The keynotes drilled into the leadership disciplines and bold bets that separate tomorrow's IT winners from the pack. Featured speakers unpacked everything from building an exceptional IT leadership bench and steering high‑stakes digital gambles to sizing up the next wave of tech trends and reigniting motivation at the human level.
Key Highlights From Info-Tech LIVE 2025 in Last Vegas Day 2:
1. Systematically Improve IT: The Seven Secrets of Successful CIOs
Speaker: Geoff Nielson, SVP of Brand & Reach at Info-Tech Research Group
Geoff Nielson opened day two of Info-Tech LIVE 2025 by tackling a familiar pain point for the industry: IT departments trapped in "firefighting mode," viewed as operational support rather than strategic change agents. Nielson argued that escaping this cycle isn't about adding tools or headcount; rather, it requires a structural reset of how IT leads, aligns, and delivers value.
To that end, Nielson expanded on the IT Playbooks unveiled on day one by the firm's CEO, Tom Zehren. Info-Tech's newly launched IT Playbooks are five interlocking leadership playbooks for CIO, Infrastructure & Operations, Data, Applications, and Security. Each provides a clear cadence, accountability, and role-specific metrics so IT leaders can move in concert, not just in parallel.
Key takeaways
- Transformation is a team sport. The CIO must act as an architect and empower domain leads within applications, infrastructure & operations, security, data, and enterprise architecture to carry shared responsibility for modernization, AI adoption, and resilience.
- Playbooks turn ambition into traction. By standardizing strategy, governance, and key performance indicators (KPIs), the playbook framework enables leadership teams to shift from reactive tasks to proactive, high-impact initiatives.
- Measure what matters. Nielson urged attendees to track role-specific "satisfaction" metrics – such as IT satisfaction for CIOs or data culture scores for data leads – and then use feedback loops to prioritize improvements.
2. Winning With Big Bets in the Hyper Digital Era
Speaker: John Rossman, former Amazon executive and best-selling author
John Rossman argued that in today's hyper-digital marketplace, cautious, incremental projects rarely move the needle. Instead, companies need well-governed "big bets" that tackle transformational opportunities head-on. Yet many large initiatives stall because teams treat them purely as technology rollouts, overlook the riskiest assumptions, or fail to assign clear decision rights and incentives.
Key takeaways
- Bold beats incremental. Small, safe steps can lead to stagnation; well-framed big bets unlock outsized value.
- Work backward from outcomes. Rossman's "Build Backward" method starts with a press release-style end-state narrative, then maps experiments to validate the riskiest hypotheses first.
- Create clarity, sustain velocity. Teams use a shared shorthand to keep decisions focused and momentum high.
- Be an active skeptic. Big bet leaders ruthlessly test assumptions, kill weak ideas early, and redeploy resources toward opportunities with clear, risk-adjusted returns.
- Measure return on experimentation. A big bet experiment planner stack ranks unknowns and tracks how quickly each test reduces risk or unlocks value, so every experiment pays its way forward.
3. Tech Trends Retrospective and Sneak Peek
Speaker: Rob Meikle, Executive Counselor, Info-Tech Research Group
Rob Meikle likened Info-Tech's annual trend analysis to a compass for IT leaders, grounded in data and disciplined foresight, not hype. Looking back at 45 predictions made since 2017, Info-Tech counts 29 hits, unpacking why some technologies deliver sustained value while others stall.
Key takeaways
- Don't bet on predictions – pursue value. Success stories, such as Citizen Development 2.0, proved their worth by empowering an entire workforce, whereas vision-heavy plays, like the Metaverse, fizzled without a killer use case.
- Think like a venture capitalist. Diversify bets and map the drivers. IoT thrived because interoperability and analytics were in place. However, Blockchain 2.0 remained niche where feasibility lagged.
- Be a first mover on transformative tech. Early adopters of generative AI rewrote the competitive rules; arriving late to mandatory sustainability reporting showed how incremental plays yield limited upside.
Sneak peek – 2026 trends themes to watch
- Potential hits: Multiagent orchestration (automating knowledge work at scale) and AI as adversary and ally (AI-driven cyberdefense) top the list for broad applicability and value creation.
- Proceed with caution. Topics like purpose-built platforms may optimize high-compute workloads but lack the cross-industry impact needed for a breakout win.
Meikle's closing message: IT leaders shouldn't merely react to change; they should shape it. Turn uncertainty into opportunity and ensure IT remains a true value engine.
4. The Next Renaissance
Speaker: Zack Kass, Global AI Advisor, Former Head of Go-to-Market, OpenAI
Zack Kass delivered a keynote that explored how plummeting AI costs and rapidly advancing models are ushering in what he called a "Cambrian economic explosion." Kass' mission is to strip away the mystery around AI so leaders can shape, rather than fear, what comes next.
Key takeaways
- Three integration waves. Today's "enhanced apps" phase of ChatGPT-style copilots will give way to autonomous agents that act on our behalf and then, eventually, to a natural-language operating system that makes computing ambient and screen-lite.
- Unmetered intelligence. As inference costs approach zero, raw cognitive power becomes a utility. Real differentiation will come from how creatively organizations apply it.
- Risks to watch. Kass flagged four pitfalls – cognitive complacency, a drift toward virtual-first living, AI-enabled bad actors, and an impending identity-and-purpose crisis as work automates.
- Upside potential. AI can expand individual capability, deflate the cost of essentials like healthcare and education, and free time for richer human pursuits – if policy keeps pace.
- How to prepare. Leaders should:
- Learn how to learn. Adaptability outlasts any single skill.
- Master human qualities. Empathy, curiosity, and courage will matter more than rote knowledge.
- Cultivate optimism. Positive visions galvanize action and repel fear-driven paralysis.
Kass left the audience with a challenge: tell better stories about the future. "Optimism isn't naive," he said. "It's the fuel that turns uncertainty into a more human world."
5. Addictive Leadership Stories in the League: An Interview with Steve Reese, CIO of the Phoenix Suns
Speaker: Steve Reese, Vice President, Chief Information Officer, Phoenix Suns
CIO of the Phoenix Suns Steve Reese started his keynote presentation by asking the crowd a disarming question: "Are you the kind of leader you'd follow?" His answer centers on "addictive leadership" – not manipulation – which he explained is a style that makes people feel understood and driven by high purpose.
Key takeaways
- Motivation fuels engagement. Lasting performance comes from tapping the intrinsic "why," not just dangling extrinsic perks.
- Target the right part of the brain. Great leaders speak to the cortex, focusing on purpose, creativity, and strategy rather than relying on fear-based, reptilian instincts.
- Leverage the Reiss Motivational Profile. Sixteen core desires, such as curiosity, independence, and tranquility, combine uniquely for each person; aligning work to those drivers lights the spark.
- One size never fits all. Leaders must "read" each team member, match tasks to natural strengths, and design complementary teams.
- Case in point – Paul. Reese described transforming a disengaged employee into a high performer by tweaking the environment (e.g. providing quiet spaces or workout breaks) and offering autonomy and role clarity, proving that small, personalized changes often lead to better performance.
- The new leadership mandate. Modern IT demands leaders coach, adapt, and foster sustainable motivation because people stay for a purpose, not just for the pay.
Looking Ahead to Day 3 at Info-Tech LIVE 2025
The third and final day of the conference has a half-day agenda that will keep the pace brisk while zeroing in on three key themes: building the next generation of tech talent, practical lessons from high-performing IT leadership teams, and emerging frontiers, such as advanced AI and quantum computing. The third day of the conference will feature keynote sessions from Felix Schmidt, Carlene McCubbin, Geoff Nielson, and Jeremy Roberts.
Media Access to Info-Tech LIVE 2025
For media inquiries, including requests for interviews with featured speakers and experts to discuss what has been revealed at LIVE 2025 or for access to session recordings and additional content, please contact [email protected].
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About Info-Tech Research Group
Info-Tech Research Group is one of the world's leading research and advisory firms, proudly serving over 30,000 IT and HR professionals. The company produces unbiased, highly relevant research and provides advisory services to help leaders make strategic, timely, and well-informed decisions. For nearly 30 years, Info-Tech has partnered closely with teams to provide them with everything they need, from actionable tools to analyst guidance, ensuring they deliver measurable results for their organizations.
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Media professionals can register for unrestricted access to research across IT, HR, and software and hundreds of industry analysts through the firm's Media Insiders program. To gain access, contact [email protected].
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SOURCE Info-Tech Research Group
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