AI architecture, build vs buy, and engineering strategy for chief technology officers
The CTO Executive Forum is a curated peer community for chief technology officers and senior technology leaders working through the most consequential technology decisions of the AI era. It operates within Open Future Forum, a private executive community in Silicon Valley that runs events and dinners for C-suite executives.
The forum is small, off-the-record, and free of vendor agendas. The conversation is between practitioners who are building AI into their technology stacks, managing engineering organizations in a transformed labor market, and presenting technical strategy to boards and CEOs who need to understand the decisions without getting lost in the implementation details.
These are the technology and AI questions Open Future Forum CTO members are working through right now.
Which AI capabilities warrant building in-house? Which are better licensed from foundation model providers? How do we evaluate model providers beyond the benchmark scores?
How do we manage inference costs at scale? What does our AI infrastructure need to look like in two years? How do we build observability into AI systems the way we built it into software systems?
How do we restructure engineering teams around AI-assisted development? What does the senior engineer role look like when AI handles more of the implementation layer? Where do we invest in upskilling vs. hiring?
How do we establish responsible AI standards for what gets built and what gets deployed? How do we work with the CISO on data governance without creating bottlenecks? What is the right process for AI model risk review?
How do we translate technical AI decisions into board-level language? How do we help the CEO understand the real constraints without getting into implementation details? What does a credible AI roadmap look like to a non-technical board?
How do we adopt AI in systems built on legacy infrastructure? Where does technical debt create a ceiling on what AI can deliver? How do we sequence modernization alongside AI investment?
The CTO Executive Forum is built for senior technology leaders at growth-stage and enterprise companies who are making consequential AI decisions and want a trusted peer room to work through them.
The CTO Executive Forum convenes through Forum Select, the private invitation-only tier of Open Future Forum. Gatherings are small, off-the-record, and free of vendor presence. The standard in the room is give-first: every participant is expected to contribute more than they take, and the conversation is candid in proportion to the trust built in that room.
The CTO Forum also intersects with the CISO Forum on AI governance and data security decisions, and with the CFO Forum on AI investment and ROI questions. Open Future Forum occasionally convenes cross-functional rooms for these shared decisions.
Open Future Forum is built on Adam Grant's Give and Take philosophy. The CTO forum operates by the same standard: the room is curated for people who make it better, not people who can pay for it.
Not polished case studies. The real story of what worked, what failed, what you would do differently, and what you are still unsure about.
The room is other CTOs and senior technology leaders working through the same decisions. No vendors, no consultants pitching, no sponsored content.
The quality of the conversation in any peer community is a function of the trust built over time. The CTO Forum invests in that trust by keeping the room consistent, candid, and small.
Open Future Forum is founded and convened by Murray Newlands, Partner at IA Seed Ventures and Tilden Family Office Group.
Open Future Forum is a private executive community in Silicon Valley that runs events and dinners for C-suite executives. The CTO Executive Forum is for technology leaders who want candid peer input on AI decisions, not more vendor content or conference panels.