MIT CISR Annual Research Forum 2025

8:00 AM

Check-in and Breakfast

8:30 AM

Introduction

8:45 AM

Designing an Organization for High Data Liquidity
Barbara Wixom

Big organizations, especially those with big aspirations for leveraging AI technology, increasingly need data assets with high data liquidity (i.e., ease of data asset reuse and recombination) to achieve their aims. In this session, Barb will describe the multiyear journey of Caterpillar during which the company made significant changes to data architecture, development processes, operations, and organizational design. Today the company successfully builds and monetizes highly liquid data assets as a part of the organization’s standard operations.

10:00 AM

Morning Break

10:30 AM

Business Models in the Agentic AI Era
Peter Weill

In 2018 MIT CISR published the book What's Your Digital Business Model? based on several years of survey and case study research. This year we will present a provocative business model framework on how we anticipate firms will make money in the agentic AI era. Given the pace of technological change, this research is more speculative and is based on conversations among MIT CISR researchers and our community of experts. Peter will present the framework and then facilitate a lively discussion among the attendees about what the future will bring.

12:00 PM

Lunch

1:00 PM

Getting into a New Flow: Transforming Business Processes with AI
 Ina Sebastian

High-performing companies are redefining process excellence in the age of AI. This session will explore how AI is reshaping business processes—from rigid, rule-based workflows into intelligent, adaptive systems that learn and evolve. Drawing on the case study of a leading European financial services firm, Ina will illustrate how AI is being used not just to optimize but to fundamentally reimagine how work flows across the enterprise.

1:30 PM

Scaling Enterprise AI Maturity for Bottom-Line Impact
Stephanie Woerner

MIT CISR introduced a four-stage enterprise AI Maturity framework in 2024 to help enterprise leaders make sense of the AI landscape and identify how to create value from the technology. Our latest survey results show that enterprises are making significant progress in their AI Maturity with positive financial impacts associated with progressing from stage 2 to stage 3. In this session, Stephanie will share the new results and show what it takes to mature from stage 2 to stage 3.

3:00 PM

Afternoon Break

3:30 PM

The IT Operating Model of the Future: Four Archetypes
Alan Thorogood

This session unpacks the risks, benefits, and costs associated with each of four IT operating models. Alan will share how leading organizations’ IT functions support business units whose performance is heavily IT and AI dependent. Their business leaders innovate with digital while IT empowers by moving up the technology stack and building tech platforms outwards to serve new business needs. Together, we'll discuss the future of IT functions’ processes, people, information, and technology.

MIT Campus Walking Tour

Dr. Nils Fonstad will show you the campus he has known & loved since childhood (his dad is an MIT faculty member). This tour promises to offer a blend of historical insights and personal anecdotes, making it a memorable experience for all participants. The tour will leave from Dining Room 5 at the Samberg Conference Center. Remember to gather your belongings and wear a warm jacket for the walk.

8:00 AM

Breakfast

8:30 AM

Becoming a Real Time Business in 2025
Peter Weill

In last year’s MIT CISR research study, we found that top-performing companies on both margin and growth operated businesses more in real time (e.g., onboarding and serving customers more in real time). In 2025 we have collected new data from more than 150 companies on what it takes to operate in real time, once again seeing top performance impacts. In this session, Peter will describe what it takes to operate a company in real time by sharing survey results and case studies.

9:45 AM

Transformation at Vanguard: A conversation between Managing Director and CIO Nitin Tandon and Peter Weill

In the last three years, Vanguard has captured more than $500 million by quantifying the incremental business value generated by data and analytics initiatives including Personal Advisor Service and New Client Onboarding, increasingly becoming a real time business. Nitin and Peter will discuss how Vanguard achieved this transformation and what’s next.

10:15 AM

 Morning Break

10:45 AM

Navigating Uncertainty: Insights from Behavioral Science
Roberto Fernandez

Especially in the current fluid and rapidly changing business environment, the ability to manage risk and uncertainty is a key leadership skill. New research from the exciting field of brain science has yielded important insights about the challenges that leaders face when making decisions under conditions of risk and uncertainty. We will raise awareness of the pitfalls leaders typically encounter and suggest ways enterprise leadership can manage the challenges of risk and uncertainty.

12:15 PM

Lunch

1:15 PM

Hands-on with AI Governance: Designing Adaptive Guardrails
Barbara Wixom and Nick van der Meulen

As organizations become more AI-fueled and pursue complex digital business opportunities, they must have a new system of guardrails that enable them to innovate quickly yet safely. Leaders must also prove that every data byte and model run is acceptable under tightening regulations and stakeholder scrutiny. How do you steer confidently when the road itself keeps shifting?

In this hands-on session, teams of participants will engage in a case teaching experience to explore emergent governance dynamics and solutions. Along the way, the researchers will share results from this year’s research projects on acceptable data use and governing agentic AI.

2:15 PM

Afternoon Break

2:45 PM

Hands-on with AI Governance: Designing Adaptive Guardrails (continued)
Barbara Wixom and Nick van der Meulen

See above description.