Open Future Forum brings together senior executives, investors and AI leaders to address the business and leadership questions shaping enterprise AI. Following the Enterprise AI at Microsoft conference in Mountain View on September 8, 2026, Silvio Sangineto of Microsoft and Stanford shared this assessment.
What Silvio said
Silvio Sangineto of Microsoft and Stanford
Silvio's words capture what we are working to build through Open Future Forum: a trusted executive community where leaders can move beyond AI hype and examine how emerging technology creates measurable business value.
Leadership in the age of AI
Silvio's broader post challenges the idea that successful people are ever entirely self-made. Leaders benefit from people who teach them, challenge them, create opportunities and believe in them. That argument becomes more important, not less, as AI gives executives and smaller teams greater reach.
He puts it directly:
Enterprise AI is not only a technology issue. It raises questions about leadership, governance, security, organisational design, financial performance and accountability.
The Enterprise AI at Microsoft conference brought a large audience of executives, investors and technology leaders together in Mountain View to address those questions. The programme examined AI leadership, enterprise adoption, and how organisations can deploy AI agents securely without exposing database credentials.
That last question is not academic. In our September security research, 67 percent of senior security leaders name securing AI agents and their access as the biggest AI problem on their desk, on a base of 110, while only 37 percent hold a dedicated AI security budget line. These are the practical issues that determine whether enterprise AI produces measurable results or becomes another layer of corporate experimentation.
Through the Open Future Forum AI Leaders Forum, we connect the executives, investors and technology leaders responsible for turning AI investment into business impact.
What CFOs experience inside the community
The same focus on practical value guides the Open Future Forum CFO Executive Forum.
Janice "Jan" Berthold, CPCU, MWCA, is an insurance executive who works directly with CFOs and has participated in the community over time. In her account of the CFO Executive Forum, Jan wrote:
Jan described a forum without filler, generic panels or transactional networking. Instead, CFOs participate in substantive conversations with carefully selected speakers and other senior leaders.
She also explained that hearing CFOs speak openly about their challenges has made her a more thoughtful adviser. That is an important measure of a successful executive community. The purpose is not simply to fill a room. It is to create an environment in which executives can speak candidly, advisers can better understand the people they serve, and professional relationships become more valuable over time.
Bringing the executive community together
Open Future Forum is a global executive community founded in Silicon Valley. Its network reaches tens of thousands of executives and investors worldwide.
It runs a year-round calendar of gatherings for CEOs, CFOs, CISOs, CMOs, private equity leaders, founders, investors and enterprise AI leaders across Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area. Different formats carry different leadership conversations: large conferences, public panels, private executive dinners, roundtables and peer groups.
The community operates through:
- Forum Events, including conferences, panels and larger leadership programmes
- Forum Select, a series of private, invitation-only executive gatherings
- Executive forums and peer groups organised around specific C-level roles
- Original executive research based on first-party survey and qualitative data
The research programme reads instrument answers given by executives as they apply to attend. The September 2026 editions of the Enterprise AI Buying and Budget Index are built from 32 guest-list exports covering 4,163 non-invited registrations from 2,851 unique people, collected between 10 March and 31 August 2026, with the response base stated on every published figure.
This combination of executive communities, major events, focused discussions and original research allows Open Future Forum to connect what leaders say with what organisations are actually doing.
Building an executive community with lasting value
Silvio's comments describe Open Future Forum's growing role in the enterprise AI conversation. Jan's comments show how the same commitment to quality creates lasting value within the CFO Executive Forum. Together they reinforce the same idea: trusted communities matter because meaningful progress does not happen in isolation.
We are grateful to Silvio, Jan, and the many executives, investors, speakers, board members and partners who contribute their experience to Open Future Forum.
We are building an executive community that brings the right people together, at every scale, around the business and leadership questions that matter.
Join the community
The calendar of Forum Events is published year round, and membership is by application. The research library carries every published figure with its response base.
Last updated: September 10, 2026
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Join the Community
Open Future Forum runs a year-round calendar of conferences, private dinners and executive forums across Silicon Valley and the Bay Area. Membership is by application and referral.