As AI moves from pilots to core infrastructure, organisations are being pushed to rethink structure, ownership and delivery patterns. This keynote explores the new operating models emerging across leading enterprises, why traditional workflows no longer fit and how CIOs can start designing environments where AI can grow safely and predictably. It’s about building the organisation around intelligence, not bolting it on.

CIOs in public and private sectors are being pushed by the same forces—AI, tighter budgets, rising cyber risk, but the way they respond is starting to diverge. Public leaders are fighting legacy systems and scrutiny, while private sector CIOs move faster but face sharper competitive pressure. This session explores where their worlds overlap, where they pull apart and why a new, blended model of digital leadership is beginning to emerge across both.

AI has become the headline, but the harder work is building systems that actually run, day in and day out, In this session, drawing on lessons from inside a regulated bank Jason Barry, Chief Digital Engineer at PTSB, explores bank’s payments modernisation journey to show why infrastructure, reliability and delivery discipline matter more than hype. The conversation looks at how those lessons are now shaping a practical, grounded approach to AI at scale.

The Ardonagh Group’s portfolio includes more than 50 insurance brands across 250+ offices globally, giving it access to a vast and powerful pool of data. But with such scale comes complexity and challenge in collating and analysing it to unlock value . Join CDO Shane Keating as he explores how he built a greenfield Analytics Lab to consolidate this information and how they use it to collaborate with clients and insurer partners to drive better outcomes across the insurance value chain.

Organisations are realising that idea stage AI isn’t enough anymore and are shifting their focus to tools that genuinely change how work gets done. This session explores what’s holding teams back, why adoption tends to stall after early wins and how CIOs can turn scattered experiments into dependable, everyday systems that actually deliver value.

Technology budgets are growing, but many CIOs are still asking what they’re really buying. As digital spend becomes permanent rather than exceptional, the pressure to link investment to clear direction is rising fast. This session looks at how CIOs are shifting from funding projects to shaping strategy — asking harder questions about impact, priorities and what success should actually look like.

As AI spreads across cloud platforms and everyday workflows, trust is starting to shift from systems to identities — human and machine alike. Decisions are increasingly shaped by AI agents acting at speed, often beyond direct human control. This session explores how CIOs are redefining identity, governance and oversight to keep decisions secure, confident and human‑led, even as autonomy quickly becomes the norm.

In this session we unpack what makes AI actually deliver inside an engineering organisation: team structures, integration patterns, deployment pipelines, cloud cost, feedback loops. The operating model underneath the tools. Andy Norton, VP Engineering at unicorn start-up Flipdish, shares hard-won patterns from 2 years embedding AI into the toolchain and the product, while moving from monolith to serverless with a 50-person team. What had to change, what refused to, and the fundamental decisions that made it stick. Walk away with a playbook you can put to work tomorrow.

Security teams are juggling sprawling toolsets, rising costs and increasing pressure to simplify without weakening defences. This discussion digs into how organisations are consolidating platforms, speeding up response times and improving posture through smarter, more integrated security strategies.

Technology is shifting faster than leadership models can keep up, and CIOs are being pulled into a new era defined by AI driven decisions, rising cyber pressure and data that powers every move. This panel looks at the behaviours, priorities and bets that will matter most over the next year, and why the organisations that move first will shape the pace for everyone else. It’s a fast, candid conversation about what’s coming and who’s ready for it.

What does successful transformation look like in practice? CIOs are moving beyond big ideas and using innovation in networks and technology to drive growth, build resilience and deliver better customer outcomes. This session explores how transformation becomes measurable, lasting business value—and how leaders are adapting that approach as geopolitical shifts begin to reshape risk, innovation and investment decisions.