From AI Ambition to Enterprise Adoption
Join us at Adopt AI 2026 to explore what it takes to move AI from ambition to enterprise-wide adoption. Hear our keynote on the future of enterprise AI, join expert-led masterclasses on data and AI sovereignty and ontologies, and discover how trusted data and business context provide the foundation AI needs to operate effectively at scale.
Dates: 03 December – 04 December 2026
Location: Grand Palais
Sessions
AI Makes Data Governance Scalable – Except for One Thing
Date/Time/Location: 03 December | Afternoon | Mainstage North
Presenter: Ole Olesen-Bagneux
Agentic AI is transforming data governance by automating tasks that have traditionally required significant manual effort, making governance at scale increasingly possible. But one challenge remains: the human in the loop. Human oversight is essential for accountability, judgement, and trust, yet it also introduces risks that automation alone cannot eliminate. This keynote explores the paradox of human involvement in AI-driven data governance and how organisations can balance increasing autonomy with the human judgement they cannot afford to lose.
Designing for Data & AI Sovereignty: From Principles to Practice
Date/Time/Location: 03 December | Morning | Mainstage North
Presenters: Ole Olesen-Bagneux and Steffen Kläbe
Data and AI sovereignty has become a strategic priority for enterprises, particularly as AI introduces new challenges around control, governance, and business continuity. But achieving sovereignty requires more than deciding where data is stored. It requires architectures that provide control, enforce policies, and demonstrate compliance. In this hands-on masterclass, we will examine common misconceptions about sovereignty, explore the architectural decisions organisations need to consider, and introduce a practical assessment framework to help evaluate sovereignty requirements and design for them.
Ontologies for AI: Building the Enterprise Context AI Needs
Date/Time/Location: 04 December | Afternoon | Mainstage North
Presenter: Ole Olesen-Bagneux
AI agents need more than access to data. They need context to understand what that data means, how it relates to other information, and how it should be used. Ontologies provide a structured way to represent this knowledge, connecting data, metadata, and business concepts to give AI systems a better understanding of the enterprise. In this masterclass, we will explore how organisations can build and maintain ontologies to support AI at scale. We will examine how ontologies can evolve alongside changing business requirements, how AI can help create and maintain them, and how they can, in turn, provide the context AI agents need to operate effectively. Participants will gain practical guidance on designing and managing ontologies at enterprise scale.
Our Speakers
Ole Olesen-Bagneux
VP and Chief Evangelist, O’Reilly Author
Ole Olesen-Bagneux is a globally recognized thought leader in metadata management and enterprise data architecture. As VP, Chief Evangelist at Actian, he drives industry awareness and adoption of modern approaches to data intelligence, drawing on his extensive expertise in data management, metadata, data catalogs, and decentralized architectures.
An accomplished author, Ole has written The Enterprise Data Catalog (O’Reilly, 2023). He recently published Fundamentals of Metadata Management (O’Reilly, 2025), introducing a novel metadata architecture known as the Meta Grid. With a PhD in Library and Information Science from the University of Copenhagen, his unique perspective bridges traditional information science with modern data management. Before joining Actian, Ole served as Chief Evangelist at Zeenea, where he played a key role in shaping and communicating the company’s technology vision. His industry experience includes leadership roles in enterprise architecture and data strategy at major pharmaceutical companies, such as Novo Nordisk.
Steffen Kläbe
Chief Researcher
Steffen Kläbe is Chief Researcher at Actian, where he develops research-driven perspectives on modern data management and AI-ready architectures. His work focuses on translating advanced database technologies into practical solutions for real-world AI systems.
He plays a key role in shaping Actian’s database and AI roadmap, contributing to innovations such as in-database machine learning, vector search, and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG). He works closely with engineering, product, and partners to bring these capabilities into production environments.
Steffen holds a PhD (Dr.-Ing.) with highest honors from TU Ilmenau (Germany), where his research focused on modern data analytics in the cloud era. His work has been recognized with major industry and academic awards, including a Best Paper Award at EDBT and a dissertation award from the German Informatics Society.
Venue: Grand Palais
Adopt AI 2026 takes place at the Grand Palais in Paris, one of the city’s most iconic exhibition venues. Located in the heart of Paris, the venue will bring together the global AI community for two days of talks, discussions, innovation and networking, exploring how artificial intelligence is transforming businesses and industries.