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OpenText continued to make significant strides with its Magellan artificial intelligence (AI) and analytics platform in the second quarter (ended Dec. 31), according to CEO and CTO Mark Barrenechea.

“We won numerous customers last quarter, both in analytics and in AI,” he said Jan. 31 on an earnings call with analysts. The enterprise information management (EIM) software firm is “running near 100 proofs of concepts in our installed base and … we’re learning a lot around deep integration into EIM, new workflows and use cases from everything from field service to customer journey optimization,” he said.

“Where we want to compete and … where we want to win is AI integrated into EIM,” he said, explaining that’s “where we’re going to have very long-term benefits for our customers and eventually” that will “flow through to revenue” that the company generates.

AI will be among the main topics at this year’s Enfuse conference, along with security, May 21-24 in Las Vegas, he told analysts. The annual conference is held by forensic security vendor Guidance Software, which OpenText bought last year. Barrenechea will deliver a keynote at Enfuse, he noted on the earnings call. Ex-FBI director James Comey will also give a keynote there, OpenText said in a news release Feb. 1.

“To compete in today’s complex digital environment, organizations must become both more intelligent and more connected, utilizing new and emerging technologies to drive engagement with customers, partners and employees,” Barrenechea said in the Enfuse announcement.

Technologies including AI, blockchain and the Internet of Things (IoT) are “helping to transform business on a planetary scale, and at the same time redefining both cybercrime and cyberwarfare,” he said, adding: “Firewalls and other traditional security measures simply don’t cut it anymore, and customers require the latest information security tools to collect, analyze, and remediate threats more urgently than ever.” At Enfuse 2018, OpenText “will showcase how information security, forensics and discovery are critical components for the intelligent and connect enterprise, and vital as companies look to compete in the digital economy,” he said.

OpenText shares were up more than 16% at $39.96 the afternoon of Feb. 1, after the company reported Q2 revenue grew 35% from a year earlier, to $734.4 million, while profit increased to $85.1 million (32 cents a share) from $45 million (18 cents a share).

Mergers and acquisitions “will continue to be the lead growth driver” for OpenText and that will be “complemented with organic growth,” Barrenechea said on the call.

“EIM is enabling key trends such as new content platforms, new customer experiences, business networks, digitalization, securities, governance,” IoT and AI, he told analysts. EIM is also “creating intelligent and connected enterprises, intelligent EIM automation, intelligent clouds [and] more intelligent endpoints, unlocking the value of enterprise information through AI and insight,” he said.

That’s happening as businesses are “becoming more connected,” he said, predicting “there’ll soon be 4 billion humans connected to the Internet and, potentially over the next decade, 1 trillion machines on the same network.” He added: “Mobile is consuming the world and businesses are integrating their transactions with other businesses and networks over the Internet.”