AI, predicted to have a $19.9 trillion impact on the global economy by 2030, is reshaping economic landscapes, creating new revenue streams, and redefining competitive advantages. This session will provide unique insights and analysis drawn from IDC’s extensive study of CIOs and key decision-makers across South Africa. It will provide a deeper understanding of current and planned AI strategies and use case road maps, covering key topics such as AI-ready data, unified governance, fit-for-purpose and scalable infrastructure, and AI talent.

The Broadcom acquisition of VMware has fundamentally reset the economics of enterprise infrastructure, introducing a “hypervisor tax” that CIOs can no longer ignore. At a time when global pressures such as rising energy costs, geopolitical instability, and inflation are placing strain on IT budgets, the sharp increase in VMware licensing costs is forcing organisations to reconsider their long established virtualization strategies.

This session will unpack what the VMware licensing shift really means for enterprise cost structures and operational flexibility. It will explore practical, low-risk pathways to diversify or migrate away from VMware, including alternative hypervisors, hybrid architectures, and workload mobility strategies. Most importantly, it will equip CIOs with a decision framework to balance cost optimisation, performance, risk, and vendor independence.

In a world where every rand and dollar must work harder, the question is no longer whether to reconsider VMware – but how fast and how strategically you can regain control.

Explore how modern observability solutions are enabling enterprises to proactively identify, diagnose, and resolve issues before they impact business operations. This session will highlight how self-healing IT environments drive resilience, operational efficiency, and continuous business growth in an increasingly digital-first world.

Agentic systems are reshaping the enterprise from tools that assist humans to systems that act, decide, and coordinate with increasing independence. For CIOs, the real challenge is no longer simply adopting AI, but governing autonomy built on fragmented, sensitive, and often poorly understood data estates. This session examines the strategic fault lines beneath agentic AI: trust, visibility, accountability, and control. It will argue that the future belongs not to organisations with the most agents, but to those with the strongest data intelligence, governance foundations, and ability to operationalise trust at scale.

AI is transforming how enterprises compete—but realizing its full value requires the right foundation. This keynote explores how Distributed AI enables organizations to deploy intelligence wherever data is created, with speed, security, and flexibility. Discover how Equinix Distributed AI delivers purpose built infrastructure for high performance AI workloads across cloud, core, and edge. With seamless access to AI resources across 280+ interconnected data centers worldwide, businesses can connect to hyperscalers, AI factories, neo clouds, and edge locations through a vendor neutral ecosystem. Learn how low latency, private interconnections, and centralized governance help scale AI securely, maintain data sovereignty, and transform infrastructure into a competitive advantage.

This session cuts through the AI hype to show what enterprise-grade generative AI actually looks like in production. This session demos how platforms accelerates deployment, reduces risk, and delivers quantifiable business outcomes — so your organization stops experimenting and starts scaling.

As businesses face increasing pressure to innovate faster, AI-driven low-code platforms are transforming the way applications are developed and delivered. Join this session to explore how organizations can accelerate digital initiatives, streamline operations, and empower teams to build scalable, future-ready solutions with speed and agility.

Engage, Explore, and Network—Where Technology Meets Unforgettable Moments!

As South African enterprises expand globally and accelerate AI adoption, CIOs are being asked to balance innovation with resilience, sovereignty, and trust at an unprecedented scale. This interactive strategy workshop will place participants in the role of leadership teams of organizations across industries such as banking, manufacturing, healthcare, digital platforms, and infrastructure.

Working in groups, participants will design their organization’s 2028 operating model by allocating investments across AI transformation, digital platforms, cyber resilience, workforce evolution, ecosystem governance, and regulatory readiness. Along the way, they will confront real-world trade-offs driven by emerging risks, global compliance pressures, and the growing complexity of AI-enabled enterprises.

The session is designed to spark board-level thinking, peer exchange, and practical insight into how leading CIOs can architect growth, trust, and resilience simultaneously in the next phase of digital transformation.