Alessandro Perilli is a Vice President leading the Agentic AI Platforms and Strategies research program. Alessandro’s core research coverage includes emerging AI technologies, global AI market trends, the state of enterprise AI, and sovereign AI.

Most recently, Alessandro founded Unstable Reality, an AI R&D lab in London, where he worked as Chief of Research, developing synthetic media generation solutions for creative studios, ad agencies, and large end-user organizations.

Among other projects, Alessandro published a weekly newsletter dedicated to tracking how AI is reshaping jobs, workforce productivity, and business operations.

Previously, Alessandro served as a senior leader at Red Hat, focused on business and product strategy. Across roles, Alessandro has also worked as an advisor to Fortune Global 2000 companies, helping IT decision makers translate emerging technology shifts into actionable and risk-informed strategies.

Throughout his career, Alessandro has often delivered keynotes at industry and vendor events, focusing on the state of the union and emerging trends in cybersecurity, virtualization, and cloud computing.

Kathy Lange is Research Director for IDC’s AI, Data, and Automation Software practice, focused on Unified AI Platforms Life-Cycle Tools and Technologies. Ms. Lange’s core research explores the evolution and adoption of unified AI platforms that support the full life cycle of traditional, generative, and agentic AI. It analyzes tools, technologies, and platforms for building, training, tuning, and scaling AI solutions across their end-to-end life cycle. She focuses on how enterprises can leverage these platforms to scale AI responsibly, optimize AI software infrastructure for inferencing, and orchestrate composite AI applications. The goal is to provide actionable insights for suppliers and buyers to operationalize AI at scale.

Before joining IDC, Kathy spent over twenty years at SAS. She led Analytics Consulting, Analytics and Text Analytics PreSales, and Competitive Intelligence teams. Kathy’s expertise helped organizations gain value from analytics, data science, machine learning, and AI. She was a frequent speaker, presenter, and moderator at SAS’ Executive Briefing Center and at industry conferences. Her most recent role as Director of Competitive Insights examined key AI life-cycle competitors and market technologies. Competitive assets provided tactical and strategic insights for sales, marketing, and product management.

Marlanna Harrington is a Research Analyst on the data, analytics, AI, and automation team. Ms. Harrington’s research concentrates on data platforms, including data warehouses, lakes, and lakehouses, focusing on data storage and management. She examines core technologies for implementing analytic data platforms across various environments, data modeling techniques, and emerging open table structures. Her research closely aligns with the data control plane that helps govern and manage data, all in preparation for analytics that provide data-driven solutions to impact business operations.

Marlanna has covered a wide range of research topics during her time at IDC. She started out in consumer research analyzing consumer attitudes, behaviors, technology usage, spending, brand perceptions, etc. When transitioning over to the data and analytics team at IDC, Marlanna focused on data analytic tools and their impact on enterprise decision-making. Her research was centered around business intelligence, geospatial data management and analytics as well as enterprise performance management software.

Timothy Law is a Research Director for AI & Automation, responsible for the generative AI lifecycle tools and technologies research practice. Mr. Law’s core research coverage includes the evolution of generative AI infrastructure and platforms, foundation models, developer tools, observability solutions, agentic systems, and generative AI services.  This research analyzes the trends and developments in the AI software markets, including the costs, benefits, and impact of generative AI technologies.

Mr. Law has more than 20 years of experience in AI, machine learning, and data analytics. Mr. Law has extensive experience in marketing and sales of AI and data analytics solutions for enterprise software vendors including Domino Data Lab, Dataiku, Oracle, and SAP. As Director of Product Marketing at Domino Data Lab, Mr. Law launched a portfolio of generative AI solutions. Previously, at Oracle, Mr. Law managed influencer communications for a portfolio of AI services, chatbots, machine learning platforms, and analytics solutions.  Additionally, Mr. Law began his career developing machine learning solutions for the lending and credit operations of a $4.9 billion bank and consulting with large enterprises on building predictive maintenance solutions to enhance field service operations.  

Rani Radhakrishnan, a Principal at PwC currently leads the AI Managed Services and Data & Insight teams in PwC US Technology Managed Services.

Rani excels at transforming data into strategic insights, driving informed decision-making and delivering innovative solutions. Her leadership is marked by a deep understanding of emerging technologies and a commitment to leveraging them for business growth.

Rani’s ability to align and deliver AI solutions with organizational outcomes has established her as a thought leader in the industry.

Her passion for applying technology to solve tough business challenges, and dedication to excellence continue to inspire her teams and help drive success for her clients in the rapidly evolving AI landscape.

Nick Bonfiglio is a recognized enterprise data leader with 28 years across product, engineering, and enterprise software, redefining master data through Agentic MDM at Syncari.

Neelesh Shastry is the CTO and Co-Founder of Syncari, a pioneer in data automation and agentic master data management. With over 20 years of experience spanning Adobe, Marketo, and SAP, Neelesh is known for driving innovation in data integration, governance, and security. He co-developed Syncari’s patented multidirectional sync engine and champions the shift from brittle integrations to data model-driven automation.

Geeta Pyne is a technology and AI strategy executive at TIAA with deep expertise in enterprise transformation, modern enterprise architecture, and AI-driven operating models. She helps organizations move from isolated AI pilots to scalable, secure, and governed intelligent systems that connect people, platforms, and autonomous agents. Across global enterprises, she has led platform modernization, reduced technical debt, and accelerated innovation through cloud, composable architectures, and AI-native capabilities. In addition to her executive work, Geeta advises startups and supports the next generation of leaders through her involvement with several industry and advisory organizations.

Dominic Sartorio is VP of Product Marketing at Denodo. Dominic has over 20 years of experience in the data management and governance market, having held various product and marketing leadership roles at Informatica, Protegrity, among other leading vendors.

Allice Shandler, a seasoned event management professional, orchestrates captivating and seamless experiences in the technology, hospitality, entertainment, and manufacturing industries. With a proven track record spanning the past 25 years, she skillfully designs and executes a multitude of events, both virtual and in-person, to bring together like-minded individuals for the purpose of sharing knowledge and forging connections. She is an energetic leader who enjoys leading with empathy and embodying the science of emotional intelligence.

From her time as an Assistant Cruise Director with Princess Cruises to her role as the National Virtual Events Manager and subject matter expert during the pandemic at KPMG Canada, and currently as the Director of events with IDC and Foundry, Allice’s journey reflects a mastery of marketing integration, project logistics, and alignment with sales strategies, all underscored by her meticulous attention to detail. Allice Shandler exudes a passion for hosting and connecting with peers both on the stage and during carefully crafted industry events. She brings an unmatched ability to curate engaging experiences that resonate across industries and captivate audiences around the globe.