CIO Summit
The Rise of Agentic Systems
Modernize. Secure. Innovate. Lead with the power of Agentic-AI
Modernize. Secure. Innovate. Lead with the power of Agentic-AI
The IDC CIO Summit Denmark 2026 is the leading event for senior technology and business executives shaping enterprise strategy and digital leadership in one of Europe’s most digitally mature and sustainability-focused economies. Designed for CIOs, CTOs, and transformation leaders, this one-day summit delivers actionable insights on Denmark’s top priorities for 2026: modernization, cybersecurity, sustainability, AI and Agentic AI adoption, and aligning IT with measurable business value in an increasingly regulated environment.
As Danish organizations advance their digital transformation strategies, CIOs are under growing pressure to modernize legacy infrastructures, strengthen cybersecurity in line with the NIS2 Directive, and operationalize AI responsibly under the EU AI Act. Balancing innovation with governance, energy efficiency, and digital trust is becoming critical as enterprises pursue sustainable growth and long-term resilience.
The next wave of transformation will be driven by Agentic AI. For Denmark’s CIOs, the challenge lies in realizing the potential of these technologies to boost productivity, decision intelligence, and innovation, while upholding the country’s global reputation for digital ethics, transparency, and sustainability.
Agenda
IDC analysts and industry experts will share guidance on building secure, sustainable IT architectures, reducing technical debt, and scaling AI, including Agentic AI, responsibly and effectively. Through keynotes, panels, and collaborative sessions, the Summit equips Denmark’s CIOs and technology leaders with the insights, frameworks, and leadership tools to strengthen resilience, drive trusted innovation, and sustain Denmark’s position as a European leader in responsible, AI-powered digital transformation.
2026 Prediction
By 2027, 55% of G1000 CIOs will be tasked to create enterprise AI value playbooks, featuring expanded ROI models to define, measure, and showcase AI impact across efficiency, growth, and innovation.
Main Themes
The CIO as Business Strategist
CIOs have evolved from operational leaders to enterprise strategists. As digital transformation reshapes every business model, technology leadership now defines competitiveness. Today’s CIO must align IT priorities with business outcomes, influence the boardroom agenda, and drive innovation that delivers measurable value.
Modernization, Legacy and Technical Debt
Managing technical debt is no longer just a maintenance concern, it’s a strategic priority. Modernizing legacy systems, simplifying architectures, and optimizing cost structures allow organizations to shift resources from upkeep to innovation. Streamlined technology portfolios create the agility needed to compete in a digital economy.
The Agentic AI Revolution
Agentic AI marks a shift from automation to autonomy. How CIOs can govern, scale, and integrate autonomous AI systems responsibly (balancing opportunity with oversight to create intelligent, self-directed enterprises.
Resilience by Design
Resilience is emerging as the defining capability of modern enterprises. Adaptive architectures, secure infrastructure, and integrated continuity planning enable organizations to withstand disruption (whether from economic uncertainty, regulatory shifts, or cyber threats) while sustaining growth and trust.
Cybersecurity, Trust, and Digital Sovereignty
As digital ecosystems expand, trust becomes a critical currency. CIOs must address cybersecurity, data sovereignty, and compliance in tandem, ensuring that cloud strategies and cross-border operations align with evolving regulations. Building digital trust creates both protection and competitive advantage.
Building the Intelligent Enterprise
Data is the foundation of every intelligent organization. Reliable, governed, and accessible data architectures enable AI, automation, and analytics to operate at scale. Enterprises that invest in strong data foundations are better positioned to extract insight, anticipate change, and deliver smarter, faster business outcomes.
2026 Prediction
By 2027, G1000 organizations will face an up to 30% rise in underestimated AI infrastructure costs, driving CIOs to expand the scope of FinOps teams to optimize expenses and enhance business value.
Speakers
Trine Børve
Senior Project Manager, European Consulting
IDC
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Trine Børve
Event Sessions
One Day Event 3:40 pm
Final Remarks & Key Takeaways
One Day Event 9:00 am
Welcome by IDC
Giulia Carosella
Senior Research Manager, AI-fueled Business Strategies
IDC
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Giulia Carosella
Giulia Carosella leads IDC’s European Digital Business Research. In her role she advises ICT players on European digital business market trends, supporting them in their planning, go-to-market and sales cycles with market research, custom projects, as well as honoraria.
Her research covers European digital strategies and roadmaps, looking at how European organizations create business value through the use of digital technologies. This includes analyzing key digital priorities and use cases, digital business models, key metrics for value assessment, and new organizational structures. In her role, she also focuses on the digital business platform and the shift towards open, flexible, and data-driven architectures.
Before joining IDC in 2017, Carosella worked as a technology risk consultant for Protiviti and as a research analyst for the Decision Sciences Department at the Bocconi University.
Carosella holds a master’s in Economics and Management of Innovation and Technology, and a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and Management from Bocconi University (Milan, Italy).
She is based in Milan and speaks Italian and English fluently.
Event Sessions
One Day Event 3:40 pm
Final Remarks & Key Takeaways
One Day Event 9:05 am
Closing the AI Execution Gap: The new CIO’s Mandate
As organizations accelerate AI adoption, CIOs are under mounting pressure to translate business expectations into measurable outcomes. IDC research shows that 64% of EMEA CEOs expect measurable business results from agentic AI within the next 24 months, yet fewer than half of organizations have delivered measurable outcomes from more than half of their AI projects. While investment in AI infrastructure continues to surge, many enterprises remain stuck between experimentation and scale, challenged by fragmented initiatives, uncertain ROI, rising costs, and increasing governance requirements. The real barrier to AI value is no longer interest, but execution.
At the same time, agentic AI is emerging as the next phase of the AI supercycle. Autonomous agents promise to transform business processes, create new revenue opportunities, and reshape operating models, but only for organizations that can build the right foundations. This session explores how CIOs can bridge the AI expectations gap by balancing innovation with oversight, turning AI investments into sustainable business value, and leading the transition toward the AI-fueled enterprise.
Henrik Mørup Amini
CIO
Egmont
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Henrik Mørup Amini
Event Sessions
One Day Event 2:40 pm
The Role of AI: Balancing Speed, Resilience and Trust!
Claus Birkholm
CIO, VP
NIRAS
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Claus Birkholm
Event Sessions
One Day Event 1:35 pm
CIO of the Year 2025: What It Takes to Scale AI in Professional Services
Mathias Pahl
Associate (Advokat), Tech & Comms
Bird & Bird
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Mathias Pahl
Event Sessions
One Day Event 3:20 pm
Legal Update: Building Trust by Design in AI Driven Organisations
Christian Lyngaae Saugman
Senior Business Executive & CIO
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Christian Lyngaae Saugman
Event Sessions
One Day Event 2:25 pm
Fireside Chat: The Evolving Role of the CIO: From IT Leader to Business Strategist
Carla Arend
Associate Vice President, Research, Cloud in Europe
IDC
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Carla Arend
Carla Arend is a senior program director with the European software and infrastructure research team, and heads up IDC’s European cloud research. Arend provides industry clients with key insight into market dynamics, vendor activities, and end-user adoption trends in the European cloud market. As part of her research, she covers topics such as how European organizations are adopting cloud, how cloud drivers and inhibitors are evolving, cloud management, cloud security, data management in the cloud, IoT and cloud, AI and cloud, Devops and cloud, as well as GDPR impact on cloud and cloud code of conduct.
In addition to syndicated research, Arend has worked on many custom consulting projects identifying opportunities in the European cloud market and has authored white papers on subjects such as cloud management, cloud security, data management in the cloud.
Arend is regularly asked to speak at industry events, strategy workshops, sales kick-offs and training, partner events, and end-user events.
Arend holds a BA in business administration from University of Mannheim and an MSc in business administration and management of technology from Copenhagen Business School, in addition to course work at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) in Bangkok.
Event Sessions
One Day Event 2:25 pm
Fireside Chat: The Evolving Role of the CIO: From IT Leader to Business Strategist
Dipa Velagapudy
VP Agentic Modernization, Strategic Markets
Kyndryl
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Dipa Velagapudy
Event Sessions
One Day Event 10:05 am
Frontier AI Won’t Wait for Your Legacy Systems
Frontier AI is redefining what’s possible, but outdated infrastructure and growing cyber threats are putting enterprises at risk. How can organizations modernize their technology foundations while ensuring security, resilience and control? And what needs to change today to prepare for the next generation of AI?
Joakim Lundberg
Security & Resiliency Practice Leader, Nordics & Baltics
Kyndryl
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Joakim Lundberg
Event Sessions
One Day Event 10:05 am
Frontier AI Won’t Wait for Your Legacy Systems
Frontier AI is redefining what’s possible, but outdated infrastructure and growing cyber threats are putting enterprises at risk. How can organizations modernize their technology foundations while ensuring security, resilience and control? And what needs to change today to prepare for the next generation of AI?
Martin Wood
IT Director
Domstolsstyrelsen
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Martin Wood
Desmond Sanders
Principal Product Manager, Applied AI Engineering
BMC Helix
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Desmond Sanders
Desmond Sanders is Principal Product Manager at BMC Helix, where he works in Applied AI Engineering. He began in presales as an AI subject matter expert and HelixGPT early adopter, and moved into product management in January 2026. He guided customers to adopt HelixGPT from its earliest days. More recently, he led Agent Outcomes, which measures the ROI of AI agents, from zero developers to general availability in under one month, against an original estimate of six months. Agentic coding produced a working prototype in two days, and a team of two developers delivered the first task in three weeks. The product now ships on a regular release cadence. At the IDC CIO Summit Denmark, Desmond will show how CIOs can reset the economics of IT by tying AI investment to proven outcomes and a faster cost to deliver.
Event Sessions
One Day Event 1:25 pm
Resetting the economics of IT
How CIOs can reset the economics of IT by tying AI investment to proven outcomes and a faster cost to deliver.
Meet Our Partners
Kyndryl
Kyndryl runs and reimagines the mission-critical technology systems that drive advantage for the world’s leading businesses. We are at the heart of progress; with proven expertise and a continuous flow of AI-powered insight, we enable smarter decisions, faster innovation, and a lasting competitive edge. To learn more, visit www.kyndryl.com.
Ping Identity and IT Smart Systems
Ping Identity and IT Smart Systems partner to deliver secure, scalable identity solutions that accelerate digital transformation. Combining Ping’s industry-leading IAM platform with ITSS’s regional expertise, the partnership enables seamless user experiences, strong security, and efficient deployments that help organisations modernise infrastructure, meet compliance requirements, and support business growth.
1Password
Trusted by over 180,000 businesses, millions of consumers, and 1 million developers, 1Password is redefining identity security for the way people and AI agents work today. Our mission is to unleash productivity without compromising security. The 1Password Extended Access Management product suite delivers zero trust security that protects, manages, and governs access to all SaaS applications, whether managed by IT or not. Built on 1Password’s Enterprise Password Manager, which secures more than 1.3 billion credentials, 1Password’s Agentic AI capabilities extend identity security to AI agents and other non-human identities. Leading companies such as Asana, Associated Press, Browserbase, Canva, Cresta, Golden State Warriors, Hugging Face, MongoDB, Octopus Energy, Salesforce, SandboxAQ, Slack, Stripe, and Under Armour trust 1Password to provide the right person or AI agent the right access to the right app from a trusted device.
BMC Helix
Trusted innovation and expertise
BMC Helix helps the world’s most forward-thinking IT organizations reduce complexity and multiply productivity so they can focus on the work that matters most. With an industry-leading, AI-powered, open platform, our dynamic fleet of AI agents augments work across enterprise IT service and operations management to anticipate needs, automate solutions, and accelerate outcomes for ServiceOps. BMC Helix is an industry-recognized leader in ServiceOps with a robust, AI-driven ITSM and AIOps solution portfolio designed to serve the needs of our customers today and into the future.
Digital Realty
Digital Realty brings companies and data together by delivering the full spectrum of data centre, colocation and interconnection solutions. PlatformDIGITAL®, the company’s global data centre platform, provides customers with a secure data meeting place and a proven Pervasive Datacenter Architecture (PDx®) solution methodology for powering innovation and efficiently managing Data Gravity challenges. Digital Realty gives its customers access to the connected data communities that matter to them with a global data centre footprint of 300+ facilities in 55+ metros across 30+ countries on six continents.
To learn more about Digital Realty, please visit digitalrealty.com or follow us on LinkedIn and X.
N-iX
N-iX is a global technology partner for Pragmatic AI Software Engineering, the practice of measuring what AI tools actually deliver on your codebase with your engineers before scaling them. With over 2,400 engineers across Europe, the Americas, and APAC, we work with Fortune 500 companies and enterprise technology leaders across finance, manufacturing, supply chain, and retail. For over two decades, we have built and measured software that runs in production. Our services cover software engineering, AI consulting and implementation, cloud migration and managed services, data platform engineering, application modernization, and cybersecurity. We hold AWS Premier Tier Services Partner status and AWS AI Services Competency, and maintain an established, certified partner ecosystem with Microsoft, Google Cloud, Palantir, Snowflake, and SAP.
Knowledge Hub
The AI homework nobody asked for (but everyone’s getting anyway)
Artificial Intelligence has officially reached the “you can do anything with it” stage of technological hype. Judging just by AI vendor narratives, and by some of the media, it’s the golden key to productivity, efficiency, optimization and innovation.
The Agentic Business Future: Driving Resilience, Sovereignty, and Innovation in EMEA
As organizations navigate an era defined by economic uncertainty, geopolitical shifts, and relentless technological change, one truth stands out: the future belongs to those who can harness AI, automation, and sovereignty to build resilience, drive innovation, and unlock growth.
EMEA’s Tech Evolution – 7 Key Themes Transforming Business in 2025
The technology landscape across Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) is changing rapidly in 2025, with innovations actively reshaping industries and creating new business opportunities.d
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