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Belgium 27-8-26 AB Members Physical english

Summer Festival: Advisory Board

CIO agendas are crowded: cost pressure, cyber, regulation, talent, data, AI, vendor dependency, business expectations. Most organisations are trying to do too much at once, and the “must-do” work often blocks the strategic work. CIONET only creates value if its agenda matches what CIOs truly need, in the right format, at the right time. The challenge Pick the few priorities that matter most for 2027, then translate them into a clear CIONET agenda. Outcome we leave with A ranked CIO agenda for 2027, and a directly aligned CIONET programme outline (themes, formats, cadence), with a shortlist of speaker and case targets.

Belgium 27-8-26 Country Members Physical english

Summerfest: From Story to Habit

How to align people, shift routines, and prove value Technology transformations often fail not because the tools don’t work, but because people don’t change their work habits. Boards want proof of value, executives want business outcomes, IT wants clarity, and employees want ease. Between these expectations, the CIO’s role is no longer just to deliver platforms; it is to tell the story that motivates people and turn that story into daily habits. This session will explore: The narrative: how to craft a simple, repeatable story that explains the “why” behind change for every stakeholder. From story to routine: practical ways to embed new behaviours through manager rituals, team incentives, and visible leadership. Reskilling and new expectations: preparing teams for evolving roles, from cross-department collaboration to AI-enhanced workflows. Measuring what matters: showing progress in speed, quality, and resilience — not just in licences bought or trainings completed. The aim is to equip CIOs with a leadership toolkit: a story that unites, habits that endure, and proof that convinces even the toughest boardroom.

Belgium 8-9-26 Invitation Only Virtual english

What an AI Architect Actually Does in Practice; Skills, responsibilities, interfaces, and career moves behind one of the most misunderstood emerging roles.

The AI architect role is becoming more visible, and the scope varies across organisations. The challenge is defining what the role owns, where it sits, and how it works with existing architecture, data, security, risk, and business teams. Three pressure points need clarity. - Role definition matters because the position can span solution architecture, data architecture, governance, integration, security, vendor selection, and business process design. - Interfaces matter because the role must connect teams while respecting existing responsibilities. - Skills matter because technical depth needs to be combined with judgement around controls, delivery choices, and operational boundaries. The working question is simple: how do we define the AI architect role so it becomes useful, credible, and connected to delivery? If this role is emerging in your organisation, let’s compare how others are defining it and where they are placing it.

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UKG and Google Cloud Announce Partnership to Transform Employee Experiences with Generative AI

UKG is using gen AI to provide employees with more relevant business insights and help leaders more effectively manage their teams.

UKG will apply Google Cloud's large language models across its HCM suites to deliver more powerful insights to employees and people leaders

LOWELL, Mass. and WESTON, Fla. and SUNNYVALE, Calif., May 9, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Google Cloud and UKG, a leading provider of HR, payroll, and workforce management solutions for all people, today announced an expanded partnership to bring Google Cloud's generative AI (GenAI) capabilities into the widely adopted UKG human capital management (HCM) suites. UKG will leverage GenAI to create more powerful business insights that transform decision making and help leaders more effectively manage teams.

UKG is now an early partner using Google Cloud's enterprise-grade GenAI and large language models (LLMs) through Vertex AI, building applications for unified search AI and conversational AI. By combining Google Cloud's LLMs with UKG AI models and Great Place To Work® proprietary data, UKG will create more conversational interactions with its HCM solutions, augment employee requests with more relevant business insights, and support people managers with a deeper understanding of how business decisions can impact employee engagement.

"We believe GenAI can be a tremendously powerful tool that changes how people go about analyzing information and insights at work," said Hugo Sarrazin, chief product and technology officer at UKG. "Our collaboration with Google Cloud will help employees and leaders make better decisions, have more productive conversations, and anticipate how today's choices can impact tomorrow's operations and workplace culture overall."

UKG has a rich history of responsibly using AI across its HCM and workforce management solutions in service of people, including AI-powered analytics, sentiment analysis, real-time recommendations, proactive reminders, long-range forecasting, and payroll anomaly detection.

"UKG's application of Google Cloud LLMs and GenAI is a great example of how these technologies can streamline important but common processes at work and tangibly improve the day-to-day experience of employees everywhere," said Thomas Kurian, CEO at Google Cloud. "Our partnership to bring GenAI to more businesses will help build great, technology-forward workplaces and ensure that teams have access to the leading technology they want to engage with every day."

In addition to building new workplace applications with Google Cloud's GenAI, UKG is now one of the first HCM suite providers in the Google Cloud Marketplace. New and existing UKG customers can now allocate a portion of their committed Google Cloud spend to purchase UKG suites and other strategic UKG solutions through the marketplace.

UKG and Google Cloud have collaborated since 2016 to enable better employee experiences. UKG HCM suites and UKG specialty products run on Google Cloud's trusted infrastructure and unified data platform, while the UKG FleX technology platform for UKG solutions leverages Google Cloud to support innovation, extensibility, and advanced security.

"Our expanded partnership with Google Cloud is another chapter in our commitment to providing organizations around the world with the opportunity to move from a good workplace to a truly great workplace for all," said Chris Todd, CEO at UKG. "We are committed to exploring how all emerging technologies, including GenAI, can enhance the workplace experience for everyone."

About UKG

At UKG, our purpose is people. As strong believers in the power of culture and belonging as the secret to success, we champion great workplaces and build lifelong partnerships with our customers to show what's possible when businesses invest in their people. Born from a historic merger that created one of the world's leading HCM cloud companies, our Life-work Technology approach to HR, payroll, and workforce management solutions for all people helps more than 75,000 organizations around the globe and across every industry anticipate and adapt to their employees' needs beyond just work. To learn more, visit ukg.com.

About Google Cloud

Google Cloud accelerates every organization's ability to digitally transform its business. We deliver enterprise-grade solutions that leverage Google's cutting-edge technology — all on the cleanest cloud in the industry. Customers in more than 200 countries and territories turn to Google Cloud as their trusted partner to enable growth and solve their most critical business problems.

Copyright 2023 UKG Inc. All rights reserved. For a full list of UKG trademarks, please visit ukg.com/trademarks. All other trademarks, if any, are property of their respective owners. All specifications are subject to change.

SOURCE Google Cloud

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Google Cloud's Generative AI

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CIONET Business Circles

Cyber Circle

CIONET’s Cyber Circle: a new three-event programme exclusively focusing on the most urgent, complex, and high-impact challenges in cybersecurity today. Launched in 2026, this initiative brings together CISOs, CIOs, and senior IT executives with a strong interest in cybersecurity for three curated gatherings each year. As part of CIONET’s trusted executive community, the Cyber Circle provides a confidential, peer-driven environment to exchange insights, share real-world experiences, and address evolving cyber threats. Each session is designed to foster strategic dialogue, strengthen resilience, and elevate cybersecurity as a core driver of business value.

Telenet Business Leadership Circle

The Telenet Business Leadership Circle powered by CIONET, offers a platform where IT executives and thought leaders can meet to inspire each other and share best practices. We want to be a facilitator who helps you optimise the performance of your IT function and your business by embracing the endless opportunities that digital change brings.

Les Rencontres

Découvrez la dynamique du leadership numérique aux Rencontres de CIONET, le programme francophone exclusif de CIONET pour les leaders numériques en Belgique, rendu possible grâce au soutien et à l'engagement de nos partenaires de programme : Deloitte, Denodo et Red Hat. Rejoignez trois événements inspirants par an à Liège, Namur et en Brabant Wallon, où des CIOs et des experts numériques francophones de premier plan partagent leurs perspectives et expériences sur des thèmes d'affaires et de IT actuels. Laissez-vous inspirer et apprenez des meilleurs du secteur lors de sessions captivantes conçues spécialement pour soutenir et enrichir votre rôle en tant que CIO pair. Ne manquez pas cette opportunité de faire partie d'un réseau exceptionnel d'innovateurs numériques !

Female Leadership Circle

CIONET is committed to highlighting and celebrating female role models in IT, Tech & Digital, creating a leadership programme that empowers and elevates women within the tech industry. This initiative is dedicated to showcasing the achievements and successes of leading women, fostering an environment where female role models are recognised, and their contributions can ignite progress and inspire the next generation of women in IT. Our mission is to shine the spotlight a little brighter on female role models in IT, Tech & Digital, and to empower each other through this inner network community.