Technology & Innovation Forum Central

Deciding At The Speed Of AI: The New Reality Of Tech Strategy

Thriving in the AI era is about building a strategy that knows when to accelerate, when to hold, and when to flip into survival mode without destabilizing the business. Drawing on Forrester’s volatility research and a decade of CIO scar tissue, this session delivers a working operating model for measuring what’s still valid, detecting when assumptions break, and pivoting in weeks instead of quarters.

Join this session to:

Measure the half-life of your most consequential decisions — and stop governing 18-month assumptions on 36-month review cycles
Learn how to use a four-part control loop (recognize, interrupt, fund, tune) that closes the gap between knowing and acting
Take home a portable diagnostic and reframe table — including the language that turns “tech debt” into a funded business priority in your next CFO conversation

Speakers:
Joseph Schiavone, Principal Analyst, Forrester

Enterprise Architecture: The Cutting Edge

Forrester’s most current data and case research show enterprise architecture (EA) penetration is rising, and the discipline is finding its feet as a strategic function. Underpinning this shift are the real-world experiences of today’s leading EA teams — the operating models and practices that are working (and not working) in large, complex enterprises. This session draws on those stories to separate ambition from reality and highlight what it takes to make EA a high-impact, outcome-oriented discipline.

Join this session to:

Understand the real state of enterprise architecture today (i.e., the struggles, counterevidence, where EA is genuinely turning the corner)
Learn how EA teams are evolving in practice, including org structures, governance models, metrics, and ways of working that are delivering measurable impact
Gain practical approaches to confront technical debt and ring-fence modernization before it erodes delivery capacity

Speakers:
Charles Betz, VP, Principal Analyst, Forrester

From Performative To Proven: Data And AI That Delivers

Not all data and AI initiatives are created equal. So, what makes something truly stand out? In this session, we’ll demystify what “best-in-class” looks like and highlight the patterns, decisions, and outcomes that separate meaningful impact from performative progress. Through candid examples and expert insight, we’ll explore what award-worthy excellence looks like behind the scenes — and how you can bring those same principles to your own organization.

Join this session to:

Distinguish between hype-driven and high-impact AI initiatives
Learn how leading organizations scale AI with purpose and accountability
Gain a clearer benchmark for what “good” really looks like — and how to get there

Speakers:
Kim Herrington, Senior Analyst, Forrester

11:45 am – 12:15 am CST

Breakout Sessions

AI Investment: Control The Chaos, Prove The Value

AI is amplifying the consequences of unfocused spend, unclear cost optimization strategies, and ill-defined business models to an 11 out of 10. As organizations scale AI, the stakes extend beyond cost control to revenue growth, monetization pathways, and sustainable value capture. Instill spend discipline from the onset with frameworks that drive clarity, accountability, and measurable business impact; ensuring AI spend translates into top-line growth, bottom-line operational margins, and defensible economic value.

Join this session to:

Understand the total cost of AI investments, how to track them, and how they’ll trend in the future
Hear perspectives on how the value of AI investments can be defined and tracked
Learn how to institutionalize the Strategic Control Plane to systematically manage the AI cost-benefit story

Speakers:
Greg Zorella, Principal Analyst, Forrester

Reimagining I&O: From Infrastructure Operator To Capability Platform

Even with modern platforms in place, many I&O organizations remain constrained by legacy roles, siloed teams, and outdated operating models. Over the next five years, I&O must reinvent itself, shifting from operating infrastructure to engineering, orchestrating, and governing business capabilities. This requires new team structures, new skills, and new ways of working that replace siloed execution with cross-functional, product-oriented ownership. I&O must also build trust with the business, working with partners to cocreate solutions and measure success through business outcomes. AI-driven interfaces and agents will also redefine how engineers interact with systems, shifting from tools and tickets to intent-driven, automated operations.

Join this session to:

Understand how the I&O role is changing and what it means for your organization
Explore different operating model options, including platform engineering and SRE
Learn how to shift from siloed teams to capability-focused structures and governance
Examine how new interfaces and automation will change how teams operate and deliver value

Speakers:
Andre Kindness, Principal Analyst, Forrester

AI Platforms Are Transforming Themselves And The Way Enterprises Build And Deliver Value

Enterprises are rushing to build the next generation of agentic applications to create emerging value. They also want to reinvigorate, reimagine, and reinvent their existing processes with tools and platforms that allow them to do so regularly and reliably. Enterprises are using AI platforms to help them architect and deliver agentic applications that are making a real impact to the business and doing so with reliability and explainability.

Join this session to:

Understand the expanding and changing landscape of AI platforms
Learn what emerging agentic architectures built with AI platforms look like
Hear different approaches enterprises can take to rationalize AI across their current platform investments

Speakers:
Rowan Curran, Principal Analyst, Forrester

11:45 am – 12:45 pm CST

Workshop: Build A Plan For AI-Ready Data

Most organizations are not starting from zero on data for AI — but agentic AI raises the bar from well-managed data to intelligence-ready data. Part one is familiar: double down on data fabric, governance, quality, timeliness, and integration to ensure trusted, accessible, and secure data — now with far less tolerance for gaps, latency, or inconsistency. Part two is new: invest in semantic layers, knowledge graphs, and vectorized representations of unstructured data to give agents the contextual understanding, relationships, and memory required to act with relevance and precision at scale.

Join this session to:

Understand why doubling down on data fabric and data governance is no longer optional — as agentic AI amplifies the risk of inconsistent, poorly governed, and inaccessible data
Learn the new data requirements for agentic AI, including knowledge graphs and context engineering, to deliver the context, semantics, and retrieval capabilities agents need to operate effectively at scale

Speakers:
Shylaja Nathan, Principal Analyst, Forrester

12:15 pm – 1:45 pm CST

Networking Lunch

1:50 pm – 2:10 pm CST

Guest Keynote: More Information To Come

2:15 pm – 2:35 pm CST

Keynote: The Cognitive Operating Model — AI In Context

Agentic AI takes autonomous actions and makes decisions inside your enterprise. This breaks operating models built on humans deciding and systems executing. The cognitive operating model shifts the enterprise from processes and apps to decision rights, defining what AI decides, where humans intervene, and how outcomes stay governed at scale. CIOs who successfully make this pivot move faster and turn strategy into action with control.

Join this session to:

Understand why AI breaks traditional IT operating models
Redesign decision rights across humans and AI
Govern faster, adaptive, and continuously learning systems

Speakers:
Charles Betz, VP, Principal Analyst, Forrester

2:55 pm – 3:40 pm CST

Breakout Sessions

Generating Your Future: Successful Strategies For Driving Business Transformation With AI Engineering

Businesses are winging it with generative and agentic tools. Without strategy, they are generating themselves into chaos and tremendous costs. But companies must move quickly to adopt AI tools and evolve how they run. Don’t jump headlong into the AI crevasse. Understand the best way to build your AI strategy and learn from companies who have forged ahead.

Join this session to:

Discover an approach to AI strategy that produces measurable value
Learn how companies are advancing their AI programs
Understand pitfalls so you don’t have to experience them
Get access to Forrester tools to help make it happen

Speakers:
Ken Parmelee, Principal Analyst, Forrester

Design For Capabilities: The New Infrastructure Foundation For AI

The AI revolution demands that businesses rethink their technology foundations to achieve business outcomes at scale. Meet this challenge with capability-driven architecture: identifying business level goals, evaluating risk, mapping those goals to critical capabilities in both resources and technology, defining the measurements required to achieve those goals, and developing patterns for evolution and improvement over time.

Join this session to:

Understand what capability-driven infrastructure means and why it matters
Identify how infrastructure decisions impact business outcomes such as speed, resilience, and cost
Understand how technology decisions will radically change previously non-technical parts of the business

Speakers:
Brent Ellis, Principal Analyst, Forrester

The Quantum And AI Opportunity

Interest in quantum computing is heating up, but what is it, and what is its real potential? This session will begin with an overview of quantum computing and its current and future trajectory and then highlight its potential uses with an emphasis on AI use cases, plus myth–busting the hype. Questions from the audience are encouraged!

Speakers:
Brian Hopkins, VP, Emerging Tech Portfolio, Forrester

2:55 pm – 3:55 pm CST

Workshop: Drive AI Adoption And Competitive Advantage Through Literacy And Fluency

Data democratization, data literacy, AI fluency, and cognitive sovereignty will not emerge from one-time training. They require a coordinated approach to content, communication, and governance that is rooted in business strategy and enabled by a learning culture, an AI-native ecosystem, and actualized AI-augmented employees. This session reframes AI literacy as an organizational capability, showing how to design a dynamic learning ecosystem that integrates personas, leadership activation, and psychological safety to accelerate adoption, reduce resistance, and build for long term competitive advantage.

Join this session to:

Identify why AI literacy programs stall despite strong technology investments
Redesign learning using personas, governance roles, and communication strategies
Build trust and curiosity across the human side of AI adoption

Speakers:
Kim Herrington, Senior Analyst, Forrester

3:40 pm – 4:10 pm CST

Coffee Break & Networking

Enjoy refreshments and snacks while networking with peers in the Partner Lounge.

4:10 pm – 4:55 pm CST

Breakout Sessions

Real-World Agentic AI Use Cases That Actually Scale In Enterprises

Agentic AI is moving from experiments to delegated work but only a few use cases deliver repeatable value. In this session, we’ll showcase successful enterprise deployments across enterprise business and services; what the agents do, how they were deployed, grounded in data, and where governance makes or breaks outcomes. Leave with a practical shortlist of use cases, the architecture choices that made (and did not break these deployments), and “don’t do this” lessons.

Join this session to:

Use Forrester’s 12-point model to decide which use cases make the cutting room floor
Determine high-ROI use cases you can operationalize in the short term
Learn trending AI deployment options and avoid common pitfalls

Speakers:
Faram Medhora, Principal Analyst, Forrester

Cloud And Infrastructure: Lessons From The Front Lines Of Modern IT

Cloud and infrastructure strategies have matured rapidly, yet most organizations still face fragmentation, cost volatility, architectural sprawl, and uneven platform adoption. This session moves beyond theory to examine real-world decisions, trade-offs, and outcomes from enterprise cloud and infrastructure teams. Drawing on practical examples, we explore what is working, where expectations fall short, and how organizations are adapting across platform engineering, cost management, and operating models.

Join this session to:

Understand where cloud and infrastructure strategies are delivering results — and where they are not
Learn from real-world examples of platform adoption, cost control, and modernization
Explore how leading companies structure governance, metrics, and operating models
Identify practical lessons to inform your cloud and infrastructure strategy

Speakers:
Andre Kindness, Principal Analyst, Forrester