Executive Dinner
Beyond Generation to Automation: Agentic AI and Human-Like Voice in Enterprise Customer Operations
August 27, 2026 at 5:30 pm | Wayfare Tavern | San Francisco
This exclusive roundtable offers a confidential setting for senior technology leaders to exchange real-world experience on moving agentic and voice AI from pilot to production. Together with IDC, Google Cloud, and ElevenLabs, participants will explore how to scale autonomous customer operations safely, govern high-trust workflows, and build the secure-by-design foundations that turn experimentation into trusted, production-grade automation.
How fast is the market for conversational and voice AI actually growing?
U.S. conversational AI software revenue is forecast to grow more than fivefold, from roughly $3.5B in 2024 to over $19B by 2029, making it one of the fastest-scaling segments of the enterprise AI software market.
This reflects a structural shift in customer operations: enterprises are moving from scripted IVR and early chatbots toward autonomous voice and chat agents that resolve high-volume workflows end to end. As agentic capabilities and human-like voice mature, conversational AI is becoming the primary interface between enterprises and their customers, spanning service, sales, and generative media across dozens of languages.
Discussion Themes
Four Conversations Every Senior IT Leader Should Be Having Right Now
What To Expect
An executive dinner led by a skilled moderator
An intimate gathering of senior IT leaders from diverse industries, grappling with similar issues
A secure, private conversation open only to a carefully vetted group
Agenda
IDC Executive Dinner in partnership with Google Cloud & ElevenLabs on August 27, 2026
One Day Event
Networking Reception
A private reception bringing together senior executives and industry analysts to connect, exchange perspectives, and set context for the evening’s discussion.
Dinner & Discussion
A moderated, off‑the‑record discussion over dinner focused on real‑world execution challenges, emerging industry priorities, and their implications for enterprise leaders.
Event Concludes
The evening concludes with brief closing remarks and informal follow‑up conversations, reinforcing key takeaways and ongoing peer engagement.
Your host
Hayley Sutherland
Research Manager, Conversational AI
IDC
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Hayley Sutherland
Hayley Sutherland is the Research Manager for Conversational Artificial Intelligence within IDC’s Software market research and advisory group. Her core research coverage includes conversational AI tools and technologies, with a focus on software platforms, technologies, and trends for building conversational AI applications like chatbots, AI assistants, copilots, and conversational agents, as well as other linguistic AI technologies such as STT/TTS, machine translation, conversational analytics, and emotion/sentiment analysis. Ms. Sutherland also leads insightful research that helps vendors and buyers understand the impact of new AI innovations, such as generative and agentic AI, on conversational AI capabilities and strategies. She is a trusted advisor to some of the world’s largest technology firms and end-users, helping vendors with how best to differentiate themselves and communicate their strengths, and assisting end-users with technology selection and understanding.
BACKGROUND
Ms. Sutherland has over 15 years of experience working in the market research industry, with a focus on technology. Prior to joining IDC’s AI research team in 2019, she worked in Product Management and Project Management roles at IDC and Forrester Research. Earlier in her career, she worked in primary market research and project team management roles at a small independent research firm.
Ben Budde
VP of GTM
ElevenLabs
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Ben Budde
Ben Budde is the VP of GTM at ElevenLabs, leading all North American revenue functions. A former Marine Corps Infantry Officer and 11-year Google veteran, Ben has spent his career scaling revenue organizations at the intersection of AI and enterprise — most recently helping build ElevenLabs into the world’s leading voice AI platform.
Partners
Sponsored By
Google Cloud
Google Cloud accelerates every organization’s ability to transform with Google’s powerful, optimized AI stack.
ElevenLabs
ElevenLabs is an AI company that transforms how people and businesses communicate with the world. It builds AI voice and audio models and delivers them in a platform that powers every interaction across a company, from AI agents for sales, support, and business operations, to creative tools for marketing and media.