As enterprises accelerate toward agentic AI, the challenge is no longer just building smarter models — it is building the infrastructure to govern them. That challenge took center stage at CDO Magazine’s Cincinnati Roundtable Exchange, where senior data, analytics, and AI executives gathered May 6 at the Vista at Lytle Park to unpack what enterprise readiness truly means in the age of autonomous systems.

With the theme, “Ensuring Data Infrastructure is Ready for Agentic AI,” leaders exchanged perspectives at their tables on the emerging operational realities of AI agents: non-human identities accessing enterprise data, unpredictable workloads straining cloud economics, and the growing need for policy-driven governance. 

The exchange also highlighted the tension between autonomy and accountability. Conversations emphasized auditability, human-in-the-loop, and the architectural redesign required to keep AI systems scalable, secure, and trusted in regulated environments.

CDO Magazine thanks the Co-Chairs of the Cincinnati Roundtable Exchange for their leadership:

• Caroline Buckley, Ford Motor Company Chief Data, Analytics & AI Officer (Interim)
• Alex Castillo, UC Health VP, Chief Data & Analytics Officer
• Christopher Eldredge, MeridianLink VP, Data
• Bharath Prabhakaran, University of Cincinnati VP & Chief Digital Officer
• Brian Shea, MedOne Healthcare Partners Chief Information Officer

Sharing his experience, Co-Chair Shea, says, “The CDO Magazine Cincinnati Roundtable sparked candid, cross-industry conversations on the evolving impact of AI, ranging from governance and strategy to the role of human-in-the-loop. These events consistently deliver exceptional content and meaningful networking with top IT and data leaders.”

Co-Chair Prabhakaran, adds, “The CDO Magazine roundtable event brought Cincinnati’s data and AI community leaders out in force for a full house and an evening filled with great conversation, knowledge sharing, and insights.”

He outlines his top takeaways: 

• Organizations need to get a solid handle on their data landscape and security guardrails to ensure secure and responsible deployment of agents.
• The agentic ecosystem needs well-defined and strong FinOps in place to ensure costs don’t balloon out of control. This is key and needs further definition and work given that organizations are still working towards FinOps for the cloud.
• Human-in-the-loop and now ‘Human-at-the-helm’ need to be at the forefront to ensure successful agentic deployments.

For Co-Chair Eldredge, “CDO Magazine events always bring together knowledgeable data leaders. The Roundtable Exchange in Cincinnati was no exception.’ He elaborates, “The leaders had great insights on timely topics such as building data foundations for AI, cost management and planning for AI cloud spend, and how to handle agentic-AI access to your data warehouse. It was great to hear the different strategies for these challenging topics.”

Jenna George, CDO Magazine Community Director, highlights, “Our first CDO Magazine Roundtable Exchange of the year in Cincinnati was a lovely evening of high-caliber discussion surrounding Agentic AI. The energy in the room is a testament to Founder & Publisher Steve Wanamaker’s legacy of bringing data and AI leaders together. The Co-chairs all showed their commitment to the CDO Magazine community, and I enjoyed hearing their unique perspectives from their varied industries.”

Summing it up, Olivia Fuqua, Cyera Account Executive, says, “CDO Magazine does an exceptional job of bringing together the best and brightest minds to discuss the evolving cybersecurity landscape, and this event was no different. It was particularly insightful to hear AI and data leaders discuss the shifting regulatory requirements in the US and Europe. The conversation served as a valuable reminder that while AI should be leveraged for productivity and efficiency, it must be deployed securely to ensure organizational confidence, privacy, and compliance.”

Special thanks to Cyera, Fortinet, and Turgon for their partnership in making the event a success.

Executives attending the CDO Magazine Cincinnati Roundtable Exchange included: 

Aparajit Agarwal, Kao USA, Data Architect; Kirti Agrawal, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center Sr. Director, Data Management & Analytics; Shanna Anderson, Fifth Third Bank SVP, Enterprise Transformation Director, Data Conversion; Wilson Becker, Shopify Data Engineering, Shipping & Taxes; Caroline Buckley, Ford Motor Company Chief Data, Analytics & AI Officer (Interim); Kyle Burkholder, Grant Thornton Partner; Mike Carr, Kroger Business Information Security Officer; Alex Castillo, UC Health VP, Chief Data & Analytics Officer; Joey Daniels, Knowledgeworks Sr. Manager, Information Technology; Christopher Eldredge, MeridianLink VP, Data; Jonathan Fossitt, Gorilla Glue Sr. Director, Enterprise Data Leader; Doug Fuller, TriHealth VP, Data & Analytics; Jeff Goldman, Procter & Gamble SVP, Consumer & Functional Insights Transformation – OneAI; Omari Hitson, JPMorganChase VP, Lead Product Designer; Sarah Johnson, Archer Daniels Midland Sr.  Data Strategy Analyst; Ricky Kakkar, Liberty Mutual Sr. SBU Analyst; Prateek Kansal, Paychex Principal Data Engineer; Ravi Katyal, Cintas Manager, Emerging Tech; Daniel Laakso, GE Aerospace CIO-Edison Works; Akhil Mahajan, Procter & Gamble, Technical Director, Data and AI; Mickey Mentzer, Cincinnati Reds Sr. Director, Baseball Systems; Andrew Miller, Dinsmore & Shohl Director, Data Management; Arun Kumar Moolchandani, Travelers AVP, Data Engineering; Abillash Mukundan, Fidelity Investments Sr. Manager, Data Quality Practice; Steve Nordmark, Knowledgeworks Sr. Director, Technology Systems; Iyanu Odebode, Zeitios Chief Executive Officer; Prakash Pandey, Liberty Mutual Insurance IT Manager; Bharath Prabhakaran, University of Cincinnati VP & Chief Digital Officer; Michael Redmond, Redmond Worldwide CEO; Josette Riep, University of Cincinnati Associate Vice President; Shane Rodabaugh, Adena Health System Chief Information & Digital Officer; Shubha Sampath, FHLB Cincinnati VP, Chief Data Officer; Brian Shea, MedOne Healthcare Partners Chief Information Officer; Matt Stoklosa, Devicie Modern Workplace Engineer; Rick Vando, Veritiv Sr. Director, IT; Harry Wang, Fifth Third Bank Director, Analytics-MRM; Sean Ware, City of Cincinnati Chief Information Officer, Ralph Watkins, Mach One Digital Chief Information Officer; Doug Weinel, ADM Director, Data & Analytics; Dan Whitacre, University of Cincinnati Adjunct Professor; J.D. Whitlock, Dayton Children’s Hospital Chief Information Officer; Ganesh Yuvaraj, US Bank Data Security Lead; Tim Flanigan, AMEND Director, Enterprise Accounts; Olivia Fuqua, Cyera, Account Executive; Cary Gecas, Turgon AI Strategic Account Executive; Andy Gress, AMEND Director, Client Revenue; Shawn Neathery, Cyera Account Executive; Kristen  Reed, Fortinet Account Manager; Ankur Varma, Turgon AIi Chief Executive Officer; Dave Volmer, Fortinet Major Account Manager; Jenna George, CDO Magazine Community Director; Anthony Losanno, CDO Magazine SVP, Sales; Camille Prado, CDO Magazine Global Editor; Steve Wanamaker, CDO Magazine Founder & Publisher.