SoftEd GENAI Day
GENAI Day: The Rise of Agentic AI
May 14, 2026
Conference Agenda
Expert-led sessions designed for professionals ready to move from AI experimentation to enterprise impact. Additional speakers to be announced soon.
Opening Keynote: Leading in the Age of AI Agents
David Mantica • Managing Director, SoftEd
The leadership playbook is being rewritten. With Gartner predicting that 80% of project management tasks will be AI-driven by 2030 and KPMG reporting that 44% of leaders expect agents to take lead roles in managing projects, the question for every leader has shifted from "should we adopt AI?" to "how fast can we transform?" David sets the stage with a clear-eyed look at what's actually working in enterprise AI adoption, where organizations are stalling, and the leadership capabilities that separate companies scaling AI successfully from those stuck in pilot purgatory.
Meaning and Purpose in the Age of AI: Making AI Human
Jordan Plawner • Founder, Pacific AI Advisory & Former Intel AI Strategy Executive
AI is arriving fast, and most people are caught between hype, fear, and fatigue. This keynote helps professionals of all backgrounds understand what today's AI actually is, what it can and cannot do, and how to use it in ways that protect identity, purpose, and creativity.
Jordan Plawner guides audiences through an inner loop of change—mindset, skills, and everyday AI use—that turns uncertainty into agency and frees time for more meaningful work. Then he opens the outer loop: how teams and organizations are beginning to redesign workflows and roles around AI, and what that means for your career, contribution, and sense of meaning at work.
Participants will gain:
- Practical ways to nurture personal growth, meaning, and contribution as automation grows.
Building Custom AI Agents: A Hands-On Guide to Purpose-Built GPTs
George Churchwell • Director of Generative AI Solutions, Mt. Tam Innovations LLC
Generic AI tools produce generic results. George has built over a hundred custom AI applications - from sales intelligence scripts targeting billion-dollar markets to AI-assisted eLearning content for Cisco - and he'll show you exactly how to build purpose-built GPTs tailored to your team's specific workflows. This session covers practical prompt engineering patterns, how to design AI tools that your team will actually use, and the architectural decisions that determine whether a custom agent becomes essential infrastructure or just another tool gathering digital dust. You'll leave with a blueprint for building your first (or next) enterprise-grade custom AI application.
AI for Everyone: Practical Tools That Transform How You Work Today
Tony Rockliff • Founder, AI Connection Club
You don't need to be a developer to put AI to work. Tony has been building AI applications since 1998 and has delivered hundreds of AI seminars showing professionals how to integrate AI into their daily workflows. In this session, he'll demonstrate the most practical AI tools and techniques available right now - from multi-model platforms that consolidate your AI subscriptions to custom assistants that automate marketing, content creation, and research. Tony's approach is hands-on and tool-specific: you'll see live demonstrations of real workflows and leave with a curated toolkit you can start using immediately, regardless of your technical background.
AI-Powered Project Delivery: Transforming How Teams Plan, Execute, and Adapt
Chris Knotts • Principal Consultant, Technology Transformation Strategies
With AI agents on track to take lead roles in 44% of project workflows within the next two to three years, project managers and business analysts need to evolve their practice now. Chris brings two decades of experience in enterprise technology enablement to show how AI is transforming every phase of project delivery - from requirements gathering and sprint planning to risk prediction and stakeholder communication. He'll walk through concrete examples of how teams are using AI to accelerate data engineering, automate documentation, enhance decision-making in agile environments, and bridge the gap between business strategy and technical execution.
Beyond the Pilot: Bringing AI to Life Across the Organization
Toby Rao • AI Consultant
Most organizations are not failing at AI because of bad technology. They are failing because the transformation required around it never happens. Toby has spent more than 25 years helping organizations close that gap, most recently leading an AI transformation at a global SaaS company that went from disconnected pilots to 58% adoption, a 69% productivity gain, and 93% engagement in nine months. In this session, he walks through the six moves that separate organizations that scale AI from those that stall, covering team alignment, barrier removal, capability building, and metrics that show real impact. He has led organizational transformation across defense, federal, and financial environments and now applies those lessons directly to AI adoption. You will leave with a practical roadmap you can put to work immediately, no matter where your organization is today.
Scaling AI Agents Without Losing Control: AI Proposes, Systems Decide
Alan Knox • VP Product Development, QuantaViable
AI agents are multipliers. They multiply efficiency, speed, and output. But they also multiply failures: bad decisions, context errors, and accountability gaps scaling at machine speed. Without governance, every agent you deploy amplifies risk as fast as it amplifies value. Alan builds governed agentic systems for a $1B+ company in regulated industries where that tradeoff isn't acceptable. He'll introduce governed autonomy, where AI handles reasoning while deterministic systems control progression, escalation, and oversight, and walk through a real-world scenario showing what this looks like in practice. You'll leave understanding why governance-first architecture is the missing piece in scaling AI agents, and how to apply it before your agents start multiplying risk.
The 90-Day Pod: A Framework for Embedding AI Without Losing the Organization
Stacy Gonyou • Director of AI Strategy and Solutions, IntePros
A practical, structured session on how to stand up a forward deployed pod, run a time-boxed engagement, and hand off sustainably — rather than creating dependency.
