Technology Executives Review Webinar | July 2026 Month-End Edition — Includes Special Report on the Enterprise IT AI Spend Crisis

Technology Executives Review® Webinar on AI in the Enterprise

In this edition of the Technology Executives Review®, Alex Jarett is joined by guest industry analyst Tom Drez, former CIO, CISO & CPO of Christian Brothers Services.

Each session we review the top headlines in AI in the Enterprise, Advanced Technologies, and Industry News, along with featured highlights from our most recent Technology Leadership Briefings.

This edition includes a special report segment, "The Enterprise IT Spend Crisis: Balancing Shadow AI Token Spend with Hard ROI Gains," where Alex and Tom dig into why AI token spend has become one of the fastest-growing and least-controlled line items in enterprise IT budgets — and what technology leaders can do about it.

Key Takeaways:

• The AI model price war is squeezing enterprise inference costs to historic lows, but shadow AI token spend is pushing many IT budgets to their limits halfway through the year
• Only an estimated 6% of companies using AI report clear, measurable financial returns, even though the vast majority have adopted AI in some form
• Global AI spend is projected to surge sharply this year, intensifying pressure on CIOs to show hard ROI, not just adoption metrics
• Investors and boards are demanding accountability fast — many expect positive AI ROI within six months, and CEO job security is increasingly tied to AI spend outcomes
• Some organizations are inadvertently incentivizing "activity" over value — employees burning tokens to satisfy usage metrics rather than to produce real output
• Cross-divisional AI councils or "AI SWAT teams" are emerging as a practical way for CIOs to break down silos and lead AI strategy across the business
• Open-source AI models are gaining ground on cost grounds, but technology leaders still want SOC/ISO-equivalent compliance documentation before trusting them with sensitive data
• Agentic, multi-step tool-calling architectures are re-architecting the enterprise software layer — raising new cybersecurity and access-control concerns
• Human-in-the-loop governance remains essential, echoed by state and local government leaders now writing AI oversight into law
• Government is stepping further into the AI conversation, from state-level AI governance bills to a new Federal Reserve task force tracking AI's impact on jobs and productivity

Plus, you'll see featured highlights from the following Technology Leadership Briefings:

• Jeff Scheetz, CIO, City of Avondale — Empowering Governance of Local Government Through a People-Centered Strategy
• Biff Myre, Director of Industry Solutions, CBTS — What Technology Leaders Are Really Concerned About with AI
• Josh Rose, Founder & CEO, Zagger.ai — How Zagger.ai Turns Unstructured Business Data Into Productive AI Workflows
• Tim Walter, CIO & VP, Edward Don & Company — Lessons Learned from a Successful AI-Powered RFP Project

Hosted by: Alex Jarett, Founder & CEO, Technology Executives Club®

Guest Industry Analyst: Tom Drez, former CIO, CISO & CPO, Christian Brothers Services

Watch the full webinar & podcast now.

Watch all our Episodes, Leadership Briefings, Spotlight Interviews & Special Reports by joining the TEC Insiders Community https://www.technologyexecutivesclub.com/insiders