June 12, 2025 鈥� Info-Tech LIVE 2025 brought another wave of powerful insights to the thousands of IT leaders gathered at the Bellagio in Las Vegas for the global research and advisory firm鈥檚 annual industry conference. From AI鈥檚 organizational impact to transformative leadership frameworks, the day-two sessions of the three-day event delivered strategic direction across the most pressing areas of enterprise technology.
The keynotes drilled into the leadership disciplines and bold bets that separate tomorrow鈥�s IT winners from the pack. Featured speakers unpacked everything from building an exceptional IT leadership bench and steering high鈥�stakes digital gambles to sizing up the next wave of tech trends and reigniting motivation at the human level.
Key Highlights From Info-Tech LIVE 2025 in Last Vegas Day 2:
1. Systematically Improve IT: The Seven Secrets of Successful CIOs
Speaker: Geoff Nielson, SVP of Brand & Reach at 91制片厂
Geoff Nielson opened da测鈥�two of Info-Tech LIVE 2025 by tackling a familiar pain point for the industry: IT departments trapped in 鈥�firefighting mode,鈥� viewed as operational support rather than strategic change agents. Nielson argued that escaping this cycle isn鈥�t about adding tools or headcount; rather, it requires a structural reset of how IT leads, aligns, and delivers value.
To that end, Nielson expanded on the IT Playbooks unveiled on day one by the firm鈥�s CEO, Tom Zehren. Info-Tech's newly launched IT Playbooks are five interlocking leadership playbooks for CIO, Infrastructure & Operations, Data, Applications, and Security. Each provides a clear cadence, accountability, and role-specific metrics so IT leaders can move in concert, not just in parallel.
Key takeaways
- Transformation is a team sport. The CIO must act as an architect and empower domain leads within applications, infrastructure & operations, security, data, and enterprise architecture to carry shared responsibility for modernization, AI adoption, and resilience.
- Playbooks turn ambition into traction. By standardizing strategy, governance, and key performance indicators (KPIs), the playbook framework enables leadership teams to shift from reactive tasks to proactive, high-impact initiatives.
- Measure what matters. Nielson urged attendees to track role-specific 鈥渟atisfaction鈥� metrics 鈥� such as IT satisfaction for CIOs or data culture scores for data leads 鈥� and then use feedback loops to prioritize improvements.
2. Winning With Big Bets in the Hyper Digital Era
Speaker: John Rossman, former Amazon executive and best-selling author
John Rossman argued that in today鈥�s hyper-digital marketplace, cautious, incremental projects rarely move the needle. Instead, companies need well-governed 鈥�big bets鈥� that tackle transformational opportunities head-on. Yet many large initiatives stall because teams treat them purely as technology rollouts, overlook the riskiest assumptions, or fail to assign clear decision rights and incentives.
Key takeaways
- Bold beats incremental. Small, safe steps can lead to stagnation; well-framed big bets unlock outsized value.
- Work backward from outcomes. Rossman鈥檚 鈥�91制片厂 Backward鈥� method starts with a press release-style end-state narrative, then maps experiments to validate the riskiest hypotheses first.
- Create clarity, sustain velocity. Teams use a shared shorthand to keep decisions focused and momentum high.
- Be an active skeptic. Big bet leaders ruthlessly test assumptions, kill weak ideas early, and redeploy resources toward opportunities with clear, risk-adjusted returns.
- Measure return on experimentation. A big bet experiment planner stack ranks unknowns and tracks how quickly each test reduces risk or unlocks value, so every experiment pays its way forward.
3. Tech Trends Retrospective and Sneak Peek
Speaker: Rob Meikle, Executive Counselor, Info-Tech 91制片厂 Group
Rob Meikle likened Info-Tech鈥�s annual trend analysis to a compass for IT leaders, grounded in data and disciplined foresight, not hype. Looking back at 45 predictions made since 2017, Info-Tech counts 29 hits, unpacking why some technologies deliver sustained value while others stall.
Key takeaways
- 顿辞苍鈥檛 bet on predictions 鈥� pursue value. Success stories, such as Citizen Development 2.0, proved their worth by empowering an entire workforce, whereas vision-heavy plays, like the Metaverse, fizzled without a killer use case.
- Think like a venture capitalist. Diversify bets and map the drivers. IoT thrived because interoperability and analytics were in place. However, Blockchain 2.0 remained niche where feasibility lagged.
- Be a first mover on transformative tech. Early adopters of generative AI rewrote the competitive rules; arriving late to mandatory sustainability reporting showed how incremental plays yield limited upside.
Sneak peek 鈥� 2026 trends themes to watch
- Potential hits: Multiagent orchestration (automating knowledge work at scale) and AI as adversary and ally (AI-driven cyberdefense) top the list for broad applicability and value creation.
- Proceed with caution. Topics like purpose-built platforms may optimize high-compute workloads but lack the cross-industry impact needed for a breakout win.
Meikle鈥檚 closing message: IT leaders 蝉丑辞耻濒诲苍鈥檛 merely react to change; they should shape it. Turn uncertainty into opportunity and ensure IT remains a true value engine.
4. The Next Renaissance
Speaker: Zack Kass, Global AI Advisor, Former Head of Go-to-Market, OpenAI
Zack Kass delivered a keynote that explored how plummeting AI costs and rapidly advancing models are ushering in what he called a 鈥淐ambrian economic explosion.鈥� Kass鈥� mission is to strip away the mystery around AI so leaders can shape, rather than fear, what comes next.
Key takeaways
- Three integration waves. Today鈥檚 鈥渆nhanced apps鈥� phase of ChatGPT-style copilots will give way to autonomous agents that act on our behalf and then, eventually, to a natural-language operating system that makes computing ambient and screen-lite.
- Unmetered intelligence. As inference costs approach zero, raw cognitive power becomes a utility. Real differentiation will come from how creatively organizations apply it.
- Risks to watch. Kass flagged four pitfalls 鈥� cognitive complacency, a drift toward virtual-first living, AI-enabled bad actors, and an impending identity-and-purpose crisis as work automates.
- Upside potential. AI can expand individual capability, deflate the cost of essentials like healthcare and education, and free time for richer human pursuits 鈥� if policy keeps pace.
- How to prepare. Leaders should:
- Learn how to learn. Adaptability outlasts any single skill.
- Master human qualities. Empathy, curiosity, and courage will matter more than rote knowledge
- Cultivate optimism. Positive visions galvanize action and repel fear-driven paralysis.
Kass left the audience with a challenge: tell better stories about the future. 鈥淥ptimism isn鈥檛 naive,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the fuel that turns uncertainty into a more human world.鈥�
5. Addictive Leadership Stories in the League: An Interview with Steve Reese, CIO of the Phoenix Suns
Speaker: Steve Reese, Vice President, Chief Information Officer, Phoenix Suns
CIO of the Phoenix Suns Steve Reese started his keynote presentation by asking the crowd a disarming question: 鈥淎re you the kind of leader you鈥檇 follow?鈥� His answer centers on 鈥渁ddictive leadership鈥� 鈥� not manipulation 鈥� which he explained is a style that makes people feel understood and driven by high purpose.
Key takeaways
- Motivation fuels engagement. Lasting performance comes from tapping the intrinsic 鈥渨hy,鈥� not just dangling extrinsic perks.
- Target the right part of the brain. Great leaders speak to the cortex, focusing on purpose, creativity, and strategy rather than relying on fear-based, reptilian instincts.
- Leverage the Reiss Motivational Profile. Sixteen core desires, such as curiosity, independence, and tranquility, combine uniquely for each person; aligning work to those drivers lights the spark.
- One size never fits all. Leaders must 鈥渞ead鈥� each team member, match tasks to natural strengths, and design complementary teams.
- Case in point 鈥� Paul. Reese described transforming a disengaged employee into a high performer by tweaking the environment (e.g. providing quiet spaces or workout breaks) and offering autonomy and role clarity, proving that small, personalized changes often lead to better performance.
- The new leadership mandate. Modern IT demands leaders coach, adapt, and foster sustainable motivation because people stay for a purpose, not just for the pay.
Looking Ahead to Day 3 at Info-Tech LIVE 2025
The third and final day of the conference has a half-day agenda that will keep the pace brisk while zeroing in on three key themes: building the next generation of tech talent, practical lessons from high-performing IT leadership teams, and emerging frontiers, such as advanced AI and quantum computing. The third day of the conference will feature keynote sessions from Felix Schmidt, Carlene McCubbin, Geoff Nielson, and Jeremy Roberts.
Media Access to Info-Tech LIVE 2025
For media inquiries, including requests for interviews with featured speakers and experts to discuss what has been revealed at LIVE 2025 or for access to session recordings and additional content, please contact pr@infotech.com.
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About 91制片厂
91制片厂 is one of the world鈥檚 leading research and advisory firms, proudly serving over 30,000 IT and HR professionals. The company produces unbiased, highly relevant research and provides advisory services to help leaders make strategic, timely, and well-informed decisions. For nearly 30 years, Info-Tech has partnered closely with teams to provide them with everything they need, from actionable tools to analyst guidance, ensuring they deliver measurable results for their organizations.
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