Alter Everything 200: What Does AI Look Like in 2026
Jan 21, 2026
Join Patrick McGarry, Federal Chief Data Officer at ServiceNow, and Dr. Jupiter Bakakeu, Lead Generative AI Technologist at Alteryx, as they explore the future of AI in 2026. They discuss the evolution of AI from being just an answer machine to an autonomous work agent. Key highlights include the importance of modernization and governance before deploying AI, the four defining characteristics of AI agents, and pragmatic examples of AI solutions in action. Discover how organizations can adapt and strategically delegate tasks to maximize the potential of AI.
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AI Reveals Modernization Gaps
- AI exposes whether your organization is modernized rather than magically modernizing it.
- Clean data, integrated systems, and governance are prerequisites for useful AI.
Modernize Before You Scale AI
- Modernize data foundations, standardize workflows, and add guardrails before scaling AI.
- Without that work AI delivers noise and risk instead of leverage.
Four Pillars Of An Agent
- Agents must perceive, reflect, act, and learn to be truly autonomous.
- Those four capabilities distinguish agents from simple chatbots or single-inference apps.
