I write this article in advance of the Nonstop Technology & Business Conference, 2026 (Nonstop TBC 2026). I cannot comment on what will transpire although I know that the after-hours activities will follow traditional Nonstop and before NonStop, Tandem Computers, traditions. Kicking off the event with a beer-bust, sponsored this year by comforte, it will be worth attending, particularly if you are looking to gauge the level of excitement the event might be creating. Nothing says a good event is about to happen better than when you see attendees lingering long after the official end to the beer-bust occurs and where tight-knitted clusters of attendees continue conversations long into the night. A situation that, I can safely predict, will include Margo and me.
The mood of the Nonstop community can always be determined early in the proceedings based on the willingness of the conference attendees entering into conversations on topics that may be foreign to some of the participants. I recall how, back at the event in Monterey, over late-night adult beverages, Franz Koenig, Frans Jongma and I dived ever so deeply into the topic of databases and modernization (as I recall) where other attendees present for our discussion happily joined in as the conversation took on momentum all by itself. How it ended I am afraid I don’t recall but that really wasn’t the point. What stood out for me, at that time, is just how central to all conversations was the premise that Nonstop continued to hold sway in the all-important mission-critical fault tolerance marketplace. More important still? The willingness to find agreement that there remains a very bright future for all things Nonstop.
I am not sure whether similar conversations will occur on the topic of AI at the TBC 2026, but I have to believe there will be many such conversations. It will prove too hard to ignore. What started with presentations at E-GTUG in Munich earlier this year, will likely have seen multiple aspects of AI become better understood, even if the role of Nonstop, in this world of AI, is immature for now. It will happen and it is hard to imagine the Nonstop community being able to hold back this tsunami. From my perspective and, as will be evident in the sessions I give – both the 45-minute main session (Tuesday) and the shorter 10-minute lightning session (Wednesday) – considerable content will be focused on AI and its likely impact on Nonstop and the solutions Nonstop supports.
When I asked Google and its AI for a short explanation of where we are today, it came back with a rather compelling and insightful update:
In the short term, artificial intelligence is shifting from
simple chat tools to autonomous software agents that
execute complex workflows and business tasks.
This makes sense but stops short of where we are headed. Take for example the growth in interest in the transition from AI agents to Agentic AI. One simply does a specific task whereas the other provides orchestration and oversight (and indeed, continued evolution) of multiple tasks. And this is where the conversation begins to head down multiple paths. Waiting in the AI wings as it were the transition from AI to AGI to ASI. That is, from artificial intelligence to artificial general intelligence, to artificial super-intelligence. Some overseers are even counting down to when one form of AI or another becomes sentient.
As for me, I doubt seriously if any machine ever becomes sentient and if you attended my session, you will know why. Yes, the appearances of machine’s human’s emotions can happen but then developing consciousness and along with consciousness, feelings? Do not hold your breath…we sure have some time before that will happen.
Then there is the world of models whereby the availability of global massive models, the likes of which demand the creation of numerous enormous data centers, will be complemented by local models tailored to industries and then trained on the specifics of an individual enterprise. Suddenly we will all become aware of tokens and weights – the neural networks we create and in truth, know little about how they self-propagate. Open weights? These digital connections implicit within models, mirroring synapsis within our brains, when downloaded by an enterprise, can be modified at will (according to the end-goals of the enterprise) and then let loose to operate independently.
When considering such roles within key market verticals where Nonstop has a strong presence then conversations quickly turn to what AI brings to Financial Services. Now, for openers, these conversations will not likely percolate bottom up, but rather, be presented as mandates by enterprise executives. “We need the freshest data so our models will not hallucinate,” seems to be the common refrain of late. Data that is missing and siloed, inaccessible by AI, doesn’t halt the AI’s operation but rather, results in AI making up answers. Yes, AI can cheat, lie, misrepresent, deny and more but for Financial Institutions, this begins when incomplete data is provided to AI.
When asked for specific information in this regard again it was Google and its AI that came back with:
In the short term, artificial intelligence is transforming the
Financial Services Industry from a tool for basic data crunching
into an operational backbone capable of automated
decision-making and advanced risk management.
What might hinder adoption? It all comes back to how the data created on Nonstop in real time offers a way out. Industry insiders’ express concerns over uncertain customer trust if hallucinations do occur. Then of course, as we know all too well when previous break-through technologies were introduced – think adding Internet access to Nonstop – there’s the matter of security, privacy, governance, risk, auditability and ultimately, the people doing the work. Remember, too, your AI journey doesn’t begin when you buy the technology.
If this is of interest to you and you missed my sessions then look at the NTI’s web site, Resources page, where Presentations are logged to find the slides I used – and while you are on the NTI website, take a look at the sites complete refresh as there may be material you were unaware of as NTI pursues the amalgamation and enablement that having a solution based on Changed Data Capture provides in this new world of AI.
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