CDO Magazine’s inaugural Chicago AI in the Enterprise Forum transformed the Westin Chicago River North into a hub for thought-provoking conversations on the future of data, analytics and AI leadership. On June 22, executives across financial services, healthcare, life sciences, higher education, and technology gathered to move beyond the hype and tackle the realities of enterprise AI adoption.

Featuring 30 industry leaders, the forum explored everything from governance and responsible AI to modern data foundations, organizational change, and measurable business impact. Through keynote presentations, engaging panel discussions, and interactive audience exchanges, speakers shared lessons learned, challenged conventional thinking, and highlighted what it takes to turn AI ambition into sustainable enterprise value.

The result was a day defined by meaningful dialogue among decision-makers shaping the next chapter of AI-driven transformation.

Two keynote sessions stood out:

• The AI Wedding was a Blast. What About the Marriage? – Joel Shapiro, Northwestern University – Kellogg School of Management Clinical Associate Professor, Managerial Economics & Decision Sciences
• The Foundations We Don’t Have Yet: Rewiring the Data Organization for an AI-Ready Future – Malcolm Hawker, Profisee Chief Data Officer, moderated by Patrick Chew, AIT Worldwide Logistics VP, AI & Data Science

CDO Magazine thanks the Co-chairs of the Chicago AI in the Enterprise Forum for their leadership:

• Patrick Chew, AIT Worldwide Logistics VP, AI & Data Science
• Ivana Donevska, BMO Head, Enterprise Data & Analytics Risk
• Sabry Loganathan, Peloton Interactive Sr. Director & Head, Enterprise AI

Highlighting his presentation, keynote speaker Shapiro argues, “We’re past the point of debating whether AI is worth investing in. Most organizations have already made that bet. The harder work now is in helping people understand and trust the tools, giving them real reasons to change how they work, and making some genuinely difficult decisions about how to adapt.”

“Walked into the Chicago AI in the Enterprise Forum as a VP of AI & Data Analytics,” says Sid Raina, Medline Industries VP, AI & Data Analytics. “Left questioning everything I thought I knew and somehow more excited than ever. The depth of insight from fellow practitioners on everything from building AI-ready data organizations to navigating fraud and risk in an AI-driven world has been truly invaluable,” he adds.

“The sheer caliber of talent in the room was striking,” for Christy O’Gaughan, AbbVie VP & Head, US Commercial Analytics, Insights & Decision Sciences. “These are the brilliant colleagues who are practically building the data foundations for AI in real time: the architecture, the governance, the plumbing that makes everything else possible. You can’t help but feel energized about what we’re going to deliver next,” O’Gaughan adds.

According to Suma Nair, JPMorganChase Executive Director, the CDO Magazine’s Chicago AI in the Enterprise Forum was an outstanding convening of data leaders, and the opportunity to connect and learn from one another was both energizing and impactful.

She shares her takeaways:

• Now that we have all this AI capability, the differentiator is purposeful execution: pick real problems and build.
• The best learning comes from doing; hands-on projects at work (and even at home) accelerate intuition and adoption.
• Ethical AI isn’t optional; it has to be designed into delivery, not bolted on later.
• Context is increasingly critical. AI needs the right data and business framing to produce reliable outcomes.
• Least-privileged access matters more than ever to prevent unintended or inappropriate actions.

Michael Colella, AXS Sr. Director & AI Builder, Global Data Strategy & Analytics, says, “The Chicago AI Forum was a great success—a chance for global data leaders to come together, share learnings and network. We covered all aspects of AI from digital transformation to selecting the right tools and technologies to human-at-the-end and even agentic workflows. This is definitely a forum I’ll be attending again, and I would highly recommend it for serious data and AI executives!”

Don Fleschut, Ryerson VP & Chief Data Officer, agrees saying, “Thanks to CDO Magazine and the Chicago CDO community for yet another great session of thought leadership and sharing of impactful experiences.”

Lexy Smith, CDO Magazine Community Director, highlights, “What stood out most about this forum was how every session built on the last. We opened with a big picture look at where AI is heading, moved into a candid fireside on data fundamentals, and then six panels dug into the real challenges leaders are facing right now, from fraud and AI in banking to agent governance to closing the AI readiness gap. By the end of the day you could see the full picture come together. This was a room full of people actively building the future of data and AI, not just talking about it.”

Summing it up, Malcolm Hawker, Profisee Chief Data Officer, says, “The CDO Magazine Forum in Chicago was an inspiring day of thought leadership, innovative ideas, and exceptional networking. These CDO Magazine events are designed by CDOs for CDOs – with a focus on leadership development that shines through in the quality of the people, the setting, and the sessions.”   

Tom Beedy, Couchbase Strategic Field Marketing Manager, adds, “The energy at the Chicago CDO Forum was fantastic, bringing together an amazing community of senior executives who were eager to lean in and collaborate. Between the timely, on-point sessions and the excellent engagement opportunities, it was a rewarding experience for us as a sponsor.”

Special thanks to Couchbase, Cyera, Informatica by Salesforce, Profisee, Qlik, Quest, TigerGraph, Burtch Works, Collibra, i.c stars, The Data Lodge, Data Society, NexusOne and Ohalo for making this event a success.

*Patrick Chew, Don Fleschut, Suma Nair and Christy O’Gaughan are members of the CDO Magazine Global Board.

Executives speaking at the CDO Magazine Chicago AI in the Enterprise Forum included:

Michael Baker, NielsenIQ Global Head, Data Science, Advanced Analytics & AI; Dhruv Baronia, Northern Trust Wealth Management SVP, Head, WM Analytics; Kalyani Boddupalli, Double Good VP, Business Systems Data & Analytics; Arnab Bose, University of Chicago Data Science Institute Associate Senior Instructional Professor & Faculty Director, MS in Applied AI & MS in Applied Data Science; Rohit Chauhan, former Mastercard EVP, Artificial Intelligence, Fraud Solutions; Patrick Chew, AIT Worldwide Logistics VP, AI & Data Science; Michael Colella, AXS Sr. Director & AI Builder, Global Data Strategy & Analytics; Ivana Donevska, BMO US Data, Analytics & AI Risk Head; Anusha Dwivedula, Morningstar Director, Product Analytics; Grant Ecker, Ecolab VP, Enterprise Architecture; Don Fleschut, Ryerson VP, Chief Data Officer; Narayanan Krishnan, Athletico VP, Digital & Data Technologies; Sabry Loganathan, Peloton Sr. Director, Enterprise AI Engineering; Suma Nair, JPMorganChase Executive Director; Vince Naputi, Northern Trust SVP, Data Governance; Christy O’Gaughan, AbbVie VP & Head, US Commercial Analytics, Insights & Decision Sciences; Michael Patrick, Covista VP, IT; Sid Raina, Medline VP, AI & Data Analytics; Farhan Sabzaali, University of Chicago Data & Analytics Leader; Joel Shapiro, Northwestern University – Kellogg School of Management Clinical Associate Professor, Managerial Economics & Decision Sciences; Roopa Sudheendra, Intelligent Generation Chief Technology Officer; Tim Turner, Thresholds VP, Insights & Analytics; Dan Barrett, Cyera Regional VP; Malcolm Hawker, Profisee Chief Data Officer; Jack Harper, Couchbase Director, Solutions Engineering; Sue Laine, Quest Software Chief Technologist; Julia Napolitano, Informatica from Salesforce VP, Solution Engineering; Adam Porter, Qlik Regional Director; Lexy Smith, CDO Magazine Community Director; Anthony Losanno, CDO Magazine Managing Director.