While the NASDAQ seems to reach new highs daily, enterprise tech spending remains persistently cautious at the macro amid continued uncertainty. That’s not necessarily bad news but it can be disconcerting to decision makers. Often during transitional cycles, like the one we’re in now, executives don’t want to overrotate on capital allocations that deliver outcomes, which could potentially be achieved much more cost effectively with emerging technologies like AI. We’ve seen similar patterns in previous waves. There was a period of “great softness” in enterprise IT spending when transitioning from mainframes and minis to the PC era, a huge backlash from overly exuberant Y2K and dotcom spending; and a steady deterioration of traditional enterprise tech momentum during the cloud, mobile, SaaS, social, big data era. Each wave is different but two common themes remain: 1/ strong conviction that a new era is here; and 2/ fear of disruption, which sometimes leads to hasty decision making and waste. These countervailing forces seem to be in play today as 87% of enterprises report taking a cautious approach to AI investments. And that caution is showing up in the macro spend environment.