The new federal fiscal year began with a continuing resolution (CR) that extended government funding until Dec. 20, when a subsequent CR was enacted to fund federal operations until March 14, 2025. Further CR extensions in federal fiscal year 2025 (FFY2025) would cause budget delays that could impede the ability of federal IT contractors to convert backlog into revenue, but most vendors expect revenue growth to remain on a solidly upward growth trajectory in FFY25.

Vendor consolidation and enterprise optimization of existing digital stacks have compelled IT services companies and consultancies as well as their ecosystem partners to think strategically about who to partner with and how to secure and expand their position within the ecosystem. As a result, aligning business priorities with alliance partners will allow IT services companies and consultancies to develop a more empathetic approach to technology-fatigued buyers. Additionally, understanding pricing and commercial structures backed by common knowledge management programs will elevate the value of joint services and appeal to enterprise buyers’ appreciation of a separation of labor, supported by greater transparency and accountability.

Over the past several quarters, OEMs have focused on incorporating local AI-powered features into their new PC releases, with initial neural processing unit (NPU)-enabled use cases leveraging AI to further enhance collaboration experiences and extend battery life. However, AI agents take the NPU’s functionality a step further, combining the capabilities of large language models (LLMs) with other resources to partially or fully automate a wide range of tasks, including responding to emails, booking hotel stays, or opening and closing IT help desk tickets.