- 17 September 2026
- 9:00am - 6:00pm
- Marina Bay Sands, Singapore
2026 CIO CONFERENCE AGENDA
09.00
Conference Chairperson’s Welcome Remarks
09.15
Panel Discussion: From IT Steward to Business Owner: Redefining the CIO’s Role in 2027
CIOs in Asia today are no longer judged solely on system uptime or cost savings—they are expected to co-own digital products, influence revenue streams, and drive mission-critical outcomes. This session explores how top-performing CIOs are stepping beyond traditional IT boundaries to lead cross-functional business initiatives, manage digital P&Ls, and build careers anchored in enterprise impact rather than internal IT metrics.
- Redefining success metrics – from IT KPIs to business outcomes
- CIOs as digital product owners
- Framing and testing organisational models to fit the business model
- Skills and mindset shift for the expanded role
- Career pathways – stepping out of an established comfort zone
Moderator:
Panelists:
09.50
Keynote: Cloud Strategy in the Agentic Era: Why Data and AI Trust Is the Missing Layer
As AI agents move from pilots into production, the infrastructure to trust the data feeding them hasn't kept pace with the infrastructure to deploy them. This session explores what's missing between your cloud/data platforms and the AI acting on them — and how CIOs can build hybrid multicloud ecosystems that are secure, governed, and ready for autonomous AI at scale.
10.15
Fireside Chat: Scaling AI Governance in Singapore
As organisations in Singapore transition from AI pilots to enterprise-wide deployment, the challenge evolves from adoption to scaling responsibly. Success hinges on embedding strong governance and security frameworks — the essential guardrails that protect data, ensure compliance, and mitigate risk. IT leaders must take a proactive stance to build trust and resilience in their AI journey.
- Updates on Singapore’s AI strategy
- Meeting risks, governance and complexities in enterprise-wide AI adoption
- Building AI Governance Frameworks aligned with IMDA’s Model AI Governance Framework
- Balancing AI innovation with harmonisation of standards to remain competitive
Interviewer:
11.20
Keynote: Unified Data as a Core Business Strategy
Decision intelligence combines data, analytics and AI to create decision flows that support and automate complex judgements. This session will address strategies to integrate fragmented data sources into a single cohesive system for a more accurate analysis and better decision making.
- Enabling consistent data management across hybrid cloud and on-premise
- Data fabric to reduce complexity of handling data at scale
- Building next-gen data fabric fuelled by AI-assistants and agentic capabilities
- Transforming data into actionable insights with end-to-end integrated analytics
11.45
Panel Discussion: Strategic Tech Rationalisation and Future-Ready Tech Stack Optimisation for 2027
In a landscape of tighter IT budgets, increasing tech sprawl, and rapid emerging technology disruption, CIOs must go beyond modernisation—they must rationalise and optimise IT portfolios with precision and strategic intent. This session explores how top Asian enterprises are auditing, consolidating, and evolving their technology stacks to drive business growth, reduce cost, and prepare for future innovations like AI, quantum computing, and automation.
- Auditing and rationalising application and vendor portfolios to remove redundancy while maintaining operational stability
- Balancing CapEx and OpEx decisions amid economic volatility and inflation pressures
- Uncovering inefficiencies and simplify complex, multi-vendor tech stacks with AI-driven automation and analytics
- Integrating legacy systems with emerging technologies for a scalable, resilient, and future-ready IT ecosystem
- Securing board and organisational buy-in for tough tech sunsetting decisions while safeguarding innovation budgets
Moderator:
Panelists:
12.20
Keynote: Securing Digital Frontiers the AI Era
AI is transforming business—but also expanding the attack surface. From poisoned open-source models to insecure third-party APIs, the AI supply chain is the new frontline. This session moves beyond hype to practical defence: how Asian CIOs and CISOs are securing AI deployments today while preparing for tomorrow’s cryptographic revolution.
- Auditing third-party AI models and APIs
- Preventing prompt injection and data leakage
- Securing AI training data and inference pipelines
- Building cyber resilience in AI-augmented environments
13.45
Keynote: Enabling Autonomous Workforce
With AI agents evolving rapidly, organisations that do not plan to develop agentic capabilities risk falling behind their competitors. This session will share strategies to deploy AI agents and how to design them to operate effectively within their defined boundaries.
- Agentic AI in 2027: Expectations vs. reality
- The future of agentic AI in enterprise applications
- Is your business ready for autonomous agents?
- Pre-requisites and approaches to implementing agentic AI
- Scaling agentic AI for competitive advantage
14.10
Keynote: Driving Sustainable Enterprise Transformation
In today’s landscape of fragmented regulations, legacy system constraints, escalating cyber risks, and shifting geopolitics, transformation is no longer a one-off initiative—it is the core operating model. This session shares bold and sustainable transformation strategy that is deeply rooted in technology as the engine of customer value, regulatory trust, and growth.
- Transformation as strategy in motion
- Overcoming barriers to transformation in a global institution
- Balancing standardisation with local agility through hybrid approach
- Unlocking innovation by harnessing data and AI
- The blueprint for sustainable transformation at scale
14.35
Panel Discussion: Embedding AI-Driven Continuous Improvement in Business Operations
In today’s fast-evolving digital economy, organisations are under pressure to deliver measurable improvements in efficiency, resilience, and customer experience. This panel will explore how enterprises can harness AI as a driver of continuous transformation rather than a standalone technology project.
- Designing AI feedback loops for continuous process improvement
- Overcoming organisational barriers to AI-driven change
- Measuring business impact and ROI of ongoing AI initiatives
- Leveraging AI for agile customer experience and operational efficiency
- Transitioning from Generative AI to Agentic AI to unlock continuous business improvement
Moderator:
Panelists:
C-ENGAGE CONVENTION PLENARY
The CFO & CIO Alliance
15.40
Conference Chairperson’s Welcome Remarks
15:45
C-Suite Fireside Chat: Agile AI in the C-Suite: Building Trust through Governed Operating Models
The C-suite mandate for AI has shifted dramatically from "experimentation" to "justifiable ROI." Yet, for leaders navigating high-stakes financial, risk, and sustainability reporting, public LLMs present severe operational threats: data leakage, toxic prompt injections, and a total lack of auditability. When a single hallucinated number can trigger a regulatory penalty or tank investor trust, corporate leaders find themselves unable to scale AI safely. This session will deconstruct how to bridge this AI trust divide. By mapping specific C-suite pain points directly to a platform where data, AI, and assurance coexist seamlessly, this fireside chat will outline a blueprint for building an agile, defensible, and highly productive business operating model.
- The pain point and disconnected data silos
- The regulatory crunch & generic AI hallucinations
- The AI trust deficit and security blindspots
- Empowering the next-gen employees and teams in a governed and sustainable pace
16:10
C-Suite Keynote: The Operational Shift Driven by People, C-Suite Collaboration & AI
AI is no longer an experiment—it is now a driver of enterprise value. The challenge ahead is not technology itself but scaling its impact across the business. To succeed, AI must be directly tied to measurable outcomes: growth, efficiency, risk reduction, and customer experience. Organisations must move beyond isolated pilots toward a structured AI portfolio approach. This requires clear prioritization, strong governance, and deep integration into core business domains. At the same time, AI success depends heavily on people. By 2027, AI will be embedded in every role, demanding an AI-enabled workforce. This means new role structures, robust upskilling programs, and leadership prepared to manage hybrid human–AI teams. Adoption, not experimentation, will become the ultimate success factor.
- The new mandate for AI
- How AI is reshaping the business operating model
- AI as a critical enabler for the collaboration between CIO and CFO
- Creating a strong partner ecosystem to scale AI
- Proven use cases of AI’s tangible impact
16:35
C-Suite Panel Discussion: From AI Pilot to P&L – The C-Suite Partnership for AI Value
To move beyond experimentation and scale AI initiatives that deliver measurable impact on the P&L, C-Suite leaders need a practical, actionable framework. The session will dissect the unique challenges of the AI "Pilot to P&L" journey and define the specific roles and partnership required among C-Suite executives to overcome them.
- The "pilot purgatory" reality
- Building the business case for scale
- The critical role of the C-Suite partnership
- From plan to P&L: Framework for action
Moderator:
Panelists:
17:10
C-Suite Panel Discussion: Resilient Leadership amid Turbulent Times
High-performance leadership isn’t defined by speed alone — it is anchored in resilience. True organisational resilience is cultivated through C-Suite’s intentional decisions and choices that shape the enterprise’s culture, strategy, and adaptability. Resilience must be integrated into the way organisations operate, allocate resources, and evolve — not just how they react when disruption strikes.
- The C-Suite in 2027 – what’s next?
- Driving growth, collaboration, and investment through digital innovation and intelligent systems
- Leading with agility to navigate uncertainty, disruption and change
- The new equation of people management
Moderator:
Panelists:
17:45