Executive Summit

CIOs must navigate increasing complexity across hybrid and multicloud environments. Automation and AI-driven insights are essential to dynamically allocate resources, improve reliability, and align IT operations with business goals. By enhancing observability, enforcing best practices, and streamlining infrastructure management, IT leaders can reduce risk, accelerate issue resolution, and drive continuous optimization.

Join this interactive session to hear and share examples of:

• Automating infrastructure provisioning across hybrid environments
• Enforcing guardrails for continuous performance optimization
• Enhancing visibility to improve reliability and decision-making

As AI and digital transformation accelerate, CIOs must deliver agile, trusted data ecosystems that drive innovation and business value. Yet, legacy systems, data silos, and governance challenges persist.

Join this roundtable to discuss:

• Building a scalable, modern data foundation
• Balancing speed, performance, and trust
• Enabling innovation through unified data platforms

Technical debt is no longer just an IT hurdle—it’s a strategic challenge impacting agility, cost, and a CIO's ability to deliver a competitive advantage to the business.

 Join this boardroom to discuss:

• Assessing the current state of technical debt
• Prioritizing technical debt to deliver on business objectives
• Navigating speed vs. quality to maintain a competitive advantage 

Businesses stand to benefit from AI in unprecedented ways, but only if IT leaders overcome transformation challenges. This includes implementing a modern zero trust architecture to protect data and users, embracing AI while managing its risks, and handling the technical and financial implications of ever-expanding environments. A risk-based approach to security ensures CIOs deliver a secure, phased transformation.

Join this session to:

• Understand how zero trust and AI together, unlike firewalls, provide the strongest cyber defense by stopping threat actors from lateral movement within networks
• Learn strategies for protecting AI applications developed in data centers and the cloud, while preventing data leaks from public AI applications
• Discover how eliminating costly legacy hardware simplifies environments while cutting network and security costs

As organizations shift from experimenting with AI to practical adoption, CIOs must move beyond traditional IT management and define IT’s role in driving solutions to broader business challenges.

 Join this interactive session to walk away with:

• Practical steps for crafting an AI value delivery statement
• Strategies for managing costs and optimizing the bottom line during AI adoption
• Approaches for defining the CIO’s role in building organizational skills and readiness for AI

In an era where technology is a key driver of business success, aligning the IT operating model with overall business objectives is more crucial than ever.

Join this session to discuss:

• Identifying a suitable IT operating model for strategic alignment
• Leveraging organizational structure to drive transformation and innovation
• Measuring the effectiveness of a well-designed organizational structure

In an AI-driven world, talent is a strategic advantage and a catalyst for change — not just in IT, but across the enterprise. CIOs must take the lead in providing the workforce with the tools and confidence needed to be effective users and champions of innovation.

Join this session to discuss:

• Upskilling and reskilling employees at the pace of AI
• Partnering cross-functionally to develop a future-ready workforce
• Equipping the workforce with the tools and confidence needed to champion AI

Connect with like-minded peers in a one-on-one setting through Peer-to-Peer Meetings. You will be matched with peers in your community based on your shared interests and priorities.

Enterprise leaders are moving beyond traditional automation into the era of autonomous agents—AI systems that act independently, orchestrate complex workflows, and adapt in real time. Agentic AI is transforming how teams operate, redefining AI’s role from passive tools to proactive business enablers. Discover how practical frameworks and proven use cases are driving execution and strategic advantage.

Join Rakesh Gohel, Co‑author of Agentic AI: Reinventing Business & Work with AI Agents, as he explores:

• Actionable frameworks for deploying agentic AI in enterprise environments, from initial pilots to full-scale implementation
• Real-world use cases where autonomous agents are delivering measurable business outcomes
• Strategies for responsible implementation that balance innovation with effective risk management and organizational readiness

By embracing the role of strategic business partner, CIOs can ensure IT initiatives are purposefully aligned with business strategy, fostering a trusted and collaborative partnership between IT and its stakeholders.

Join this session to discuss:

• Collaborating with stakeholders to define objectives, goals and metrics
• Demonstrating IT's strategic contribution in terms of business value and outcomes
• Building trust, partnership and influence across the business

CIOs are uniquely positioned to unlock competitive advantage and drive transformative value for their organizations by identifying and leveraging relevant, emerging technologies. The challenge lies in sifting through hype to determine potential for real impact.

Join this session to discuss:

• Evaluating emerging technology and identifying use cases
• Measuring risk and determining resources required to generate value
• Fostering a forward-thinking mindset to navigate disruption effectively

In 2025, CIOs have rapidly shifted IT from a traditional service provider into a business-aligned, outcomes-driven partner. Vimarsh Bakaya, Distinguished VP, Advisory at Gartner, reveals key priorities and challenges CIOs are facing as they seek to drive strategic value, drawing on insights from Gartner’s CIO Peer Perspectives report.

Join this session to explore:

• Modernizing the IT operating model for value
• Enhancing leadership effectiveness through persuasive communication
• Demonstrating the business value of IT investment

Finish the day sharing lessons learned with your peers over light fare and drinks at this closing reception hosted by Gartner's San Francisco CIO Governing Body.