Mm.

So there has been an absolute, uh, interest, focus, and concentration on some of the largest assets in their representative industry.

So really the willingness to pl- pay, uh, pretty hefty premiums for marquee assets in their space.

So again, CrowdStrike and Palo and cybersecurity, those are known entities.

They've, uh, you know, uh, produced an excellent track record of, of execution.

And so, you know, in- investor sentiment and mentality has generally been, "Hey, let the winners win more." So, uh, there absolutely has been this bifurcation of, of haves and have-nots, and, uh, that sort of compounded over the last year.

Are you kidding me, Fatima? Nobody's gonna do that.

Well, you know, I, I think data privacy and a consumer data privacy is certainly going to be a, a very topical matter.

and compliance and protection, right? But what I heard you just say right now is that that spin hasn't stepped up in 2026 the way you would think it needs to.

That's exactly right.

And I want to make an important point here.

When we had our last computing paradigm shift, so when we went from the client server era where everything was castle and mo, we were all protected from the Internet.

We went from, on average, in the client-server era, spending $0.04 of every dollar of IT on cybersecurity to $0.08 for every dollar on IT as most organizations sort of leapt forward into the cloud era.

If history were to rhyme, I'd suspect that eight goes to 16 cents, 20 cents, maybe 25 cents for every piece of IT dollar that you are going to spend henceforth because AI systems are so inherently more complex, more novel, fast moving, right? Especially with agentic involvement, budgets are going to have to catch up.

So if we go from 8% to, say, optimistically 20% to 25% of a tech budget, what space is going to be the direct and best beneficiary

right away? The bigs are going to get bigger.

What ... d- describe the fervor that was going on then.

It was a different era.

I mean, software was simple.

We didn't have the juggernaut that is, uh, a generational computing shift called AI taking over our organization.

So it was a simpler time.

Uh, and, and really, um, a formative experience for me.

But, uh, yeah, in the halls of sort of, uh, gallowed halls of a very, uh, remarkable deal maker, as it was an interesting time, and my claim to fame is we were the, I was the last incoming analyst class at Thomas Weisel, very curious-

Where are we now?

Where is that software spend on AI in one year, in three years, in five years?

Well, it's a, it's a race to catch up here.

You know, uh, we have the pleasure and, and privilege of, uh, running our CIO survey every quarter, so, uh, excellent time series data and information about, uh, you know, an average organization and very large organization's appetite and proclivity to invest in, uh, in, uh, particular parts of their IT infrastructure.

And, you know, I, I think the trends we are seeing as we're inching closer and closer to having AI, generative AI, and, uh, related efforts to operationalize this concept of AI, uh, really showing up in the, in the budgets, in the wallet, in the wallet allocation.

Yeah.

[laughs] Uh, that's the partial Canadian in me talking.

And so really it's, uh, you know, this, this notion and this inference of we're gonna see some wallet share shifting in terms of allocation, right? So, uh, how, how do you avoid starving, uh, you know, initiatives that help keep the lights on in the organization whilst also straddling this, um, executive and boardroom mandate of we have to do something with AI, we have to invest in AI, we have to, uh, create capabilities and operationalize, um, uh, th- these AI efforts to, to build business value and deliver business value.

You're saying it's bigger?

It's bigger, it's badder, it's far more consequential because you've had a democratization of computing, uh, that has compounded over the last three decades, right? Your iPhone today is 5,000, maybe 10,000 times more powerful than the first iteration of the computer that IBM spun out, you know, 30, 40 years ago.

Right? And so just the sheer power of, uh, computing infrastructure, a- and you see this from the hyperscalers, it's just at your fingertips, and that's really what we think is going to move the ball forward.

And, you know, um, you know, I was chatting earlier, uh, we are hosting our flagship conference, uh, in New York City this week.

We have, uh, you know, close to 500 investors from some of the biggest asset managers-

(laughs) Paul, it's up to you.

So, I mean, I'm just looking at your line-up here, eh, everybody in tech TMT is gonna be there, tech, media, tele- telecom, everybody's gonna be there.

Um, how do you wind the AI theme throughout this three-day conference that you have? Uh, we think about it, uh, from a supply chain perspective, so to speak, right? So my colleagues, uh, within the tech franchise, uh, between, uh, you know, the individual who covers the media names, the individual who covers the telecom and tower names, uh, myself, I cover enterprise software- Yeah.