Gartner Data & Analytics Summit 2026 Sydney: Day 1 Highlights

We are bringing you news and highlights from the Gartner Data & Analytics Summit 2026, taking place this week in Sydney, Australia. Below is a collection of the key announcements and insights coming out of the conference.

On Day 1 from the conference, we are highlighting sessions on navigating AI on the data & analytics journey to value; the AI agent landscape; and AI for data governance.

Presented by Jorg Heizenberg, VP Analyst, and Georgia O’Callaghan, Director Analyst, Gartner

AI is accelerating new possibilities for data and analytics everywhere. Success isn’t always about being the fastest, but about finding your own path to value, while managing risk and cost. Jorg Heizenberg, VP Analyst, and Georgia O’Callaghan, Director Analyst at Gartner, discussed how a thoughtful approach to speed and direction helps D&A leaders derive value from AI.

• “While 60% of IT leaders are worried about AI agents running up unexpected costs, only 20% of data and AI leaders are concerned unpredictable costs might limit AI value.”
• “D&A leaders must realize they are responsible for delivering real value in the midst of all this AI hype and fears of an AI bubble that might burst.”
• “Getting to value is often measured using ROI, which D&A leaders need to think of as more than just a financial measure.”
• There are three different ways to derive value from AI:
  • Return on intelligence by setting AI ambition. "If organizations don’t lead AI, AI will lead them."
  • Return on integrity by strengthening AI foundations. "Without strong foundations, AI is just amplified ignorance."
  • Return on individuals by empowering people for AI transformation. "It isn’t about humans in the loop, but about humans in the lead."

Journalists can receive additional information and/or request an interview with Jorg Heizenberg and/or Georgia O’Callaghan by contacting Emma Keen at emma.keen@gartner.com. 

Presented by Pieter den Hamer, VP Analyst, Gartner 

The AI agent ecosystem is rapidly advancing, marked by significant hype and an overwhelming range of choices. In this session, Pieter den Hamer, VP Analyst at Gartner, provided an overview of the AI agent landscape and outlined evolving deployment models to help IT leaders translate AI opportunity into measurable business value.

• “Agentic AI promises transformation, but today’s reality is shaped by hype, limited integration maturity and emerging lifecycle management capabilities.”

• “Current LLM-based AI agents can efficiently perceive information, but they lack adaptability and fall short in contextualized decision- making.”

• “With the rapid surge of interest in AI agents, many vendors are contributing to ‘agent washing’ by rebranding existing capabilities without true agentic functionality.”

• “Enterprise AI agent platforms offer a balance between speed and flexibility, enabling organizations to deploy quickly, while still tailoring agent workflows to specific business needs.”

• “To get value from agentic AI, IT leaders should prioritize high-frequency, low-complexity use cases, apply guardrails and upskill the workforce.” 

Journalists can receive additional information and/or request an interview with Pieter den Hamer by contacting Emma Keen at emma.keen@gartner.com.

Presented by Guido De Simoni, VP Analyst, Gartner

Many organizations are questioning how GenAI will impact their data and analytics (D&A) governance and management tools, and by extension, their governance operations. In this session, Guido De Simoni, VP Analyst at Gartner, outlined how D&A leaders are incorporating GenAI capabilities and how these advancements are reshaping D&A governance.

• “Gartner predicts 80% of GenAI business applications will be developed on existing data management platforms, reducing implementation complexity and time to delivery by 50%.” 

• “The future of data management and governance is being shaped by the exponential growth in metadata and unstructured data; convergence of data ecosystems; democratization of data through self-service; and augmentation of data engineering and stewardship tasks.”

• “To unlock meaningful value, organizations must prioritize AI-ready data and AI-ready metadata as the foundation for scalable and effective GenAI adoption.” 

• “Organizations should expect greater engagement and demand from business and technical stakeholders, requiring data governance to become more embedded in day-to-day decision making.” 

• “As GenAI adoption grows, data governance will require a stronger focus on metadata semantics, quality and performance, along with more centralized and consistent policy enforcement.”

Journalists can receive additional information and/or request an interview with Guido De Simoni by contacting Emma Keen at emma.keen@gartner.com.