Be There Before®
Welcome to the Be There Before (BTB), B2B Tech—your view into what's driving the conversation in B2B technology. This proprietary look at established, emerging, and social media landscapes comprises data from a treasure trove of tools and analysis from INK's in-house experts. We determine who is talking, where they're talking, what they're talking about, and why. In-depth monitoring, analysis, and going beneath the surface of what's trending is critical to bringing value to our clients. Our aptly named BTBs are just one of the tools we use to Be There Before® for our clients.
This year, the B2B tech landscape feels a bit like a March Madness tournament. Some companies are experiencing their one shining moment, while others have their head in their hands, wondering what just happened. Google’s Wiz acquisition and Gemma 3 release were powerful moves for the tech giant, and AWS’s announcement of its NOVA AI Agent could empower agents to work across the web, serving as company assistants. On the other side of the scoreboard, 23andMe filed for bankruptcy, Oracle was hit by a major hack, and CoreWeave had a less-than-stellar IPO.
Meanwhile, the ongoing tariffs impacted financial institutions with stock market plummets and a lull in mergers and acquisitions activity. The Insurtech space is also having significant debates around health insurance and the future of social security, given the focus areas of the U.S. government. In the midst of these significant market drops, we’ll be tracking coverage around the financial impacts on the tech industry.
Data is always a strong consideration for organizations, and companies are laser-focused on two key points: how to secure it and how to optimize it. The former is even more critical with the rise of AI agents and complementary tools. Perhaps a bit ironically, those same agents will likely significantly help with data optimization—if implemented successfully.
March was all about data. Google acquired cloud security platform Wiz, signaling that using multiple clouds while ensuring data security is a top enterprise priority. IDC put out a report predicting 40% of Global 2000 businesses will be using AI agents within three years to automate knowledge work and increase productivity. This raises questions about how companies can protect internal proprietary data if an agent malfunctions or is scammed, which is likely. On the connectivity side, investors continue to back bold (sometimes controversial) AI founders, attempting to find a leg up, indicating that control over data infrastructure could provide a strategic edge in the AI arms race.
Cloud jumped significantly in share of voice this month on the heels of Google’s $32B acquisition of Wiz and a major data breach of Oracle’s cloud. Media’s attention on agentic AI and the associated security risk also caused a spike in cybersecurity coverage. Agents are being touted as a path to both increased productivity and business value, so we expect this trend to grow in the coming months. Fintech coverage dipped slightly, largely because M&A activity fell off significantly more than expected as the Trump administration's tariffs took effect.
We monitor coverage across vertical trades in three main topics: policy and compliance, investment and funding, and innovation. Policy and compliance coverage was the largest bucket of trade coverage across almost all verticals, except fintech, which had considerably more innovation and investment coverage.
Click on a topic below to drill down further into the conversation.
The vibes are strong in the AI space, especially in the recent vibe coding trend. From building chemical solutions to AI gaming competitions, users can create projects from a few short prompts, with AI producing the code. There’s reason for caution; not understanding how something is built—at least foundationally—can lead to problems when it breaks. Like many AI tools, don’t expect vibe coding platforms to solve every issue. Still, it can be an interesting playground to test ideas or prototypes.
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Palo Alto Networks CEO describes cybersecurity risk with agentic AI
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Gartner forecasts gen AI spending to hit $644B in 2025: What it means for enterprise IT leaders
AI meets insurance: digitizing the face of compliance and risk mitigation
AI has remained a key topic, with #AI driving innovation across cybersecurity, finance, and decentralized tech. Conversations about #Cybersecurity highlighted AI’s dual role in enhancing defenses and posing new threats. #Crypto, #Blockchain, and #DeFi also trended as leaders explored AI’s integration with decentralized finance. #Web3 is gaining traction with a focus on enhancing data integrity and user autonomy. Broadly, #Tech, #BigData, and #Innovation underscored AI’s ongoing influence across industries.
AI was at the forefront of social conversations in March. When X posts and mentions were included, topics skewed neutral-positive, discussing integrations across finserv and healthcare, and partnerships between Web3 and AI tech.
Without X, the conversation starts to lean neutral-negative, including the ethical implications of using AI in data collection and processing, and calls for more legislative oversight, due in part to digital attacks targeting companies through AI tool vulnerabilities.
Across all searches, other topics include decentralization in fintech and insurance, advancements in fintech, cloud, and IoT innovations, and increasing concerns over cyberthreats and ransomware attacks.
We saw social conversations ebb and flow along with major political swings and product/company announcements, as we would expect. There were small boosts in conversation driven by industry events, as well. Fintech mentions continue to soar, with X's Grok leading the way as fintech's most prolific poster.
INK digital monitoring has found that Bluesky now hosts more detailed news coverage and political updates than X, with better takeaways. Unlike X, where misinformation and bot activity remain persistent, over 90% of news content on Bluesky comes from credible sources (as rated by NewsGuard). While Bluesky’s overall engagement is still lower than X’s, its user base fosters more authentic, discussion-driven news coverage, making it an emerging hub for reliable political discourse.
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