery becomes the dominant customer starting point. AI is reshaping how shoppers discover products, and retailers are seeing the effects in real time. As agentic discovery grows, impressions rise while traffic declines because users stay inside AI environments that summarize research for them. Classic attribution breaks, midfunnel behavior collapses, and branded pages shift from destinations to data sources.

IDC outlines five actions retailers must take now to stay visible, trusted, and competitive within AI-driven shopping journeys. These include treating Google AI Shopping as part of a unified GEO strategy, strengthening content and product data supply chains, improving schema and feed quality, designing assets for conversational and visual discovery, and adding continuous measurement across content systems. This document previews how retailers can regain influence within AI layers that control early consideration and how better structure, clarity, and governance can help brands remain present when the assistant, not the shopper, decides what to surface.

"The traditional search funnel is collapsing into a single conversational layer. Retailers that still measure success through last-click models will miss where influence is actually occurring," says Heather Hershey, research director of AI-Enabled Digital Commerce at IDC. "In an agentic environment, the question is not whether customers see you, but whether AI systems understand you well enough to consider your brand relevant to the consumer's highly subjective and complex longtail search prompts in the LLM interface."

IDC Continual Transformation Capability Framework: Industrializing Enterprise Adaptation in an Era of Perpetual Disruption

Serge Findling — Fri, 19 Dec 2025 05:00:00 GMT

This IDC Perspective discusses the IDC Continual Transformation Capability Framework. As enterprises navigate the era of perpetual disruption — defined by hyperaccelerated AI adoption, geopolitical fragmentation, and dramatically shrinking crisis response windows — traditional transformation methods are failing. The challenge is no longer technological but architectural: Organizations still treat change as episodic projects rather than a continual, core operational state. To drive competitive differentiation, technology leaders must pivot from delivering one-off solutions to building a resilient, industrialized capability engine that enables perpetual adaptation at scale.

To achieve this essential shift, CIOs and senior executives must establish a comprehensive, disciplined approach to capability development that is reusable and scalable. This requires a fundamental shift in mindset: moving from custom solutions to reusable, configurable capabilities built holistically across technology, data, processes, governance, and talent. Furthermore, they must adopt an ecosystem-oriented view, designing capabilities that operate across organizational boundaries, and fully embrace human-AI collaboration as the dominant work model.

This document provides technology leaders with a framework, offering a practical blueprint and actionable advice for this essential industrialization.

"The IDC Continual Transformation Capability Framework provides the necessary structure to convert the chaos of perpetual disruption into a predictable, repeatable source of competitive advantage," says Serge Findling, adjunct research advisor with IDC's IT Executive Programs (IEP).

IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Supply Chain All Other Ecosystems Services 2025–2026 Vendor Assessment

Eric Thompson — Fri, 19 Dec 2025 05:00:00 GMT

This IDC study uses the IDC MarketScape model to provide an assessment of the IT consulting providers supporting supply chain management processes. This study specifically analyzed these offerings within the supply chain across all other ecosystems services suites.

Note that IDC is producing five reports, of which this is one. The full list of reports is Overall Ecosystems, Blue Yonder, Oracle, SAP, and All Other. Buyers looking to go deeper in any other ecosystem are encouraged to also look there. This all other ecosystems study helps give an idea of the vendors that can support a broad range of ecosystems end to end.

"Supply chains and supply chain functions have grown in focus, strategic priority, and investment spending. At the same time, the complexity of operations and sophistication of technology are presenting the need to level up digital capabilities. This places a premium on selecting strategic services partners that can help improve processes, technologies, and capabilities in supply chains and promote the selection of ideal fit technology vendors," says Eric Thompson, research director, Worldwide Supply Chain Planning and Services, IDC. "The intent of this IDC MarketScape is to focus on those IT consulting firms that focus on both a deep and broad set of offerings and capabilities to support supply chain management across all other ecosystems."

IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Supply Chain Blue Yonder Ecosystem Services 2025–2026 Vendor Assessment

Eric Thompson — Fri, 19 Dec 2025 05:00:00 GMT

This IDC study uses the IDC MarketScape model to provide an assessment of the IT consulting providers that support supply chain management processes. This study specifically analyzed these offerings within the supply chain across the Blue Yonder Ecosystem services suite. Blue Yonder continues to be among the prominent and innovative supply chain management ecosystems and is a central player in global supply chains. The intent of this IDC MarketScape is to focus on those IT consulting firms that focus on a deep and broad set of offerings and capabilities to support supply chain management across the SAP ecosystem.

Note that IDC is writing five reports, of which this is one. The full list of reports is: All Ecosystems, Blue Yonder, Oracle, SAP, and All Other. Buyers looking to go deeper in any other ecosystem should also focus there. This Blue Yonder report gives an idea of the vendors that can support the Blue Yonder Ecosystem end to end.

"Supply chains and supply chain functions have grown in focus, strategic priority, and investment spending. At the same time, complexity of operations and sophistication of technology are presenting the need to level up digital capabilities. This places a premium on selecting strategic services partners that can help improve processes, technologies, and capabilities and promote selecting best-fit technology vendors," says Eric Thompson, research director, Worldwide Supply Chain Planning and Services at IDC.

IDC MaturityScape: AI-Enabling Integration Architecture 1.0

Shari Lava — Fri, 19 Dec 2025 05:00:00 GMT

This IDC MaturityScape provides a road map for progressing through the ad hoc and opportunistic stages, guiding organizations to optimize their integration strategies in alignment with business goals and transformation priorities.

According to Shari Lava, research vice president, AI and Automation, IDC, "It is now very clear that integration will play a fundamental role in making AI useful. But the organic integration architecture that got most companies to this point will not be good enough to enable true business value from AI."