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Category: Whisper Report

  • Whisper Report: What’s the biggest packaging tech blind spot for CIOs?

    Whisper Report: What’s the biggest packaging tech blind spot for CIOs?

    Published to Whisper Club:                                        ID: TBW2102

    Analyst(s): Dr. Doreen Galli

    Photojournalist(s): Dr. Doreen Galli

    Abstract:

    This Whisper Report investigates the biggest packaging tech blind spot for CIOs. It draws on urgent insights gathered from Pack Expo Vegas 2025, where operations engineers and technology professionals shared firsthand perspectives. From overlooked IT involvement to cultural gaps with OT teams, the findings expose critical challenges in data use and collaboration. Discover why these blind spots persist—and what steps can transform them into competitive advantages. Featuring insights from Mike DeGrace (Universal Robots), Rich Parkhurst (KUKA), Aaron Silverberg (Flexible Vision), Chris King (Unitronics), Mike Wolf (Signode), and Brandon Winer (Cognex).

    Computer Talk Radio coverage of document.

    Target Audience Titles:

    • Chief Information Officer, Chief Technology Officer, Chief Operations Officer, Chief Digital Officer, Chief Data Officer, Chief Supply Chain Officer
    • IT Director, OT Director, Manufacturing Operations Manager, Plant Automation Manager, Packaging Engineering Manager, Data Analytics Manager
    • Systems Engineer, Packaging Automation Engineer, Industrial Controls Specialist, Data Analyst, SCADA/PLC Programmer, Vision Systems Technician

    Key Takeaways

    • Ensure your IT data team is engaged promptly at the start of the project.
    • Address persistent communication challenges between IT and OT groups to improve collaboration.
    • Many organizations face difficulties with traceability and identifying defects on production lines.
    • Collect and analyze existing machine data to generate actionable insights for operations.

    What’s the biggest packaging tech blind spot for CIOs?

    We took the most frequently asked and most urgent technology questions straight to the operation engineers and technology professionals gathering at Pack Expo Vegas 2025. This Whisper Report addresses the question regarding what’s the biggest packaging tech blind spot for CIOs? Figure 1 displays.

    Figure 1. Packaging Tech Blind Spots

    Not Invited

    The first blind spot to overcome is that there is an actual project underway. As Universal Robots’ Mike DeGrace shared, “This blind spot in involving your IT data team early on in your projects. This is something that we encounter and that we always coach our customers to work on is to bring your IT data team in very very quick for the project especially if you’re looking at implementing autonomous mobile robots as the requirement for that team is going to be heavy and it needs to be they need to be involved very quickly.” If the formal methods are not keeping you in the loop, be sure to nurture and create those informal relationships across IT – information technology and OT – Operations Technology or the engineers operating the packaging space.

    Different Culture

    While IT and OT are both engineers, they operate in vastly different cultures. As KUKA’s Rich Parkhurst highlights, “The knowledge of what’s happening on the manufacturing floor or the needs of what’s happening on the manufacturing floor versus what happens in the business world. Right? Obviously things are time critical on the manufacturing floor. there are certain technical requirements that are needed to execute operations on a on a on a factory floor whereas those don’t exist in the business world and typically the people that are in the IT space are not knowledgeable or aware of that and so that communications between those two groups tends to be an issue.” More specifically, downtime is frequently measured in significant financial consequences in OT even for as little as an hour. Try attributing financial consequences to email being down for an hour – or any IT system for that matter. While many are upset when IT systems go down, the financial consequences tend to be of a different magnitude. Thus many in OT find those in IT cannot grasp their operating environment.

    Lack of understanding

    Many in IT want to be helpful to the business but do not understand the impact they can have on the business. One such critical function was highlighted by Flexible Vision’s Aaron Silverberg. “A  lot of companies struggle with traceability and understanding what types of defects that they’re seeing on their line.”  In case you were wondering how – its all in the data. That raises the question what data do you need and how does one get the data? Aaron went on to further explain that you can hire someone to get it for you. “We help our customers collect that data, be able to see if there’s damage on packaging, missing labels, upside down labels, anything that you can visually see through a camera’s lens will help detect that.”

    Data in Possession

    Unitronics’ Chris King brings good news to those that were trying to figure out how to understand what is going on in the packaging area of the facility. In case you are not familiar your blind spot is, “the machines they already have. The data that’s already there, the data they’re already producing by the machines they have. If you can find a way to gather that, bring it to one central location, analyze it, report out of it, you’re going to have a lot more valuable information in your hands than you than you do today.”

    Signode’s Mike Wolf is on the same page. “How much data is already available on the existing equipment that you can use to make business process decisions. So, when we talk about trying to figure out how to better manage an industrial facility, a lot of times the focus is on adding sensors or trying to figure out how do I add a whole solution. But one thing that you find if you work directly with the manufacturers of the equipment, a lot of that data is already on the PLC (programmable logic controller). It’s already on the screen. And our approach to doing IoT involves bringing that data straight into the cloud. So you can see the same thing on the factory floor and in the cloud when you’re doing fleet management.”  For those not familiar PLC stands for programmable logic controller, it is the hardware controller that automates the machinery frequently found in OT spaces.

    Many PLC’s have their data collected by the SCADA system. SCADA stands for supervisory control and data acquisition and they are quite popular in OT spaces. Cognex’s Brandon Winer suggests, “Thinking about like the bigger picture of the traceability side of things, the SCADA systems (supervisory control and data acquisition). Yeah, you want to collect all this data and you want all this data on your packaging line, but where does that go? And that’s usually the first step you need to start with.”

    In other words, while it is valuable to respect you don’t want to disrupt OT, don’t assume that OT will not work with you and share their detailed data with you. If you are going through a OT and IT digital transformation, be sure to leverage TBW Advisors LLC’s first-hand extensive experience in this space. Inquiries should be scheduled at the projects onset and through the transformation including critical steps such as the strategy, architecture, and major benchmarks.

    Related playlists and Publication

    1. Playlist for Whisper Report: What’s the biggest packaging tech blind spot for CIOs?
    2. Playlist for Whisper Report: How will robotics in packaging reshape enterprise ops?
    3. Playlist for Whisper Report: What’s the most overlooked data source in packaging?
    4. Conference Whispers: Pack Expo Vegas 2025

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    ©2019-2026 TBW Advisors LLC. All rights reserved. TBW, Technical Business Whispers, Fact-based research and Advisory, Conference Whispers, Industry Whispers, Email Whispers, The Answer is always in the Whispers, Whisper Reports, Whisper Studies, Whisper Ranking, Whisper Club, The Answer is always in the Whispers, and One Change a Month, Vegas Convention Library; Leading Professionals, Real Questions, Real Time, are trademarks or registered trademarks of TBW Advisors LLC. This publication may not be reproduced or distributed in any form without TBW’s prior written permission. It consists of the opinions of TBW’s research organization which should not be construed as statements of fact. While the information contained in this publication has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, TBW disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of such information. TBW does not provide legal or investment advice and its research should not be construed or used as such. Your access and use of this publication are governed by the TBW Usage Policy. TBW research is produced independently by its research organization without influence or input from a third party. For further information, see Fact-based research publications on our website for more details.

  • Whisper Report: Can AI defend against AI-powered attacks?

    Whisper Report: Can AI defend against AI-powered attacks?

    Whisper Report: Can AI defend against AI-powered attacks?

    Published to insiders: January 13, 2026                  ID: TBW2091

    Published to Whisper Club: January 14, 2026

    Published to Email Whispers: April 20, 2026

    Analyst(s): Dr. Doreen Galli

    Photojournalist(s): Dr. Doreen Galli

    Abstract

    “This Whisper Report explores the evolving cybersecurity landscape where AI defends against AI-powered attacks. Drawing insights from Black Hat USA 2025, it outlines four foundational dimensions of AI defense—from scaling and automation to ethical oversight and model diversity—within the context of an escalating AI vs AI arms race. The report emphasizes strategic adaptation, human involvement, and the limitations of current technologies in this rapidly advancing domain. The analysis incorporates perspectives from leading experts and organizations featured at Black Hat USA 2025, including Elastic Security’s James Spiteri, Safe Security’s Saket Bajoria, Cymulate’s Avihai Ben Yossef, Exaforce’s Ariful Huq, Dune Security’s David DellaPelle, Netarx’s Sandy Kronenberg, Cyber Innovate’s Brian Mehlman, Checkmarx’s Jonathan Rende, and Microsoft’s Thomas Roccia.”

    Target Audience Titles:

    • Chief Information Security Officer, Chief Technology Officer, Chief Digital Officer, Chief Information Officer
    • Chief Product Officer, Chief Experience Officer
    • IAM engineers, Security Architects, DevSecOps Engineers, IT Ops Managers, Application Security Architects, AI security specialists, Cyber Risk analysis

    Key Takeaways

    • AI vs AI defines today’s threat landscape, requiring defenders to match attacker sophistication.
    • Attack volume and complexity are rising, demanding scalable, automated responses.
    • Multiple AI models are essential, as no single model can cover all threats.
    • Human oversight is vital, ensuring ethical use and contextual accuracy.
    • AI boosts efficiency, freeing experts from repetitive tasks.
    • Limitations remain, and defences must evolve with emerging threats.

    Can AI defend against AI-powered attacks?

    We took the most frequently asked and most urgent technology questions straight to the Cybersecurity professionals gathering at Black Hat USA 2025 held in Las Vegas. This Whisper Report addresses the question if AI can defend against AI-powered attacks?

    AI vs AI: The New Battlefield

    In the event it is not obvious yet, one must understand that the new battlefield in cybersecurity is AI vs AI. As Elastic Security’s James Spiteri shared, “I absolutely think AI can fight AI. We’re seeing this today. Uh there’s been a lot of investment in both AI offensive techniques as well as AI defensive techniques. You know, we’re on the defensive side of the house. So we’ve done a ton of research into how effective it actually is and it doesn’t work.” Safe Security’s Saket Bajoria couldn’t agree more. “The only way to combat that is through AI and the attacks is going to be between AI and AI. Humans are just going to be watching it right. So, so the sooner we accept the fact that it’s AI against AI and we do we do watch it ethically and all that like we are ready for that otherwise the more we deny that the more we’ll get impacted.” Or to quote a very famous Classic sci-fi superintelligence named the Borg, “resistance is futile.” Then again, its just an evolution of the traditional cat and mouse game within cybersecurity. As Cymulate’s Avihai Ben Yossef maintained, “I think AI powered attacks can also be protected by AI and vice versa. I think AI powered defense can also not be protected by AI powered attacks. It’s still an ongoing chase that will happen with AI. It happened before AI. It’s going to happen now with AI. The ongoing chase will keep on happening even in the AI world.”

    Figure 1. Pillars of AI Defense

    Volume and Velocity: Scaling Defenses

    Considering AI will be a required part of the solution for the AI vs AI battle, it is valuable to consider how AI will be leveraged. Exaforce’s Ariful Huq affirmed, “AI can help defend against AI based attacks because mostly from the volume of attacks that we’re going to start seeing because people are going to be leveraging AI to do all kinds of things and the barrier to entry to actually performing these types of attacks is going to be much lower. So you’re going to see a larger volume and that means you need a way you need machines to be able to detect, investigate and respond to these types of attacks because humans are not going to be able to keep up with them.” Coming from a similar angle, Dune Security’s David DellaPelle elaborated, “I think when you think about AI, there’s kind of two elements. There’s the quantity of attack and the quality of attack lead to to breach, right? It’s incredibly important for security companies and security organizations to have really foundational AI models that can help meet the scale right the increased quantity of attacks that are coming from AP groups like scattered spider as well as the quality of attacks.”

    Multimodal Defense: Diversity of Models

    Understanding it will ultimately a battle of AI vs AI and AI is necessary to handle the quality and quantity of attacks, it is valuable to understand you will be leveraging multiple models. For anyone who has created AI products, this is common knowledge. The expression is any given model may fail but the product or the solution cannot. Netarx’s Sandy Kronenberg dove into this critical aspect. “AI can defend against AI attacks, but only if we’re using a multitude of AI inference models from many many different sources with which to defend against AI attacks. Social engineering that’s AI powered fraud as an example can only be defeated if you’re using inference models from every single source of metadata and or voice and video inference models. It’s a hard way to it’s very complicated.”

    Human Oversight and Ethical Boundaries

    One always present question when it comes to AI is the line between automation – particularly with agents – and maintaining the human in the loop. Cyber Innovate’s Brain Mehlman and his AI Agent Ralph raises one very valuable question, “What is the AI powered attack? Am I doing AI where I’m actually poking into a system brute force or is actually an AI in the system doing something rogue?”  Regardless of the scenario, Brain and his AI Agent Ralph went on further to explain, “You still need human oversight. You still need to understand the context. And you have to remember that an AI defending system can have its own blind spots and yes, AI can be a powerful tool for defense, but it’s part of a bigger strategy and it’s all about using it wisely and understanding that it’s a constantly evolving game.” This was best summarized by Microsoft’s Thomas Roccia, “there is no silver bullet. It’s all about building the right AI system to assist you. you and make sure that the result of an AI is accurate enough for your investigation.”  In addition to accurate, we will also hope the AI solution is transparent enough that it obtains and maintains trust amongst its human users.

    Automation and Efficiency Gains

    As discussed many times during our coverage of the media industry, AI has two strengths. It eliminates tedious and mundane tasks from humans and allows them to focus on the other parts. Same can be said for AI in cybersecurity. As Checkmarx’s Jonathan Rende observed, “eliminating mundane toil like repetitive error prone human tasks that we can just take away and allow the experts with their hand on the wheel to actually better use their time in more valuable activities.” Of course this automation doesn’t just benefit the White Hats or those trying to defend people and organizations. Jonathan went on to further explain, “ AI raises the bar both for attackers, but it raises the bar for defenders as well. So, both have to make use of this.”

    Limitations and Future Outlook

    Cyber Innovate’s Brain Mehlman and his AI Agent summed it up. “So from our perspective, the short answer is yes. AI can defend against AI powered attacks, but with some caveats. Essentially, it’s a kind of arms race. The same technology that can be used to launch AI driven attacks can also be used to build defenses. So we’re seeing AI being used to detect patterns, to automate responses, and to kind of keep up with the speed and scale of AI driven threats. But the nuance here is that it’s not a silver bullet. It’s not like you can just drop in AI and it will perfectly defend against everything.” As Microsoft’s Thomas Roccia reminded us all, it is an evolving landscape. “We are probably not there yet. I think we are started to see some interesting attack with AI such as malware which will embed some LLM prompt and some automatic generation of command inside the bridge the infected machines. I think it’s still the beginning.” And so the game of cat and moues of cybersecurity continues now including AI vs AI.

    Related playlists and Publications

    1. Conference Whispers: Black Hat USA 2025 Playlist
    2. Whisper Report: How can organizations implement zero-trust security without disrupting user experience?
    3. Conference Whispers: Identiverse 2025
    4. Conference Whispers: Identiverse
    5. Whisper Report: What’s the biggest cybersecurity myth in 2025?
    6. Whisper Report: Can AI defend against AI-powered attacks?
    7. Whisper Report: What’s the next SolarWinds-level breach waiting to happen?
    8. Conference Whispers: Identiverse
    9. Conference Whispers: ISC West.

    Corporate Headquarters

    2884 Grand Helios Way

    Henderson, NV 89052

    ©2019-2026 TBW Advisors LLC. All rights reserved. TBW, Technical Business Whispers, Fact-based research and Advisory, Conference Whispers, Industry Whispers, Email Whispers, The Answer is always in the Whispers, Whisper Reports, Whisper Studies, Whisper Ranking, The Answer is always in the Whispers, and One Change a Month, are trademarks or registered trademarks of TBW Advisors LLC. This publication may not be reproduced or distributed in any form without TBW’s prior written permission. It consists of the opinions of TBW’s research organization which should not be construed as statements of fact. While the information contained in this publication has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, TBW disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of such information. TBW does not provide legal or investment advice and its research should not be construed or used as such. Your access and use of this publication are governed by the TBW Usage Policy. TBW research is produced independently by its research organization without influence or input from a third party. For further information, see Fact-based research publications on our website for more details.

  • Whisper Report: What’s the next data breach our industry isn’t ready to handle?

    Whisper Report: What’s the next data breach our industry isn’t ready to handle?

    Published to clients: January 6, 2026                     ID: TBW2123

    Published to Readers: January 7, 2026

    Public: May 4, 2026

    Analyst(s): Dr. Doreen Galli

    Photojournalist(s): Dr. Doreen Galli

    Abstract:

    “This Whisper Report investigates the next data breach our industry isn’t ready to handle. It captures urgent insights from Put Data First revealing how emerging threats are reshaping risk landscapes. These include AI pipeline compromises, indirect prompt injections, company chat exfiltration, and deep fake-driven social engineering. Expert perspectives explain why traditional defenses fail. The report urges proactive strategies to secure data integrity across every stage of AI-driven operations before vulnerabilities escalate.”

    Target Audience Titles:

    • Chief Executive Officer, Chief Information Officer, Chief Technology Officer, Chief Data Officer, Chief Security Officer, Head of Data Strategy, Head of Information Security
    • Director of Cybersecurity, Director of AI Operations, Director of Risk Management, Director Data Governance Manager, Enterprise Architect
    • Data Scientist, Machine Learning Engineer, Cybersecurity Analyst, AI Operations Specialist, Risk Analyst, Cloud Security Engineer, Threat Intelligence Analyst

    Key Takeaways:

    • AI pipelines are vulnerable at every stage, requiring continuous protection of training data and outputs.
    • Indirect prompt injections can manipulate AI agents through unvalidated web content, creating hidden security risks.
    • Company AI chat data is a high-value target for exfiltration, exposing sensitive organizational insights.
    • Deep fakes amplify social engineering attacks, eroding trust and enabling data breaches through deception.

    What’s the next data breach our industry isn’t ready to handle?

    We took the most frequently asked and most urgent technology questions straight to the data and AI experts gathering at the Put Data First’s Inaugural event held at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas. This Whisper Report addresses the question regarding the biggest AI risk no one in your organization is talking about as depicted in Figure 1.

    Figure 1. Prepare NOW for these Four Data Breaches

     

    1.      AI Pipeline Compromise

    Our first area to defend, was suggested by SafeBreach’s Hudney Piquant. “The AI pipeline I like to call it. It’s the pipeline of the data that you are the training data that you have and then your prompting that you’re doing and then the output like those three things I believe that that’s going to be the biggest breach that the adversaries will be looking at because if you’re able to really manipulate those things it’s going to affect the pipeline from a scalability perspective.” Hudney raises an important point that data needs to be always protected, every step of the way on its journey. For more research on how to protect data during execution see Industry Whispers: Public is Private -Confidential Computing in the Cloud.

    2.      Indirect Prompt Injections

    The next attack vector, brought by Mend.io’s Amit Chita, is subtle and exploits GenAI. “Indirect prompt injections. All the web contains websites. We take AI agents, we connect them to get information from these websites, but we don’t validate that it that this website doesn’t contain prompt injections within them. and they can manipulate our agents as they surf through the web. I think this is going to be one of the major issues that we’re going to deal with in the next coming weeks.” One may want to be careful where you let your agents roam!

    3.      Company Chat Exfiltration

    Our third attack vector is an insider and SaaS risk with significant exposure potential, highlighted by AnswerRocket’s Shanti Greene. “Exfiltrating company AI chats. So, the organizers like Open AI have done a good job of giving you a sandbox for your company to work within and they’re not training on your data. But being able to exfiltrate a company’s specific use and see what they’re prompting with could be interesting. There’s probably some interesting gold in that data.”

    4.      Deep Fakes

    Our final area of concern may not be a direct data breach but rather is a tool frequently leveraged to breach data and trust and is brought to us by The Agentic Manager’s Neil W. Smith. “The implications of deep fakes. We’re already used to AI being used for fishing expeditions, for extracting information from our databases. But what we don’t realize as humans is that we trust other humans to play by the rules more often than not. However, with deep fakes, both voice fakes, visual fakes, and context fakes, I think more and more humans are going to be fooled by the efficacy of deep fakes.” And the more humans that are fooled, the more systems can be compromised. Despite how widely discussed this topic is, deep fakes remain underestimated for their use in fraud and as a social engineering threat.

    Related playlists and Publication

    1. Whisper Report: What’s the biggest AI risk no one in your org is talking about?
    2. Whisper Report: What’s the next data breach our industry isn’t ready to handle?
    3. Whisper Report:  If you could make one data rule enforceable tomorrow, what is it?
    4. Whisper Report: What’s the best part about attending Put Data First live in Vegas?
    5. Industry Whispers: Public is Private -Confidential Computing in the Cloud.

    Corporate Headquarters

    2884 Grand Helios Way

    Henderson, NV 89052

    ©2019-2026 TBW Advisors LLC. All rights reserved. TBW, Technical Business Whispers, Fact-based research and Advisory, Conference Whispers, Industry Whispers, Email Whispers, The Answer is always in the Whispers, Whisper Reports, Whisper Studies, Whisper Ranking, Whisper Club, Whispers, The Answer is always in the Whispers, Vegas Convention Library, and One Change a Month, are trademarks or registered trademarks of TBW Advisors LLC. This publication may not be reproduced or distributed in any form without TBW’s prior written permission. It consists of the opinions of TBW’s research organization which should not be construed as statements of fact. While the information contained in this publication has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, TBW disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of such information. TBW does not provide legal or investment advice and its research should not be construed or used as such. Your access and use of this publication are governed by the TBW Usage Policy. TBW research is produced independently by its research organization without influence or input from a third party. For further information, see Fact-based research publications on our website for more details.

  • Whisper Report: What’s the biggest supply chain risk CIOs ignore?

    Whisper Report: What’s the biggest supply chain risk CIOs ignore?

    Published to clients: December 30, 2025                    ID: TBW2114

    Published to Readers: December 31, 2025

    Whisper Email Release:

    Public/Video Release:

    Analyst(s): Dr. Doreen Galli

    Photojournalist(s): Dr. Doreen Galli

    Abstract

    “This Whisper Report investigates the biggest supply chain risk CIOs ignore. It captures urgent insights from Retail, Supply Chain, and Logistics Expo revealing how external shocks, demand disconnects, and fragmented systems quietly erode resilience. Industry leaders share candid perspectives on tariffs, inventory pitfalls, and costly tech missteps—issues that can derail growth overnight. If you think your supply chain strategy is future-proof, this report may challenge everything you assume about stability.”

    Target Audience Titles:

    • Chief Information Officer, Chief Technology Officer, Chief Supply Chain Officer, Chief Operations Officer, Chief Procurement Officer, Chief Logistics Officer
    • Vice President of Supply Chain, Vice President of Operations, Director of Logistics, Director of Procurement, Director of IT, Director of Inventory Management
    • Supply Chain Analyst, Logistics Coordinator, Procurement Specialist, Inventory Planner, IT Systems Analyst, Operations Scheduler

    Key Takeaways

    • External shocks like tariffs and conflicts can cripple supply chains without proactive disruption modelling.
    • Demand disconnects from stockouts or overstock erode customer trust and lifetime value.
    • Fragmented systems and poor tech choices lead to costly inefficiencies and integration failures.

    What’s the biggest supply chain risk CIOs ignore?

    We took the most frequently asked and most urgent technology questions straight to the professionals gathering at the Las Vegas Convention Center for the Retail, Supply Chain, and Logistics Expo. This Whisper Report addresses the question regarding the biggest supply chain risk CIOs ignore as depicted in Figure 1.

    1.      External Shock Exposure

    Diving into this question, Lufthansa’s Ingo Pietruska went straight to the point. “Tariffs and supply chain interruptions.” When suddenly the world changes in terms of who can supply globally or what it costs or how long it will take – it’s a risk. In 2025 it may be all about Tariffs but in 2020 it was all about Covid and in 2022 it was all about the Ukraine/Russia conflict. In many years, hurricanes disrupt many trade routes. While each of these is technically unexpected, they shouldn’t be. As first discussed in Whisper Report: Can generative AI prevent supply chain disruptions?, organizations should develop a disruption threat model to maximize resiliency when external shocks are experienced. Clients should be sure to schedule an inquiry on the topic so we can guide you in establishing the framework.

    2.      Demand Disconnects

    Our second risk comes from Warehouse Craft’s Steve Harris. He believes the biggest risk, “is stockouts are the biggest problem a company can have. I should say in addition to overstock. So, managing that JIT for your inventory is really important.” Of course JIT or just in time is great for minimizing costs except in the external shock exposure scenarios. Many wanted to expedite shipments to avoid tariffs. Others, without back-up inventory suffered greatly during covid when workers were too sick to work.  

    Expanding on the stock issue, Midstates Group’s Taylor Wensmann takes a step back. “is capacity. What are you going to do when a high volume of orders come through? Do you have the team and the support to be able to fulfil and meet all your customers’ expectations and deadlines to keep those customers as lifetime values? If you’re promising and committing to an order getting shipped and then you don’t ship it, you just increase the likelihood of losing that lifetime customer by 40%.” In both cases, the supply chain is disconnected from and unable to meet demands of the customers and   therefore the business.

    3.      Disconnected systems

    Supply chain and logistics involves many moving pieces. To succeed one needs a cohesive, coherent picture of what is going on. With the many varieties of external shocks creating regular demand disconnects, the solution must be functional and agile. Unfortunately, many get advice from the wrong places. MetaOption’s Naushad Ahmed shared a story about a vendor that previously convinced someone into using a completely different tech stack from their existing solution. Nonetheless, the client, “decided to move forward whenever they have implemented. One of the biggest pain points and they actually ended up spending a huge amount of money hundreds of thousands of dollars into that solution.” Selecting the wrong components or an integration partner with no experience or expertise can be quite expensive. Be sure to work with your independent industry analyst at TBW Advisors LLC to review all strategies, proposals and architectures – even if the work is outsourced.

    Related playlists and Publication

    1. Whisper Report: What’s the biggest supply chain risk CIOs ignore?
    2. Whisper Report: How will AI change warehouse architecture?
    3. Whisper Report: What tech will kill manual logistics in 5 years?
    4. Whisper Report: What’s the best part about attending RSCLE live in Vegas?
    5. Conference Whispers: Retail, Supply Chain, & Logistics Expo

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    ©2019-2026 TBW Advisors LLC. All rights reserved. TBW, Technical Business Whispers, Fact-based research and Advisory, Conference Whispers, Industry Whispers, Email Whispers, The Answer is always in the Whispers, Whisper Reports, Whisper Studies, Whisper Ranking, Whisper Club, and One Change a Month, Vegas Convention Library; Leading Professionals, Real Questions, Real Time, are trademarks or registered trademarks of TBW Advisors LLC. This publication may not be reproduced or distributed in any form without TBW’s prior written permission. It consists of the opinions of TBW’s research organization which should not be construed as statements of fact. While the information contained in this publication has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, TBW disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of such information. TBW does not provide legal or investment advice and its research should not be construed or used as such. Your access and use of this publication are governed by the TBW Usage Policy. TBW research is produced independently by its research organization without influence or input from a third party. For further information, see Fact-based research publications on our website for more details.

  • Whisper Report: What tech blind spot will stall aftermarket innovation in 2026?

    Whisper Report: What tech blind spot will stall aftermarket innovation in 2026?

    Published to clients: December 23 2025                  ID: TBW2128

    Published to Readers: December 24, 2025

    Whisper Email Release: February 9, 2026

    Public Editions: February 12, 2026

    Analyst(s): Dr. Doreen Galli

    Photojournalist(s): Dr. Doreen Galli

    Abstract

    “Aftermarket innovation in 2026 faces three critical blind spots: workforce training lagging behind rapid tech adoption, supply chain visibility gaps impacting profitability, and misinterpretation of EV battery health undermining consumer trust. These challenges, identified through expert insights at AAPEX and SEMA 2025, demand proactive strategies to ensure sustainable growth and competitiveness in an evolving automotive landscape.”

    Target Audience Titles:

    • Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Chief Operations Officer (COO), Chief Supply Chain Officer (CSCO)
    • VP of Aftermarket Strategy, VP of EV Programs, Director of Training & Development
    • Supply Chain Data Analyst, EV Battery Diagnostics Engineer, Aftermarket Product Manager 

    Key Takeaways

    • Workforce training lags behind rapid tech adoption, creating operational inefficiencies and slowing aftermarket innovation.
    • Supply chain visibility gaps threaten profitability, requiring cleaner data and faster delivery strategies to stay competitive.
    • Misinterpretation of EV battery health erodes consumer trust, impacting resale value and aftermarket growth.

    What tech blind spot will stall aftermarket innovation in 2026?

    We took the most frequently asked and most urgent technology questions straight to the experts from the automotive sector gathering at the Venetian Convention Center AND Caesars Forum AND the Las Vegas Convention Center for AAPEX & SEMA 2025. This Whisper Report addresses the question regarding what tech blind spot will stall aftermarket innovation in 2026 as depicted in Figure 1.

    Three tech gaps that could stall innovation 1. training can't keep up 2. Supply chain stay in the dark 3. battery health misreadThree tech gaps that could stall innovation 1. training can't keep up 2. Supply chain stay in the dark 3. battery health misread

    1.      Training Can’t Keep Up

    New innovation is great but only if you know how to use and apply it. The first challenge isn’t as much as the tech as the ability for the employees in the organizations to use the tech as shared by Texa’s Fabio Mazzon. “Up to speed with new technology and be try to be trained as much as possible and follow everything that is new in the automotive world.” Sometimes, the technology changes come faster than the teams are ready for. Keeping up to date with the current speed of innovation is a common challenge of many today. Be sure to schedule your inquiry with your TBW Advisors LLC’s analyst to ensure your roadmap is futureproofed and ready for all the new innovations coming your way. For additional research on training technologies available see Conference Whispers: HR Tech 2025.

    2.      Supply Chain Stay in the Dark

    One of the biggest challenges for those in the aftermarket industry is simply staying profitable with the greatest challenge being the supply chain. The tariffs alone have thrown global supply chain into a new environment. As Lynnco’s Andrew Yokiel emphasized, “Supply chain. Having greater data and visibility into everything from small parcel down to up to full truckload, LTL, and getting your product to your customers faster and having an idea where it is in the marketplace and having cleaner data to make business decisions to be profitable.” Profitability, much like having customers, is truly a key ingredient to staying in business.

    For additional on data in supply chain and logistics see Whisper Report: What are the biggest challenges of using generative AI in Logistics and Whisper Report: Can generative AI prevent supply chain disruptions.

    3.      Battery Health Misread

    In order for the used and aftermarket to flourish, the value of those components or in adding those components should be commonly agreed upon and understood. Unfortunately, this is a challenge particularly in the EV market as Midtronics’ Lance Losinski emphasized. “Consumer understanding and credibility of the value say the health of a battery pack. That drives the market prices down because the understanding versus mileage on a gas car versus what’s the state of health battery and how long is it going to last and how do you repair these things, creates the biggest gap for a consumer to be able to trust and utilize the vehicle despite having lower service costs long term and things like that. I think that’ll be the biggest blocker in the near term.”

    Related playlists and Publication

    1. Whisper Report: What retrofit risk will stall EV adoption in 2026?
    2. Whisper Report: Which AI tool will disrupt diagnostics first?
    3. Whisper Report: What tech blind spot will stall aftermarket innovation in 2026?
    4. Whisper Report:  What’s the best part about attending AAPEX and SEMA live in Vegas 2025?
    5. Whisper Report: What are the biggest challenges of using generative AI in Logistics
    6. Whisper Report: Can generative AI prevent supply chain disruptions
    7. Whisper Report: How can we manage tariff costs in our supply chain?

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    ©2019-2026 TBW Advisors LLC. All rights reserved. TBW, Technical Business Whispers, Fact-based research and Advisory, Conference Whispers, Industry Whispers, Email Whispers, The Answer is always in the Whispers, Whisper Reports, Whisper Studies, Whisper Ranking, The Answer is always in the Whispers, and One Change a Month, are trademarks or registered trademarks of TBW Advisors LLC. This publication may not be reproduced or distributed in any form without TBW’s prior written permission. It consists of the opinions of TBW’s research organization which should not be construed as statements of fact. While the information contained in this publication has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, TBW disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of such information. TBW does not provide legal or investment advice and its research should not be construed or used as such. Your access and use of this publication are governed by the TBW Usage Policy. TBW research is produced independently by its research organization without influence or input from a third party. For further information, see Fact-based research publications on our website for more details.

  • Whisper Report: What’s the biggest fintech risk CIOs are underestimating?

    Whisper Report: What’s the biggest fintech risk CIOs are underestimating?

    Published to clients: December 16, 2025                     ID: TBW2118

    Published to Readers: December 17, 2025

    Whisper Email Release: TBD

    Public and Video Release: TBD

    Analyst(s): Dr. Doreen Galli

    Photojournalist(s): Dr. Doreen Galli

    Abstract

    “This Whisper Report investigates the biggest fintech risk CIOs are underestimating. It captures urgent insights from Money 20/20 USA 2025, revealing why incremental improvements won’t protect enterprises from disruption. From rapid shifts in payment models to vendor lock-in, integration hurdles, and data complexity that derails AI ambitions—these risks demand immediate attention. Future-proofing architecture and optimizing data fabric are no longer optional. Read on to uncover strategies that redefine resilience before the next wave hits.”

    What’s the biggest fintech risk CIOs are underestimating?

    We took the most frequently asked and most urgent technology questions straight to the fintech professionals gathering at the Sands Convention Center in Las Vegas for Money 20/20 USA 2025. This Whisper Report addresses the question regarding the biggest fintech risk CIOs are underestimating as depicted in Figure 1.

    Figure 1. Biggest fintech risks CIOs are underestimating

    Biggest fintech risks CIOs are underestimating 1. rapid shifts in business models 2. core banking vendor lock in 3. integration complexity 4. data complexity at scale

    1.      Rapid Shifts in Business Models

    A very big issue, according to Globant’s Marc St. Pierre is, “is not looking ahead to future business models where instead of investing today and improving their existing infrastructure.” One does not need to improve an infrastructure that one will not be utilizing in a few years. Marc went on to provide a real-world example. “The best example I can give you is Pix down in Brazil. I was just at a meeting where I learned a statistic that today in Brazil, I think it’s only three years after they introduced Pix, 44% of volume transacted is credit card and 40% is Pix. That’s remarkable to think about and it’s not crazy to imagine the US or other markets in the world could get to that.” Wow 40% market dominance achieved in 3 years in the world of payments.

    2.      Core Banking Vendor Lock-in

    With such rapid shifts in business models, it is no wonder Alacriti’s Jamie Harris sounded the alarm bringing us risk number 2. “The underestimation of their vendor dependency on the Core (Core banking) and the limitations of those Cores to meet their payment modernization needs.” Jamie suggests we should seek, “modernized payment architecture and infrastructure stack that’s API first, tech first, and really allows institutions to be very nimble and adaptable as they look at new business models build potentially new use cases for either their consumer or business segment.” It’s valuable to note that enterprises dependent on such vendors will land up with a bifurcated solution as they attempt to adopt and evolve to catch the market opportunities.

    3.     Integration Complexity

    Risk number three comes from AutoRek’s Nicholas Botha. “The interoperability between systems within a tech stack and the relationship that those have in the cloud.” It is valuable to note that one should never select a technology just because it may be the best. A given organization and architecture have existing components. New technology that works great for organization A may or may not be able to deliver the same in your organization. Clients should always schedule an inquiry before expanding their technology footprint as well as annual reviews of your architecture, your strategy and road map. Future proofing your infrastructure today enables you to handle what suddenly arrives tomorrow.

    4.     Data Complexity at Scale

    Our fourth risk comes from Zoominfo’s Brandon Tucker. “The complexity that’s added as data scales.” Brandon continued, “People are really excited about AI and the opportunity to leverage AI to derive new insights. I think businesses are expecting that AI is going to be able to solve a lot of their foundational data problems. That’s really not the case. You’ve got to be able to think about and understand what data is relevant, what insights are relevant, how are you going to save money rather than just re-summarizing and reanalyzing the same data over and over. I don’t think enough time is being spent thinking about optimizing the underlying data models to unlock AI to actually go and solve problems.” One can never emphasize enough, it is not about AI, it is about solving the business problem. To do that, one must have clean and organized data fabric to support all your business needs. Putting garbage data in will only provide results that lead your business to the dumpster. One must move past transformational patches and future-proof your organization at the data layer. Clients facing these challenges should schedule your inquiry immediately.

    Related playlists and Publication

    1. International Pix: Payments for Brazilians Abroad | PagBrasil
    2. Whisper Report: What’s the biggest fintech risk CIOs are underestimating?
    3. Whisper Report: How will GenAI reshape enterprise finance ops?
    4. Whisper Report:  What’s the most disruptive payment tech no one’s watching?
    5. Whisper Report: What’s the best part about attending Money 20/20 Live in Vegas!

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    ©2019-2026 TBW Advisors LLC. All rights reserved. TBW, Technical Business Whispers, Fact-based research and Advisory, Conference Whispers, Industry Whispers, Email Whispers, The Answer is always in the Whispers, Whisper Reports, Whisper Studies, Whisper Ranking, The Answer is always in the Whispers, and One Change a Month, are trademarks or registered trademarks of TBW Advisors LLC. This publication may not be reproduced or distributed in any form without TBW’s prior written permission. It consists of the opinions of TBW’s research organization which should not be construed as statements of fact. While the information contained in this publication has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, TBW disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of such information. TBW does not provide legal or investment advice and its research should not be construed or used as such. Your access and use of this publication are governed by the TBW Usage Policy. TBW research is produced independently by its research organization without influence or input from a third party. For further information, see Fact-based research publications on our website for more details.

  • Whisper Report: What’s the biggest 5G myth tech leaders still believe?

    Whisper Report: What’s the biggest 5G myth tech leaders still believe?

    Published to Readers: December 10, 2025 ID: TBW2110

    Whisper Club Release: December 10, 2025

    Public and Video Release: February 24, 2026

    Analyst(s): Dr. Doreen Galli

    Photojournalist(s): Dr. Doreen Galli

    Abstract

    “This Whisper Report investigates the biggest 5G myth tech leaders still believe. Insights from MWC Las Vegas reveal why common assumptions—like 5G being only about bandwidth, too costly, or reserved for telecom giants—are wrong. These misconceptions can stall innovation and strategy. Explore how 5G is enterprise-ready, cost-effective, and far more transformative than most expect. If your roadmap relies on outdated beliefs, this report will challenge and reshape your perspective.”

    Enjoy the related Computer Talk Radio broadcast.

    Target Audience Titles:

    • Chief Information Officer (CIO), Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Chief Digital Officer (CDO), VP of Network Engineering, VP of IT Infrastructure, Head of Enterprise Architecture, Director of Mobility & Wireless Strategy
    • Enterprise Network Architect, Wireless Systems Engineer, IT Infrastructure Engineer, Mobility Solutions Specialist, Telecom Integration Engineer, Cloud & Edge Computing Engineer

    Key Takeaways

    • 5G delivers far more than bandwidth—it enables future-proofing and advanced capabilities critical for enterprise innovation.
    • Private 5G is cost-effective, often cheaper than traditional wireless, and offers unique advantages over Wi-Fi.
    • 5G is enterprise-ready today, with deployment and management as simple as traditional IT networks

    What’s the biggest 5G myth tech leaders still believe?

    We took the most frequently asked and most urgent technology questions straight to the mobility and wireless experts gathering at the MWC Las Vegas held at the Fontainebleau. This Whisper Report addresses the question regarding the biggest 5G myth tech leaders still believe as depicted in Figure 1.

    Top three 5g myths still believed 5g is just about bandwidth 5g is too expensive 5g is for someone else

    5g is just about bandwidth!

    Our first myth comes from GetWireless’ Kalpit Kadia, “5G is more like a throughput requirement than future proofing.” If you believe the only thing 5g brings to the table is bandwidth you are missing it. Kalpit continued. “So it’s not all about through requirement. It’s you know also to do with future proofing your product because as network infrastructure is changing by different carriers, it’s a good idea to move to a 5g stack technology which is going to be here around here for a long time.” Remember when you enable 5g in our organization you empowered it with more than just bandwidth, you enabled all the capabilities that come with 5g beyond the bandwidth.

    5g is too Expensive!

    The next myth is a critical one particular for those building out wireless infrastructure in public spaces. Baicells’ Minchul Ho argued that the biggest myth is, “the cost or differentiation from Wi-Fi.” Minchul elaborated further. “There’s a huge upside to 5G that you cannot get with any other wireless technologies at about the same price if not half the cost of what traditional wireless system would take.” If you are working on your business justification for 5g expansion in your organization, be sure to schedule an inquiry with your analyst at TBW Advisors LLC. We can review not only your strategy and roadmap, but help ensure the major use cases in your organization have been captured to ensure maximum business impact.

    5g is for Someone Else

    Perhaps the biggest myth of all is brought to us by Canoga Perkins’ Siddharth Khattar. “That private 5G is still seen by many as a telecom only technology. Something that is hard to roll out, something that is hard to administer across your enterprise networks and comes with enterprise environments and therefore comes with a lot of expense and it’s always a technology for somebody else.” The reality is 5g is enterprise ready and is not just for telecoms for tech giants. Even more important is the easy of deployment and management as Siddharth explains further. “What we are doing the truth is that today’s private 5G networks can be administered and managed much more like IT and enterprise that people that CIOS and organizations are used to doing. Be able to administer and manage that as easily as you would a as easily as you would your traditional IT networks today with so much more functionality than what they deliver today.”

    In conclusion, 5g is about so much more than the bandwidth, is cost effective, and is ready today for you to deploy in your organization.

    Related playlists and Publication

    1.   
    2. Whisper Report: How will edge AI reshape enterprise architecture?
    3. Whisper Report: What mobile tech trend will blindside CIOs next?
    4. Whisper Report: What’s the best part about attending MWC live in Vegas?
    5. Conference Whispers: MWC Las Vegas

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    ©2019-2025 TBW Advisors LLC. All rights reserved. TBW, Technical Business Whispers, Fact-based research and Advisory, Conference Whispers, Industry Whispers, Email Whispers, The Answer is always in the Whispers, Whisper Reports, Whisper Studies, Whisper Ranking, The Answer is always in the Whispers, and One Change a Month, are trademarks or registered trademarks of TBW Advisors LLC. This publication may not be reproduced or distributed in any form without TBW’s prior written permission. It consists of the opinions of TBW’s research organization which should not be construed as statements of fact. While the information contained in this publication has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, TBW disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of such information. TBW does not provide legal or investment advice and its research should not be construed or used as such. Your access and use of this publication are governed by the TBW Usage Policy. TBW research is produced independently by its research organization without influence or input from a third party. For further information, see Fact-based research publications on our website for more details.

  • Whisper Report: What’s the biggest AI risk in HR no one talks about?

    Whisper Report: What’s the biggest AI risk in HR no one talks about?

    Published to clients: November 28, 2025                 ID: TBW2098

    Published to Readers: December 1, 2025

    Public Release Date: April 13, 2026

    Analyst(s): Dr. Doreen Galli

    Photojournalist(s): Dr. Doreen Galli

    Abstract

    This Whisper Report reveals nine overlooked AI risks in HR—from loss of human connection and identity challenges to compliance, data quality, and black-box concerns. Insights from HRTech2025 experts stress the need for ethical design, integrated systems, and AI literacy to safeguard trust and organizational resilience.

    Target Audience Titles:

    • Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO), Chief People Officer (CPO), Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Chief Information Officer (CIO), Chief Data & Analytics Officer (CDAO)
    • VP of HR Technology, VP of Talent Management, Director of HRIS (Human Resource Information Systems), Director of Data Privacy & Compliance
    • HR Technology Manager, HRIS Analyst, Data Scientist (HR Analytics), AI Ethics Specialist

    Key Takeaways

    • Keep humans in HR: Overreliance on AI erodes trust and relationships—HR must preserve human touchpoints for employee engagement.
    • Protect identity and ethics: AI adoption impacts employee identity; embed responsible AI design and ethical standards from the start.
    • Secure and integrate systems: Data security lapses and fragmented AI tools increase risk—prioritize compliance and cohesive integration.
    • Invest in AI literacy: Lack of training leads to misuse; HR teams need prompt engineering and clear goals for effective AI use. 

    What’s the biggest AI risk in HR no one talks about?

    We took the most frequently asked and most urgent technology questions straight to the human resource technology professionals gathering at HRTECH2025 held in Las Vegas. This Whisper Report addresses the question regarding the biggest AI risk in HR no one talks about? Figure 1 displays the nine risks we will now discuss.

    Figure 1. Nine Hidden AI risks in HR No One Talks About

    1.      Loss of Human Connection & Trust

    Human resources is all about managing the employees of an organization. It is one of the most critical relationships an organization has. Fountain’s Bastian Botella raises one very concerning risk. “It’s the loss of trust between employees and the company. AI is all over right anywhere from the hiring phase down to retention communication tools everywhere. Okay. At some point and I think it’s going to be sooner rather than later all employees will figure out that the human has been removed from all processes. Removed from interviews, removed from communication, removed from any touch points that they have with their employer.” BambooHR’s Paul Swenson is on the same page. “I see in HR is the over reliance on AI. HR is all about people, right? Like interacting with people and AI can sometimes pull you away from that. So HR needs to stay close to the people. Build relationships with the people that they work with in their companies. But sometimes I think an over reliance on AI can lead to people not doing as much of that which is really the bread and butter of what HR is good at and what they excel at. Right? So as we use AI we need to make sure that we’re you know remaining consistent with our relationships with the people at our companies and providing great employee experiences for our people.” In other words, let’s keeps the humans in humans resource management!

    2.      Identity & Psychological Impact

    HRTech2025’s opening keynote speaker, FranklinCovey Leadership’s Patrick Leddin observed, “a lot of people in the organization find a lot of value in the work they’re doing. It isn’t just about replacing a task and giving somebody a new task or saying this is going to be something that generative AI is going to do and you you’ll be able to do more analysis. It’s recognizing that people’s sense of self is often times connected to their work and if you take that away from them, how are you going to help them find their new identity?” Given that one of the first questions a stranger asks outside of your name is your profession, it is easy to understand how one’s profession is tied to one’s identity. What is a software engineer who no longer writes code but monitors the AI writing code?  

    3.      Identity Responsible AI & Design Standards

    Our next risk came from Eightfold AI’s Michael Dunne. “Great concern that should be attention given to is responsible AI by design.” Many of the critical aspects of a solution need to be thought of from the very beginning. TBW Advisors LLC repeatedly reminds one that security, privacy, and accessibility cannot be an afterthought. Ethical AI is right in the center and a critical part of the predesign work. Michael continued, “You having this bloom of hype around AI and the possibilities. There’s a lot of excitement but one is always take into account then how was this system built from the start and so what I like to say is people should look at their providers and see has this been done by design which means have they done understandings about managing the data what’s called feature sets and how it goes in for recommendations also understand whether the right certifications have been done around data privacy data residency and controls around the use of AI. One is for developing applications being consumers of applications and the use of that data. And you’ll see that now with a number of standards that have come out a lot of people pay attention about the EU AI act. There’s also ISO 420001.” Thus the organization’s ethical stance on how to use the data and AI should be defined in conjunction with your security and privacy policies.

    4.      Data Security & Compliance Risks

    With AI comes a lot of data and information. Darwinbox’s Eli Kameron warns that, “people are sending their data all over the place without even thinking about security. This was a problem already with APIs and it is going to explode with agentic AI particularly folks using MCP protocol servers. So a lot of folks are not thinking about the risks and the compliance risks that they are exposing themselves to when they send data everywhere.” Just because it will take your data, doesn’t mean you should be sharing it with the application. Even lower tiered paid models do not provide the privacy expected by many enterprises.

    5.      Fragmented & Siloed AI Systems

    Risk number five comes to us from Benifex’s Joe Sears. “All these different AI agents out there with different functionality. But each of these companies has their own thing that they’re doing and we need to keep that message joined up and all of the different AI needs to talk to one another. If we can integrate our AI capabilities with the wider AI capabilities that are going on, then that’s going to be that best experience for the employee.” In other words, much like what we saw with commercial UAV’s in the enterprise, AI systems are popping up by function within organizations. Enterprises should take a cohesive desired solutions approach to achieve the best ROI with their AI investments. If AI and your data is becoming siloed in your organization, be sure to schedule your inquiry with your TBW Advisors LLC’s analyst. We can provide you guidance based on first hand experience that is sure to make the difference even is the work is outsourced.

    6.      Liability & Legal Risk from Misuse

    One concerning risk was highlighted by Paychex’s Nathan Shapiro. “Over reliance on AI and even furthermore folks outside HR trying to practice because lacking the expertise can lead to dangerous things. The democratization of AI and the proliferation is fantastic and is going to really change the way we work. But lacking that expertise can run you into some significant challenges and liability. Just think about asking AI for guidance on a termination scenario with an employee and lacking the expertise to know that their age is really critical for discrimination law. What jurisdiction is going to rule on that and the liability it could create?” As long as worker’s have rights and the AI isn’t training on the complexities and nuances of those rights, it may be best to keep seasoned professionals as the humans in the loop!

    7.      Lack of AI Literacy & Training

    A tool is only useful if it is used and used properly. As Attensi’s Joanna Akar denoted, a huge risk in, “AI is actually not having the knowledge on how to use it. If you don’t know how to prompt engineer or use AI or Gen AI or whatever type of AI you’re using within your day-to-day. If we fall

    you risk not being able to follow the trend, not being able to be more efficient within the learning environment. So, it’s super important that HR people are trained in how to prompt AI or prompt engineering to make sure that they’re utilizing it in the best way possible to get the most return on investment that they can get out of their people.” Lollipop’s Jonathan Ferrell shared very similar concerns. “Lack of understanding on what AI is and what it isn’t. I think a lot of people recognize how quickly it’s able to solve immediate tasks and maybe make it feel like it’s a more complex task, but what really matters is what you’re trying to accomplish. And if you don’t know upfront what you’re trying to accomplish, you could really go in the wrong direction.” Thus to minimize this risk, start with the problem and learn how to communicate with the specific AI you are using for best results!

    8.      Data Quality & Model Reliability

    One Model’s Phil Schrader reports our next risk. “Data quality. The AI is going to be able to answer questions in new ways for organizations. But if you don’t have a quality data model to feed into it or quality reliable tools for it to use, it is going to generate noise, it is going to generate nonsense that actually moves you backward.” Or as previously highlighted in Whisper Report: What are the biggest challenges of Using Gen AI in Logistics?, you put garbage data in you get garbage out. Without quality data, it is not possible to get reliable answers.

    9.      AI is a black box

    The final risk should come as no surprise from anyone but is always important to remember. Aptia USA’s Jeff Williams reminds all, “AI is a black box the way it’s permeating everything we do on an everyday basis. And think about how little each of us really understand about what AI is, how it’s generating the answers it’s generating, and the advice it’s dispensing, and the actions that are being taken as a result. I think the fact that we are lumping AI together for things as simple as a chatbot and things as complex as fully generative large language models. I think kind of lumping all that together, calling it AI and expecting to solve all of our problems without really knowing what’s feeding it underneath, I think is a big un-discussed risk that we really need to address.” Clients will recall a similar warning arrived in Whisper Report: What’s the biggest Cybersecurity Myth in 2025? One of the biggest requirements to shine the light on the black boxes are logs. Let’s make 2026 the year all AI systems are required to provide immutable logs.

    Related playlists and Publications

    1. Playlist for Whisper Report: What’s the biggest AI risk in HR no one talks about?
    2. Playlist for Whisper Report: How should CTOs rethink org design with GenAI?
    3. Playlist for Whisper Report: What HR tech trend will disrupt engineering hiring next?
    4. Conference Whispers: HR Tech 2025
    5. Whisper Report: What are the biggest challenges of using generative AI in logistics? – TBW ADVISORS LLC
    6. Whisper Report: What’s the biggest cybersecurity myth in 2025? – TBW ADVISORS LLC

    Corporate Headquarters

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    ©2019-2026 TBW Advisors LLC. All rights reserved. TBW, Technical Business Whispers, Fact-based research and Advisory, Conference Whispers, Industry Whispers, Email Whispers, The Answer is always in the Whispers, Whisper Reports, Whisper Studies, Whisper Ranking, Whisper Club, Whispers, The Answer is always in the Whispers, Vegas Convention Library, and One Change a Month, are trademarks or registered trademarks of TBW Advisors LLC. This publication may not be reproduced or distributed in any form without TBW’s prior written permission. It consists of the opinions of TBW’s research organization which should not be construed as statements of fact. While the information contained in this publication has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, TBW disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of such information. TBW does not provide legal or investment advice and its research should not be construed or used as such. Your access and use of this publication are governed by the TBW Usage Policy. TBW research is produced independently by its research organization without influence or input from a third party. For further information, see Fact-based research publications on our website for more details.

  • Whisper Report: What’s one casino innovation you wish existed today?

    Whisper Report: What’s one casino innovation you wish existed today?

    Published to clients: November 20, 2025                           ID: TBW2107

    Published to Readers: November 21, 2025

    Whisper Email Release:

    Public Release Date:

    Analyst(s): Dr. Doreen Galli

    Photojournalist(s): Dr. Doreen Galli

    Abstract:

    “This Whisper Report explores the most desired casino innovations identified at G2E 2025. Industry experts highlighted two key areas: operational improvements for casinos—such as seamless system integration and cross-platform play—and enhanced player experiences through biometric authentication, personalized VIP services, and engagement strategies. These insights reveal opportunities for transformation and differentiation in gaming technology.”

    Target Audience Titles:

    • Chief Information Officer (CIO), Chief Operations Officer (COO), Vice President of Gaming Technology
    • Chief Data Officer, Chief Technology Officer, VP of Gaming Technology, Director of Gaming Technology, Chief AI Officer
    • Casino Systems Engineer, Gaming Platform Developer, Security & Compliance Analyst

    Key Takeaways

    • Casino operators want seamless integration across systems, from cage operations to ERP, eliminating manual QA and enabling true plug-and-play functionality.
    • Cross-platform gaming—switching between land-based and online play without disruption—is a top innovation priority for industry leaders.
    • Biometric authentication is seen as critical for secure, personalized player experiences and streamlined identity verification.
    • Personalized VIP experiences for mid-tier players, including concierge-style services, could transform engagement and loyalty in casinos.

    What’s one casino innovation you wish existed today?

    We took the most frequently asked and most urgent technology questions straight to the operation engineers and technology professionals gathering at the Global Gaming Expo held in Las Vegas better known as G2E 2025. This Whisper Report addresses the question regarding one casino innovation you wish existed today? The innovations are divided into two categories. First those focused on the casino itself and second those focused on the player experiences as depicted in Figure 1.

    For Casinos

    The first group of desired technology applies to the casinos themselves. CCT’s Wanor Franca’s focus is on the money trail. “It’s the ability to track your cage operations all the way through a revenue audit into your ERP. No solution is connecting all the data sources.” This integration issue is a common issue as Druvstar’s Melissa Aarskaug highlighted, “One innovation I wish the industry had was simple integration. Everything was plug and play and as soon as it was in implemented, it just worked. We didn’t have to do any QA testing. It just plugs and plays.” Diving in further, Incisor’s Aaron Jones highlighted, “seamless play between playing a land-based game and being able to play that game online.” Sounds like the entire industry could use a significant transformation and standardization. TBW Advisors LLC provides significant first-hand experience on digital transformation so be sure to schedule your inquiries if those integrations are bogging you down.

    For the players

    Attendees at G2E also had ideas of much wanted technology innovations that directly affect players. For one, Seon’s Matt DeLauro believes, “A casino innovation that I wish existed today would be more biometric authentication for players.” Additional research concerning biometric identification and authentication can be located in our coverage of ISC West and Identiverse.

    Once the casino knows who the player is through advanced biometric authentication, Relay’s Chris Chuang believes more players could feel special. “I feel like uh there was a way that casinos could use technology to really bring the VIP experience to every gamer, right? People want to come to Vegas and feel like a VIP. Of course, they have that for the high rollers, but how do you personalize a VIP experience for the pre high rollers who are not quite there but maybe on their way.” But what exactly would that look like? Chris continues, “I think that that would involve different ways to welcome guests to make the check-in experiences more lux and personal. Maybe a personal concierge.” A personal concierge. Looks like Continent 8 Technologies’ Justin Cosnett was on the same page. “Making sure that players don’t have a bad experience. Yes, they’re going to lose money over the longtime lifetime, but the worst thing you could possibly see is players who will come, they’ll try a game for the first time or try a website for the first time, and if their experience is all loss very quickly over a short period of time. The thing that needs to really happen is people’s back offices making sure that players can actually enjoy themselves over a longer period of time rather than being short sharp .” Of course if you are going to dream of the idea casino innovation Plotline’s Erik Regan said what we are all truly thinking. “What’s one casino innovation you wish existed today? Unlimited free play!” That’s right unlimited free play – if you are going to dream – why not dream big!

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  • Whisper Report: What’s the biggest UAV threat CIOs aren’t ready for?

    Whisper Report: What’s the biggest UAV threat CIOs aren’t ready for?

    Published to clients: October 27, 2025                                     ID: TBW2094

    Published to Readers: October 28, 2025

    Whisper Email Release: TBD

    Public/Video Release: TBD

    Analyst(s): Dr. Doreen Galli

    Photojournalist(s): Dr. Doreen Galli

    Abstract

    This Whisper Report investigates the biggest UAV threat CIO’s are not ready for. CIOs are underestimating the scale and urgency of UAV-related risks. From electric infrastructure and jamming threats to data overload and geopolitical embargoes, this Whisper Report captures the 10 most pressing vulnerabilities revealed at CUAV Expo 2025 — and what enterprise leaders must do next.

    Target Audience Titles:

    • Chief Information Officer, Chief Technology Officer, Chief Information Security Officer, Chief Architect, Chief Data Officer, Chief Product Officer, Chief Experience Officer
    • VP Infrastructure, VP Security Operations, VP Data Strategy, Director of Physical Security, Director of Edge Computing, Director of OT Security
    • Red Team Lead, Incident Response Lead, Security Architects, DevSecOps Engineers, IAM Engineers, Penetration Tester  

    Key Takeaways

    • Impending bans on Chinese UAVs and rising tariffs are forcing urgent supply chain pivots.
    • Electric and communications infrastructure gaps are exposing UAV fleets to operational and security risks, especially in GPS-denied environments.
    • Most enterprises lack formal flight departments, leaving safety, training, and compliance dangerously underdeveloped.
    • Data volume and interoperability challenges are overwhelming existing IT systems, requiring new cloud and API strategies.
    • CIOs must prepare for regulatory volatility, secure delivery protocols, and the full replacement of helicopters in logistics.


    What’s the biggest UAV threat CIOs aren’t ready for?

    We took the most frequently asked and most urgent technology questions straight to the commercial UAV professionals gathering at Commercial UAV Expo 2025 held in Las Vegas. This Whisper Report addresses the question regarding what’s the biggest UAV threat that Chief Information Officers are not ready for? Figure 1 contains an image of the 10 UAV Threats that CIO’s aren’t ready for.

    1.      Embargo Risk

    The first threat was the absolute talk of the show held in Las Vegas. As GEODNET’s Amr Elkordy observed, “most people don’t realize that with the bill that passed last year, DJI might be fully banned from the US.” Or as Frontier Precision’s Wyatt Robbins shared there is a, “potential shift away from Chinese manufactured drones.” Of course, once they hit expo hall and spoke to distributors they learned the truth about their fleet. This created a flurry of activity as Wyatt went on to further explain, “companies and government agencies trying to find alternatives to maybe a DJI system or other Chinese manufacturing systems that they’re already currently buying.“

    2.      Import Costs

    If your organization still wants to purchase drones from the Asian region, you may be artificially scared off by the Tariffs. IPET’s Joy Jiang is there for you. “Tariff strategies. We are an Asian company. Our products to some company like the North American or the Europe we still have some strategies about the tariff.” In other words, don’t assume anything about the impact to cost of their products based on the Tariffs. Rather speak with those deep in the details of the manufacturers before ruling out those manufacturers. Time will tell if they will be allowed in the future US or European airspace.  

    3.      Power Burden

    Our 3rd UAV threat arriving at our organizations’ Chief Information Officer’s door comes from Sarah Abdi at Parallel Flight Technologies. “The infrastructure that is required with all electric platforms.” Intrigued, let’s hear more! “ So if you have a remote logistics application for an application and you have an electric platform, you have to have your generator, you have to have fuel to power your generator, you have to have extra batteries on hand, which actually are extremely heavy. There’s a whole lot of infrastructure required with all electric platforms, which is why we’ve taken an approach of parallel hybrid. Um, all you need is a gas tank and you refuel this aircraft and you’re back up and running.” Thus hybrid drones share the same benefits many are familiar with in hybrid cars.

    4.      Jamming Risks

    UAV’s require communication. It tells them where the controller wants them to go, it is used to send information back. It underlies the very purpose the drone was flown to begin with in many use cases.

    As Teal.io’s Robb Monkman observed, our next threat is all about the, “invisible threat of connectivity.” Robb further explained, “more recently, people are starting to talk about the need for redundancy and failover.” TUALCOM’s Nicolas Speroni was more specific. “I believe the biggest threat is jamming. And then if a UAV needs to go through a totally GPS denied environment, TUALCOM USA has solutions for both of those and the anti-jamming and terrestrial navigation products.” For additional methods of handling GPS Denial see Conference Whispers: CUAV 2025.

    5.      Ops Gaps

    Threat number 5 comes with an alert from USI’s Brad Tucker. “If you have a fleet of drones, you have a flight department.” That’s right. The only question is if you recognize and organize it. Brad continued, “that may not be something that is fully embraced as of yet, it needs to be pretty quickly, especially with the release of 108, obviously that’s going to be coming within the next 12 to 24 months. More than likely part 108 is coming in the next 12 months. So that means you have to be prepared for obviously safety protocols. You have to be prepared for training your workforce and certifying your workforce with the appropriate credentials.”

    6.      Legacy Disruption

    Now you have your flight department. Perhaps you organized your drone related employees with your Helicopter Pilots. Federico di Napoli from FlyingBaket has an update for you. “CIOS are not ready to hear about the drone is to the moment when the drone will completely substitute the helicopter for transport materials.” That is correct. For non-human cargo, the go forward solution is the simpler drone regardless of your cargo weight. So before that next expensive mechanical update to your helicopter – you may want to re-evaluate if that is the best solution based on current technology available via drones. Heavy cargo even for long periods of time is now possible. For additional information on the variety of commercial drones now available see Conference Whispers: CUAV Expo.

    7.      Secure Delivery

    Removing the human in the helicopter to send cargo can create some complexities with certain cargo. blueflite’s Ross Davis brings our next threat. “chain of custody in drone delivery”. Interesting! Let’s hear more about this challenge from Ross. “Imagine if you have a really high value item such as prescription medication or perhaps like organ. When that’s delivered to a hospital or to a patient, we need to make sure that that person is actually receiving  the person we intend to receive the object is the person who’s picked it up. So, you know, as how we address that is through scanning, QR codes, and authentication on the phone to make sure that that person is who they say they are. We could do facial recognition on the phone to basically sign into their account and we take ownership of that package.” Thus even a drone solution can require an advanced identity and access management solution to authenticate recipients and ensure proper, secure, operations. For additional research on identity and access management, see Conference Whispers: Identiverse.

    8.      Data Overload

    Aloft’s Kevin Teen highlighted one of the most overwhelming threats. “the amount of data. All the different data points.” Kevin continued to provide context, “One drone flight, you’re producing four frames a second for as long as that drone’s in the air, altitude, speed, heading, hundreds of different variables. Once you start scaling that across dozens, hundreds of pilots now include videos that we’re taking. now include survey photos. You can just imagine the scale of the data and so dealing with different buckets you know whether that’s in SharePoint or S3 and now all we have disconnected processes.” But it is not just about collecting the data as Buzz Solutions Kaitlyn Albertoli emphasized. “Once we start to scale it and embed it more into the workflows, I don’t think utilities are ready for how much that data is going to be an impact to them. But it’s an exciting problem to have.” If you find yourself overwhelmed by all the data or lost in a data silo situation, be sure to schedule an inquiry with your analyst at TBW Advisors LLC. Having advised over 1100 organizations on their transformation, We have dealt with data volumes as large as zettabytes per day. 

    9.      Systems Sync

    Central UAS’ Bill Reynolds contends that the largest threat, “is the demand for interoperability and integration with uh APIs for the massive amount of data exchange between the unmanned aircraft and the applications and the grower and farmer.” Having just been warned about the volume of data, the last thing a CIO and their team want to be concerned with is the interoperability of all the systems. This is a call to the CUAV industry to ensure standardization where possible and appropriate.  

    10.  Policy Shifts

    We will conclude with threat 10 and the other most talked about topic at CUAV Expo held in fabulous Las Vegas. Pelican Wire’s Frank Balsamo revealed threat number ten as, “the changing regulations in the environment that are out there from country to country.” While many are fretting FAA proposed Part 108, USA is only one country in a web of regulations. Frank went on further to explain, “as the technology evolves and becomes more available in the public to see how that plays out. in real time. So, I think as a business case, that’s going to be very interesting to watch.” In other words, it’s a nascent industry and the regulations are in the name of safety. Safe operations builds trust and helps the industry to expand. Helping the UAV industry expand is something everyone’s interest at the Commercial UAV Expo.

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    Corporate Headquarters

    2884 Grand Helios Way

    Henderson, NV 89052

    Downloading, re-uploading, or redistributing this file is not permitted under any license.


    Downloading, re-uploading, or redistributing this file is not permitted under any license.


    ©2019-2026 TBW Advisors LLC. All rights reserved. TBW, Technical Business Whispers, Fact-based research and Advisory, Conference Whispers, Industry Whispers, Email Whispers, The Answer is always in the Whispers, Whisper Reports, Whisper Studies, Whisper Ranking, Whisper Club, and One Change a Month, Vegas Convention Library; Leading Professionals, Real Questions, Real Time, are trademarks or registered trademarks of TBW Advisors LLC. This publication may not be reproduced or distributed in any form without TBW’s prior written permission. It consists of the opinions of TBW’s research organization which should not be construed as statements of fact. While the information contained in this publication has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, TBW disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of such information. TBW does not provide legal or investment advice and its research should not be construed or used as such. Your access and use of this publication are governed by the TBW Usage Policy. TBW research is produced independently by its research organization without influence or input from a third party. For further information, see Fact-based research publications on our website for more details.