Virtual Roundtable
From Data to Outcomes: AI, Governance, and the Path to Measurable Business Impact
August 20th, 2026 10:00 am PT / 1:00 pm ET
According to IDC, the majority of organizations now have an AI strategy, but only 43% have one tied to business objectives with formal measurement, and just 25–27% of AI initiatives ever reach production.
IDC also forecasts that by 2026, 45% of AI-fueled use cases will fail their ROI targets, held back by unclear gains, weak data, and rising governance risk.
The operative question is no longer whether you have an AI strategy, but whether your data, governance, and operating model can convert that strategy into measurable, defensible business outcomes.
IDC, Arrow, Key Prediction and IBM will convene a curated group of senior IT decision-makers for a candid, peer-level virtual roundtable, sharing intelligence, challenging assumptions, and leaving with a clearer path forward on AI, data, and governance.
The 2025 AI software market shows where enterprise AI investment is concentrated and where the next wave is forming.
The signal for senior IT leaders is clear: AI value is concentrating where data quality, governance, and operating discipline converge, not where the largest model lives.
Discussion Themes
Four Conversations Every Senior IT Leader Should Be Having Right Now
What To Expect
A live video meeting led by a skilled host/moderator
An intimate gathering of senior leaders from diverse industries, grappling with similar issues
A secure, private conversation open only to a carefully vetted group (no recording, no playback)
Your hosts
Kathy Lange
Research Director, AI, Data, and Automation Software
IDC
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Kathy Lange
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.
Michael Pompey
AI Evangelist / Chief Information Officer
Arrow Electronics
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Michael Pompey
Michael Pompey is Arrow Electronics’ AI Evangelist and a former Chief Information Officer with over 20 years of experience in IT, data, and digital transformation. He helps organizations move past AI hype and stop spinning in pilot mode, focusing instead on what actually drives results.
Michael works closely with IBM technologies, including watsonx, helping partners and business leaders cut through the noise, identify real use cases, and put AI into practice. His perspective is simple. AI is not a product, it’s a strategy. The organizations that win are not experimenting more, they are executing better.
A sought-after keynote speaker, Michael is known for challenging conventional thinking and making complex ideas easy to understand. He speaks about how humans and AI work together, and how the real opportunity is not just efficiency, but freeing people up to do higher value work and become truly indispensable.
Gustavo Parés
Founder and CEO
Key Prediction
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Gustavo Parés
Gustavo Parés is the Founder and CEO of Key Predictions and Co-Founder of NDS Cognitive Labs, where he leads the development and international expansion of AI and digital transformation solutions. He holds an MBA and a degree in Administrative Computing Systems from Tecnológico de Monterrey and has completed executive education programs at MIT, Harvard, and Stanford.
A recognized technology leader, educator, author, and international speaker, Gustavo has advised organizations and taught students across North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia. He is a co-author of a book on AI chatbots and a strong advocate for applied AI, helping businesses translate emerging technologies into measurable outcomes and sustainable growth.
Partners
Sponsored By
Arrow
A global provider of electronic components and enterprise computing products, the company specializes in distribution and value-added services for original equipment manufacturers, value-added resellers, managed service providers, contract manufacturers and other commercial customers.
Key Prediction
At Key Prediction, we collaborate with industry-leading technology partners to deliver cutting-edge AI and data-driven solutions with unparalleled performance and scalability. In collaboration with NDS, we also design and develop proprietary technology that strengthens our innovation capabilities and accelerates solution deployment. Our strategic alliances with IBM (Golden partner in Mexico and Silver partner in Spain and the United States), Google, AWS, and Microsoft empower us to integrate the most advanced cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and machine learning technologies into our solutions.
IBM
IBM is a leading provider of global hybrid cloud and AI, and consulting expertise. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. Thousands of governments and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM’s breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and consulting deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM’s long-standing commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service.