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Welcome executives and professionals. Electricity has fundamentally changed the way we work. Our own human ingenuity was instrumental to the effort. AI is no different.

Since the previous edition, we have reviewed hundreds of the latest insights in agentic and generative AI, spanning best practices, case studies, market dynamics, and innovations.

This briefing outlines what is driving material value — and why it’s important.

In today’s briefing:

• Deloitte’s 2026 CDAO survey.

• EY’s agentic AI playbook for CIOs.

• a16z: AI will eat application software.

• Which service providers are strategic?

• Transformation and technology in the news.

• Insights for Executive+ members.

• Career opportunities & events.

Read time: 4 minutes.

CXO INSIGHT

Deloitte’s 2026 CDAO survey

Brief: Deloitte’s 2026 Chief Data and Analytics Officer survey report, drawing on 100 c-suite executives from $1B+ revenue firms, examined how data and AI leaders’ authority and remit is shifting amid AI disruption.

Breakdown:

• CDAO influence is rising. 94% expect their influence to grow over the next year, and 78% say AI has increased their decision-making authority.

• CDAOs are ascending as strategic trailblazers. 89% are actively evolving data and AI strategy, backed by full executive support.

• 91% want their organizations to do more with AI, while 56% feel intense pressure to demonstrate ROI from initiatives.

• 95% believe their organizations are not fully leveraging data, yet 78% are actively implementing data modernization with AI.

Why it’s important: As AI reshapes the enterprise, CDAOs have a mandate to lead. That means formalizing the role if needed, strengthening executive relationships, rigorously tracking ROI and value benchmarks, upskilling the workforce, and ensuring governance keeps pace with scale and risk.

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BEST PRACTICE INSIGHT

EY’s agentic AI playbook for CIOs

Brief: At a recent EY Center for Executive Leadership gathering of 30 leading technology executives, EY highlighted agentic AI as the next catalyst for CIOs to evaluate as they consider strategy and procurement decisions.

Breakdown:

• More firms are deploying agents to analyze large datasets, accelerate insight generation, and deliver natural, conversational outputs.

• Enterprise capabilities can sit on a lean agentic AI layer that interfaces directly with core systems, with human oversight guiding decisions.

• Bringing agentic workforces to life requires a structured, cross-functional playbook; EY outlines eight stages, each with success indicators.

• Leaders should prioritize outcome-centric use cases, deploy forward-deployed engineers, redesign pricing around results, and more.

Why it’s important: Agentic AI is transforming enterprise architecture by transforming static services into dynamic, self-directed software capabilities. Firms should design for autonomy, orchestrate around outcomes, and compete on speed, adaptability, and scalable value realization.

MARKET INSIGHT

a16z: AI will eat application software

Brief: Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) explored how since early 2026, public software ETFs have fallen 30 percent, erasing gains made since ChatGPT’s launch and raising questions about long-term winners and losers.

Breakdown:

• Bellwethers including Salesforce, Adobe, Intuit, ServiceNow, and Veeva are down 25 to 30 percent in weeks, shaking confidence.

• a16z evaluates the moats: scale, network effects, counter positioning, switching costs, brand, cornered resources, and process power.

• AI will not destroy software, but split it. Thin frontend wrappers built on commodity functionality are vulnerable as differentiation erodes.

• Firms with outdated pricing and value propositions vs. AI natives, plus systems of record with archaic UX and rising costs, should worry.

Why it’s important: The winners in this cycle will not be those relying on lock-in or pricing power. Some incumbents will lose, but software as a category will expand as AI lowers costs and increases capability. The SaaSpocalypse isn’t the death of software, it’s the start of something much bigger.

MARKET INSIGHT

Which service providers are strategic?

Brief: Forrester surveyed 2,078 enterprise services decision-makers to identify trends and determine which technology service providers are viewed as strategic partners amid an AI-driven transformation environment.

Breakdown:

• Over half of buyers now use outcome based pricing models, 46 percent use fixed price, signaling pressure on time and materials.

• Enterprises expect to increase services spend across consulting, apps, security, engineering, driven largely by AI-led disruption.

• Accenture is the most used provider at 50%, followed by IBM at 43% and Deloitte at 39%, with IBM most often viewed as a strategic partner.

• The survey examines what defines a strategic provider, highlighting that relationships matter more than commercial terms alone.

Why it’s important: After a reset in revenue expectations last year, service providers are back on a slow growth trajectory. Services remain a major share of IT budgets. Forrester’s tech forecast projects that firms will spend $1.6 trillion dollars on services globally by 2028.

Moody’s published a 32-page outlook exploring the macroeconomic scenarios of AI, from productivity gains to labor disruption risk.

KPMG released its AI Quarterly Pulse Survey, highlighting how agents are moving from pilots to production as leaders rethink talent.

HFS reports most enterprises use AI, but only one in five deploy agentic systems to make decisions, citing trust as the barrier.

McKinsey argues commerce media is at an inflection point, outlining how a full-stack strategy can unlock growth and competitive edge.

Google detailed the KPIs that matter for production AI agents, from operational reliability to workflow adoption and impact.

Block laid off over 4,000 of 10,000 employees, citing AI as the reason, with shares rising more than 20% after the announcement.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the AI art copyright case, leaving lower courts’ rulings that only humans can be authors intact.

AWS lost connectivity at a UAE data center after unidentified objects struck the site, causing major outages for Anthropic’s Claude.

ElevenLabs partnered with Deloitte to help enterprises adopt agentic AI solutions that enhance customer experience and engagement.

Anthropic launched a tool letting users copy-paste preferences from other AI platforms amid rising sign-ups as the firm battles the Pentagon.

OpenAI signed a Pentagon deal hours after Trump cut ties with Anthropic, claiming it respects the surveillance and autonomous weapons red lines.

The OpenClaw Saga: the events of the last two weeks have changed the agentic AI landscape in ways that will be felt for years.

CAREER OPPORTUNITIES

Pfizer - Head of AI COE

IDC - Vice President of AI

Google - Head of AI GTM

EVENTS

Oracle World Tour - 24 March, 2026

AWS Executive AI Innovation Day - 21 April, 2026

Google Cloud Next - 22-24 April, 2026

Reach enterprise AI decision-makers:

• 66% of readers are C-level executives or VP and Director-level leaders.

• 63.2% of the audience is based in the U.S., EU, UK, ANZ, and Singapore.

• Read by leaders at Microsoft, Deloitte, the Fortune 500, and more.

Standard and custom sponsorship packages available, with post-send performance reporting.

Conceived as a practical communication for executives Lewis Walker has worked with, this briefing has become a trusted resource for thousands of senior decision-makers shaping the future of enterprise AI.

We welcome your feedback.