Field notes from the rooms where enterprise AI gets decidedNext room: Singapore & New York · 13 Nov 2026
CIO Vision

Leadership priorities

AI strategy: what enterprise AI leaders are working on

59%

of 734 themed leaders · 432 leaders

AI strategy
59%
Digital transformation
53%
Operational efficiency
48%
Analytics & decisions
38%
Talent & culture
36%
Growth & partnerships
31%
Data platforms
28%
Data governance
26%
Customer experience
21%
Share of 734 themed leaders, by theme

Source: 734 CIO Vision leader profiles with at least one priority theme, from 742 leaders in the series. Leaders can be counted in more than one theme.

Leaders deciding where AI creates value, which use cases to fund and how to move them from pilot to production. The work covers roadmaps, operating models, investment cases and executive alignment.

AIM ResearchCIO AI Priorities 2027

Agentic AI leads the 2027 agenda

73% of CIOs show clear evidence of agentic work, and agent engineering is already a job title at 69 companies.

Read the finding
73%of CIOs show agentic work
69companies hiring agent engineers
29%of the US priority mix
Index score6.0 of 12 · rank 1 of 10

Leaders working on AI strategy

All 431 leaders
Alaa MoussawiAnil PrasadAnubha GaurArchaana PattabhiiCyrus PangDavid LowDeepti SinghDr Knarig ArabshianEJ KimEmmanuel Bloch-FischGeet BhanawatGirish NadkarniGopichand MannavaIpshita ChakrabortyJohn AngKelvin LeKevin BowlingLee SarkinMaharaj MukherjeeManish KumarMarcel MeyerMarko CetkovicMichael ShawNaveen BolisettiNirmal JingarPrachi MondaiykaRam ThilakRohan ChopraSanthosh MahendiranSujjath AhmedTsvi GalViking WongWee Ming KohXin JinKartik RaoKurt BrissettPriya HunurRobert WilsonAbhishek TanejaAndrew LiBianca HoCara YickDaniel LiEsther WuJacky TingJimmy AuMichael FlynnRomain BarraudSayali PimpalkarVincent KwanVincent SeeYannick EvenAmit DingareAnand SinghalAvidypta GuhaBinu VargheseBob SpeakmanBrian BennDan WolfDr. Vijay GandapodiEthiraj PurushothamanGaurav SingalJake ElsonJatinear GivensKyle LarsonMark LawsonMayur NarsudeMichael GuoPankaj SingalPeter VennelPrachi PriyaRichard LeatonRob MilsteadSatya A.Shashank KadetotadShuki LichtShyam VaidhyanathanSiddharth GoyalVarun TottempudiVipul GuptaZiad ChaudhryAdi RahmanBudiman R.Chirag SukhadiaDarwin PosoDr. Irvan Bastian AriefEhetesham AbbasEndy LambeyErwin SusiloFerdian RobiantoFrenny NaHerman WidjajaIhsan FauziJohan SulaimanKukuh T WicaksonoKunal KairaMadhan SeduramanMelvin Jeffrey ChanMohammed AlabsiPoetri HeriningtyasRestu KresnadiRhezandra PriatamaRonny TanSufyan MasoodToni Hutomo PutroVaruna De Wass GunawardVincent HandaraYulhendra YulhendraAddhyan PandeyAkansha SaxenaBehlul SakaBijan VafaeiBo PengCathy KiriakosCynthia PekronDessa GypaloErin MittenGunjan KheraJimmy YangJoe LiuLily LiMichelangelo D' AgostinoNalini PolavarapuRajaraman SrinivasanRaju DebroyRamon BaezRockwell ScottSamir ShahShuen MeiTobias GlitterstamVijay RajandramAdrien WartelAhmad FaridAkihiko KawanoAtish KumarDemian IchinoseDewa SiswantoDurjoy PatranabishFigen UlgenHitoshi NakayamaJumpei OkamotoKamran MemonKenji HiramotoKohei NishidaKunal KushwahaLi ShiyingxueManzur MahtabMasaru HashimotoMasato TakagiMasayuki KuboMayoran RajendraNishant TembulkarRasool AghdamSuigen KoideTaiki FukunagaTakahiko SugibayashiTakao SuzukiTomokazu TajiriYoshimichi MatsumuraAbhiraj AvadhaniAlain BoeyAlex ChiAlex CK YapAna Anastasia LitovchenkoAzlan AhmadBee Teng LimBudiman BujangDarryl MaDatin Dr. Ts. Habsah NordinDr. Muhsin HassanFabian Teja BoegershausenFreddy LooHong H. OngIffah Illani IsmailIja MohanIkhsan Adha IsaKarSin NgKhadijah JasniKong Siong LinLim Kim WuiNikki GeeSerena SeeTristan EljedTs. Izzat AzizTs. Narayanan ChidambaramVictor CheongYew Jin KangZaki PondrenAnjum KhurshidBharath SattiDave MurrayDr. Katia WalshHimanshu JainJacqui NevilsJaya GwalaniKamal DistellLakshmanan MeyyappanManish NigamNirav ParikhNisheeth ChaudharyNurtekin SavasRaghu KolathRajesh RamaswamySubhasis BhattacharyaTrang NguyenVictor S.Y. LoVikas SachdevaAbhinav MangalAjinkya MoreDejan JovanovElan PanneerselvamGopal RenganathanJoshua OnffroyManoj HemanthMeenakshi NarayanNamo TiwariParas DoshiPatrick BangertPrakhar MehrotraPrasanth PalaRajit SahaRamin MobasseriSachin DangayachSamiksha GourSharad MathurSiwei ShenSukhveer SinghSuman BhattacharyaSumesh KumarSuresh TeckchandaniTony BatallaVishwa RamYogesh KandlurAamer CharaniaAhmed MunirDon YuanJagadeesh TupakulaKaren NogueiraKarthikeyan IlangovanKrishna Kishore GajjalaLatheef SyedMohan MenonSailesh Bharathwaaj KrishnamurthySailesh MishraSandeep AhluwaliaSumeer KhosaTheodore JagrupTy EastVeeru RamaswamyVino KingstonAnusua (Anu) TrivediAradhna C.Ashleigh BynumBhairav MehtaDong YuEgor PushkinJohn KahanKen JohnstonNaqi KhanPrukalpa SankarRemy ThellierRohit DudaniSriram SankaranSuresh PunnaVenkat SurapaneniBrijesh PandyaHonglin ZhangNatalie (Natz) QueTerence Kok Wai ChuenVishnu NanduriAndré Michel VargasBrian KleberCrystal FloresHeather WoodHoang RichterHovannes DanielsJake RadenJamil BadrudeenJon MorraJonathan SmithMumtaz VauhkonenNathan WanRajan NarayananTosin AlabiAdam FreemanAjay KumarAltaf PatelAntje BustamanteAyo BabajideDayanidhi M AadaliEffie KilmerGerald SchmidtJP BhamuMasood AlamNeil ThewlisNikhil AsthanaShantanu LodhSudesh JogSukant PandeyAmine MansourAwad El-SidiqDavid MillánDr. Saurabh PramanickGopi MarenJoseph NadiKader Es SlamiKevin NeogyKirill LyadovNithesh PejavarOmar AboutalebOsama Salem MoradPrakash LogaiyaRishi JainRizwan TufailRoman BesedaShashank SridharanZameel JafferAchuth RaoJames BarrettJan ChoyJanvi DoshiJulia CherashoreLaksh VaswaniMikhail LisovichNamrata ShahRahul LathSandy BalkinSashank MustiSharon M.Stanislav RosenbergThomas MavroudisVanja JosifovskiAdris MisraAlexander LissAndrew BeierAndrew DouglasAnsar KassimAnupam PattanayakArjun SrinivasanArun MehtaArun VermaArvind RajagopalanAsh DhuparAshok JakatiAshwin ThotaAvijit ChatterjeeBijit GhoshBillie S.Bob RappChirag AgrawalDani DhimanDarren BullockDavid FogartyDesmond GrantDmitry MensheninDr. Ahmad HaiderDr. Joe KopaczElizabeth BarayugaEsra KasapogluFaten AbdullatifFrançois MillardGanesh SivakumarGaurav ShahGeorge WangGiorgio SuighiGowtham NairGregory RyslikHamlet KhachatryanIsmail Khan MohammedJabir PatelJude FrancisJulio PeironcelyKarthik ChallaKhaled AbousamakLohith DeshpandeMahmood AbdullaMaja PanticMajoni MaumbeMan Chon (Kevin)Manav MisraMarco HoppenbrouwerMarcos AcostaMatthew KniessMichael CheresoMichael DownMiguel OuroMo ChaaraMohamed Modhaffer SaidiPankaj ChopraParminder BhatiaPooja DewanPraveen MoturuPrince PaulrajPriscilla NagashimaRajeev KapurRajkumar BondugulaRanjit VidhaniRavinath KausikRobert GaragiolaRooshana PurnynSabaita MohsinSachin DwivediSayeed ShariffScott BockheimShailesh JainSheeba Sultan HasnainSid Ahmed BenraouaneSnehal KaranjkarSreenivas GadharSrinivas AkellaSubhashini TripuraneniSudipto GhoseSujith UnnikrishnanSumit AroraTim RiddleTodd LilienthalToni BarutiVeronica VilskiVijay JakkaVishal ChawlaVishal GargVishal ShyamsunderWade MossWaqas ButtWendy ZhangXi LiangDamian BohMichael P HutchinsonAndrea FarrisDebjit NagMargo F.

Conversations in the room

Panel Discussion: Agentic AI and the Future of Enterprise Growth

The future of enterprise growth is closely tied to the adoption of agentic AI, which offers capabilities far beyond traditional AI by enabling autonomous execution. This panel will examine how agentic AI enables continuous improvement in business processes, drives competitive differentiation through faster innovation cycles, and supports customer experiences. Leaders will discuss how to build resilient enterprise architectures that fully leverage agentic AI’s potential. They will also explore strategies for aligning AI initiatives with organizational goals, addressing ethical and governance considerations, and preparing the workforce for AI-driven transformation.

Panel Discussion: Transforming Enterprises with AI - The Success Stories

As AI adoption expands from experimentation to enterprise-level implementation, understanding sector-spanning success stories becomes essential. This panel will explore how AI drives operational efficiency, smarter decision-making, and personalized experiences at scale. Leaders will discuss methods to align AI initiatives with business goals and address pressing issues around ethics, governance, and workforce adaptation. Panelists will examine methods for turning AI insights into actionable strategies that impact business performance.

Panel Discussion : Transforming Industries with AI: Enterprise Success Stories

As AI adoption expands from experimentation to enterprise-level implementation, understanding sector-spanning success stories becomes essential. This panel will explore how AI drives operational efficiency, smarter decision-making, and personalized experiences at scale. Leaders will discuss methods to align AI initiatives with business goals and address pressing issues around ethics, governance, and workforce adaptation. Panelists will examine methods for turning AI insights into actionable strategies that impact business performance.

Open Roundtable: The Hidden Cost of AI at Scale

Enterprise AI initiatives in 2026 carry costs that never appear on roadmaps — workforce trust under pressure, ungoverned tools spreading faster than policy can keep up with, and fragmented stacks that accumulated before anyone had a consolidation strategy. This roundtable examines the operational realities that keep leaders up at night: how to drive AI adoption without losing the people you need, how to govern what you can no longer fully see, and how to build toward agentic AI when the foundation beneath it was never designed to scale.

The Vision Talk : Agentic AI Is Not an Automation Strategy. It Is an Operating Model Question.

As organizations move from AI experimentation to agentic AI, treating agents simply as the next step in automation can prevent successful adoption. This talk explores why deploying agentic AI requires leaders to rethink the operating model, particularly around decision-making authority, accountability, and the data foundation that agents rely on. Through a relatable end-to-end customer journey in the property development industry, the session examines how agentic AI can transform customer service across multiple touchpoints and departments, while highlighting where these workflows can break down. The discussion will explore the key organizational decisions leaders need to make before putting their first AI agent into production.

The Vision Talk: AI Transformation - New Ways Of Working

The next phase moves AI beyond pilots into how the enterprise actually runs. Priorities follow business value and ROI, starting with supply chain, customer service, order entry, and software development. A dedicated enablement team drives delivery on a foundation of disciplined buy-versus-build decisions, a secure platform and AI-ready data products. Tiers of training builds an AI-first culture, while live governance policies keep adoption responsible and fast.

Show all 24 conversations

Open Roundtable: The Hidden Cost of AI at Scale [オープンラウンドテーブル：AIスケールの隠れたコスト]

Enterprise AI initiatives in 2026 carry costs that never appear on roadmaps — workforce trust under pressure, ungoverned tools spreading faster than policy can follow, and fragmented stacks that accumulated before anyone had a consolidation strategy. This roundtable examines the operational realities that keep leaders up at night: how to drive AI adoption without losing the people you need, how to govern what you can no longer fully see, and how to build toward agentic AI when the foundation beneath it was never designed to scale. [2026年のエンタープライズAIイニシアティブには、ロードマップには決して現れないコストが伴います――プレッシャーにさらされる従業員の信頼、ポリシーが追いつかないまま拡散するガバナンス不在のツール、そして統合戦略が生まれる前に積み重なったサイロ化されたシステム。このラウンドテーブルでは、リーダーたちが夜も眠れないほど悩む運用上の現実を深く掘り下げます。必要な人材を失わずにAI導入を推進する方法、もはや全容を把握しきれないものをいかにガバナンスするか、そしてスケールを想定して設計されていなかった基盤の上で、エージェンティックAIに向けてどう構築していくか――これらの問いに向き合います。]

Panel Discussion: Agentic AI and the Future of Enterprise Growth [パネルディスカッション：エージェンティックAIとエンタープライズ成長の未来]

The future of enterprise growth is closely tied to the adoption of agentic AI, which offers capabilities far beyond traditional AI by enabling autonomous execution. This panel will examine how agentic AI enables continuous improvement in business processes, drives competitive differentiation through faster innovation cycles, and supports customer experiences. Leaders will discuss how to build resilient enterprise architectures that fully leverage agentic AI’s potential. They will also explore strategies for aligning AI initiatives with organizational goals, addressing ethical and governance considerations, and preparing the workforce for AI-driven transformation. [エンタープライズの成長の未来は、自律的な実行を可能にするエージェンティックAIの導入と密接に結びついています。このパネルでは、エージェンティックAIがビジネスプロセスの継続的な改善をどのように実現し、より速いイノベーションサイクルを通じて競争上の差別化を促進し、顧客体験を支えるかを検討します。リーダーたちは、エージェンティックAIのポテンシャルを最大限に活用するための強靭なエンタープライズアーキテクチャの構築方法について議論します。また、AIイニシアティブを組織目標と整合させ、倫理・ガバナンス上の課題に対応し、AI主導の変革に向けて人材を準備するための戦略についても考察します。]

Panel Discussion : Transforming Industries with AI: Enterprise Success Stories [パネルディスカッション：AIが産業を変える――エンタープライズ成功事例]

As AI adoption expands from experimentation to enterprise-level implementation, understanding sector-spanning success stories becomes essential. This panel will explore how AI drives operational efficiency, smarter decision-making, and personalized experiences at scale. Leaders will discuss methods to align AI initiatives with business goals and address pressing issues around ethics, governance, and workforce adaptation. Panelists will examine methods for turning AI insights into actionable strategies that impact business performance. [AI導入が実験段階からエンタープライズレベルの実装へと拡大する中、業界を横断した成功事例から学ぶことの重要性が増しています。このパネルでは、AIが業務効率の向上、より高度な意思決定、そして大規模なパーソナライズされた顧客体験をどのように実現しているかを探ります。リーダーたちは、AIイニシアティブをビジネス目標と整合させる方法、倫理・ガバナンス・人材適応といった課題への対応策について議論します。AIから得られるインサイトを、ビジネスパフォーマンスに直結する実行可能な戦略へと転換するアプローチを考察します。]

Open Roundtable : The Hidden Cost of AI at Scale

Enterprise AI initiatives in 2026 carry costs that never appear on roadmaps — workforce trust under pressure, ungoverned tools spreading faster than policy can follow, and fragmented stacks that accumulated before anyone had a consolidation strategy. This roundtable examines the operational realities that keep leaders up at night: how to drive AI adoption without losing the people you need, how to govern what you can no longer fully see, and how to build toward agentic AI when the foundation beneath it was never designed to scale.

Open Roundtable: Building the AI Native Organization

Becoming an AI-native organisation isn't just about adopting new technology; it's a transformation spanning people, data, and strategy. It starts with culture: shifting AI from a specialist tool to an embedded capability that augments every role. Even with the right mindset, AI is only as powerful as the data beneath it. The real value often lies hidden in the connections between data silos, not within them. Organisations that uncover and reason across these relationships unlock insights that flat, siloed data cannot reveal. Get culture and connected data right, and competitive advantage follows.This roundtable explores the journey from AI adoption to AI-native, examining the cultural shifts required, the data architectures that enable it, and how organisations that master both will outpace the competition.

Panel Discussion: Transforming Industries with AI: Enterprise Success Stories

As AI adoption expands from experimentation to enterprise-level implementation, understanding sector-spanning success stories becomes essential. This panel will explore how AI drives operational efficiency, smarter decision-making, and personalized experiences at scale. Leaders will discuss methods to align AI initiatives with business goals and address pressing issues around ethics, governance, and workforce adaptation. Panelists will examine methods for turning AI insights into actionable strategies that impact business performance.

Panel Discussion: The Boardroom Conversation - How CXOs Shape AI Strategy

As AI becomes central to business transformation, its direction is increasingly being shaped in the boardroom. No longer just a technology initiative, AI strategy now sits at the intersection of leadership, culture, and enterprise vision. This discussion will explore how CEOs, CDOs, and CIOs can align on defining AI priorities, balancing innovation with governance, and ensuring measurable business outcomes. The panel will also examine how executive collaboration can bridge the gap between experimentation and enterprise-wide adoption—turning AI from a tool into a core driver of competitive advantage.

The Vision Talk: Agentic AI: From Hype to Value

As Agentic AI matures, enterprise focus is rapidly shifting from PoCs to scalable implementations that drive measurable ROI. This keynote cuts through the hype to give C-suite leaders a clear-eyed view of what Agentic AI is, and isn’t, why so many initiatives fail to cross into production, and what distinguishes organizations already turning early momentum into compounding value. Attendees will leave with a practical vision for where agentic systems fit, what conditions enable success, and how to approach adoption with the right balance of ambition, governance, and business discipline.

Open Roundtable : Building the AI Native Organization

Becoming an AI-native organisation isn't just about adopting new technology; it's a transformation spanning people, data, and strategy. It starts with culture: shifting AI from a specialist tool to an embedded capability that augments every role. Even with the right mindset, AI is only as powerful as the data beneath it. The real value often lies hidden in the connections between data silos, not within them. Organisations that uncover and reason across these relationships unlock insights that flat, siloed data cannot reveal. Get culture and connected data right, and competitive advantage follows. This roundtable explores the journey from AI adoption to AI-native, examining the cultural shifts required, the data architectures that enable it, and how organisations that master both will outpace the competition.

The Vision Talk : Government and the Inevitable AI Change

This talk explores how most organizations frame AI as a question of tools, models, or scale, while the practical issue is much deeper—understanding data, setting up processes, and ensuring people can use them proficiently. Without clear governance, defined data limits, and agreement on how things should be used, adoption creates risk instead of benefit and erodes trust. The future of AI depends not on speed of implementation, but on fulfilling the prerequisites that make adoption structured, dependable, and capable of delivering measurable value.

Panel Discussion : The Boardroom Conversation - How CXOs Shape AI Strategy

As AI becomes central to business transformation, its direction is increasingly being shaped in the boardroom. No longer just a technology initiative, AI strategy now sits at the intersection of leadership, culture, and enterprise vision. This discussion will explore how CXOs can align on defining AI priorities, balancing innovation with governance, and ensuring measurable business outcomes. The panel will also examine how executive collaboration can bridge the gap between experimentation and enterprise-wide adoption—turning AI from a tool into a core driver of competitive advantage.

Panel Discussion : The Boardroom Conversation - How CEOs, CDOs and CIOs Shape AI Strategy

As AI becomes central to business transformation, its direction is increasingly being shaped in the boardroom. No longer just a technology initiative, AI strategy now sits at the intersection of leadership, culture, and enterprise vision. This discussion will explore how CEOs, CDOs, and CIOs can align on defining AI priorities, balancing innovation with governance, and ensuring measurable business outcomes. The panel will also examine how executive collaboration can bridge the gap between experimentation and enterprise-wide adoption—turning AI from a tool into a core driver of competitive advantage.

Panel Discussion: Transforming Industries with AI - Enterprise Success Stories

As AI adoption expands from experimentation to enterprise-level implementation, understanding sector-spanning success stories becomes essential. This panel will explore how AI drives operational efficiency, smarter decision-making, and personalized experiences at scale. Leaders will discuss methods to align AI initiatives with business goals and address pressing issues around ethics, governance, and workforce adaptation. Panelists will examine methods for turning AI insights into actionable strategies that impact business performance.

Vision Talk: From AI Strategy to AI-Native Execution:

The evolution of the data and AI leader’s scope - from data warehousing and BI to generative and agentic AI - and why this shift fundamentally changes expectations of impact and accountability. How governments can deliver a quantum leap in citizen experience by moving beyond bolted-on AI toward truly AI-native platforms, and the realities of doing this at scale in a regulated environment. Key lessons from execution: building AI talent at scale, resisting technology hype cycles, and anchoring AI transformation in outcomes, trust, and disciplined operating models.

The Illusion of AI Productivity — Why AI ROI Slips Away—and Four Enterprise Stories That Solved It

In this keynote-style talk, Rémy Thellier confronts the “illusion of AI productivity”—the growing gap between individual time savings and enterprise-level ROI. While AI adoption is accelerating, most organizations still struggle to translate usage into measurable economic outcomes. The core argument is simple: ROI doesn’t fail because models aren’t good enough; it fails because workflows, governance, operating models, and measurement systems aren’t redesigned to capture value. To move from pilots to profit, Rémy is joined by four guest leaders from four of Snowflake’s most strategic AI/ML ecosystem partners. Together, they present a series of customer stories showing how enterprises convert AI from isolated productivity boosts into measurable financial impact—by embedding AI into governed data foundations, integrating it directly into operational workflows, and tying initiatives to concrete economic levers: cycle-time reduction that accelerates revenue, external spend compression, and operational risk reduction. Examples include an agentic application for IT software license management that identifies waste and automates reclamation, and a centralized, AI-powered marketing & sales decision engine that unifies signals across channels to improve pipeline quality, conversion, and execution speed. Designed for CDOs and CAIOs, the session delivers pragmatic shortcuts to results: repeatable patterns, proven metrics, and implementation playbooks that help leaders move beyond “hours saved” to board-ready outcomes—faster time-to-value, safer scale, and durable ROI.

Context graphs: The missing component in the AI stack

As agents take on more decisions, preserving how and why those decisions are made becomes critical – not just for accuracy, but also for trust, governance, and explainability. Join Neo4j Field CTO Jesús Barrasa as he explores how context graphs are the connective tissue that lets AI systems make informed & transparent decisions and achieve better outcomes over time.

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