Artificial Intelligence + Software Intelligence = Star Wars’s C-3PO for Portfolio Governance

Apr 24, 2024 | Portfolio Governance Artificial Intelligence + Software Intelligence = Star Wars’s C-3PO for Portfolio Governance

Find out how using CAST Highlight’s new AI Advisor is like having C-3PO sitting next to you as you consume software intelligence

I have been a huge Star Wars fan my whole life. Do you know which character appears in the most Star Wars films? C-3PO: the loyal interpreter droid who is always happy to help the heroes understand their situation with a wealth of information and even recommendations. He reminds me of the new AI Advisor we recently introduced in CAST Highlight. Let me explain.

The software intelligence interpreter droid

Although C-3PO (or 3PO, for short) plays a central role throughout the saga, he is not considered one of the story’s heroes. His primary function is that of an interpreter fluent in “over six million forms of communication.” Although his interpreter skills came in handy many times, he also provided value by sharing facts and statistics about the characters’ current situation and sometimes even made recommendations. But ultimately it was up to the heroes of the story like Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Princess Leia Organa to use 3PO’s input to make the difficult decisions. This is a great analogy to understand how best to leverage CAST Highlight’s AI Advisor.

Screenshot 2024-04-24 112205A prime example comes from possibly my favorite scene in the entire Star Wars saga. During Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (which also happens to be my favorite ever film), there is a scene where Han Solo is maneuvering his spaceship, the Millennium Falcon, towards an asteroid field to escape the evil Empire. 3PO helpfully (and nervously!) tells Solo that, “the possibility of successfully navigating an asteroid field is approximately 3,720 to 1.” Solo famously responds “Never tell me the odds!” and then decides to enter the asteroid field, successfully escaping.

Crucial information for software intelligence "heroes"

In this scenario, 3PO provided instant and relevant facts about their current situation but didn’t make the ultimate decision. It was up to Solo (the hero) to use the data and make a more informed decision—in this case a successful one. Similarly, CAST Highlight’s AI Advisor is a highly specialized generative AI advisor designed to provide CIOs, CTOs, and software leaders (the software intelligence “heroes”) hard facts they can use to steer and report on key strategic imperatives like cloud, technical debt, compliance, costs, and sustainability. The AI Advisor helps users gain insights, interpret findings, navigate the product user interface, and get recommendations on the ideal actions to take across an application portfolio. But it is up to the IT leader to use these insights to make more informed decisions about their application portfolios.

For example, users can ask: “Which applications are my best cloud migration candidates?”, “Am I exposed to the latest security vulnerability?”, “What are my least resilient applications?”, or “How can I best reduce technical debt and costs across my applications with the least effort?”, and the AI Advisor responds with hard facts and suggested actions for a prioritized set of applications…just like 3PO.

The AI Advisor is currently available as a beta for all active CAST Highlight Complete Insights edition subscribers. During this beta phase we’ll continue the AI Advisor’s training with feedback from users. This is one of several innovations included in the spring 2024 product release.

View this link to learn more about all of the new capabilities in the CAST Highlight spring 2024 release.