Companies are increasingly willing to shell out more money on shorter-duration software contracts if it gives them the opportunity to test-drive the newest AI tools.

A January IT Brew poll found that almost half (48%) of 283 respondents have inked shorter software contracts to keep up with the latest and greatest AI tools. Another poll showed 49% of 380 respondents have seen at least a 25% price hike on these short-lived contracts.

Trial run. Michael Hornby, CEO of tech service provider Techmentum, said he is seeing clients opt for shorter contracts and even monthly subscriptions for AI tools, partly because the tools are new and they don’t know what to expect.

“It’s like marrying someone before you date them,” Hornby said. “You don’t really know what you’re getting yourself into.”

How to navigate the fear of commitment.—BM

When it comes to IT jobs, there’s a huge gap between answering help-desk tickets and helping drive the AI revolution. That gap could be the root cause of a lack of motivation among IT pros.

Compared to their peers in other industries, IT professionals are among the least motivated, according to a poll by consultancy Full Potential Group in partnership with Motivational Maps.

In a recent IT Brew poll, 29% of 541 respondents said their motivation only came in “occasional waves,” while 23% said they were consistently bored. Just 21% reported being motivated “all the time.”

Demotivator. What’s behind this lack of motivation? Automation—or lack thereof—could be a significant factor, Phil Christianson, the chief product officer at Xurrent, told IT Brew. If organizations helped IT help desk workers automate more tasks, for instance, it could reduce monotony.

What it takes to get motivated.—CN

That android better be paranoid.

This year’s CES was heavy on the robots, from ice-cream makers to sparring partners to more adult fare. As with any new technology, there are concerns over security, and for the devices that producers hope will see mainstream adoption, the threat increases with their connection to internal networks and systems.

The focus on robotics is part of a trend, Lenovo Global CIO Arthur Hu told IT Brew, one likely to further accelerate the integration of AI into physical technology. He believes robotics will expand the physical labor space and allow humans to do more.

“All human work, whether it’s knowledge work, whether it’s very physically based, I think that frontier of what it means to be able to do human value-added work will continue to change,” Hu said.

Read more about the event’s hardware focus.—EH

The feeling of getting a 5/5 on the Brew’s weekly news quiz has been compared to getting a company-wide shout-out from your boss. It’s that satisfying.

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