Barcelona once again became the capital of enterprise technology this November. The Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo 2025 gathered over 6,500 CIOs and IT executives to explore how leaders can navigate a world where AI touches every part of IT.
Gartner’s message was clear: by 2030, AI will be embedded in every aspect of IT work and redefine it. According to a survey of more than 700 CIOs released by the research firm, 25% of IT tasks will be done by AI alone, while 75% will be completed by humans working alongside AI.
But amid all the optimism, one challenge stood out: human readiness.
Gartner analysts urged CIOs to look beyond infrastructure and algorithms. “AI can help you find value,” said Rob O’Donohue, VP Analyst at Gartner, “but human readiness is about whether you have the right workforce and mindset to capture and sustain that value.”
The takeaway was clear: AI isn’t replacing humans but reshaping what humans do. In short, the future of IT will be powered by humans, amplified by AI.
By 2028, Gartner predicts that AI will create more jobs than it eliminates. But skills will change. Routine tasks like summarization and information retrieval will be automated, while strategic and contextual skills — judgment, communication, problem-solving — will define the new digital workforce.
Forward-looking CIOs are already acting on this shift: investing in cross-functional teams, AI-literate leadership, and automation strategies that elevate human decision-making rather than replace it.
In three words: AI, security and sovereignty.
The consensus from those at the event is that AI is ready for production use, while companies are not. This puts additional pressure on CIOs and IT leaders to find the right solutions for their business needs. "Companies need to have guardrails in place so that AI access is limited," explains Timo Vesa, Chief Operations Officer at Frends.
"Gartner has been all about AI for years now. This time, it seems that the topic truly landed. But it was more about companies being scared in terms of what to actually do with it," explains Jos Jacobs, Head of UKI at Frends. "Providing a crystal ball rather than a black box, with the ability to host the solution full on-prem, is what drove many of the conversations," he says.
Frends' Chief Revenue Officer, Sampsa Lindroos, agrees and raises another hot topic: the growing sense of urgency for companies in the EU when it comes to data: "security is extremely important, and Europeans should focus on European technology."
The tension between innovation and control was front and center during Frends CTO Asmo Urpilainen’s session, “When AI Goes Rogue — Preventing Business Disruption with Smart Integrations.”
In a talk that stood out for its clarity and candor, Urpilainen shared real-world risks of AI failure, from prompt injection and hallucinations to the dangers of black-box automation.
“It can happen to any of you,” he noted, as he shared examples of how researchers hijacked LLMs to leak data.
Urpilainen’s argument resonated deeply: AI governance starts at the integration layer. He outlined how platforms like Frends isolate AI models, control data access, and log every action, ensuring transparency, explainability and compliance.
“AI will go rogue if you let it,” Urpilainen warned. “But with the right framework, it doesn’t have to.”
Beyond the mainstage sessions, CIO conversations in Barcelona revealed what’s shaping the enterprise AI agenda for 2026:
1. Governance becomes the foundation of AI adoption.
With the EU AI Act now active, explainability and auditability are must-haves. CIOs are prioritizing partners who can prove compliance, not just claim it.
2. Integration becomes a strategic differentiator.
Fragmented data and disconnected systems remain the biggest barrier to realizing AI’s value. Modern iPaaS platforms are emerging as the enablers of trustworthy, contextual AI.
3. AI sovereignty drives vendor choice.
Every AI decision is also a sovereignty decision. It's about who controls data and where it resides. European enterprises are moving toward transparent, regionally compliant solutions.
4. Agentic AI is coming, but not without guardrails.
The next wave of automation is powered by autonomous AI agents. But to be enterprise-ready, they must operate within secure, integrated frameworks that ensure visibility and control.
The overarching message from Barcelona was pragmatic: AI is here to stay, but success depends on how it’s integrated, governed and scaled.
Technology readiness is no longer the differentiator. The enterprises that win the next decade will combine AI readiness, human readiness, and trusted integration ecosystems that make innovation sustainable.
As Asmo Urpilainen concluded in his session:
“Innovation without control is chaos. Innovation with clarity — that’s where real transformation begins”