Efficiency is often mistaken for “doing less,” but the economic reality of AI is the opposite: as innovation becomes more efficient, we unlock the capacity for higher-order problem-solving. This track explores how to turn that capacity into exponential value.

IDC predicts that by 2030, 50% of new economic value in digital business will be created by organizations investing in scalable AI and data capabilities.

This economic value can only be realised with a right, sustainable foundation that helps organizations capitalize effectively on their valuable data, people and application assets.

Today, IDC research points that over 50% of AI-driven digital initiatives fail to meet ROI targets due to unclear outcomes, weak data foundations, silos, and lack of human-AI synergy.

We will dive into the core of this transformation, integrating software engineering with robust data management, to ensure your AI and technology initiatives are supported by seamless application performance. By aligning data, applications, and people across the entire value chain, you can empower your teams to act as architects of innovation. Join us to discover how to move past the hype and create a scalable, human-centric foundation that fosters long-term market resilience.

IDC’s global Future of Work study shows that generative AI usage has jumped from 55% in 2023 to 75% in 2025, underlining how quickly AI copilots are becoming part of everyday work. As AI copilots become embedded in email, meetings, documents, chat, and search, knowledge work shifts from “creating from scratch” to reviewing, refining, and decision-making. Natural language interfaces replace traditional navigation, automating routine tasks and significantly reducing time spent on summarising and drafting.

This evolution raises performance expectations, prioritising judgement, quality, and speed over simple task execution. IDC’s 2026 FutureScape for the AI-enabled Future of Work predicts that by 2026, around 40% of roles in the G2000 will involve direct engagement with AI agents, fundamentally changing how entry, mid-level, and senior jobs are designed. Roles are reshaped as boundaries blur and handoffs diminish, requiring employees to develop new skills like prompt literacy and critical evaluation of AI outputs.

Without targeted training, productivity gaps may widen between AI-fluent employees and others, while over-reliance on AI risks undermining core competencies.

The emergence of AI-enabled PCs further accelerates this shift, providing on-device processing power to support copilots, real-time transcription, summarisation, and intelligent assistance directly at the edge. By running more AI workloads locally, organisations can achieve improved performance, lower latency, enhanced privacy, and reduced reliance on constant cloud connectivity. However, market demand for AI PCs is currently constrained by global memory and high-performance chip supply limitations, which may slow large-scale refresh cycles and necessitate careful planning of deployment and investment strategies.

In this session, delegates will learn to integrate AI into their workflows and develop essential skills for an AI-driven environment. They’ll explore strategies for building trust and governance around AI systems. Additionally, delegates can connect with partners to discover the latest innovations in AI-enabled PCs, gain insights into practical AI applications, and establish a foundation that drives long-term resilience and success.

IDC research shows that those organisations that excel at AI, also have maturity security and governance capability. As you progress on your AI adoption journey, it is crucial to establish a strong foundation of trust through robust cybersecurity measures. In this session, we will explore the concept of Zero-Trust AI and its role in safeguarding your business assets, ensuring that your AI investments are protected.

Understand how implementing effective cybersecurity strategies can help maintain business continuity and foster trust with stakeholders. But over 36% of firms lack AI security skills, while 35% worry about visibility of AI in use. We will focus on securing your AI models, data pipelines, and intellectual property to prevent costly breaches and ensure the integrity of your operations.

By prioritising cybersecurity as a foundational element of your AI strategy, you can build a resilient framework that supports your organisation’s growth and innovation while instilling confidence in your AI initiatives.

To successfully deliver your AI business use cases, a modern infrastructure is essential. This infrastructure must provide scalable, high-performance capabilities to support AI applications in both model training and real-time inferencing. Specialist AI hardware, such as GPUs, TPUs, and accelerators, plays a critical role in ensuring speed, efficiency, and low latency at scale. Additionally, robust data pipelines, storage solutions, and orchestration tools are necessary to manage AI models throughout their lifecycle, from development to production.

Organisations face a pivotal choice: public cloud platforms offer rapid access to cutting-edge AI hardware, elastic scaling, and managed services on a consumption basis. In contrast, private or hybrid AI environments provide enhanced data control, governance, and predictability, making them ideal for use cases that require secure, regulated, and low-latency solutions.

According to IDC research, over 45% of organisations across Europe are now more interested in implementing digital sovereignty solutions compared to 2024, driven by geopolitical uncertainties such as trade tensions, regional conflicts, and regulatory shifts anticipated in 2025. Furthermore, 60% of European organisations are more likely to adopt sovereign cloud services for AI workloads as a direct response to these challenges.

So, how can you ensure the success of your AI use cases while prioritising data protection, control, and autonomy in this era of uncertainty?

In this session, you’ll discover the true meaning of digital sovereignty, learn how to choose and implement the right solutions, and identify common pitfalls to avoid. We will also explore how digital sovereignty fits into your overall IT and cloud strategy, what is needed for success, and how adopting digital sovereignty solutions can lead to unique business benefits.