July 22 - 23, 2026 | Seattle, WA

Building the Autonomous Enterprise

Discussion Brief

Enterprise AI is entering a new phase: model capability is accelerating and increasingly accessible, but execution advantage is not. The differentiator is the enterprise operating system that turns AI into durable performance — how you orchestrate agentic systems into real workflows, modernize the data/ERP substrate, redesign controls to enable speed, and evolve operating models so innovation compounds rather than breaks.

This annual Executive Technology Board meeting is designed around two outcomes: (1) peer-validated patterns for building the Autonomous Enterprise (architecture, governance, operating model, talent), and (2) calibrated frontier signals from external guests shaping what’s next — so members leave with a short list of concrete bets and actions to implement over the next quarter.

Day 1 includes a closed, members-only working session and an afternoon program with curated external guests, followed by a private Pacific Northwest dinner. Day 2 is the optional Founder’s Circle: a high-trust working session with builders of the next generation of enterprise AI.

Agenda Overview

Day 1 – Closed session (members only)

A candid, off-the-record working session on what’s actually working (and not working) as enterprises move from copilots and pilots to agentic workflows and autonomous operations:

• Operating model for autonomy: decision rights, product/platform alignment, “human-in-the-loop” design, and outcome metrics that matter (cycle time, quality, risk, cash impact)
• Architecture patterns that don’t break: orchestration, tool access, identity/permissions, state and memory, observability, and failure modes (avoiding brittle dependencies)
• Industrializing AI delivery: tiered controls and guardrails, evaluation and red-teaming, model risk management, auditability, and intake-to-production cycle time
• The modernization substrate: where ERP/process/data/integration choices enable autonomy—and what to modernize first versus leave stable

Day 1 – Afternoon session (with external guests)

A curated conversation on frontier signals and emerging approaches focused on what is changing next:

• Where the frontier is moving (agents, multimodal, voice, reasoning + tools, on-device/edge, and new software primitives)
• What is proving deployable in regulated, complex enterprises — and what continues to fail in practice

Evening – Private dinner

Off-the-record dinner at a private Pacific Northwest residence to translate the day into a short set of concrete actions and bets participants can take back.

Day 2 – Optional Founder’s Circle

A high-trust, no-pitch discussion with visionary startup founders from our Innovation 25 list that are building the next generation of enterprise AI. Designed to explore what comes next, pressure-test assumptions, and co-create what “enterprise-ready” should mean.

Executive Technology Board (c)