Many organizations pursue data products; however, sustaining their success seems challenging. This breakout session is a compilation of several case studies and best practice recommendations for D&A leaders who seek guidance in executing their data product strategy.

Generative AI technologies and techniques are evolving at an unprecedented pace, accompanied by significant hype, making it challenging for leaders to navigate this dynamic landscape. AI leaders can leverage this Hype Cycle to identify the innovations most worth pursuing as they shape and execute their AI strategies.

D&A and AI leaders, including CDAOs, continue to face challenges in demonstrating the value of D&A and AI initiatives. This session will provide a roadmap for gaining stakeholder buy-in, quantifying value and building a robust business case, learning from the successes of other organizations, and continuously measuring results and adjusting.

Join this roundtable of trailblazers and thought leaders for peer discussions on advancing women in IT leadership. Women attendees are invited to explore opportunities and challenges, and to share best practices for successfully navigating the path to IT leadership.

This session of Gartner’s top D&A predictions for 2026 will guide data and analytics leaders as they plan for the impact of AI across all aspects of data and analytics, including leadership, governance, talent, market, and the need for AI-ready data and a FinAI competency for value realization.

The role of the artificial intelligence leader has rapidly emerged as essential for enterprise survival. Gartner's AI leaders survey shows that 91% of high-maturity organizations report having dedicated AI leaders, and it is crucial for AI-driven transformation. This session discusses the essentials of the AI leader role and how it fulfills its purpose of creating an AI-first enterprise.

This session covers the use and output of Gartner’s AI-Ready Data Toolkit, which includes practices for both structured and unstructured data. The process develops metrics that “stack” as you progress from POCs to multicontext data use, operationalization and production support. The session also explains how to customize the toolkit with your own thresholds and readiness analysis.

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Organizations continue to struggle to prove the value of agentic analytics initiatives, often due to a disconnect in AI's ability to connect and interpret operational metrics. To unlock the full value of AI, you need a robust metrics framework. A metrics framework provides a structured approach to measure success by aligning high-level strategy with daily operations, enabling both human and agentic data-driven decision-making. By distilling strategy into clear, simple, actionable KPIs, these frameworks enhance transparency and yield insights for strategic recommendations and measurable business value.

Many organizations are wondering how GenAI will impact their D&A governance and management tools, and by extension, their D&A governance operations. This research provides an overview of how key D&A markets are incorporating GenAI capabilities and how these will change the nature of D&A governance.

Decisions AI leaders make regarding AI investments and the patterns by which employees embrace these technologies will shape the future of work. We will explore what we call ripple effects: the downstream consequences of AI adoption that influence workforce needs, the number of employees required, the nature of their roles and how work is organized. Get ahead of blind spots so AI investments deliver.

Analytics and business intelligence (ABI) platforms are increasingly integrating AI agents to transform how data is analyzed and insights are delivered. Data and analytics leaders need to proactively understand these shifts to maximize AI's business impact and ensure organizational readiness. Join this session to learn more.

RAG has emerged as a powerful approach for building advanced AI systems that combine the strengths of large language models with external knowledge sources. However, RAG solutions struggle with reliability and require a lot of experimentation. This session will address key questions to help determine the best design pattern and optimization for RAG implementations.

Snowflake and Databricks have become significant vendors to many enterprises, with increasing product offerings and a broad array of use cases. This session provides strategies and tactics to negotiate the best contractual deal and pose critical questions. D&A leaders will learn how their organizations can best estimate future usage needs, mitigate risk when negotiating with the vendor, discover how to best attain leverage, what is and is not leverage in Salesforce's view, etc.

This session covers practical steps, common mistakes to avoid, and key factors for launching data and maintaining a data catalog. Discover how to assess your organization’s metadata requirements, define clear goals, and apply best practices for a smooth implementation and ongoing success.

D&A leaders must develop DataOps as an essential practice to redefine their data management operations. This involves establishing business value before pursuing significant data engineering initiatives, and preventing duplicated efforts undertaken by different teams in managing the common metadata, security and observability of information assets within the data platforms.

AI agents are permeating applications and systems across organizations. Their flexibility is valuable in unpredictable environments where real-time monitoring and control aren’t practical. However, their adaptive strength comes with nondeterministic weaknesses. Increased autonomy and complexities in multiagent systems, compounded by GenAI models, dangerously raise uncertainty, prompting the question: are multiagent systems worth it?

Unlocking the full value of AI requires more than just technology. It demands a fundamental shift in how organizations are structured and how teams collaborate. This session equips D&A leaders and CDAOs with proven strategies to navigate the complexities.

In this roundtable, D&A leaders will discuss how they are balancing the centralization and decentralization of data management, empowering LOBs to achieve self-sufficiency while leveraging the benefits of a centralized data management function. They will also address how to maintain control over local initiatives and prevent the spread of risky patterns that are misaligned with governance policies.

Join us for a dessert reception on the Exhibit Showcase where you can engage with peers, Gartner experts, and exhibitors while enjoying delicious treats. Evaluate industry offerings that can move your business forward. Attend a theater session to see technology in action.

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Implement your target AI governance operating model by mapping governance pillars to key AI components and differentiating AI capabilities. This model should connect with other governance bodies and extend existing governance models to AI-specific considerations of trust, transparency and diversity.

The buzz: “Dashboards are dead.” Yet, they remain the backbone of enterprise analytics for operational oversight. GenAI is revolutionizing the space, promising to streamline migration and inject intelligence, but only 8% of new reports use it today. Explore the “death of dashboards” narrative, along with the opportunities and pitfalls of migrating to next-gen analytics.

Discover the essential steps for developing a successful AI strategy. This session will provide guidance on aligning AI initiatives with business goals to drive innovation and gain a competitive advantage.

As the CDAO role continues to evolve in the AI era, organizations face critical decisions about the direction and impact of their data leadership. This session explores the future of the CDAO through three distinct archetypes: Expert, Collaborator and Pioneer. Attendees will learn how to assess and choose the archetype that best aligns with their organization’s AI ambition and strategic goals. Attendees will leave with actionable insights to define their CDAO journey and position themselves and their organizations for success in a rapidly changing digital landscape.