AI Stream

Purposeful, enterprise-aligned conversations, rather than "chats", exhibit the values and goals of the organisation that owns them, and consequently of the user they are intended for. To achieve enterprise intentions, and to be enterprise-contextual, requires a service paradigm which "chat-based" products cannot provide.

Creating organisation-aligned conversations requires

1. they be designed in a way that utilises the power of generative AI models

2. there be a mechanism for executing purposeful designs

3. conversational features which AI models are not designed for be supported. 

These requirements expose general challenges with using gen-AI and opportunities for addressing them.

Generative AI models are probabilistic and non-deterministic. To utilise them for AI conversations aligned to organisational needs requires a systems architecture to make many-step usage of generative AI work. While engineering a platform to execute aligned designs, we have exposed the exciting, puzzling and even worrisome aspects of deploying AI solutions in professional settings – especially those which are advisory, which encourage best practice, are quality-orientated, or regulatory.

To help service management professionals navigate the plethora of AI concepts and AI-related technologies available to their decision making, the talk will address a selection of these. To make them concrete and to help with making sense of them, we will use a simple, purposeful conversation – designed (in advance) specifically for the SM/ITAM specialist group – and invite the audience to participate in its use and the resulting discussion of what is most important for the SM/ITAM community. 

Microsoft now bundles AI into almost everything it sells: Copilot in Microsoft 365, embedded intelligence in Power Platform, consumption-based AI services in Azure.

Some of these costs appear as per-user subscriptions in your Enterprise Agreement or CSP deal. Others show up as Azure consumption, which is harder to forecast and easier to overlook.

This session focuses on getting better terms when AI is part of the deal.

We'll cover what's actually negotiable, what isn't, and how to approach conversations with Microsoft or your reseller.

We'll also look at how Microsoft prices and bundles AI, where spend hides, and what incentives drive their proposals, all feeding into one goal: leverage.

Attendees will leave with a practical checklist for renewals and in-year changes involving Copilot and Azure AI workloads. 

Every organisation is racing to implement AI governance frameworks - the #1 trending topic in ITSM. But there's a fundamental problem nobody's addressing:

You cannot govern AI systems without accurate visibility into your IT infrastructure.

Research shows 75% of organizations get no meaningful value from their CMDBs [INOC, 2025] - the very foundation AI governance requires.

Framework compliance doesn't equal business value. This session challenges conventional ITSM orthodoxy and provides executives and practitioners with a financially-grounded roadmap connecting CMDB maturity to measurable AI governance outcomes.

• Why current AI governance approaches mirror failed Waterfall methodology

• The true financial cost of CMDB failure (with real case study data)

• How broken CMDBs create ungovernable AI environments

• A pragmatic, outcome-focused approach to fixing both problems simultaneously

• 5 actionable steps to implement Monday morning

As CEO of Licenseware, Alex has spent a lot of his time working out real use cases where AI can help IT Asset Managers work more effectively and efficiently and support high quality decision making.

Alex is keen to share with us the insights from his AI journey, walking us through areas where he believes AI can make a real difference for ITAM practitioners, as well as discussing the potential pitfalls.

In his talk, he will discuss the potential for leveraging AI across a number of different areas including:

• Software & hardware recognition and enrichment

• Software & hardware catalogues

• Contract analysis

• Purchasing comparisons & recommendations

• Supporting governance and building ITAM maturity

He will also touch on how IT Asset Managers can enable their own professional development and upskilling to allow them to take advantage of the AI revolution.