On the flight to CommunityLIVE, I watched the Bob Dylan biopic. Hearing The Times They Are A-Changin’ just before landing felt prophetic. The conference quickly confirmed it: our industry is entering a new chapter, and Hyland is setting the rhythm with AI.
Hyland’s Vision Grows More Concrete
The keynote made it plain: AI is no longer an experiment, it’s the backbone of Hyland’s Content Innovation Cloud (CIC). In just a year, the progress is remarkable.
Highlights included:
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A federation model that enables content and intelligence to coexist across platforms.
- Working demos of natural language knowledge discovery and intelligent document processing.
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The concept of real-time AI based UI composition, which looked both powerful and practical.
- A broader vision of Enterprise Context that allows to mine processes, events , data and content all together to deliver value
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UIs that were consistently slick and modern.
The language of the sessions—MCP, RAG, context refinement, agents meshes—reminds us that while these are crucial building blocks, most businesses think less in acronyms and more in outcomes and that we need to make sure we don't loose our audience!
Opening Up the Repository
One of the boldest announcements was Hyland’s decision to open source the repository at the core of CIC. It reflects Hyland’s evolution into a federated intelligent cloud and signals the beginning of a new category shaped by the Enterprise Context Engine. Signal is clear, Enterprise Context Engine is what Hyland delivers now. By opening the foundation, Hyland lowers the barrier for organizations to experiment, integrate, and ultimately align with CIC.
Where Partners Add Value
Another key roadmap milestone: by 2026, third parties will be able to publish their own agents directly into CIC. This matters. It creates space for specialized solutions to become part of Hyland’s workflows.
For us, this is where ARender naturally fits. ARender is an advanced content viewer trusted by Hyland customers across Alfresco, Nuxeo, and OnBase environments. It brings capabilities like:
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Annotations for collaboration.
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Redaction and PII protection.
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Watermarking and secure sharing.
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Fast, high-fidelity rendering at scale.
With an agentic approach, these capabilities could plug directly into CIC’s ecosystem—adding value exactly where sensitive information and compliance matter most.
Bridging Content Into CIC
Connectivity was another theme. Some CIC use cases don’t require content movement, but others—like knowledge discovery (Hyland’s version of RAG)—do. Today, connectors cover Hyland repositories, SharePoint, and Box, with more promised in the future.
This is where Fast2 plays a crucial role. Fast2 is a migration and synchronization engine with deep connectors to Filenet, Documentum, OpenText, and many others. It enables organizations to:
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Synchronize content regularly into CIC.
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Migrate repositories when moving to Hyland.
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Or run hybrid scenarios, combining on-premises and cloud.
In other words: Fast2 helps make sure all of an enterprise’s content—not just the “easy” sources—can participate in Hyland’s AI vision.
Closing Thought
CommunityLIVE 2025 confirmed what was announced last year: Hyland is reshaping the content services landscape with AI, openness, and federation.
For us, the opportunity is clear:
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ARender enhances how Hyland customers view, secure, and collaborate on content and we will play a role in an agentic fashion;.
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Fast2 ensures their legacy and external repositories are connected, synchronized, and ready for CIC waiting for more native connectivity.
And while I’m still wondering how casinos make money on blackjack when so many colleagues (and myself!) returned smiling from Fremont Street, the answer might still be blowing in the wind!