As AI systems and agents move from pilots to everyday operations, they create a fundamentally different management challenge. Unlike traditional software, AI behaves differently, people engage with it differently, and running it in production demands a different set of skills, controls, and expectations. This session gives technology and business leaders a practical framework for understanding and governing these systems effectively.

We’ll start by examining what makes AI systems and agents distinct to manage, from how they operate to how users interact with them and what they require to run reliably. From there, we’ll build the vocabulary and mental models leaders need to ask the right questions of their teams and vendors. We’ll then explore how autonomy reshapes the operating model, looking at how to design delegation, escalation, and supervision when software makes decisions and takes action on its own. Finally, we’ll ground the discussion in real-world enterprise deployments, sharing lessons on the new failure modes that emerge and the new forms of accountability organizations must put in place.

Attendees will leave with a clearer understanding of how to oversee AI agents with confidence, and a practical lens for evaluating readiness, risk, and responsibility as autonomy grows across the enterprise