CDO Magazine brought together senior data, AI, security, and technology leaders for the inaugural Dallas AI in the Enterprise Forum on August 27 at Omni Las Colinas in Irving, Texas.

Across conversations about AI governance, strategy, architecture, leadership, and enterprise transformation, one issue kept returning to the center of the discussion: the quality and readiness of the data underneath it all.

As organizations move from AI experimentation toward enterprise deployment, participants discussed what it actually takes to make data ready for AI, the constraints leaders are encountering across industries, and how to measure whether investments in real-time data and AI are creating business value.

From Data-Driven to Knowledge-Driven

For Vino Kingston, AI Transformational Leader at Lockheed Martin, preparing data for AI goes beyond traditional measures of cleanliness, governance, and accessibility.

“For businesses that would want to lead and grow, the next evolution is to transition from data-driven to knowledge-driven decision-making. AI-ready data is not just clean, governed, and accessible data, but it is data enriched with business meaning through ontologies and knowledge graphs—giving AI agents the context they need to understand, infer, reason, act, and make decisions. That is what makes agentic decision-making a reality.”

The conversation around AI-ready data extended into the practical challenges organizations face in building those foundations. Participants considered how industry-specific constraints affect data readiness and what metrics can meaningfully connect real-time data and AI initiatives to business value.

Moderator Rick Holland, Data Security and AI Governance Officer at Cyera, joined Vino Kingston, AI Transformation Leader at Lockheed Martin; Priya Reddy, former Vice President, Technology, Data Management & Delivery and Chief Data Officer at Reprise Financial; and Arun Verma, Head of Data and Enterprise Platforms at Bright Horizons, for the “AI-Ready Data: What ‘Ready’ Means Once the Agents Show Up” discussion at the CDO Magazine Dallas AI in the Enterprise Forum.

Trust Remains Central to Enterprise AI

The Forum also explored AI adoption and governance, talent, and enterprise transformation.

Michelle Boston, CIO at Bank of America, pointed to trust as a common thread across those conversations.

“Dalia and I explored a broad range of topics, from AI adoption and governance to talent and enterprise transformation, but one theme consistently stood out: trust. Organizations unlock the greatest value from AI when innovation is built on strong data foundations, responsible oversight and a clear focus on delivering meaningful outcomes. As AI continues to evolve, leaders across industries are working through many of the same opportunities and challenges, making these conversations more important than ever.”

Those questions carried across a broader program spanning Data and AI Strategy, Value and Business Impact; Data Architecture, Enablement and Foundations; Generative AI; Responsible AI, Ethics, Regulation and Governance; and Leadership, Talent and Organizational Transformation.

Alissa Schneider, Executive Director, Enterprise Data & Insights at Sinclair, Inc., brings leadership lessons to life through music during her keynote, “Data Truths: Brought to Life Through Song.”

Bringing the Dallas Data and AI Community Together

The inaugural Forum brought Dallas-area leaders together to exchange perspectives on the opportunities and challenges they are navigating as AI moves further into the enterprise.

Special thanks to  ⁠4MINDS,  ⁠Cyera,  ⁠IBM,  ⁠Profisee,  ⁠Quest Software,  ⁠Tamr,  ⁠Arctiq,  ⁠Cloudflare,  ⁠Informatica, and  ⁠Starburst for supporting the Dallas AI in the Enterprise Forum.

Executives Speaking at the Dallas AI in the Enterprise Forum Included:

The event brought together speakers from across financial services, technology, healthcare, retail, telecommunications, and other industries. The official speaker roster included:

• Shuchi Agrawal, Head of AI Execution, SMBC Group*
• Mruna Asoori, CDO, Newrez
• Michelle Boston, CIO and Head of Data Management Technology & Enterprise Architecture, Bank of America
• Aamer Charania, Founding President & Chief AI Officer, Dallas AI
• Saba Dossani, Managing Director, Head of Enterprise Data Management Product, Wells Fargo
• Karthikeyan Ilangovan, Vice President, Data Analytics & AI/ML, MODE Global*
• Atul Jain, Global Head of Cloud, AI and Data, Verizon
• Murali Kallem, Head of Data & AI, Box
• Vino Kingston, AI Transformation Leader, Lockheed Martin
• Mano Mannoochahr, CDAIO, formerly Verizon and Travelers
• Thrushna Matharasi, Director of Engineering, Data and AI, Solera
• Justin Nguyen, Technology Director, Head of Enterprise Data, The Home Depot
• Siva Paramasivam, Head of Data Platform Engineering, CRC Group
• Priya Raman, Chief Data and AI Officer, formerly Apple, Microsoft, and Accenture
• Swamy Ramajayam, Chief Data and AI Officer, Mariner Financial
• Priya Reddy, Vice President, Technology, Data Management & Delivery, Chief Data Officer, formerly Reprise Financial*
• Alissa Schneider, Executive Director, Enterprise Data & Insights, Sinclair, Inc.
• Arjun Srinivasan, SVP, AI & Data Science, ShipStation Global
• Muthiah Subash, Head of Digital Health Data, Engineering & Governance, Alcon
• Latha Subramanian, Senior Vice President, GM Financial
• Jagadeesh Tupakula, Head of Data and AI, formerly UNFI and Sysco
• Jayakrishna Venkatesh, Senior Director, Data Products & Analytics, Capital One
• Arun Verma, Head of Data and Enterprise Platforms, Bright Horizons
• Ranjit Vidhani, Head of AI Strategy and Transformation, Flex
• Anthony Deighton, CEO, Tamr
• Malcolm Hawker, Chief Data Officer, Profisee
• Rick Holland, Data Security and AI Governance Officer, Cyera
• Sue Laine, Field CTO, Quest Software
• Chris Nicosia, Data Platform Manager, IBM
• Michael Roney, Lakehouse and Databases Leader, IBM
• Ryan Trimberger, Founder and CEO, 4MINDS

*Shuchi Agrawal, Karthikeyan Ilangovan, Priya Reddy, and Latha Subramanian are members of the CDO Magazine Global Board.