Info-Tech LIVE 2026 Draws Thousands of CIOs to Las Vegas to Tackle AI Execution and Enterprise Value

As organizations move beyond AI experimentation and begin embedding agentic capabilities into workflows, the global research and advisory firm set an agenda that prepared IT leaders to practically navigate new expectations about value realization, accountability, and execution. Throughout Info-Tech LIVE 2026, data-backed insights from analysts, speakers, and industry experts emphasized that the next phase of enterprise AI will not be defined by adoption alone, but by how effectively CIOs redesign operating models, strengthen data and security foundations, and decide which AI initiatives deserve investment.

Research from Info-Tech shared during the opening keynote reinforced the urgency of moving from AI enthusiasm to disciplined execution. Findings presented from the firm's AI Adoption in the Enterprise Survey revealed that 91% of IT executives are bullish on AI and 96% expect AI budgets to increase over the next 12 months. However, only 42% of organizations report cross-departmental AI adoption with measurable impact, and only 50% have a board-approved dedicated AI strategy. The findings underscore a central theme from LIVE 2026: AI value depends on clear ownership, deliberate investment choices, governance, data readiness, and measurable execution.

"Our 2026 edition of Info-Tech LIVE in Las Vegas made clear that CIOs are no longer trying to prove whether AI matters; they're now being asked to prove where it creates measurable value," says Chief Research Officer at Info-Tech Research Group, Gord Harrison. "Agentic IT requires a different operating discipline that connects value creation and control through stronger strategy, governance, data readiness, security, and measurement. As shared across keynotes, panels, analyst one-on-ones, and privately amongst peers at various networking events throughout the week, the leaders who succeed will be the ones who know which AI bets to make, which to stop, and how to scale the work that delivers real outcomes."

Key Sessions from Info-Tech LIVE 2026 in Las Vegas

Across the event, Info-Tech analysts and featured speakers outlined how technology leaders can prepare their organizations for more autonomous systems while maintaining control, resilience, and business alignment.

The 200+ sessions reflected the broader message carried through Info-Tech LIVE 2026 in Las Vegas: organizations are entering an era in which AI buy-in is no longer the central challenge, with execution becoming the differentiator. From agentic enterprise design and cybersecurity engineering to data-driven decision-making and CIO leadership, Info-Tech's largest event to date highlighted the need for IT leaders to select the right workflows, strengthen governance, define ownership, and scale AI only where it can create measurable value.

The following is a summary of several of the major themes explored at Info-Tech LIVE 2026 in Las Vegas:

• Agentic IT: From Hype to Value
  Opening the conference, Info-Tech Research Group CEO Tom Zehren challenged CIOs and senior IT leaders to move beyond AI hype and focus on the operating discipline required to convert AI demand into measurable enterprise value. The keynote introduced Info-Tech's Agentic IT Framework, built around four priorities: owning the AI mandate, picking the right AI bets, enforcing AI discipline, and proving and scaling AI value. Zehren's session also highlighted new Info-Tech survey findings showing that while IT executives are broadly bullish on AI, organizations still need stronger strategy, governance, data readiness, and execution models to realize impact.

• Reinventing Cybersecurity in the AI Era
  Technical Counselor Erik Avakian explored how AI is forcing cybersecurity leaders to rethink a discipline that was built for human-scale operations. His session framed threat detection and response, vulnerability management, and compliance management as engineering challenges rather than just security problems, as AI increases both the speed of attacks and the complexity of defenses. Avakian highlighted the need for security leaders to audit data and workflows, define guardrails before deploying agents, and prepare teams for new roles such as CyberAI agent supervisors and agent engineers.

• Designed for Autonomy: Inside the Agentic Enterprise
  On the mainstage, Carlene McCubbin, AVP of Agentic AI Implementation, explored what it takes to build an organization that runs on AI, not just one that uses it. The session articulated the shift from AI adoption to transformation, moving from assisted and augmented work to agentic workflows, orchestrated systems, and enterprise-wide compounding value. To achieve this shift, McCubbin explained that leaders must start with the right workflows, architect agents for governed execution, and ensure production-ready systems have clear ownership, bounded permissions, defined incident paths, and observable trace logs before scaling.

• Agents 2.0: Architect for Autonomy
  Martin Bufi, Principal Research Director, shared with attendees implementation evidence from a year of agentic AI development, including 13 prototypes, 63 agents built, and 123 tools created across 13 workflows and five domains. His keynote emphasized that autonomy without architecture creates risk, and that successful agentic systems must be mapped, engineered, and governed before they can scale. Bufi walked through practical lessons from the work, including the need to standardize workflows before automation, design agents around specific jobs rather than broad generalist tasks, build tool integrations deliberately, and ensure every agent can be measured, stopped, and improved.

• Become an Exponential CIO
  The keynote from Geoff Nielson, SVP of Brand, Reach & Influence, examined how the CIO mandate is evolving as technology becomes more central to enterprise performance. Nielson highlighted for the nearly 4,000 IT leaders in attendance the gap between where C-suite leaders expect CIOs to operate and where many IT departments are today, with many still constrained by firefighting, immature processes, resource scarcity, stakeholder pressure, and under-leveraged data. The eight drivers of IT success were also shared, including stakeholder satisfaction, strong core IT processes, leadership development, mission-critical project delivery, right-sized risk, vendor effectiveness, evidence-based decisions, and business transformation.

• Tech Trends 2027
  Executive Counselor Rob Meikle previewed the technology forces expected to shape IT decision-making in 2027 and beyond. The early look at the tech trends the firm is currently tracking urged leaders to move beyond instinct, hype, and headlines when placing technology bets, especially as agentic AI reshapes the technology stack, talent models, vendor markets, enterprise operations, and infrastructure decisions. For the Las Vegas gathering, Meikle outlined four major trend themes, including the shift in the IT stack to support agentic AI, the redrawing of talent and vendor strategies, the convergence of physical and digital operations, and the growing influence of geopolitical pressures on technology investment.

• Securing Agentic AI and the New Security Reality
  The presentation from Research Director Pearl Almeida focused on the controls organizations must prioritize before scaling agentic AI. During Almeida's talk, she emphasized that traditional security controls were built for predictable systems, while agentic AI introduces dynamic reasoning, shifting permissions, nondeterministic decisions, and autonomous loops. Almeida presented a layered approach to securing agents, including API security, MCP gateway enforcement, identity governance, logging, baselining, and monitoring, while framing autonomy boundaries as the new security perimeter for AI-enabled systems.

Through its research-driven agenda, Info-Tech LIVE 2026 in Las Vegas provided CIOs and senior IT leaders with practical insights into how agentic AI can be governed, secured, and scaled to deliver measurable business outcomes. The conference underscored that the path from hype to value requires more than technology adoption, including operating discipline, enterprise design, workforce readiness, and leadership capable of translating AI potential into organizational results.

Photos, press releases, and related assets are available on the LIVE Media Kit page. Keynote presentations from the event are also accessible through the Info-Tech LIVE Hub, offering additional access to the research, frameworks, and insights shared during the conference.

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Media Passes for Upcoming Events: Applications Open for Info-Tech LIVE 2026 in Barcelona and Toronto 

Media professionals, including journalists, bloggers, podcasters, and influencers, are invited to attend Info-Tech LIVE 2026 in Barcelona, September 22-23, 2026, or Info-Tech LIVE 2026 in Toronto, November 10-12, 2026, to gain exclusive access to research, content, and interviews with industry leaders for their audiences.

Media professionals looking to apply for media passes can contact [email protected] to secure their spot for a front-row seat to exclusive insights and launches that only happen at Info-Tech LIVE events. 

Exhibitor Opportunities  

Exhibitors are also invited to be part of Info-Tech LIVE and showcase their products and services to a highly engaged audience of IT decision-makers. For more information about becoming an Info-Tech LIVE exhibitor, please contact [email protected].  

About Info-Tech Research Group 

Info-Tech Research Group is the "get things done" partner for over 30,000 IT, HR, and marketing leaders worldwide. The fastest growing research and advisory firm, Info-Tech enables leaders to make well-informed decisions and transform their organizations through AI, strategic foresight, step-by-step methodologies, practical tools, industry-leading advisory, and training programs. For nearly 30 years, tens of thousands of private and public organizations have trusted Info-Tech to lead their most important initiatives through periods of change and deliver outcomes that truly matter. 

To learn more about Info-Tech's HR research and advisory services, visit McLean & Company, and for data-driven software buying insights and vendor evaluations, visit the firm's SoftwareReviews platform. 

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]. 

SOURCE Info-Tech Research Group