The UK’s CIO mandate has entered a new phase: outcome-driven, execution-focused, and defined by the tension between AI ambition and governance discipline. The 2027 IDC CIO Agenda UK explores how leaders are operationalizing AI, building data-sovereign architectures, and turning NIS2 supply-chain obligations into competitive resilience in Europe’s most execution-focused technology market.
UK CIOs are navigating a defining moment: scaling operational AI and GenAI while governing it rigorously, meeting NIS2 supply-chain requirements, and proving measurable business value in Europe’s most outcome-driven technology market.
The 2027 IDC CIO Agenda UK delivers the strategies, data, and peer insights to lead with confidence:
Group Vice President, IDC Europe
IDC
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Duncan Brown is associate vice president, European Security Practice, at IDC EMEA and leads the firm’s security research program in Europe. He specializes in providing strategic advice to his clients, informing and validating their corporate, product, and marketing plans. Brown is an expert in analyzing the security market globally, and his list of security-related clients includes enterprises, central banks, government organizations, and security product suppliers and services providers. Brown’s expertise spans the gamut of security topics including incident response, threat intelligence, and global privacy issues. He established and leads IDC’s coverage of the global impact of the GDPR, the RPEC (ePrivacy Directive update) and NIS Directive on technology companies and their customers. His analysis and opinions are widely sought by industry leaders and investors, while his comments on industry trends and developments frequently appear in the leading business and trade publications.
Sustainability is no longer just a corporate responsibility — it’s a strategic imperative, and CIOs play a central role in embedding ESG into technology strategy. From energy-efficient IT operations to responsible data practices and green cloud adoption, technology decisions directly impact an organisation’s environmental, social, and governance performance.
Duncan will explore how CIOs can align IT investments with sustainability goals, ESG reporting, and green innovation, driving measurable outcomes while supporting broader business strategy. This session will share practical insights on integrating sustainability into enterprise technology planning, fostering a culture of accountability, and positioning IT as a driver of long-term value and innovation.
As organisations become increasingly data-driven and cloud-dependent, CIOs sit at the centre of a growing web of cyber risk, regulatory pressure and strategic accountability. Moving beyond traditional security models, this panel explores how CIOs are redefining digital trust not just through technology, but through governance, supplier choices and control over critical data and systems.
The discussion will examine the CIO’s role in navigating digital sovereignty, managing third-party and geopolitical risk, and balancing innovation with resilience. Listen to CIOs sharing practical insights on the decisions they are making today to protect their organisations, maintain autonomy, and build trust with boards, regulators and customers in an increasingly complex digital landscape.
Reinventing with AI
From Gen AI-powered workflows to agentic-led business models
Future Tech Frontiers
How quantum, space tech, and physical AI will redefine industries
Digital Sovereignty at Scale
Navigating data control, regulatory pressure, and geopolitical risk
AI-Ready & Sovereign Infra
In-country sovereign cloud,inference-ready compute,and edge
Trust and Cyber Resilience
From risk governance to operational resilience in the agentic enterprise
Observability, AIOps and FinOps
Full-stack visibility, AIOps, and the true cost of running agents.
Data and AI Governance
Turning data and AIaccountability into acompetitive advantage
Leadership and the Future of Work
AI-human collaboration,agentic workflows, and thenew leadership mandate forthe autonomous enterprise
By 2028, 70% of G1000 CIO roles will be held by transformational leaders who can implement new AI-fueled business models with enterprise-wide consistency while modernizing IT to meet AI business needs.
Reinventing with AI
From Gen AI-powered workflows to agentic-led business models
Future Tech Frontiers
How quantum, space tech, and physical AI will redefine industries
Digital Sovereignty at Scale
Navigating data control, regulatory pressure, and geopolitical risk
AI-Ready & Sovereign Infra
In-country sovereign cloud,inference-ready compute,and edge
Trust and Cyber Resilience
From risk governance to operational resilience in the agentic enterprise
Observability, AIOps and FinOps
Full-stack visibility, AIOps, and the true cost of running agents.
Data and AI Governance
Turning data and AIaccountability into acompetitive advantage
Leadership and the Future of Work
AI-human collaboration,agentic workflows, and thenew leadership mandate forthe autonomous enterprise
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How organisations can embed trust, governance, and resilience into AI systems to ensure they operate reliably, transparently, and at scale in the agentic economy.
As IT leaders move further into the agentic future, the focus must shift from adoption to purposeful application, using agents to transform operations, partnerships, and business models.
We’re heading into what is projected to be a ‘second wave’ of AI-driven IT spending in 2027, whereby AI investment drives overall technology spend to levels last seen in the mid-1990s.
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