Just read the latest from Mark++ and it’s a slap in the face.
TLDR: AI First. PEOPLE LAST
Wrapped in grand talk about world crises and tech optimism, the real message is clear: AI takes priority, people are an afterthought.
Performance reviews now tied to AI skills. Headcount only if you can prove a bot can’t do the job. Hiring paused. Travel cut. And we’re meant to feel “excited” about it?
We’re not building the future here. We’re being squeezed out of it.
Disappointed doesn’t even cover it.
Maybe OpenText will be purchased by Yahoo or Mark may look to buy Sears thinking “Shop your way” is the future of e-commerce for Business Networks. Most likely this is the decrescendo in to the same path as Blockbuster and TiVo… once great but the best days are in the past.
We were selling magellan AI products in 2017 that had 2000s level AI. I bought stock based on the AI focus of the products through 2020. I feel duped.
The future of layoff. https://xeiaso.net/blog/2024/the-layoff/
Modern AI has only been around for 2 years, so... go luck ONLY hiring people with experience.... what an i d i o t.
I have been using AI for over two years at personal cost, and on my personal laptop because the official position of OpenText had been: do NOT use AI - AI use was highly discouraged. Funny to see the flip.
LLMs cost a lot to run; all the OpenText projects I have been involved with rely on tiny models to keep running costs down - because there is no budget to invest in AI. As a result, internal AI projects have really poor results compared with what the market expects.
For someone who throws around the word INNOVATION so much, you would think he understands innovation requires investment, and introduces risk - two things OpenText is allergic to. AI requires massive investment.
And now copilot... Microsoft will make scads of cash off of us because WE have become the customer, not the leader. We are investing in Microsoft. How embarrassing.
More to the point, expect layoffs of junior staff and people managers, as that can be produced by AI.
https://www.hpcwire.com/mark-barrenechea/
Is Mark a technical person? Is that his university background? He was trained as an engineer?
OT has been trying to be an AI leader since 2017: https://web.archive.org/web/20170718054300/http://www.opentext.com/
They called it Magellan, who ironically as the leader did not complete the mission around the world, but his crew did. Rather he was ki-led in the Philippines (an OpenText Center of Excellence).
Maybe Mark and Shannon will build a new CRM system used internally and integrate OT AI into that. If that works, then sell that externally. Mark has CRM experience https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_CRM?wprov=sfti1#
He might’ve smooth-talked his way to the top before, but this time, he’s cooked—no way he’s wrigglin’ outta this one.
The image of AI for OpenText is a joke. I admit that artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming increasingly popular worldwide. However, expecting everyone to be an expert in AI is nearly impossible. I'm curious how many people have trained for artificial intelligence. Does OpenText offer AI services to us? Can we train a model by ourselves? What if I applied for an internal AI engineer position? Would OT hire me without considering my educational background?
The answer is no. They will not allow us to touch anything connected to AI. We have access to AWS, GCP, and Azure, but no one has access to AI resources.
Training? No way.
Is there a new hire? Sorry, but you must have AI experience to apply for the role. Then, how can I get AI experience? You have to be in that situation. Oh! Okay, that's our goal.
It's only a slap in the face because A) Mark has zero technical understanding of anything and B) it's a solution for a problem we don't have.
Maybe the average joe at OT doesn't know or care, the actual technical people are all laughing behind his back about it.
OT is as an AI company as much as it is a Cloud company, which is to say it is neither and has thoroughly incompetent leadership that thinks they can just hire enough middle management to make it happen with existing resources that are barely a skeleton crew.