7–8 October 2026 · Charlotte, North Carolina
Looking Back: Enterprise AI Summit in Charlotte
Two days of insight from leaders advancing AI in business. In Charlotte, real-world experience, new perspectives and practical questions about the future of enterprise AI came together.
Enterprise AI in Practice
From Experiments to Enterprise Impact
In Charlotte, conversations explored how vibe coding and agentic software development are changing organisations, and what it takes to turn them into more than isolated experiments. IT Revolution hosted the Enterprise AI Summit, where XALT introduced the Event Chief of Staff, a personal AI companion for attendees. Discussions and feedback on site helped test the concept against real challenges from enterprise life.
Three Perspectives
Themes and Takeaways from Charlotte
The summit brought together enterprise experience, expert insight and a look at emerging tools and ways of working.
Enterprise Experience Reports
Leaders and teams shared how they use AI and vibe coding in production, including what works, where it gets difficult and what they have learned.
Expertise for Hard Questions
Discussions focused on how AI is changing team structures, security, code review, productivity and skills, with experts in GenAI, DevOps and platform engineering.
Frontier AI Labs
The labs showcased emerging tools and ways of working in enterprise AI. The approaches presented were experimental and already had practical value.
Moments from Charlotte
The Programme in Review
Day 1 · Wednesday, 7 October
The Programme, Day One
All times are local to Charlotte (EDT). Programme as published on curtaincall, as of 19 October 2026; it may still change. See the official programme.
- 7:30 – 9:00 am
Registration
- 9:00 – 9:15 am
Opening Remarks: Gene Kim & Andy Ramirez
- 9:15 – 9:40 am
From Fire Drill to Operating Model
Dustin Warner · Director of Software Engineering, NRC Health
- 9:40 – 10:05 am
Controlled Acceleration: How Morgan Stanley Is Evolving SDLC Controls for an Agentic World
Khalid Elsawaf · Executive Director, Morgan Stanley
- 10:05 – 10:30 am
Steve Yegge
Co-author of "Vibe Coding" · Profile
- 10:30 – 10:55 am
Fireside With Jitesh Ghai and Gene Kim
Jitesh Ghai · CEO, Hyland
- 10:55 – 11:25 am
30-minute break
- 11:25 – 11:50 am
The Tech Stack Below TPS
Art Smalley · President · Author, Art of Lean
- 11:50 am – 12:15 pm
Scaling Confidence Through AI-Powered Resiliency Testing
Christina Yakomin · Senior Manager – Resiliency Testing Suite, Vanguard
- 12:15 – 12:40 pm
Nirav Mehta & Dylan Sykes
Nirav Mehta · Executive Vice President, Chief Technology Officer, Services, Mastercard
Dylan Sykes · Senior Vice President, Business Rules Engineering & Decision Management Platform Product, Mastercard
- 12:40 – 2:10 pm
Lunch
- 2:10 – 2:35 pm
- 2:35 – 3:00 pm
What Happens When the Moat Moves?
Matt Klosterman · Sr. Director, Mobile Software Engineering, Hilton
Jeremy Kooistra · Senior Director Website Software Engineering, Hilton
- 3:00 – 3:25 pm
Code Reviews for Agentic Code
Randy Shoup · SVP Engineering, CircleCI
Michelle Gill · Assisted by AI
- 3:25 – 4:25 pm
Networking
- 4:25 – 4:50 pm
Who Gets to Fly First Class? Value per Token in the AI Factory
Jeremy Eder · Distinguished Engineer, Red Hat
- 4:50 – 5:15 pm
Output to Outcome: When Agents Outrun the Org Chart
- 5:15 – 5:40 pm
Everyone's Building Now: Thrive Market's AI Adoption Journey, and What We Learned Along the Way
Marya Caples · Sr. Food Safety & Quality Manager, Thrive Market
Michael Winslow · Vice President of Engineering, Platform & SRE, Thrive Market
- 5:40 – 5:45 pm
Closing Remarks: Gene Kim & Andy Ramirez
- 5:45 – 7:15 pm
Industry party
Day 2 · Thursday, 8 October
The Programme, Day Two
All times are local to Charlotte (EDT). Programme as published on curtaincall, as of 19 October 2026; it may still change. See the official programme. Also announced as speakers, not yet in a slot: Mik Kersten, Fernando Cornago (adidas) and Aaron Searle (Morgan Stanley).
- 8:00 – 9:00 am
Registration
- 9:00 – 9:15 am
Opening Remarks: Gene Kim & Andy Ramirez
- 9:15 – 9:40 am
Previously Impossible
Owen Parker · CTO, Arkana Laboratories
Kurtis Cochran · Chief Financial Officer, Arkana Laboratories
- 9:40 – 10:05 am
Architecture Driven AI Engineering
Jondavid "JD" Black · CIDO Chief Engineer, Northrop Grumman
- 10:05 – 10:30 am
Minutes Matter: Fielding Edge AI for Personnel Recovery in 6 Weeks
Kevan Mordan · Delivery Lead, Rise8
Kenny Slater · Staff Information Security Analyst, Rise8
- 10:30 – 10:55 am
AI-Driven Organizational Value
Tapabrata "Topo" Pal · SVP - Head of Developer Platforms, M&T Bank
- 10:55 – 11:25 am
30-minute break
- 11:25 – 11:50 am
Our Journey to Agentification
John Rauser · Senior Director, Software Engineering, Cisco Security
- 11:50 am – 12:15 pm
Philipp Göllner & Gene Kim
Philipp Göllner · XALT
- 12:15 – 12:40 pm
Inspect the House, Not the Neighborhood: What Actually Makes an AI Model Risky
Nicky Pike · Field CTO; Host of the [Dev]olution podcast, Coder
- 12:40 – 2:10 pm
Lunch
- 2:10 – 2:35 pm
Now What?
Justin McCarthy · Founder and CEO, Diffusion AI
- 2:35 – 3:00 pm
James Wickett
CEO & Co-Founder, DryRun Security · Profile
- 3:00 – 3:25 pm
It's a Feature, Not a Bug: Making Sure Code You Didn't Write Does What You Meant
Andrew Stellman · O’Reilly author and AI educator
- 3:25 – 3:55 pm
Break
- 3:55 – 4:20 pm
AI-Driven Organizational Value
Jeff Gallimore · Excella
Tapabrata "Topo" Pal · SVP - Head of Developer Platforms, M&T Bank
- 4:20 – 4:45 pm
Elisabeth Hendrickson
CEO/Founder, Curious Duck Digital Laboratory · Profile
- 4:45 – 5:10 pm
The 5 Fatal Mistakes of Enterprise AI Deployment
Joe Beutler · Head of Solutions Engineering, Strategics, OpenAI
- 5:10 – 5:15 pm
Closing Remarks: Gene Kim
Program Chair, IT Revolution
Venue
Carolina Theatre · Charlotte
7–8 October 2026
230 N Tryon St, Charlotte, NC 28202
Plan Your Visit
About the Charlotte Summit
What were the main themes in Charlotte?
Key topics included the use of AI and vibe coding in enterprises, agentic software development, and their effects on team structures, security, code review, productivity and skills.
When and where did the summit take place?
The Enterprise AI Summit took place on 7–8 October 2026 at the Carolina Theatre in Charlotte, North Carolina.
When is the next edition?
The next edition takes place on 5–6 May in Portland.
Coming Next
See You in Portland
The next edition of the Enterprise AI Summit takes place on 5–6 May in Portland.