Knowledge Hub

IDC Spotlight

Yapay zeka yolculuğunda ‘asistan’ döneminden ‘ajan’ dönemine geçiş, kurumsal teknoloji stratejilerinde kırılma noktasını temsil ediyor. Artık sadece komut bekleyen sistemleri değil; muhakeme yeteneği olan, iş akışlarını otonom yöneten ve karmaşık hedeflere kendi başına ulaşabilen sistemleri konuşuyoruz. IDC Türkiye CIO Summit 2026’da ele alacağımız ‘The Rise of Agentic Systems’ vizyonu, üretken yapay zekanın operasyonel verimlilikten öte, kurumların dijital DNA’sını nasıl yeniden kurguladığını mercek altına alıyor. CIO’lar için bugün asıl meydan okuma, bu otonom ekosistemleri güven, yönetişim ve stratejik değer ekseninde inşa etmekten geçiyor. Geleceğin dijital işletmesi, teknolojiyi sadece kullanan değil, teknolojinin iş ortağı olarak hareket ettiği bir yapı üzerinde yükselecek.

Eren Eser

IDC

Associate Research Director, Türkiye

Advisory Board Spotlight

Yapay zekâ uzun süre kurumların verimliliğini artıran bir araç olarak konumlandı; ancak agentic sistemlerle birlikte artık karar süreçlerinin doğası değişiyor. Sigorta sektörü için bu dönüşüm özellikle kritik, çünkü risk artık yalnızca analiz edilen değil, gerçek zamanlı olarak yönetilen bir olguya dönüşüyor. Bu yeni dönemde rekabet avantajı, veriyi kim daha iyi topluyor sorusundan çok, kurumların öngörülemez değişime ne kadar hızlı uyum sağlayabildiğiyle belirlenecek. Otonom teknolojiler yaygınlaştıkça, kurumların çevik karar refleksi ve adaptasyon kapasitesi sürdürülebilir başarının temel unsuru haline gelecek.

Korhan Kuyu

Anadolu Sigorta

CIO

Advisory Board Spotlight

Son dönemde özellikle yapay zekâ destekli kurumsal platformların iş akışlarını sadeleştirip operasyonları hızlandıran entegre bir dijital işletim katmanına dönüştüğünü görüyoruz. Bu dönüşümün sürdürülebilir olması için güçlü bulut altyapıları, ölçeklenebilir veri platformları ve entegre güvenlik yatırımları kritik hale geliyor. Yapay zekâ destekli analiz, doğal dil ile sistemlere erişim ve uçtan uca veri entegrasyonu sayesinde kurumlar sadece verimlilik değil karar kalitesi açısından da önemli avantajlar elde ediyor.

Fatih Akar

Kordsa

Global Digitalization Director

Speaker Spotlight

Artık her alana güçlü bir şekilde odaklanmak gerekiyor. Bir yandan veriyi temiz, güvenli ve işlenebilir bir varlık haline getirerek kurumsal zekanın bir parçası yapmalıyız.
Diğer yandan tehditlerin karmaşıklaştığı bir ekosistemde, iş sürekliliğini sağlamak için hattı ya da sathı müdafaanın ötesinde her bireyi, her teknoloji bileşenini ayrı ayrı korumalıyız.
Bununla birlikte en gelişmiş teknolojiler bile, onu kullanacak yetkinliğe sahip bir iş gücü olmadan etkisizdir. Dijital kültürü tüm organizasyona yaymak, yeni nesil dijital yetenekleri elde tutmak, sürdürülebilir başarının anahtarı olacaktır.

Murat Erez

Kale Holding

CIO

Speaker Spotlight

Bugün teknoloji trendleri artık yalnızca verimlilik artışı değil, karar alma biçimlerinin yeniden tasarımı anlamına geliyor. Yapay zekâdan agentic sistemlere, veri egemenliğinden siber dayanıklılığa kadar uzanan bu yeni dalga; kurumları daha öngörülü, daha otonom ve daha müşteri odaklı yapılara dönüştürüyor. Asıl farkı yaratan ise teknolojiyi “kullanan” değil, onu stratejiyle bütünleştiren ve yalın süreçlerle değer üreten organizasyonlar olacak. Geleceğin rekabet gücü; hız, akıllı otomasyon ve insan merkezli tasarımın kesişiminde şekilleniyor.

Çiğdem Kılıç

Türkiye Sigorta

CIO

Advisory Board Spotlight

Yapay zekâ artık yalnızca bir destek teknolojisi değil; iş yapış biçimlerini kökten dönüştüren bir paradigma değişimidir. Bugün yeni doğan nesiller, daha icat edilmemiş mesleklerden emekli olacak; bizler ise mevcut rollerimizle aynı şekilde emekli olamayacağız.

Hakan Cem Topal

Saya Holding

IT Director

Advisory Board Spotlight

Taşımacılık sektörü, hız ve verimliliğin ötesine geçerek tamamen “akıllı” ve “öngörülebilir” bir döneme evriliyor. 2026 vizyonumuzda, operasyonel mükemmelliği yalnızca dijitalleştirmekle kalmıyor; veriye dayalı, kendi kararlarını alabilen otonom sistemlerle güçlendiriyoruz. Hedefimiz, süreçlerimizi anlık veriyle kendini optimize eden bir yapıya dönüştürmek.

Kürşat Alp Yiğit

Aras Kargo

VP of IT

Advisory Board Spotlight

Yapay zeka, artık yalnızca yanıt üreten bir asistan değil; kurumsal karar mekanizmalarına entegre olan, süreçleri tetikleyen ve aksiyona dönüştüren ajantik (agentic) sistemlere evriliyor. Teknoloji liderleri için asıl kırılma noktası artık bir teknoloji seçimi yapmak değil; bu sistemlerin kurumsal mimari, veri yönetişimi ve rol ayrımı çerçevesinde nasıl konumlandırılacağıdır. Doğru tasarlandığında verimlilikte büyük bir sıçrama yaratan bu yapılar, kontrolsüz bırakıldığında ise yönetilemez bir karmaşıklık üretme potansiyeline sahiptir; bu nedenle gelecek, salt otonom sistemlerin değil, titizlikle kurgulanmış bir sorumluluk mimarisinin üzerinde yükselecektir.

Özgür Korkmaz

Uludağ İçecek

Executive Technology Leader

Advisory Board Spotlight

Jeopolitik riskler, emtia dalgalanmaları ve regülasyon baskısı altındaki küresel tedarik ağlarında öngörülebilirlik kritik hale geldi. Agentic sistemler; veriyi gerçek zamanlı işleyerek riskleri önceden algılayan ve operasyonel aksiyonu tetikleyen bir yapıya evriliyor. Bu dönüşüm, kurumların yalnızca verimli değil aynı zamanda dayanıklı olmasını sağlayacak.

Timur Karaman

Tiryaki Agro

IT Director

Speaker Spotlight

Akıllı Üretim, Güçlü Gelecek
Yapay zekâ, otomasyon ve self-servis mimariler artık yalnızca verimlilik artırıcı araçlar değil; iş modellerini yeniden tanımlayan stratejik büyüme kaldıraçları. Küresel ölçekte yapılan araştırmalar, üretken yapay zekânın önümüzdeki yıllarda dünya ekonomisine trilyonlarca dolarlık ek değer yaratacağını ve kurumsal uygulamaların büyük bölümünde yapay zekâ destekli karar mekanizmalarının standart hale geleceğini ortaya koyuyor.

Fırat Akın

Çokyaşar Holding

General Manager of IT

Advisory Board Spotlight

Dönüşümü destekleyen teknolojik yenilikler, alternatifleriyle beraber çok hızlı hayata giriyor. Artık otomasyon yapay zekayla birleşti. En dogru kullanım senaryolarını bulmak ve kurumsal IT stratejileri, güncel mimarileri, araçları belirlemek her zamankinden daha kritik hale geldi.

Mehmet Bütün

Vakıf Katılım Bankası

EVP, CIO

Advisory Board Spotlight

Perakende artık yalnızca raflardan ve kasadan ibaret değil. Yapay zekâ, müşteri daha mağazaya adım atmadan neye ihtiyaç duyacağını öngörüyor; stokları en verimli şekilde yönetiyor, fiyatları anlık olarak optimize ediyor. Kişiselleştirme ise artık bir ayrıcalık değil, rekabette ayakta kalmanın en temel şartı haline geldi. Bu dönüşümü bugün benimseyen işletmeler geleceği şekillendiriyor; geç kalanlar için ise yarın çok geç olabilir.

Harun Yaşar Aksöz

Gözalan Group

IT Director

Why Attend

Key Topics

Security Operations
Application and Cloud Security
AI in Cybersecurity
Network Security
Supply Chain Vulnerabilities

What will you gain?

Security Operations

Exploring best practices and innovative strategies for managing security operations.

Application and Cloud Security

Focusing on methods and technologies for securing applications and cloud environments.

AI in Cybersecurity

Discussing advancements and applications of artificial intelligence in cybersecurity.

Network Security

Covering the latest trends and technologies in securing networks.

Supply Chain Vulnerabilities

Addressing the identification and mitigation of risks related to third-party vendors and suppliers.

Key Themes

Sovereign Security: Localizing for Global Impact

Türkiye is prioritizing digital sovereignty by localizing talent, infrastructure, and AI systems. Sovereign security platforms ensure sensitive data is stored and governed within national borders, reducing exposure to foreign jurisdiction and geopolitical risks. This approach is central to national security, public sector modernization, and technological independence while balancing its ambitions to be a regional digital hub.

Cloud Security: Compliance, Visibility, and Resilience
Cloud security strategies in Türkiye focus on regulatory compliance, data sovereignty, and operational resilience. Organizations are prioritizing hybrid architectures and sovereign controls to meet data residency requirements, reduce latency, and ensure visibility across distributed environments.

Data Privacy and Protection: Navigating New Regulations (regional)
Regulatory compliance (70%) is among the top operational security priorities for CISOs in Türkiye. Türkiye’s data protection landscape has been steadily evolving with tighter enforcement of the Personal Data Protection Law (KVKK). With closer alignment with global privacy standards like the EU’s GDPR, organizations must navigate a more complex regulatory environment with agility and proactive compliance strategies.

Managed Detection and Response (MDR): The Digital Control Plane
MDR is evolving into the digital control plane for enterprise resilience, combining AI-powered threat detection, automated response, and compliance expertise. New licensing frameworks and sovereign technology requirements are reshaping service delivery in Türkiye.

Advisory Board

The list is surname-alphabetical order.

Nuri Akar

CISO

Borsa İstanbul

Read Bio

Onur Akkepenek

IT Security Group Manager

Migros

Read Bio

Ali Kutluhan Aktaş

EVP, IT Security & IT Risk Management

Intertech

Read Bio

Serhat Alkan

Infotmation Security Manager

Türkiye Kalkınma ve Yatırım Bankası

Read Bio

Kayıhan Altınöz

CISO

TAV Airports Holding

Read Bio

İbrahim Aslanbakan

CISO

Medipol Sağlık Grubu

Read Bio

Akif Mert Avcı

Information Security, IT Process and Compliance Manager

Vakıfbank

Read Bio

Onur Ayyıldız

Head of IT – Security & Infrastructure

Anadolu Sigorta

Read Bio

Öner Ziya Baş

CISO

İhlas Holding

Read Bio

Emre Bilgili

Technology Infrastructure and Cyber Security Director

Beko Global

Read Bio

Ayça Yıldırım

CISO

Aksigorta

Read Bio

Ercan Cengiz

CISO

Dünya Katılım

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Mert Çakar

Deputy GM, IT Operations

Erciyes Anadolu Holding

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Murat Çelebi

Information Security & Risk Management Director

Merkezi Kayıt Kuruluşu

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Argun Derviş

CISO

QNB Finansbank-IBTech

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Umut Dinçkol

Information Security, IT Compliance & Service Management Director

BKM

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Sezgin Durmaz

ICT Manager & IT Security Officer

Metro Cash & Carry

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Cem Dursun

CISO, Enerjisa

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Gökay Düzay

Cyber Security Senior Manager, Doğan Şirketler Grubu Holding

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Emre Erkıran

CISO

QNB Invest

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Mehmet Ali Erkul

Director, Corporate Information & Cyber Security Management, TÜRKSAT

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Murathan Gemicioğlu

Global Information Security Manager, Hayat Holding

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Başak Gençer Ünsalver

CISO

Vodafone Türkiye

Read Bio

Özer Gülce

Information Security Management Director, Alternatif Bank

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İlker Çağrı Güven

Head of IT Security

Pluxee

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Aytekin Güzeliş

CISO, Allianz Türkiye

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Murat Halidi

Senior Network & Security Manager, Zorlu Holding

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Levent İçli

Technological Infrastructure and Security Manager, Aygaz

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Boğaç Kanık

CISO, Akbank

Read Bio

Mehmet Karabıyık

CISO

BNP Paribas Cardif

Read Bio

Ömer Lütfü Karagöz

Network, System & Security Infrastructure Director, Migros

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Nusret Karakaya

CISO, OYAK

Read Bio

Anıl Kuş

Head of Security and Compliance

Hepsiburada

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Mahmut Küçük

Cyber Security Director, Türk Telekom

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Ümit Malkoç

CISO

Yapı Kredi Teknoloji

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Nihan Namoğlu

CISO

AgeSA & MediSA

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Özgür Orhan

CISO

Koç Holding

Read Bio

Yusuf Özer

Information Security Director, Sigorta Bilgi ve Gözetim Merkezi

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Tuğba Öztürk

Information Security Director, Çalık Holding

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Hasan Reyhanoğlu

Information Security and Risk Management Director, Softtech

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Erkan Sertoğlu

Information Security Director

sahibinden.com

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Okan Şengül

Information Security Manager, Ekol Logistics

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Alper Şulan

Head Of Cyber Security and Risk, CISO, TÜPRAŞ

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Sinan Tanrıkulu

Information Security Manager, Ziraat Bankası

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Emin İslam Tatlı

Cyber Security Director, Turkcell

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Mehmet Temiz

Information Security Manager, Anadolu Efes

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Hakan Tokay

Infrastructure Security Associate Director

Turkcell

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Alper Torun

CISO, Halkbank

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Hakan Türköner

IT Security & Governance Director

Boyner

Read Bio

Dr. Suat Uğurlu

Associate Director, Technology Solutions and IT Security, Koton

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Hakan Uluğ

Information Security Group Manager, Aydem Enerji

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Özgür Ünsal

Information Security Senior Manager, Odeabank

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Hasan Üstündağ

Director, Cyber Security & Network Services, Şişecam

Read Bio

Batu Yazan

Global Information Technology & Information Security Director, Getir

Read Bio

Kadir Yıldız

SVP, IT Security, Turkish Airlines

Read Bio

Gülden Yüncüoğlu

CISO, TEB

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Murat Zaralı

Information Security Director, Yıldız Tech (Yıldız Holding)

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Mustafa Dağ

Head of Information Security

Tekfen Holding

Read Bio

Knowledge Hub / Bob Parker

Analyst Spotlight

Bob Parker
SVP, Software and Services Research
IDC

Getting Your Data AI Ready

It has become a common refrain – getting data governance right is key to a successful AI strategy! This conventional wisdom is very true, but it is not a new problem. For as long as I have been involved in IT, both as an analyst and as a CIO, companies have struggled with wrangling the various data sets across the applications running at the organization.

Much of this prior effort focused on structured data sitting in relational databases. From data warehousing to data lakes and now to data lakehouses, companies have incrementally built better cataloging and semantic mapping. This category of data provides a performance context; it is where a company keeps score whether it is for financial reporting, operational status, sales pipelines, or workforces.

While much of the effort historically has been on this structured data, for the average company it only represents about 20% of the information corpus. The rest is in the form of unstructured information in the form of documents, video, voice, or structures (e.g., blueprints or chemical models). A central benefit of the transformer algorithms that build the language models used in generative AI is that they introduce some structure into this mess via vectoring. This category of data represents the knowledge context at an enterprise – the collective knowledge of the organization is locked in these documents, videos, voice recordings, and structures.

There is a third category of information as well – streaming data. This is the telemetry of the organization. It could come in the form of sensors on a factory floor, the readings from health monitors, or click streams on a website. This type of data usually is delivered in some time-series form and needs specific governance, usually tag repositories, to understand and apply the data. This data provides the situational context, a view of what is happening in real time.

Efforts to organize, govern and utilize the data must link all three categories of information. To achieve the tremendous potential of agentic AI, a company must be able to link the knowledge to the situational and performance context. This requires advanced tools for semantic graphing and knowledge mapping with a strong commitment from the organization to elevate comprehensive data management to a strategic priority.

IDC does advise companies that they don’t have to get this all done before they undertake agentic efforts. Rather, it is important to have the tools, organization, and policies in place and then synchronize the data domains with the agentic priorities. For example, if the company wants to focus on marketing, then the information relevant to that function should be prioritized for governance.

It is easy to acknowledge that data is critical to AI success, but realization requires a comprehensive approach to data across all categories.

Knowledge Hub / Matt Eastwood

Analyst Spotlight

Matt Eastwood
SVP, WW Research
IDC

AI Infrastructure: The Foundation of the Agentic Era

The world is entering a defining moment for digital infrastructure. Artificial intelligence has moved from experimentation to ubiquity, and with it, a new operational paradigm is taking shape — one where agents rather than applications become the primary engines of digital value creation. This is the dawn of the agentic AI era, and its success depends on one thing above all else: robust, intelligent, and scalable infrastructure.

From Automation to Autonomy

For decades, infrastructure strategy has focused on efficiency – making IT faster, cheaper, and more reliable. But AI is forcing a step change. IDC’s Worldwide IT Industry 2026 FutureScape predicts that by 2028, nearly half of all IT product and service interactions will be mediated by AI agents. These systems are not just automating tasks; they are reasoning, collaborating, and acting in context – continuously learning from data to improve business outcomes.

Supporting this shift requires infrastructure that can think for itself. IDC’s Future of Digital Infrastructure research shows that by 2029, 70% of new operating systems will ship with built-in infrastructure operations agents and model context servers to drive efficiency, security, and sustainability. In short, we are moving from systems that are operated to systems that operate themselves.

AI Factories and the Rise of Private Intelligence

The massive growth of generative and agentic AI has triggered a global infrastructure renaissance. Enterprises and hyperscalers alike are building “AI factories”. These are the next-generation data centers purpose-built for high-density and GPU-driven workloads. AI-ready data center spending in the U.S. has tripled in three years and forecast anticipate that demand for AI-ready capacity will grow 33% annually through 2030.

IDC’s recent Private AI Infrastructure Systems MarketScape underscores why this matters: as AI workloads scale, organizations need hybrid models that balance performance, cost, and control. Leaders like Dell Technologies, HPE, and Cisco are responding with turnkey private AI systems that integrate compute, storage, networking, and model management software into secure, cloud-consistent platforms. These systems form the backbone of enterprise AI, where data sovereignty, security, and latency matter most.

The Power, Cooling, and Connectivity Challenge

The scale of AI infrastructure buildout is also testing physical limits. High-density GPU clusters can draw tens of kilowatts per rack, driving record levels of power demand and forcing innovation in liquid cooling and grid optimization. IDC predicts that by 2030, 70% of new liquid-cooled deployments will adhere to open standards, improving compatibility and reducing deployment costs by one-third. The infrastructure bottleneck is shifting from compute to power and cooling, making sustainability not just an ESG issue but an operational imperative.

Toward the Autonomous Enterprise

Agentic AI doesn’t live in isolation – it depends on a digital fabric that spans datacenters, clouds, and edge environments. By 2027, IDC expects 80% of enterprises to deploy distributed edge infrastructure to support low-latency AI inferencing, and 75% will use interconnection-oriented networks to secure and orchestrate AI workloads. This fusion of automation, intelligence, and interconnection is paving the way toward autonomous IT operations, where humans remain in the loop but not in the way.

Why It Matters Now

CIOs in the Middle East and beyond are standing at the intersection of two transformations: the modernization of infrastructure and the emergence of the agentic enterprise. The winners will be those who view AI infrastructure not as a cost center but as a catalyst – the intelligent backbone that allows agents, data, and humans to collaborate seamlessly.

At the IDC CIO Summit 2026, we’ll explore how forward-thinking leaders are reimagining infrastructure for this new era by building the secure, sustainable, and scalable foundations of an intelligent enterprise. Because in the age of agentic AI, infrastructure isn’t just the platform for innovation. It is the innovation.

Knowledge Hub

Discover thought-provoking articles from IDC analysts, strategic partners, and end-user speakers. Explore expert viewpoints on the latest tech trends, real-world transformation stories, and forward-looking insights shaping the digital future.

AI Infrastructure: The Foundation of the Agentic Era

Matt Eastwood

IDC

SVP, WW Research

Getting Your Data AI Ready

Bob Parker

IDC

SVP, Software and Services Research

Knowledge Hub

AI Infrastructure: The Foundation of the Agentic Era

Matt Eastwood

IDC

SVP, WW Research

Getting Your Data AI Ready

Bob Parker

IDC

SVP, Software and Services Research

Knowledge Hub

AI Infrastructure: The Foundation of the Agentic Era

Matt Eastwood

IDC

SVP, WW Research

Getting Your Data AI Ready

Bob Parker

IDC

SVP, Software and Services Research

Vision to Reality: How Governments are Empowering the Middle East’s AI Future

IDC predicts that AI will have a cumulative global economic impact of $19.9 trillion by 2030, driving 3.5% of global GDP growth. Governments will play a strategic dual role – both shaping policies for secure, impactful, and responsible adoption of AI across industries, and acting as major buyers of AI to transform public programs and services, enhancing operational efficiency and achieving mission outcomes.

Massimiliano Claps

IDC

Research Director

Women in AI

At Princess Nourah University (PNU), one of the largest women’s universities in the world, the rise of women in technology and artificial intelligence has become a defining mark of progress. Among the most influential figures leading this transformation is the CIO, whose exceptional work has shaped the university’s digital future and strengthened the role of women in AI-driven innovation.

Eng. Sultanah Aljaser

Princess Nourah Bint Abdul Rahman University (PNU)

Chief Information Officer (CIO)

Breaking Barriers and Building Resilience: Women’s Leadership in Cybersecurity

Introduction: A New Era of Cyber Leadership

Cyber threats are evolving faster than ever, pushing organizations to constantly adapt and innovate. Yet one of the strongest catalysts for innovation—diverse leadership—remains underutilized in cybersecurity. Women still make up a small fraction of the global cyber workforce and an even smaller percentage of leadership roles.

Despite these challenges, women have been pivotal in shaping modern cyber resilience, influencing policy, culture, and organizational strategy. Their leadership is redefining how the industry tackles risk and responds to threats.

Eng. Huda Ahmed Mohsen

Ministry of Information (Bahrain)

Chief of Information Technology

Simplifying Complex Business Workflows the Smart Way

Today’s CIOs face a real challenge. Digital tools are everywhere across the enterprise. They promise speed, efficiency, and better performance. But in practice, many of these tools solve problems in isolation. Over time, this creates fragmented systems that are hard to integrate, govern, and scale.

As AI moves from hype to a core business capability, the pressure is rising. CIOs are expected to simplify these environments while still delivering real results. That means rethinking how work flows across systems — not adding yet another tool.

Haitham Elkhatib

UnifyApps

Co-Founder

Parallels Perspective: Navigating the New Era of Application Delivery with Flexibility, Security, and Choice

The way organizations deliver applications has undergone a significant shift over the past few years. Pre-pandemic, virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) was often seen as a niche solution for specific use cases. Post-pandemic, it has become a cornerstone of modern IT strategies, driven by the rise of remote work and the need for secure, scalable access to business-critical applications.

Steven Dewinter

Parallels

Senior Global Director, Sales Engineering

From Oscillation to Orchestration: Why AI Needs a New Operating Model

History is full of false choices. Centralized or decentralized. Control or freedom. Order or chaos. We keep swinging between extremes, convinced the next swing will finally fix things. It rarely does.

The same pattern is now playing out with AI.

Dan Sommer

Qlik

Senior Director, Market Intelligence Lead

Building the Next-Generation Enterprise: Adaptive Intelligence Architecture

Forward-thinking companies are rewriting the rules of business operations. Instead of patching new technology onto old systems, these organizations design intelligent decision-making capabilities directly into their core processes. The result? Operations that monitor market conditions 24 x 7, analyze complex situations on the fly, and take action across departments without waiting for human approval. Decisions that once took days now happen in seconds.

Sahil Dhawan

Tech Mahindra

President & Head (India, MEA)

Intelligent Networks, Intelligent Enterprises: Leading in the Age of AI Native Infrastructure

The digital economy is entering a decisive new phase — one where competitiveness is no longer determined by connectivity alone, but by intelligence built directly into infrastructure. Around the world, executive leaders are shifting from traditional transformation programs to a more ambitious mandate: creating enterprises that can sense, decide, and act in real time. This next frontier is defined by two powerful forces converging at scale: next‑generation networks and applied AI woven throughout the enterprise fabric.

Essa Haidar

Ooredoo

Chief Technology Officer

The Next Phase of Enterprise AI in 2026

As organizations across regulated and complex industries move into 2026, enterprise leaders are taking a more pragmatic view of AI adoption. While generative and agentic AI promise unprecedented speed and innovation, real-world implementation highlights a growing need for governance, orchestration, and architectural discipline. The next phase of enterprise AI will be defined less by experimentation and more by operational maturity.

Gonçalo Borrêga, VP Product, AI & AppDev, OutSystems

Amr Hafiz, Managing Director, Envnt

Agentic AI and the Human Equation: Building Trust-Driven Customer Intelligence

Agentic AI is no longer a theoretical capability — it is entering enterprises as a decision-maker, an actor, and, increasingly, a source of risk. As autonomous systems move from pilot programs into production, CIOs are facing a new reality: success is no longer defined by technical performance alone, but by trust, governance, and accountability.

Jim Dwyer

Sutherland

Chief Transformation & Innovation Officer

Modernizing for Autonomy: How Migration and Platforms Enable Agentic AI

As enterprises move toward agentic AI, systems capable of acting autonomously and making decisions, the greatest barrier is rarely intelligence. Instead, it is the readiness of enterprise platforms. Most organizations continue to operate on architectures designed for stability, predictability, and human-led decision-making. While effective for traditional workloads, these environments struggle to support autonomous decision loops without introducing operational risk.

Nadeem Qureshi

Integra Technologies

Sales Director

From CDN to IDN: Why the Shift, and Why Now?

As digital services become mission-critical to enterprise growth, the question facing CIOs is no longer whether delivery performance matters — but whether today’s delivery architectures are still fit for purpose.

Global digital traffic continues to grow at 20%+ annually, driven by video-heavy consumption, cloud-native applications, real-time services, and AI-enabled platforms.

Sonny Tran

EdgeNext

Director, Strategic Growth & Network Strategy

Your Competitive Edge Isn’t AI — It’s What Comes Before It

AI has become a board-level priority across industries. Organizations are investing heavily in advanced models, automation platforms, and intelligent agents, all in pursuit of faster decisions, improved efficiency, and competitive differentiation. Yet, despite this momentum, many AI initiatives struggle to move beyond pilots or fail to deliver meaningful, lasting impact.

Ali Sallam

Iron Mountain

Digital Solutions Architect

The Real-Time Imperative: Navigating the Velocity of Modern Data

In the rapidly evolving digital landscape of the Middle East, the gap between data generation and actionable insight is closing. For the modern CIO, the challenge is no longer just about storing vast quantities of information; it is about the latency of decision-making. As regional enterprises embrace the “AI-first” era, the underlying architecture must shift from traditional batch processing to a real-time intelligence model.

Arno van Driel

ClickHouse

Vice President

AI-Human Harmony: The Future of Customer Engagement

Customer engagement is undergoing a profound shift. For years, enterprises relied on a simple formula: automation to scale, humans to empathize. That balance held until customer expectations changed. Today, people want to be recognized and understood instantly, across every channel, with experiences that feel intelligent and human at the same time. Incremental improvements will not meet this demand. What is needed is a complete redesign of how intelligence powers every interaction.

Sachin Bhatia

Exotel

Co-Founder & Chief Growth Officer

From Compliance to Control: A CIO’s Guide to Data Sovereignty

Data has become one of the world’s most valuable resources, and it flows across borders instantly. This freedom creates incredible opportunities for innovation and growth. It also creates a tangled web of legal and security challenges. Governments everywhere are tightening their grip on how digital information is stored, processed, and transferred.

Adam Gale

NetApp

Chief Technology Officer

Transforming Digital Leadership: How Middle East CIOs Can Bridge Strategy and Execution

As organizations across the Middle East accelerate their digital transformation journeys under national visions such as UAE Vision 2031 and Saudi Vision 2030, CIOs are confronting a dual mandate: drive innovation at speed while ensuring that transformation efforts consistently translate into measurable business outcomes. This year’s IDC Middle East CIO Summit arrives at a pivotal moment — when technology leadership must evolve from operational stewardship to strategic value orchestration.

Stephen Fernandes

Planview

Chief Growth Officer & Head (Middle East)

From Experimentation to Impact: Why Engineering Must Become AI Native

The next wave of engineering transformation will be defined by who rebuilds engineering around AI as a foundational capability. Many organizations are already experimenting with copilots and automation tools. While deploying intelligent tools in pockets may deliver short-term or incremental gains, it rarely delivers lasting value. Speed alone does not create advantage if it comes at the cost of quality, resilience, or trust.

Ehsan Shariff

Nagarro

Managing Director

Data Discovery First: Why Modern Data Governance Needs DSPM

Every part of enterprise IT has found its “next-generation” model, yet data governance in many organizations is still being asked to work with assumptions designed for a slower, simpler data world.

That world disappeared quietly, then all at once. Hybrid work normalized new ways of creating and sharing information.

Ibrahim Çallı

DECE Software

Sales & Marketing Director

CIO Leadership in the AI-Empowered Enterprise

In my conversations with CIOs across industries, one reality consistently stands out. Artificial intelligence is no longer something organizations are planning for; it is already shaping how businesses operate, compete, and grow. This shift is redefining the CIO’s role in very practical and meaningful ways, with clear implications for CXOs across the organization.

Hameedullah Khan

SUDO Consultants

Chief Executive Officer

The Fast Lane to Greater SaaS Visibility

Setting the Stage

As organizations increasingly rely on software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications, maintaining visibility across the entire SaaS environment has become a major challenge. With tools adopted independently across departments, many organizations lack a clear understanding of what applications are in use, how much they cost, who uses them, and what risks they introduce. A SaaS management platform helps address these challenges by delivering centralized visibility, control, and actionable insight.

Fadi Honein

Saveo

Founder & MD

7 Apr 2026

Çırağan Palace Kempinski

Accelerating Türkiye’s Digital Future

The Power of Cloud Computing

Overview

Join us for an exclusive executive roundtable exploring how cloud computing is reshaping Türkiye’s digital landscape. This session brings together industry leaders to discuss strategic imperatives and tangible benefits of cloud adoption.

Digital Transformation in Türkiye: Türkiye stands at a pivotal moment in its digital evolution. We’ll explore how organizations are leveraging cloud technologies to accelerate innovation, enhance operational agility, and unlock new revenue streams in Türkiye’s dynamic market.

Low-Latency Computing for Industry Innovation: Discover how ultra-low latency computing is revolutionizing industries from financial services to manufacturing and healthcare. Learn how bringing compute resources closer to end users enables entirely new categories of applications—from high-frequency trading to real-time patient monitoring and immersive experiences.

Cloud Migration ROI: Moving to the cloud delivers measurable impact: reduced capital expenditure, improved resource utilization, and the ability to scale dynamically. Leading organizations are achieving 30-40% cost savings while simultaneously improving performance, security, and innovation velocity.

AWS Global AI Infrastructure Investment As AI transforms every industry, infrastructure becomes the competitive differentiator. We’ll share AWS’s perspective on global investments in AI-optimized infrastructure that are democratizing access to cutting-edge capabilities for organizations of all sizes.

This roundtable offers a unique opportunity to engage with peers and gain actionable insights for your organization’s cloud strategy and digital transformation journey.

One Day Event

5:00 pm

Registration & Networking

5:30 pm

Welcome Address

5:35 pm

The 2026 Digital Inflection Point: Navigating the Shift from AI Experimentation to the Autonomous Enterprise

We have moved past the “Great Implementation.” As we enter 2026, the global enterprise has reached a critical inflection point where the sheer volume of data, the complexity of multi-cloud ecosystems, and the velocity of agentic AI have outpaced traditional human management. The mandate for the CIO has fundamentally shifted: it is no longer about managing technology, but about architecting autonomy.

Eren Eser

Associate Research Director, Türkiye, IDC

5:50 pm

AWS Keynote

Berrin Özselçuk

Country Manager, AWS Türkiye

6:10 pm

Open Discussion: The Modernization Mindset: CIO Perspectives on Navigating the Shift to AI-Ready Infrastructure

In 2026, the gap between “cloud-active” and “AI-ready” has become the primary differentiator of market leaders. While most enterprises have completed initial migrations, many find themselves hitting the “Legacy Wall” where fragmented data, technical debt, and rigid architectures prevent the scaling of autonomous AI agents and real-time intelligence.
This panel brings together visionary CIOs from diverse industries to discuss the Modernization Mindset: a fundamental shift in leadership that treats infrastructure not as a static utility, but as a dynamic engine for innovation. We will explore how these leaders are moving beyond “Lift and Shift” to “Re-Architect for Intelligence,” to collapse complexity and unlock the next era of business value.

7:00 pm

Break & Networking

7:30 pm

Dinner

Venue

Çırağan Palace Kempinski

Ottoman Ballroom

Yıldız, Çırağan Cd. No:32, 34349

Beşiktaş/İstanbul

Show on Map

Knowledge Hub

IDC Spotlight

Eren Eser

IDC

Associate Research Director, Türkiye

Advisory Board Spotlight

Korhan Kuyu

Anadolu Sigorta

CIO

Advisory Board Spotlight

Fatih Akar

Kordsa

Global Digitalization Director

Speaker Spotlight

Murat Erez

Kale Holding

CIO

Speaker Spotlight

Çiğdem Kılıç

Türkiye Sigorta

CIO

Advisory Board Spotlight

Hakan Cem Topal

Saya Holding

IT Director

Advisory Board Spotlight

Kürşat Alp Yiğit

Aras Kargo

VP of IT

Advisory Board Spotlight

Özgür Korkmaz

Uludağ İçecek

Executive Technology Leader

Advisory Board Spotlight

Timur Karaman

Tiryaki Agro

IT Director

Speaker Spotlight

Fırat Akın

Çokyaşar Holding

General Manager of IT

Advisory Board Spotlight

Mehmet Bütün

Vakıf Katılım Bankası

EVP, CIO

Advisory Board Spotlight

Harun Yaşar Aksöz

Gözalan Group

IT Director

Key Topics

What will you gain?

Key Themes

Advisory Board

Nuri Akar

Nuri Akar

Event Sessions

Onur Akkepenek

Onur Akkepenek

Event Sessions

Ali Kutluhan Aktaş

Ali Kutluhan Aktaş

Event Sessions

Serhat Alkan

Serhat Alkan

Event Sessions

Kayıhan Altınöz

Kayıhan Altınöz

Event Sessions

İbrahim Aslanbakan

İbrahim Aslanbakan

Event Sessions

Akif Mert Avcı

Akif Mert Avcı

Event Sessions

Onur Ayyıldız

Onur Ayyıldız

Event Sessions

Öner Ziya Baş

Öner Ziya Baş

Event Sessions