MFA Ops: Data, Tech & AI 2026 - Agenda
November 10, 2026
Conference
UBS
New York, NY
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8:00 am - 8:50 am
Breakfast, registration and networking
8:50 am - 9:00 am
Opening remarks
Speaker
Speaker To Be Announced
9:00 am - 9:30 am
The AI-first alternatives firm: Where will durable competitive advantage come from?
Speaker
Speakers To Be Announced
Moderated by
Speaker To Be Announced
9:30 am - 10:05 am
The rise of the citizen developer: Managing the organization-wide AI lab
- "Everyone is a developer" as an operational reality
- Productionizing business-built applications: The path from side projects to approved tools
- Establishing guardrails without killing the enthusiasm that fuels adoption and creativity
Speakers
Speakers To Be Announced
Moderated by
Speaker To Be Announced
10:05 am - 10:40 am
The state of AI ROI frameworks: Identifying quantitative and qualitative measures of value
- How rising token and compute costs are reshaping investment and deployment decisions
- Why clear benchmarks and standardized methodologies remain elusive
- The shift from open experimentation to deliberate, ROI-driven deployment
Speakers
Speakers To Be Announced
Moderated by
Speaker To Be Announced
10:40 am - 11:10 am
Data as strategic infrastructure: Building the foundation and connectivity for AI
- MCPs and the evolution of data connectivity: How firms are rearchitecting access
- Integrating and governing third-party datasets, proprietary data and AI-generated outputs while maintaining security and licensing compliance
- Building flexible data foundations to support future AI use cases and emerging technologies
- AI’s growing demand for data center capacity and the potential impact of infrastructure constraints
Speaker
Speakers To Be Announced
Moderated by
Speaker To Be Announced
11:10 am - 11:35 am
Networking break
11:35 am - 12:15 am
Breakout Sessions
Breakout One
CYBER DEFENSE
The next frontier of cyber defense: Building resilience in an AI-first world
- The rise of AI-enabled attack vectors, phishing campaigns, and social engineering threats
- Securing agentic AI systems and autonomous workflows through next-generation security controls
- Assessing and mitigating risks associated with third-party AI providers, cloud platforms, and external models
Speakers
Speakers To Be Announced
Moderated by
Speaker To Be Announced
TECH STACK 2.0
Rationalizing the tech stack: Build, buy, augment or replace
- Modernizing the technology stack for an AI-first future: Evaluating legacy systems, platform consolidation and operating model transformation
- Build, buy, augment, or outsource: Reassessing in-house capabilities, vendor relationships and sourcing strategies in the age of AI
- Navigating the evolving technology ecosystem: SaaS disruption, vendor lock-in risk and building flexibility for the future
Speakers
Speakers To Be Announced
Moderated by
Speaker To Be Announced
12:20 pm - 1:00 pm
Breakout Sessions
Breakout Two
PRIVATE CREDIT
Private credit technology evolution: From excel to AI-native
- Automating private credit workflows and reducing manual processes
- Applying AI to loan monitoring, covenant tracking, portfolio surveillance and risk management
- Addressing the unique data challenges of private markets
- Balancing build vs. buy decisions, customization needs and technology infrastructure strategy
Speakers
Speakers To Be Announced
Moderated by
Speaker To Be Announced
TALENT
How AI is reshaping technology teams and the broader talent trends
- How AI is transforming the size, structure, and skill sets of technology teams
- The rise of the “two-sport athlete” bridging technology and business expertise
- Upskilling teams for an AI-first future and separating true expertise from AI-washed resumes
- The evolving roles of the CTO and software engineer in an AI-first era
Speakers
Speakers To Be Announced
Moderated by
Speaker To Be Announced
1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
Lunch and networking
2:00 pm - 2:50 pm
Breakout Three
Interactive roundtable discussions
Participate in a small-group discussion with your peers on one of the featured topics. Space is limited, and advance registration will open closer to the event. The final list of roundtable discussions will be confirmed closer. Space is limited; registration will open closer to the event.
- The cost of intelligence: Managing compute, token, and infrastructure spend
- Safeguarding mission-critical operations and models: Building secure, resilient infrastructure that can withstand model changes, outages or deprecations
- Operational transformation middle & back office::Redesigning functions and workflows with AI
- From pilot to production: Lessons learned moving AI into live workflows
- Strategy and management of AI:: Comparing leadership, governance, and operating models across firms
- AI in the investment process:: What is delivering real edge today?
- Private markets, unstructured data, and AI: Where are we seeing real progress?
- Preparing for the next frontier of risk: Strengthening cyber resilience in an AI-powered threat landscape
2:50 pm - 3:10 pm
Networking break and transition to general session
3:10 pm –3:30 pm
The evolving AI regulatory landscape: Emerging guardrails across federal, state and global jurisdictions
Speakers
Speakers To Be Announced
Moderated by
Speaker To Be Announced
3:30 pm –4:00 pm
AI governance at scale: Creating frameworks for the continuously expanding reach and complexity of AI
- How have recordkeeping and data security frameworks evolved to keep pace with AI adoption?
- How can firms define and operationalize risk tolerance frameworks for an ever-expanding range of AI use cases?
- When should human oversight be required, and what should effective human-in-the-loop controls look like?
- How can organizations build robust AI governance frameworks without slowing innovation and adoption?
Speakers
Speakers To Be Announced
Moderated by
Speaker To Be Announced
4:00 pm –4:30 pm
Building the ecosystem for agentic AI: Infrastructure, identity & guardrails for the agentic enterprise
- Where firms are deploying agentic AI: Lessons learned and best practices so far
- How should firms manage agent identity, permissions, and access at scale?
- From low to high autonomy: What needs to happen internally and externally to enable highly autonomous AI agents?
- What sandboxing, monitoring, and auditability capabilities are required for enterprise-ready agents?
Speakers
Speakers To Be Announced
Moderated by
Speaker To Be Announced
4:30 pm –5:00 pm
AI leadership in action: A Conversation with Chief AI Officers
- Defining the Chief AI Officer mandate and positioning AI leadership within the organization
- Winning executive support and driving AI adoption across teams with varying levels of AI fluency
- Preparing for the next phase of AI leadership: Priorities, challenges, and opportunities over the next 12 months
- Defining the Chief AI Officer mandate and positioning AI leadership within the organization
- Winning executive support and driving AI adoption across teams with varying levels of AI fluency
- Preparing for the next phase of AI leadership: Priorities, challenges, and opportunities over the next 12 months
Speakers
Speakers To Be Announced
Moderated by
Speaker To Be Announced
5:00 pm –5:10 pm
Closing remarks
Speaker
Speaker To Be Announced
