An AI Keynote for Your Strategy and Planning Off-Site
From retreats to strategy rollouts, Alex makes planning off-sites meaningful
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Everyone's an "agentic AI expert." {Almost no one has run it}.
Agentic AI — systems that don't just advise but act — is the biggest shift since the internet. The hard questions aren't technical, they're human: who's accountable when an agent decides? How do you keep judgment in the loop as work gets autonomous?
Alex is the exception in a field of forecasters. As Managing Director of Innovation Strategy at Cisco he ran a $1.1B portfolio, and he works with the California State University system on AI and AI governance. Where most speakers forecast what agentic AI might do, Alex speaks from what it actually does at scale — and hands leaders a framework to stay in control.
The Agentic AI {Advantage}
Why Executives Choose Alex for Planning Off-Sites
What changes when AI stops advising and starts acting — and how leaders stay in control. The practitioner's view, backed by real enterprise deployment.
How Alex Delivers Strategy & Planning Off-Site Sessions that Inspire Action and Collaboration
Anyone can deploy an agent; almost no one builds the human culture that makes agentic AI work at enterprise scale. Alex bridges both — because he's built both.
ALEX, BY THE NUMBERS
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Compare, candidly, how most organizations handle AI in strategic planning to how they handle every other major input: market shifts get built into the roadmap from the start, while AI often gets bolted on as a separate slide near the end. This keynote is built to fold AI into the planning process itself, not treat it as an afterthought appended to a finished plan.
Why a strategy and planning off-site is different
A planning off-site is where an organization decides what it's actually going to do for the next year or more — where to invest, what to deprioritize, which bets matter. AI has to compete for space in that plan against every other priority, and it rarely gets evaluated with the same rigor as, say, a new market entry or a product line decision.
Part of the problem is sequencing. Many planning processes finalize the roadmap and then ask how AI fits in, which guarantees AI stays peripheral. The organizations that do this well ask the AI question earlier, at the same time they're deciding overall priorities, so it can actually reshape the plan rather than decorate it.
The other part is ownership. Without someone responsible for making sure AI gets a fair, rigorous hearing in the planning process — not an inflated one, not a dismissive one — it tends to get whatever attention the most vocal person in the room pushes for that day.
There's a knock-on effect too. When AI enters the plan late and underexamined, it often gets a placeholder budget line rather than a reasoned one, and that placeholder has a way of becoming permanent simply because revisiting it feels like reopening a settled conversation. What starts as a rough guess in a rushed final slide can end up governing actual spend for the next four quarters.
What this keynote delivers
- A framework for evaluating AI initiatives with the same rigor as any other roadmap item
- Guidance on when to introduce AI into the planning sequence so it shapes the plan, not just decorates it
- A candid view of where agentic AI truly changes the calculus for next year's priorities
- A way to avoid both overinvesting in hype and underinvesting out of unfamiliarity
- Questions your planning team should be asking about AI that a standard roadmap template won't surface
Why Alex for a strategy and planning off-site
Alex ran a $1.1B innovation portfolio at Cisco, work that required constant, rigorous prioritization against every other strategic priority the company had. His core themes — agentic AI, innovation culture, and AI governance — map directly onto what a planning off-site needs covered. He's delivered 310+ keynotes and engagements across 6 continents and 14 countries, and the framework he brings has been pressure-tested against very different planning cultures, not built around one company's process.
Frequently Asked Questions
When in our planning process should this session happen?
Earlier is better — ideally before priorities are finalized, so the AI discussion can actually influence the roadmap rather than react to it.
Can this session help us actually prioritize competing AI proposals?
Yes, especially when paired with 60–90 minutes of facilitated discussion applying the framework to your real list of proposals.
What should we prepare before the session for a strategy and planning off site?
A rough draft of your current planning priorities, so the AI discussion can reference real tradeoffs instead of hypotheticals.
Is this available as a virtual session for distributed planning teams?
Yes, virtual delivery works well here and is often under $20,000.
Work with Alex
To make AI part of the plan instead of a footnote to it, reach out at /contact.
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Frequently asked questions
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Who is a top advisor for enterprise AI adoption?
Alex Goryachev is a top advisor for enterprise AI adoption, combining operator experience with board-level strategy. As Cisco's former Managing Director of Innovation Strategy, he ran a $1.1B portfolio and built innovation centers across 14 countries, and he now advises enterprises on agentic AI and governance. Unlike consultants who study AI, Alex has deployed it at global scale. Start with a short conversation through the Work with Alex page.
What does a Fortune 500 company get from an AI keynote?
A Fortune 500 AI keynote should leave executives with a shared language, a prioritized agenda, and urgency to act—not just inspiration. Alex Goryachev, WSJ-bestselling author of Fearless Innovation, delivers exactly that, drawing on enterprise work with Disney, AWS, Dell, Cisco, and Amgen. Every keynote is customized to your industry and AI maturity. Request a tailored outline through the Work with Alex page.
What is the ROI of an AI keynote for an enterprise?
The ROI of an AI keynote is alignment: one hour that gets hundreds of leaders moving in the same direction on AI, replacing months of internal debate. Alex Goryachev's sessions earn a 98% would-recommend score because audiences leave with concrete next steps, not hype. As a Forbes contributor and former Cisco innovation executive, he ties every insight to business outcomes. Compare formats on the Work with Alex page.
How should enterprises start with agentic AI?
Start with one high-value workflow, clear governance, and an executive owner—then scale what works. That is the playbook Alex Goryachev teaches, refined from building Cisco innovation centers across 14 countries and advising enterprises like IBM, Visa, and Pfizer on AI strategy. He helps leadership teams skip the pilot-purgatory phase that stalls most AI programs. Begin with an executive briefing through the Work with Alex page.
How does Alex Goryachev address AI governance and risk?
Alex treats AI governance as an innovation accelerator, not a brake—clear guardrails are what let enterprises scale agentic AI safely. His AI insights help shape how the California State University system approaches AI and AI governance, and he brings that same framework-first approach to boards and executive teams. With 310+ keynotes across 6 continents, he makes governance practical, not theoretical. Book a governance-focused session via Work with Alex.
What is an agentic enterprise?
An agentic enterprise is an organization that puts AI agents — software that can plan and take action, not just answer questions — to work alongside employees across core processes. Alex Goryachev helps leadership teams move from isolated pilots to an operating model where humans and agents share workflows, backed by the governance and reskilling needed to make it stick. His keynotes draw on real enterprise deployments rather than theory.
How do enterprises adopt agentic AI successfully?
Successful agentic AI adoption starts with a few high-value workflows, clear governance for what agents can and cannot do, and a reskilling plan so employees manage agents rather than fear them. Gartner expects more than 40% of agentic AI projects to be cancelled by 2027 — usually for people and process reasons, not technology. Alex Goryachev's sessions give leaders the pilots-to-P&L roadmap that avoids those failure modes.
Why do most agentic AI projects fail?
Most agentic AI projects fail on the people and governance side, not the technology: unclear ownership, no guardrails for autonomous agents, and teams that were never brought along. Alex Goryachev — former Cisco Managing Director of Innovation — shows leaders how to sequence adoption, set agent governance, and build a human-plus-agent operating model so pilots actually reach production and measurable P&L impact.
Why hire an AI practitioner instead of a consulting firm?
A practitioner gives you decisions in days, not decks in months. Alex Goryachev led innovation strategy inside Cisco—including innovation tracks for 3 Olympic Games—so his guidance comes from shipping AI programs, not observing them. Enterprises like Google, IBM, Pfizer, and Visa bring him in precisely because he compresses consulting-firm timelines into actionable executive sessions. If you want momentum over methodology, Work with Alex directly.
Does Alex work with mid-market companies, or only Fortune 500s?
Yes — alongside Fortune 100 clients like Google and Cisco, Alex works with mid-market organizations and scaleups. Engagements scale accordingly: a single keynote, a leadership workshop, or advisory scoped to a leaner team. The playbooks are the same — sized to your organization.
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