What is the Retrofit or Reimagine workshop?

A half-day working session for a small group of senior executives, each setting the agentic AI strategy for one outcome they own. You decide whether agents should speed up the process you run today, change how the goal gets achieved entirely, or land somewhere between the two, and you leave with that decision written down, the first moves, and an owner for each. Everyone in the room does the same work on their own business, and you hear all of their answers. Led by Blaine Mathieu, author of The River Doesn't Wait, on Thursday, December 3, 2026 in San Francisco.

When and where does the Retrofit or Reimagine workshop take place?

Thursday, December 3, 2026, from 8:30 AM to 12:30 PM Pacific, at K&L Gates, Four Embarcadero Center, San Francisco. In person only, a short walk from BART and Muni. Bring photo ID for lobby security and arrive by 8:45. An optional 60-minute online session follows on Thursday, January 14, 2027, and is included with every seat.

How much does the Retrofit or Reimagine workshop cost, and what is included?

$495 for you, plus a second seat if you want to bring someone. A third seat is $245. The price includes the workshop, lunch, your nine-sheet Team Kit, a signed copy of The River Doesn't Wait, the optional January 14 online session, and membership in AI Realized.

Who should attend the Retrofit or Reimagine workshop?

Senior executives who intend to use agentic AI to improve or transform an operation or function they run, at a scope where changing direction carries real cost. C-level and VP-level roles in operations and shared services, customer care and member services, marketing and sales operations, claims and underwriting, servicing, lending and revenue cycle, supply chain, and fraud, KYC and financial crime operations, along with divisional COOs and general managers. CIOs, CTOs, chief transformation officers and chiefs of staff are also welcome, and frequently bring line executives with them.

What do executives leave the workshop with?

A written strategy for one operation you run: where it sits between retrofit and reimagine, which metric it moves, and what the position depends on, meaning the data, the decision rights, and the people whose work changes. You also leave with the strongest argument against your position already answered, your first moves with an owner on each, and three questions that tell you when the strategy has gone stale, each with an owner and a rhythm.

What is the difference between retrofitting and reimagining agentic AI?

Retrofitting puts agents into the seats and workflows you already have, improving cycle time and cost inside an existing process. Reimagining redesigns the workflow and the roles together, changing what the process is and who is in it. Retrofitting captures a sliver of the available value, and the structure that limits the rest stays untouched. Reimagining costs change the organization has to absorb, on a schedule it can survive. Neither pole is correct everywhere. The judgment is made per outcome, and it moves as capability advances.

Do I need to have read The River Doesn't Wait before attending?

No. The session is self-contained and assumes no preparation of any kind. A signed copy of The River Doesn't Wait comes with your seat, as an after-read rather than homework.

What format is the workshop, lecture or hands-on?

A working session. Attendees sit at round tables of four or five, work from a printed nine-sheet kit on their own business, and spend most of the morning in pairs and small groups. Every minute is spent on your own outcome and the work behind it. Chatham House Rule applies, and we seat one company per competitive set, so nobody in the room is briefing a competitor. There are no vendor pitches and nothing to buy at the end.

Has the Retrofit or Reimagine workshop been offered before, and will it run again?

No. December 3, 2026 is the only open session. The material comes from Blaine Mathieu's private work with executive teams, where one company's executives work a single shared outcome together. The open session does something the private version cannot: executives from a dozen industries answer the same question about their own businesses, and you hear every answer. No other open session has been announced.

How do I register for the Retrofit or Reimagine workshop?

Register using the button on this page. Every request is reviewed and you will hear back within two business days, because we seat one company per competitive set and assign categories during review. On the registration form, select “+1 Colleague” if you want to use the included second seat, and we will email you a free ticket code for them. Select “+2 Colleagues” and we will send a free code and one for $245. If you are unsure whether this is the right room for you, email info@airealizedsummit.com and you will get a straight answer.

AI REALIZED SALON

Agent Controls and the Governance Gap

Connect governance policies to operating controls

A half-day salon for enterprise leaders responsible for how AI agents behave.

Where should agents have autonomy? What evidence demonstrates that they are operating within their authority? Who acts when something goes wrong?

Join AI Realized for three focused panels, presentations of in-market solutions, and conversations with peers leading enterprise AI adoption. We’ll examine how to keep agents within scope, govern their interactions, verify their actions, and sustain reliable performance as they take on more responsibility.

Tuesday, October 6, 2026 | San Francisco
12:30–5:00 PM Pacific | Program begins at 1:00 PM

Register

Sponsors:

A half-day salon for enterprise leaders responsible for how AI agents behave.

What you’ll take back to your team

Clearer decisions about autonomy. Examine where agents may act independently, where approval is needed, and how to enforce those boundaries across systems.

A practical view of available solutions. Hear how four companies address specific control, governance, and security problems through their products and enterprise examples.

A sharper view of the evidence. Identify what you need to see to verify agent activity, detect declining reliability, and decide when to intervene.

Connections with enterprise peers. Compare approaches with leaders responsible for AI deployment, security, governance, and business operations.

Three panels.

Six questions that matter in production.

The discussions follow the work from setting authority to observing behavior and maintaining reliable operations. Across all three panels, we’ll examine what control systems should do automatically, when humans need to act, and how to protect ongoing business processes during intervention.

Panel 1: Authority, Compliance, and Agent Interactions

A customer support agent, an engineering agent, and a sales agent may operate separately while sharing tools, data, and infrastructure. This panel examines how enterprises set boundaries for the combined environment, authorize requests between agents, and keep collaboration useful and within budget.

When agents exceed their authority, how do we detect and stop them?
How do independently deployed agent systems interact safely, maintain compliance, and stay within resource limits?

Topics include unauthorized objectives, escape attempts, requests and refusals between agents, incentives that encourage shortcuts, and tests that demonstrate containment.

What you bring

You bring one outcome you own for a key operation you run. Not “our AI strategy.” The operation, and the number it’s measured on.

The morning starts with the step most AI programs skip: working out what agentic AI genuinely changes about the work inside that operation, and what it leaves alone. From there you take a position on how far to take it, and hear the strongest argument against it from people with no stake in your company.

What you leave with

A written strategy for one operation you run

Where it sits between retrofit and reimagine, which metric it moves, and what the position depends on: the data, the decision rights, and the people whose work changes.

The argument against it, already answered

The strongest case against your position, made out loud in the room by people with no stake in your company.

Three questions that tell you when to revisit it

Each with an owner and a rhythm, and which of the three is most likely to fire first. Setting them now means you revisit the strategy on your own schedule, not after a problem shows up.

First moves and owners

First moves, the owner of each one, and what you need from whom. Enough shape to put in front of your own team and ask them to fund it, with either money or attention.

You also leave with a nine-sheet Team Kit you can take back to your own team.

Register

Program

Thursday, December 3

8:30 AM Check in, coffee, networking
9:00 AM Where agentic AI is genuinely moving, and where it is noise
9:35 AM Your own outcome: how exposed the work behind it is, and defending your read
10:40 AM How far to take it, and the argument against you
11:25 AM Your three questions, an owner, and a rhythm
12:05 PM Lunch and open conversation
12:30 PM Close

Optional Follow-up Session - Thursday, January 14

This follow up session with Blaine is available for all workshop attendees who would like to continue the work. We will reconvene online for sixty minutes to compare what moved, what stalled, and what the three questions caught. Included with every seat.

Register

Led by Blaine Mathieu

Author, The River Doesn’t Wait · Former Gartner analyst · Multi-time CEO, CMO, and CPO

The material in this workshop comes from Blaine’s private work with executive teams, and December 3 is the only open session.

Blaine has advised Ford, SoftBank, ABB, TotalEnergies, and China State Grid. As a former Gartner analyst he spent years analyzing the impact of technology on organizations. He first published in 1990, in AI pioneer Ray Kurzweil's The Age of Intelligent Machines, and has spent three decades turning emerging technology into business value.

The workshop uses the frameworks and method Blaine published in The River Doesn’t Wait: A Senior Executive Guide to Navigating the Surge of Agentic AI and Pulling Away From Your Competitors.

Endorsed by Morten Wierod, CEO of industrial giant ABB:

“An easy-to-read book that resonates very well with how I see AI development and implementation in the coming years.”

And by Brian Solis, Head of Global Innovation at ServiceNow:

“This is a leadership mindshift moment. Blaine lays it out clearly: retrofit what benefits from optimization and reimagine the future to compete differently with AI.”

Who is in the room?

A small group of senior executives with operational responsibility, from non-competing companies across different industries.

This is not a session on building agents or choosing vendors, and it will not help you write a company-wide AI strategy. It works on one operation, run by the person in the seat.

Every registration is reviewed by hand, and we seat one company per competitive set. Chatham House Rule applies, so nothing you say leaves the room attached to your name.

No vendor pitches, and nothing to buy at the end.

Cross Industry Insights

You hear the real issues from industries beyond your own. That variance across industries gives you value a book, an analyst briefing or an internal offsite cannot, because you and your leadership team sit too close to the outcome to see it differently.

We seat one company per competitive set, so no one in the room is briefing a competitor.

A second seat is optional

Your registration covers two seats so you have the choice. One seat is all you need.

If a specific person already comes to mind, whoever owns the data your operation depends on, or the peer whose function you would have to work with, bring them and you make the decision together instead of re-selling it later. A third seat is $245.

Register

Workshop Details

  
Workshop
Retrofit or Reimagine: An Agentic AI Strategy Workshop for Executives

Date
Thursday, December 3, 2026

Time
8:30 AM to 12:30 PM Pacific. Arrive by 8:45; lobby security requires photo ID.

Location
K&L Gates, Four Embarcadero Center, San Francisco. On BART and Muni.

Price
$495, for you, plus a second seat if you want to bring someone. A third seat is $245.

Included
The workshop and lunch, your nine-sheet Team Kit, a signed copy of The River Doesn’t Wait, the January 14 optional online session, and membership in AI Realized.

Registration
Every request is reviewed. You will hear back within two business days.

Workshop	Retrofit or Reimagine: An Agentic AI Strategy Workshop for Executives
Date	Thursday, December 3, 2026
Time	8:30 AM to 12:30 PM Pacific. Arrive by 8:45; lobby security requires photo ID.
Location	K&L Gates, Four Embarcadero Center, San Francisco. On BART and Muni.
Price	$495, for you, plus a second seat if you want to bring someone. A third seat is $245.
Included	The workshop and lunch, your nine-sheet Team Kit, a signed copy of The River Doesn’t Wait, the January 14 optional online session, and membership in AI Realized.
Registration	Every request is reviewed. You will hear back within two business days.

Frequently asked questions about the Retrofit or Reimagine workshop

A half-day working session for a small group of senior executives, each setting the agentic AI strategy for one outcome they own. You decide whether agents should speed up the process you run today, change how the goal gets achieved entirely, or land somewhere between the two, and you leave with that decision written down, the first moves, and an owner for each. Everyone in the room does the same work on their own business, and you hear all of their answers. Led by Blaine Mathieu, author of The River Doesn't Wait, on Thursday, December 3, 2026 in San Francisco.
Thursday, December 3, 2026, from 8:30 AM to 12:30 PM Pacific, at K&L Gates, Four Embarcadero Center, San Francisco. In person only, a short walk from BART and Muni. Bring photo ID for lobby security and arrive by 8:45. An optional 60-minute online session follows on Thursday, January 14, 2027, and is included with every seat.
$495 for you, plus a second seat if you want to bring someone. A third seat is $245. The price includes the workshop, lunch, your nine-sheet Team Kit, a signed copy of The River Doesn't Wait, the optional January 14 online session, and membership in AI Realized.
Senior executives who intend to use agentic AI to improve or transform an operation or function they run, at a scope where changing direction carries real cost. C-level and VP-level roles in operations and shared services, customer care and member services, marketing and sales operations, claims and underwriting, servicing, lending and revenue cycle, supply chain, and fraud, KYC and financial crime operations, along with divisional COOs and general managers. CIOs, CTOs, chief transformation officers and chiefs of staff are also welcome, and frequently bring line executives with them.
A written strategy for one operation you run: where it sits between retrofit and reimagine, which metric it moves, and what the position depends on, meaning the data, the decision rights, and the people whose work changes. You also leave with the strongest argument against your position already answered, your first moves with an owner on each, and three questions that tell you when the strategy has gone stale, each with an owner and a rhythm.
Retrofitting puts agents into the seats and workflows you already have, improving cycle time and cost inside an existing process. Reimagining redesigns the workflow and the roles together, changing what the process is and who is in it. Retrofitting captures a sliver of the available value, and the structure that limits the rest stays untouched. Reimagining costs change the organization has to absorb, on a schedule it can survive. Neither pole is correct everywhere. The judgment is made per outcome, and it moves as capability advances.
No. The session is self-contained and assumes no preparation of any kind. A signed copy of The River Doesn't Wait comes with your seat, as an after-read rather than homework.
A working session. Attendees sit at round tables of four or five, work from a printed nine-sheet kit on their own business, and spend most of the morning in pairs and small groups. Every minute is spent on your own outcome and the work behind it. Chatham House Rule applies, and we seat one company per competitive set, so nobody in the room is briefing a competitor. There are no vendor pitches and nothing to buy at the end.
No. December 3, 2026 is the only open session. The material comes from Blaine Mathieu's private work with executive teams, where one company's executives work a single shared outcome together. The open session does something the private version cannot: executives from a dozen industries answer the same question about their own businesses, and you hear every answer. No other open session has been announced.
Register using the button on this page. Every request is reviewed and you will hear back within two business days, because we seat one company per competitive set and assign categories during review. On the registration form, select "+1 Colleague" if you want to use the included second seat, and we will email you a free ticket code for them. Select "+2 Colleagues" and we will send a free code and one for $245. If you are unsure whether this is the right room for you, email info@airealizedsummit.com and you will get a straight answer.

Register