Live. Buy. Die. Try. - Much will get influenced by AI
AI is rapidly becoming the engine behind everyday decisions—what we buy, how we work, and how organizations operate. Agentic AI is moving from conversation to action, planning tasks, orchestrating workflows, and reshaping industries. Yet despite remarkable progress, there is still enormous work ahead.
AI only delivers value when it has structure. Your AI needs an IA—information architecture—to put data to work, not just the data of the internet. Success depends on clean data, strong governance, and systems designed for real enterprise problems, not demos.
This shift also brings new risks. Generative AI expands the surface are of cyber attack, creating fresh vulnerabilities that demand modern defenses. At the same time, the concerns of massive models are driving a new era of small, specialized language models tailored for specific tasks to bring intelligence to the edge
This session offers a pragmatic view of what AI can truly do today—and what must be built next to make it reliable, secure, and keep it transformative.
Paul Zikopoulos
Paul is an award-winning professional writer & speaker who’s been consulted on the topic of AI & Big Data by the popular TV show “60 Minutes.” He’s also been invited to participate in data discussions with NATO generals who are charged with shaping the future of its operational command & control strategy, where data has been identified as its most critical component. Paul’s been named to dozens of global “Experts to Follow” & “Thought Leader” lists, including Analytics Insight’s “Top 100 AI & Big Data Influencers” and CIO Look magazine’s “The 10 Most Intelligent Leaders in Data Science and Analytics”. Paul’s written 22 books (including “AI Value Creators”, “The AI Ladder”, “Cloud without Compromise”, and 3 ‘for Dummies’ titles) and over 360 articles during his accidental 30-year career as a data nerd.
At IBM, Paul leads from the front, helping to shape the strategic direction in a ‘tech years are like dog years’ world for the IBM Technology Unit’s (IBM’s software & hardware divisions) sales, tech sales, and partner ecosystem learning journeys and upskilling programs.
You’ll find Paul taking a very active role around Women in Technology (he’s a seated advisory board member for Switch, formerly known as Women 2.0) who he became involved with after one of his viral tweets was mentioned on the TV show, “The View.” He’s the only (and first) male to ever win IBM Canada’s “Women in Technology Ally of the Year” award and is always at the forefront of general workplace inclusivity. In addition, Paul is a seated “Coding for Veterans” board member and sits on the world recognized “Masters of Management Analytics & AI” program board at Canada’s prestigious Queen’s University.
Paul’s always keeping with his grass roots — a newbie with no computer courses before coming to IBM. He knows on his dumbest days, he’s never as dumb as he feels, and on his smartest days, he’s never as smart as he feels either. Ultimately, Paul is trying to figure out the world according to his daughter Chloë — who competitively rides a horse he creatively show-named “Better than a Boyfriend”.
