08/14/2026
Agentic AI creates value only when it survives contact with how enterprises actually work.
That was the center of gravity at AI Leadership Conclave 2026, hosted by Grid Dynamics and the ISB Institute of Data Science on August 7. 29 speakers and moderators. 100+ enterprise leaders. A full day of keynotes, panels, and a fireside chat.
Rajeev Sharma, Managing Partner, APAC at Grid Dynamics, opened with the keynote. His point: agentic AI stalls when it's built around the model instead of the people running it. He used ORBAT, the military term for order of battle, to explain why AI only earns its value once it can survive fragmented data, legacy systems, process debt, and governance that's still catching up. He also named the "jagged quality" loop, where one bad output erodes more trust than five good ones can rebuild, and pointed to something less obvious: even with committed leadership and enthusiastic teams, middle management is often where new workflows stall against old ones.
The rest of the day put that thinking to the test.
Rahul Bindlish moderated "From Models to Missions," where data and digital chiefs from Mondelez and ABB debated what actually turns a pilot into a line on the P&L.
Preeti Suryaprakash, Director of Delivery at Grid Dynamics, moderated "Winning the Last Mile," built around the exact operational reality Rajeev raised: process, people, and trust.
Naresh Shah, VP of Technology at Grid Dynamics, joined the closing panel on reimagining enterprise technology with agentic platforms, alongside leaders from Wells Fargo and Mastercard.
KV Sharma, our India Delivery Head, delivered the sponsor talk right after lunch.
In a live poll of the room, 100% had piloted agentic AI. Only 10% had reached CFO-grade production. That gap was the reason this event existed, and the reason the conversation carried into a closing dinner almost every delegate stayed for.
Thank you to Prof. Karthik Balakrishnan, Deputy Dean at ISB, Prof. Sudhir Voleti, Associate Professor, Marketing and Academic Director, ISB Institute of Data Science (IIDS), Madhu Viswanathan- Associate Professor at ISB, Renu Chaturvedi - Head of Outreach & AI Strategy at ISB Institute of Data Science, Hemanth Kumar - Associate Director at ISB Institute of Data Science, Prof. Bhagwan Chowdhry, and the entire ISB team for building a room this sharp.
Curious how Grid Dynamics helps enterprises close that gap? Here's our AI page: https://bit.ly/45TzAqX
