Kurt De Ruwe - On Leadership in the Agentic Era - CIOFEST interview

Kurt De Ruwe - On Leadership in the Agentic Era - CIOFEST interview

From CIONET by CIONET

April 30, 2026 · 21 min

About this episode

Kurt De Ruwe discusses the impact of the Agentic Era on leadership and technology at CIOFEST 2026.

As we catch our breath from an incredible week of CIOFEST 2026 across Belgium, the Netherlands, Poland, Germany, and Italy, one message is echoing through the halls of digital leadership: The Agentic Era isn’t just coming; it’s already operational. To help our community navigate this massive shift, we are thrilled to launch an exclusive interview with one of Europe’s most pragmatic tech pioneers: Kurt De Ruwe, CIO at AkzoNobel. Kurt isn't just experimenting with AI; he is scaling it. At AkzoNobel, they have moved far beyond simple chatbots to a "Silicon Workforce" that executed 1.5 million agentic tasks last year alone. From automating complex offboarding processes to providing real-time intelligence for customer service, Kurt’s team is redefining what it means to be an "Agentic Enterprise." Watch the full interview to find out how Agentic AI is reshaping customers, platforms and leadership! Are you ready to move "Beyond Pilots"? The conversation continues! On April 28th, CIOFEST heads to Barcelona, and on May 14th, we land in London. Join us to hear more from leaders like Kurt as we redefine leadership in the Agentic Era. 🔗 Register for Barcelona & London…

People in this episode

Guest: Kurt De Ruwe

Topics covered

  • leadership
  • Agentic Era
  • AI
  • digital transformation
  • customer service
  • automation

Keywords

  • Agentic AI
  • Silicon Workforce
  • automation
  • CIOFEST
  • digital leadership
  • customer intelligence

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: AkzoNobel

Places: Belgium, Netherlands, Poland, Germany, Italy, Barcelona, London

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