Tools & Platforms
Pentagon’s AI office eliminates CTO directorate in pursuit of ‘efficiencies’

The Pentagon’s artificial intelligence acceleration hub recently moved to terminate its chief technology officer role and directorate after reviews associated with the Trump administration’s spending and staff reductions campaign revealed inefficiencies, budget materials for fiscal 2026 reveal.
Details on the decision are sparse in the documents, but officials wrote that the Chief Digital and AI Office’s CTO “no longer exists or manages resources.”
President Donald Trump directed federal agencies at the start of his second term to drastically reduce their workforces and assess existing contracts, with aims to ultimately cut back on what his team views as wasteful spending and inefficiencies. The efforts have included initiatives overseen by Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, teams.
While AI is a major priority for the U.S. government under Trump, since then, the Pentagon’s CDAO has seen an exodus of senior leaders and other technical employees.
“As part of broader DOD efficiency efforts, CDAO realized organization efficiencies in FY26, including eliminating the CTO directorate,” a CDAO official told DefenseScoop on Wednesday. “This move has minimal mission impact as CDAO has a strong technical workforce embedded within each of its directorates.”
Budget materials show that the directorate was allocated more than $340 million in fiscal 2024.
The CDAO official declined to share more information regarding how the CTO’s employees, responsibilities and investments were dispersed following the elimination.
Shortly after standing up the CDAO in June 2022, Defense Department leadership hired nearly a dozen senior leaders to serve in its top positions — including Bill Streilein as inaugural CTO. Streilein had previously served as a longtime leader at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory and is now back at the lab working as a member of its principal staff.
Tools & Platforms
Tencent Announces Global Rollout of Scenario-Based AI Capabilities to Accelerate Industrial Efficiency

Tencent Announces Global Rollout of Scenario-Based, AI Capabilities to Accelerate Industrial Efficiency
Launch of AI Agent Development Platform 3.0, available internationally via Tencent Cloud, at the 2025 Global Digital Ecosystem Summit
Tencent Cloud’s overseas client base doubled since last year; achieved high double-digit year-over-year growth over the past three years
Dowson Tong, Senior Executive Vice President of Tencent and CEO of the Cloud and Smart Industries Group, delivering a keynote speech at the 2025 Global Digital Ecosystem Summit
Tencent today announced the global roll-out of new scenario-based AI capabilities, empowering enterprises across diverse industries to accelerate industry efficiency and advance international growth. Announced at the 2025 Tencent Global Digital Ecosystem Summit, held at the Shenzhen World Exhibition & Convention Center from 16 to 17 September, it comprises a suite of intelligent agent applications, “SaaS + AI” solutions and large model technological upgrades.
“Truly usable and practical AI applications drive industrial efficiency, while internationalization charts new growth possibilities,” said Dowson Tong, Senior Executive Vice President of Tencent and CEO of the Cloud and Smart Industries Group. “Our newly launched and upgraded solutions will support enterprises in their intelligence and internationalization journey as they build scalable and sustainable growth.”
Accelerating Implementation of Intelligent Solutions
The Tencent Cloud Intelligent Agent Strategy Panorama highlighted the global launch of Agent Development Platform 3.0 (ADP), which enables enterprises to generate and integrate intelligent, autonomous AI agents into their workflows, for scenarios such as customer service, marketing, inventory management, research, and more. Tencent is continuously iterating on various intelligent agent development frameworks like LLM+RAG, Workflow, and Multi-Agent, to help enterprises efficiently build stable, secure, and business-aligned agents using proprietary data. In addition, AI Infra’s “Agent Runtime” was also launched to provide a robust infrastructure foundation for building, deploying, and operating AI agents.
The upgraded SaaS+AI toolkit enhances office collaboration, including AI Minutes in Tencent Meetings, which has seen a year-on-year growth rate of 150% over the past year. It also supports knowledge management, such as Tencent LearnShare, currently used by over 300,000 enterprises enjoying 92% response accuracy. CodeBuddy, an AI-powered AI coding tool for developers, reduces coding time by 40% and increases R&D efficiency by 16%.
New models powered by Hunyuan, Tencent’s proprietary large language model, were announced, including Hunyuan 3D 3.0, Hunyuan 3D AI and Hunyuan 3D Studio, imbued with cutting-edge 3D generation capabilities for creators and developers in media and gaming industries, and more. Hunyuan 3D series models have been downloaded over 2.6 million times on Hugging Face, making them the most popular open-source 3D models globally.
Over the past year, Tencent’s Hunyuan large model has released more than 30 new models and fully embraced open-source development. It has gradually open-sourced models such as the hybrid inference model Hunyuan-A13B and a translation model supporting over 30 languages, along with comprehensive multimodal generation capabilities and tools for image, video and 3D content.
Fully Embrace Internationalization
At the summit, Tencent Cloud highlighted its milestones in global expansion, noting that its overseas client base has doubled since last year. Over the last three years, Tencent Cloud International has achieved high double-digit year-over-year growth globally, across Asia markets, namely Hong Kong, Southeast Asia, Japan, and more.
Today, more than 90% of leading Chinese internet companies, and 95% of leading Chinese gaming companies are also using Tencent Cloud to support their global expansion initiatives.
During the Tencent Cloud International Summit held in the afternoon, Tencent’s global partners including Converge Information and Communications Technology Solutions, DANA, e& UAE, Hong Kong Jockey Club, Fusion Bank, GoTo Group, Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison (IOH), Miniclip, MUFG Bank (China), Prosus, True IDC, and more, discussed the need for enterprises to adopt advanced cloud and AI solutions to power their next stage of growth and internationalization ambitions.
Poshu Yeung, Senior Vice President, Tencent Cloud International said, “Tencent Cloud brings to overseas enterprises our deep expertise and experience in integrating AI across our ecosystem. With the launch of new solutions such as Tencent Cloud Agent Development Platform, we hope to expand our reach globally, and serve wider industries and enterprise use-cases.”
The summit also saw Tencent Cloud International signing partnership agreements with global enterprises, from Asia Pacific companies including Datacom, IOH, Gardi Management, GoTo Group, MahakaX, MUFG Bank (China), RYDE Technologies, StoneLink, True IDC, 99 Group; to Middle Eastern companies including Coop Bank Oromia and Nativex; European companies including eMAG; and North American company InCloud.
Tencent will upgrade its Tencent Cloud internationalization strategy across three areas — infrastructure, technology products, and service capabilities — to help more enterprises across different industries to transform digitally. Today Tencent Cloud products like the Superapp-as-a-Service solution and PalmAI have been widely embraced by overseas enterprises from Asia Pacific, the Middle East and The Americas.
Tencent Cloud has introduced international versions of products such as Tencent Cloud Agent Development Platform (TCADP), CodeBuddy and Cloud Mall. These globalized solutions are designed to better accommodate local requirements and provide reliable support for high-concurrency enterprises worldwide. For instance, its EdgeOne security and acceleration platform recently integrated large language models with the Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server, resulting in the launch of EdgeOne Pages. This development significantly enhanced developer efficiency by reducing website development and deployment time from one day to merely one minute. Within three months, the platform garnered over 100,000 global users.
Tencent Cloud operates 55 data centres across 21 markets and regions, and plans to invest USD150 million in the future to build its first Middle East data center in Saudi Arabia. Simultaneously, it will build a third data center in Osaka, Japan, and establish a new Osaka office. Today, Tencent Cloud has deployed 9 global technical support centers in Jakarta, Manila, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Bangkok, Tokyo, Seoul, Palo Alto, and Frankfurt.
Tools & Platforms
Pack lands €3.5M to scale AI for workforce development

Italian startup Pack
has closed a €3.5 million funding round to strengthen its product, add new
AI-driven features, and expand its team.
The round was led by Rialto VC, the Italian venture capital fund which combines
strategic expertise in corporate governance, digital innovation, and scaling
technology companies. The round
was also supported by the team led by Giulia Bianchi Frangipane of Bonelli
Erede, with senior associate Enrico Goitre assisting Pack in the legal
structuring of the transaction.
Pack
is an HR tech startup that helps companies develop and enhance human capital
through its all-in-one platform. Founded in 2022 by Pietro Maria Picogna and
Giacomo Gentili, it already partners with more than 80 multinationals.
Pack
was created to address the growing complexity of people development by mapping
skills, fostering agile and aware teams, and preparing organisations for future
challenges. Its platform integrates skill mapping, digital assessments, and
personalized growth paths, including coaching, mentoring, and targeted training,
supported by an AI-driven monitoring system that continuously measures progress
and business impact.
Its
mission is to empower organizations to grow by building more agile, aware, and
future-ready teams.
Giacomo Gentili, Pack’s co-founder, noted that
companies everywhere are confronting, or soon will confront, the complex
challenge of managing human capital, and what they need is not just a supplier
but a genuine partner to support them through this transformation.
Tools & Platforms
Impact of AI on Global Video Streaming Market

In the modern era, the global video streaming market is fundamentally reshaping the entertainment landscape, driven by the dual forces of digitalization and the escalating demand for on-demand content. Artificial intelligence (AI) also serves as a pivotal catalyst for this growth, enabling the personalization of user experiences through tailored recommendations, improved content discovery, and enhanced audience engagement. Beyond enriching the user experience, AI technology contributes significantly to the operational efficiency and profitability of streaming platforms. By optimizing streaming quality, automating content moderation, and facilitating targeted advertising, AI empowers platforms to achieve greater business outcomes. The market’s robust growth is evidenced by its valuation of USD 104.8 Billion in 2024, with projections from the IMARC Group indicating a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18.66% from 2025 to 2033, ultimately reaching an estimated USD 411.7 Billion by 2033.
The Stream Supreme: How Video is Taking Over Entertainment
Always On: Instant Access Becomes the Norm
The swift rise of smartphones, smart TVs, and dependable high-speed internet is greatly enhancing access to video streaming services, allowing viewers to experience uninterrupted, on-demand entertainment whenever and wherever they choose. This trend is supported by the International Telecommunication Union’s projection that approximately 5.5 billion individuals, making up 68 percent of the global population, accessed the internet in 2024, underscoring the massive potential for streaming services globally.
The Binge Effect: From Schedules to Sessions
Viewer preferences are shifting toward flexible, on-demand streaming, with traditional broadcast schedules giving way to binge-watching culture supported by expansive content libraries and full-season releases. Reflecting this trend, in 2025, NASA+ expanded its offerings with a FAST channel on Prime Video, delivering on-demand content on space exploration, aeronautics, and science. Accessible across major platforms, it underscores growing demand for digital video services.
Smart Streams: AI Knows What You’ll Watch Next
AI is crucial in influencing user experiences by providing customized suggestions and specific content exploration. Streaming services utilize AI-powered insights to comprehend audience behavior, improve engagement, and optimize user satisfaction, which, in turn, cultivates loyalty and promotes ongoing growth.
Originals Rule: Exclusivity Wins the Crowd
OTT service providers are increasingly focusing on original programming and exclusive content rights to strengthen their market position in a highly competitive environment. In 2025, Dish TV launched FLIQS within its Watcho app at WAVES 2025, offering films, web series, and short-form videos. With AI-powered recommendations, affordable pricing, and monetization opportunities for creators, FLIQS exemplifies how exclusivity enhances brand value and attracts diverse audiences.
Streaming Hotspots Around the Globe:
Where Streaming Rules: North America’s Power Players
North America leads the video streaming industry, accounting for 31.8% market share, bolstered by the significant presence of key players such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Disney+. Amid this established leadership, new entrants are introducing innovative and cost-effective services to capture price-sensitive audiences, highlighting the region’s competitive and diverse streaming landscape. For instance, in 2025, Roku launched Howdy in the United States, a new, ad-free streaming service priced at just $2.99/month, offering a library of thousands of titles, including classics like Back to the Future and Mad Max: Fury Road. Initially available only on Roku devices, the service aims to complement more expensive streaming platforms with its budget-friendly, commercial-free content. Roku’s CEO Anthony Wood emphasized Howdy’s focus on library content to appeal to cost-conscious viewers. Besides this, the region benefits from sophisticated digital infrastructure, extensive broadband coverage, and considerable investments in quality content, which together foster robust user engagement and continued dominance in the streaming sector.
Local Stories Power the Rise of Asia Pacific Streaming
The Asia-Pacific region is the fastest-expanding video streaming market, driven by the growing smartphone adoption, cost-effective mobile internet, and a heightened demand for localized content in India, China, and Southeast Asia. The increasing number of young digital users and rising investments in original content are further fueling adoption, establishing the region as a key contributor to future industry expansion. This rapid regional growth is encouraging global players to adopt differentiated strategies, with companies tailoring their offerings to meet the diverse user preferences and viewing habits across Asia-Pacific markets. For example, in 2025, Amazon revealed its two-platform strategy in India, using Prime Video for subscription-ready users and Amazon MX Player for mobile-first, ad-supported viewers. The approach aims to cater to India’s diverse streaming market, with Prime Video focusing on premium content and MX Player targeting traditional TV viewers transitioning to digital.
From Bandwidth to Brilliance: Technology Shapes Streaming’s Future
- Personalized Journeys Powered by AI: AI is reshaping personalized viewing by analyzing user behavior, preferences, and engagement patterns to deliver tailored recommendations. This enhances satisfaction, simplifies content discovery, and helps streaming platforms boost engagement, build loyalty, and strengthen competitiveness in the fast-growing industry. This growing reliance on AI for personalization is also driving investments in creative platforms that push beyond recommendations, enabling users to actively shape and interact with the content they view. In 2025, Amazon’s Alexa Fund backed Fable’s “Showrunner,” an AI-powered platform that lets users create and engage with animated TV content. By merging AI and user creativity, it emphasizes episodic storytelling, offering highly personalized and interactive entertainment experiences.
- From Patterns to Predictions, Machine Learning Guides the Stream: Machine learning (ML) is crucial in influencing the video streaming landscape by enhancing content indexing, driving recommendation systems, and facilitating predictive analytics that improve audience interaction. These features enhance user navigation, predict viewing habits, and deliver tailored experiences that engage audiences with platforms for extended periods. Utilizing ML-powered insights, streaming platforms can improve user retention, optimize content strategies, and maximize revenue opportunities. This integration enhances the overall user experience while giving platforms a substantial competitive edge, strengthening their stance in a growing and dynamic market.
- Cloud-Driven Technology: Cloud-based infrastructure is reshaping video streaming by delivering scalability, reliability, and worldwide accessibility. Real-time adaptive bitrate technology ensures seamless playback, reducing buffering and adjusting quality to network conditions. The growing adoption of cloud-based technologies is further reflected in new innovations, with companies developing specialized platforms that harness cloud and AI capabilities to enhance media creation, management, and streaming efficiency on a global scale. For instance, in 2025, Yotta Data Services introduced Urja and Sudarshan, India’s first cloud-native media platforms. Urja delivers Renderfarm-as-a-Service for VFX and animation, while Sudarshan enables asset management and online video streaming, both leveraging Yotta’s hyperscale cloud for AI-driven, high-performance, low-latency workflows.
- Smaller Streams Bigger Possibilities: AI is increasingly utilized in video compression to enhance bandwidth efficiency while maintaining quality, facilitating quicker content delivery, smoother streaming, and lowering costs by reducing data loads. This is especially crucial in areas with restricted network capacity, enhancing accessibility and promoting worldwide streaming growth. Reflecting this trend, Beamr Imaging presented its AI-based video compression technology at NVIDIA’s GTC 2025, where CEO Sharon Carmel highlighted how GPU-accelerated processes can enhance video quality, boost searchability, and enhance monetization. Beamr’s innovations showcase how AI-driven compression is transforming video distribution, enhancing streaming efficiency and scalability for providers globally.
Behind the Screen: The Segments Defining Streaming Trends
- Decoding the Market by Component: Solution (IPTV, Over-the-top, and Pay TV) lead the market with 44.1%, as they form the core delivery platforms for streaming services. Users benefit from flexible access, high-quality viewing, and a wide range of on-demand entertainment options.
- Unpacking Growth by Streaming Type: Live/linear video streaming represent the largest segment, accounting 62.5% because it delivers real-time access to sports, news, and events, attracting large audiences. Viewers benefit from immediacy, shared experiences, and high engagement that enhance the overall streaming experience.
- Monetization at the Core – Analysis by Revenue Model: Subscription holds the biggest market share with 45.6% accredited to its ability to ensure steady recurring revenue for providers and offer viewers unlimited access to vast content libraries. Subscribers benefit from affordability, convenience, and seamless access to diverse entertainment options.
- Who’s Watching – Analysis by End User: Personal dominates the market with 50.8% owing to the growing preference for on-demand, customized content accessible across devices. This segment benefits from greater convenience, flexibility, and tailored viewing experiences that enhance overall user satisfaction.
New Trends: AI-Localization and Interactive Content
- Major streaming platforms are leveraging AI to provide automated dubbing and subtitling, enabling faster, more cost-effective localization of content. This advancement enhances accessibility and allows platforms to reach wider global audiences with greater ease. In line with this, in 2025, Amazon Prime Video launched AI-powered dubbing for select titles, initially in English and Latin American Spanish. The feature, available for 12 titles, blends human expertise with AI to improve quality and make content more accessible globally. Amazon plans to expand this feature to more languages and titles in the future.
- Streaming platforms are embracing interactive, AI-personalized experiences to deliver customized storytelling and deeper audience engagement. Alongside this, investments in AI-driven tools for trailers, thumbnails, and scripts are streamlining content creation and enhancing the appeal of offerings across diverse viewer segments.
- Streaming services are introducing interactive formats and AI-personalized experiences that adapt content to individual viewer preferences. These innovations boost engagement by offering tailored storytelling and greater control over how audiences view entertainment. In June 2025, Netflix introduced patents for AI-powered personalized trailers and interactive content, tailoring previews to user preferences and exploring “choose-your-own-adventure” shows. By leveraging machine learning, the platform aims to enhance storytelling, boost engagement, and deliver more customized viewing experiences. Such advancements highlight how leading platforms are increasingly turning to AI not only to personalize viewing but also to experiment with new, interactive storytelling formats.
Giants at Play: Who’s Steering the Industry
Major participants in the video streaming industry are concentrating on improving user interaction, streamlining content distribution, and broadening revenue sources via strategic actions. They are making substantial investments in cutting-edge technologies like AI, ML, and cloud infrastructure to enhance recommendation systems, streaming quality, and scalability. There is a focus on broadening worldwide reach through entering new markets, establishing strategic partnerships, and obtaining distribution agreements. Leading companies are also introducing tiered subscription models with differentiated access to live events and enhanced features. They are focusing on personalization and interactive viewing options to strengthen user engagement and retention. For instance, in 2025, ESPN launched a new streaming service, allowing viewers to subscribe directly to its 12 linear networks. The service offers two plans: ESPN Unlimited ($29.99/month) with access to over 47,000 live events, and ESPN Select ($11.99/month) with 32,000 events. The app also introduced new features like personalized video feeds and a Multiview option for simultaneous game viewing.
The IMARC Roadmap: What’s Next in the Streamverse
IMARC Group equips stakeholders across media, technology, and entertainment with the intelligence needed to thrive in the fast-moving and competitive video streaming sector. Our services help clients capture emerging opportunities, manage risks, and drive innovation in streaming platforms and services through:
- Market Insights: Analyze worldwide and regional trends shaping the streaming industry, with focus on subscription and ad-supported models, personalized recommendations, cloud-based delivery, and the rise of interactive and live streaming formats. Special attention is given to high-growth segments like original content, gaming integration, and sports streaming.
- Strategic Forecasting: Project future advancements in streaming technology, including improvements in content delivery networks (CDNs), AI-powered recommendation engines, and video compression standards, while assessing shifting user behaviors across devices, demographics, and geographies.
- Competitive Intelligence: Track strategies and innovations of leading global players, including content acquisition, regional expansion, partnerships with telecom operators, and the rise of niche streaming platforms targeting specialized audiences.
- Policy and Regulatory Analysis: Assess regulatory frameworks across key regions, such as content quotas, data protection laws, licensing requirements, and their influence on cross-border streaming, compliance, and long-term market growth.
- Tailored Consulting Solutions: Provide customized consulting services, from market feasibility studies to go-to-market strategies, helping companies navigate the rapidly expanding video streaming market and achieve sustained growth.
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