From Token Consumption to Transformation: How Large Enterprises Are Building Agentic AI and Private AI Infrastructure in 2026 – Main Stage Keynote
For the past several years, enterprises have consumed AI largely through tokens—experimenting with public models, copilots, and SaaS-driven intelligence. In 2026, that model is breaking down. Cost, control, data gravity, security, and performance demands are driving large enterprises to a new phase of AI maturity: building their own agentic AI applications on private and hybrid AI infrastructure.
In this keynote, Nick Lippis, Co-founder of ONUG, explores how leading global enterprises are moving beyond AI consumption toward AI ownership. Drawing on real-world enterprise insights, Nick will examine the rise of agentic AI systems that reason, plan, and act across enterprise workflows—and the private AI stacks required to support them.
Attendees will gain perspective on why networking has become the critical fabric for agentic AI execution, enabling deterministic performance, policy-driven security, distributed inference, and seamless integration across on-prem, cloud, and edge environments. The keynote will also outline the architectural, operational, and organizational shifts enterprises must make in 2026 to successfully deploy and scale these systems.
This session sets the strategic tone for the AI Networking Summit—challenging enterprise leaders to move from token consumption to true AI-powered transformation.
Nick Lippis is an authority on corporate computer networking. He has designed some for the largest computer networks in the world. He has advised many Global 2000 firms on network strategy, architecture, equipment, services and implementation including Hughes Aerospace, Barclays Bank, Kaiser Permanente, Eastman Kodak Company, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Liberty Mutual, Schering-Plough, Sprint, WorldCom, Cisco Systems, Nortel Networks and a wide range of other equipment suppliers and service providers.
Mr. Lippis is uniquely positioned to comment, analyze and observe computer networking industry trends and developments.
