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

Leadership priorities

Data governance: what enterprise AI leaders are working on

26%

of 734 themed leaders · 193 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 making enterprise data trustworthy, secure and compliant. The work covers data quality, ownership, privacy, regulation and responsible AI controls.

AIM ResearchCIO AI Priorities 2027

Governance catches up with agents in 2027

AI governance hiring is forecast to rise from 21% of enterprises to about a third as India's DPDP rules (13 May 2027) and the EU AI Act's high-risk rules (2 December 2027) take effect.

Read the finding
21%hiring for governance today
34%forecast by end-2027
184agent-heavy enterprises with no AI security signal
Index score1.5 of 12 · rank 6 of 10

Leaders working on Data governance

All 193 leaders
Anil PrasadArchaana PattabhiiDeepti SinghGopichand MannavaJohn AngKodjo HoganLee SarkinMaharaj MukherjeeManish KumarMarko CetkovicSpriha G.Xin JinTahira ShaheenAaron JonesCara YickVincent KwanAmit DingareAnand SinghalAvidypta GuhaBinu VargheseBob SpeakmanDan WolfDr. Vijay GandapodiEthiraj PurushothamanGaurav SingalJatinear GivensKyle LarsonMark LawsonMayur NarsudeMichael GuoPankaj SingalPeter VennelPrachi PriyaRichard LeatonRob MilsteadSatya A.Shashank KadetotadShuki LichtSiddharth GoyalVarun TottempudiBudiyantoDarwin PosoDavid LiswandiEhetesham AbbasEndy LambeyFrenny NaJohan SulaimanKunal KairaRestu KresnadiRhezandra PriatamaToni Hutomo PutroWahyu WicaksanaAddhyan PandeyAlice HuangBijan VafaeiBo PengCathy KiriakosCynthia PekronDessa GypaloNalini PolavarapuRajaraman SrinivasanRaju DebroyRamon BaezRockwell ScottShuen MeiVijay RajandramVishal PandyaDemian IchinoseFigen UlgenJumpei OkamotoKamran MemonKenji HiramotoKohei NishidaManzur MahtabMasaru HashimotoMasato TakagiMasayuki KuboNishant TembulkarRasool AghdamTakahiko SugibayashiAlex CK YapAzlan AhmadBee Teng LimDatin Dr. Ts. Habsah NordinDr. Sadesh ManikamHong H. OngIffah Illani IsmailJin Shi CheongTristan EljedAnjum KhurshidBharath SattiJackie CaraballoJaya GwalaniKamal DistellMeghan Barrett WelchNirav ParikhNurtekin SavasVictor S.Y. LoDejan JovanovMeenakshi NarayanRamin MobasseriSharad MathurAhmed MunirDon YuanJoe ChoKrishna Kishore GajjalaLatheef SyedMike TurnerMohan MenonSumeer KhosaVino KingstonEgor PushkinJacques VilarJohn KahanJonathan BarriosKen JohnstonPrukalpa SankarRohit DudaniScott WestDeep ThomasSimon GooEric KimHeather WoodTosin AlabiAyo BabajideEffie KilmerNatalie JakomisNikhil AsthanaRoxanne Howdle-RoweSukant PandeyAwad El-SidiqGopi MarenKartik IyerRizwan TufailVictor AdewusiJanvi DoshiJulia CherashoreOran BarkaiSharon M.Shiva KumaraSrini MasanamThomas MavroudisAdnan MohammedAnkur JainArjun SrinivasanAsh DhuparBenito SantoroBijit GhoshBillie S.Biswajit MahapatraCorinne StroumDavid FogartyDr. Ahmad HaiderEric BruningGeorge WangGyan Prakash SrivastavaIsmail Khan MohammedKhaled AbousamakMajoni MaumbeManav MisraMarco HoppenbrouwerMatthew KniessMichael CheresoMo ChaaraNarayan LebakaPraveen MoturuPrince PaulrajRajeev KapurRani SinnasamyRavinath KausikRavindra HarveRichard LoweSachin DwivediScott NewtonSheetal BudhrajaSid Ahmed BenraouaneSravan KasarlaSreenivas GadharSudipto GhoseSujith UnnikrishnanSumit AroraTim RiddleUnais T.Vijay JakkaVince BiancoVishal GargVishal ShyamsunderWalid LassouedWaseem Akram SyedYahya YavuzMichael P HutchinsonDebjit 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.

The Vision Talk: Global Data Office: Looking inward through a progressive, AI-driven lens

As AI reshapes enterprise decision-making, the Global Data Office must evolve beyond traditional control and compliance. This executive presentation examines the progression from managing data as an asset to enabling data-driven decisions and delivering trusted data products. It explores how business strategy should guide Data and AI priorities, how human oversight must reflect decision risk, and how bounded autonomy can be introduced responsibly. Four practical use cases: Data Cataloging, Continuous Compliance, Data Quality and Trust, and the Data Marketplace, illustrate how organizations can reduce friction, strengthen trust, and connect governance to measurable business outcomes.

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: 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。]

The Vision Talk : AI Mind, Human Soul

AI is transforming organizations, but technology alone does not create lasting value. Drawing on insights from AI Mind, Human Soul and global research, this keynote explores how leadership, governance, people, and responsible AI come together to build intelligent, trusted organizations that move beyond digital transformation to deliver sustainable business impact and measurable outcomes.

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.

Vision Talk: Organizational Transformation: From Idea to Impact

Organization transformation sounds exciting and important, but can remain an abstract concept if there isn't a practical understanding of how to achieve it. This presentation will discuss how to move theory to impact for CIOs and IT Leaders looks to move their lead their organizations into the future. Topics will include AI, governance, strategy, alignment, and more

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.

Keynote: Guardrails at the Glass - Governing AI Where Work Actually Happens

For years, enterprise security has poured its energy into backend controls like DLP, CASB, network inspection, etc., all while sensitive data walks out the front door through the browser, one prompt and one paste at a time. It's time to move the guardrails upstream, to the glass itself, where users and AI actually meet. Join Jason Trunk, VP and Field CTO at Island, for a working session on front-end AI governance: practical approaches, tactical examples, and technology that's ready to deploy today.

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.

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.

Vision Talk: AI‑Ready Enterprises Are Built on Trust, Not Models

This opening Vision Talk will explore what it takes to build secure, AI-ready enterprises where innovation, trust, and execution operate in sync at scale. Moving beyond experimentation, the session will present a practical execution lens grounded in real enterprise realities across Southeast Asia, addressing regulatory complexity, cross-border data considerations, and ecosystem dependencies that ultimately shape successful AI outcomes.

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.

Related field notes

From CIO Vision Pulse

A published Pulse finding for this priority is not yet available.

Next rooms

New York
Singapore
Sydney
Austin