Executive Dinner
Securing and Governing AI Agents: Who Owns the Risk?
November 17, 2026 at 5:30 pm | San Francisco
AI agents are moving into production faster than the controls around them. According to IDC research, 73% of large organizations say governance is a strong or embedded part of their AI strategy, yet only 14% have guardrails fully integrated across data, models and applications.
The market is scaling regardless. IDC forecasts active AI agents in the Americas to grow from about 53 million in 2026 to more than 1.4 billion by 2030, and 80% of organizations say a prioritized agentic use case can reach initial production within six months.
That leaves security leaders with open questions: who owns AI risk, what is running that nobody can see, and how to approve at the speed the business expects.
IDC is convening a select group of security and technology executives in San Francisco for a candid, vendor-neutral roundtable dinner. Come to benchmark your approach against peers and leave with a sharper view of the decisions ahead.
20%
is IDC’s upper estimate for Global 1000 organizations facing lawsuits, fines and CIO dismissals by 2030 because of inadequate AI agent governance.
Active AI agents in the Americas (US, Canada and Latin America) are forecast to grow from 52.97 million in 2026 to about 1.42 billion in 2030, with the US the large majority. Retail and Services and Financial Services lead the way, ahead of Manufacturing and Resources.
Every agent is another identity taking actions on the organization’s behalf, so the oversight question grows as fast as the deployment curve.
Source: IDC Worldwide Agentic AI Adoption Guide, June 2026 release (Library 376, Dataset 1113); Americas = US, Canada and Latin America. 2026 and later are forecast.
Discussion Themes
Four Conversations Every Security Leader Should Be Having About AI Agents
Declared Governance Versus Operating Control
Most large organizations describe their AI governance as strong, but far fewer have guardrails and monitoring that prove it. Where declared policy ends and day-to-day control begins, and how leaders measure that gap against peers.
Who Owns AI Risk
Responsibility for AI governance is split across governance teams, AI centers of excellence and the CIO or CTO, while many more groups stay involved. Where accountability sits today, what role the CISO plays, and how decisions get made when risk crosses teams.
Blind Spots: Shadow AI, Identity and Cost
Shadow AI, agent identities and unpredictable spend are where leaders say visibility runs thin. What it would take to know which AI is running, what access it holds and what it costs.
From Pilot to Production Without Losing Control
IDC research shows 80% of organizations believe a prioritized agentic use case could reach production within six months, while security, privacy and compliance controls rank as the top constraint on scaling. How leaders move faster and keep oversight.
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
Your hosts
Jim Mercer
Program Vice President, Software Development, DevOps & DevSecOps
IDC
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Jim Mercer
Jim Mercer is a Program Vice President managing multiple programs spanning application lifecycle management (ALM), modern application development and trends, emerging generative AI software development, DevOps, DevSecOps, open source, PaaS for developers, and cloud application platforms. His focus areas are DevOps and DevSecOps Solutions research practices. In this role, he is responsible for researching, writing, and advising clients on the fast-evolving DevOps and DevSecOps markets. Mr. Mercer’s core research includes topics such as rapid enterprise application development, modern microservice-based packaging, platform engineering, GitOps, application security, software supply chain security, and automated deployment and lifecycle/management strategies as applied to a DevOps practice. In addition, he examines how the move to DevOps methodologies impacts enterprise use of open source and preferences for using on-premises computing and development platforms vs. public cloud services. Further, He examines how organizations prioritize DevSecOps and use automation to insert security assessments into the DevOps delivery pipeline (i.e., shift left). Mr. Mercer advises Senior IT, business, and investment executives globally in creating strategy and operational tactics that drive the execution of digital transformation and business optimization.
BACKGROUND
Before joining IDC, Jim held numerous leadership positions at CA Technologies, including Vice President of Engineering for enterprise management, where he introduced agile adoption and DevOps practices. At CA Technologies, Jim helped to create new innovative solutions in the sustainability, data center infrastructure management, and capacity management domains, and he holds multiple US patents. Jim also worked as an independent industry consultant for companies such as Progress Software.
Vineet Bhan
Director, Security and Identity Partnerships
Google Cloud
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Vineet Bhan
Agenda
IDC Executive Dinner in partnership with Google & CrowdStrike
Tue, Nov 17
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.
Partner
Sponsored By
Google Cloud
Google Cloud offers a powerful, optimized AI stack—including AI infrastructure, leading models like Gemini, data management capabilities, multicloud security solutions, developer tools and platform, as well as agents and applications—that enables organizations to transform their business for the Agentic Era. Customers in more than 200 countries and territories turn to Google Cloud as their trusted technology partner.
CrowdStrike
CrowdStrike, a global leader in cybersecurity, is redefining security in the cloud era with its ground-up, redesigned platform for protecting workloads, endpoints, identities, and data.
Powered by the CrowdStrike Security Cloud and world-class artificial intelligence, the CrowdStrike Falcon® platform leverages real-time indicators of attack, threat intelligence, constantly evolving adversary techniques, and enriched telemetry from across the enterprise to enable highly accurate detection, automated protection and remediation, world-class threat hunting, and prioritized vulnerability monitoring.
Purpose-built for the cloud, the Falcon platform features a single, lightweight agent, enabling rapid and scalable deployment, superior protection and performance with reduced complexity and faster time to value.
CrowdStrike’s motto is: We prevent incidents.