AI STRATEGY ROUNDTABLE | DÜSSELDORF
ABOUT THIS EVENT
Organizations are pouring enormous budgets into AI, and most of it isn’t paying off. Gartner predicts that over 40% of agentic AI projects will be canceled by 2027, citing escalating costs, unclear business value and inadequate risk controls. Giving software access to your core processes without a plan doesn’t create value. It just makes the chaos more expensive.
The pattern behind the failures is consistent. Getting value from AI takes three steps, and most organizations stall on one of them:
Most AI programs die quietly at step two or three, long after the budget was approved and the press release went out.
John Elliott, Global Managing Director of Technology Advisory at Thoughtworks, and Heidi Gehring, Head of AI/Works Hub, Central Europe, open the discussion by sharing the patterns they see across organizations that made it through all three steps and those that didn’t. The floor is yours after that.
This is a closed-door executive dinner, not a briefing. Senior business and technology leaders meet under Chatham House rules: what’s said in the room stays in the room, so you can speak plainly about what isn’t working.
WHY ATTEND
This is a conversation, not a presentation. Here’s what you get:
- An outside-in read on where your AI program actually stands, from peers with no stake in your internal narrative.
- The specific patterns that separate delivered value from expensive pilots, across organizations that have tried both.
- One evening, 10 people, no slides: the kind of conversation that’s hard to buy and harder to schedule.
Participation is at no cost for qualified attendees.
10-12 senior business and technology leaders from large enterprises. Closed and peer-level by design: no recording, no slides, no vendor pitch, and nothing said in the room leaves it.
AGENDA
19:00 – 19:30
Registration and welcome reception
19:30 – 20:15
Roundtable discussion with John and Heidi
20:15 – 21:15
Networking dinner
21:15 – 21:30
Closing remarks
HOSTS
John leads Technology Advisory at Thoughtworks, working with boards, CEOs, and executive teams on the governance, operating, and investment decisions behind building AI-enabled enterprises. He also leads Thoughtworks’ strategic partnership with Teneo, pairing executive advisory with Thoughtworks’ AI, strategy, and engineering expertise.
Before Thoughtworks, John was a partner at McKinsey & Company, advising Fortune 500 organizations on technology strategy and enterprise transformation, and a managing director at Accenture. He holds a master’s in electrical engineering from the University of Southern California and is the author of What Must Be True: How to Win in the Age of AI, and Why Most Will Not.
Heidi Gehring is a technology and AI leader who helps organisations turn emerging AI capabilities into real business value. As Head of AI/works Hub for Central Europe, she works with business and technology leaders on AI strategy, adoption and the organisational changes required to make AI work at scale. Her focus is increasingly on agentic AI and on the gap between what the technology can do and the value organisations actually capture from it. With a background in technology consulting and applied data science, Heidi brings a pragmatic, business-focused perspective to the conversation: Where does agentic AI genuinely create value, and what does it take to move beyond experimentation?
REGISTER TO ATTEND
Secure your seat!
No cost for qualified attendees. Once you’ve applied, we’ll review your submission and confirm your invitation with a calendar invite and venue directions.
Questions? Contact our representative:
+31 97010282466
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