In June, FTV Capital hosted our 2026 AI Leadership Forum in London, bringing together approximately 40 CEOs, CTOs and technology leaders from the FTV portfolio and Europe’s broader tech ecosystem for hands-on AI strategy discussions.
Alongside AI leaders from Amazon Web Services, OpenAI, Blackstone and FTV, executives spent the day in candid, peer-to-peer discussions exploring two challenges facing every high-growth company: 1) how to transform your business and product for the AI era, and 2) how to do so strategically.
The day’s agenda: moving from insight to action
The forum was designed to move quickly from context-setting to execution, in the form of AI-focused product strategy sprints.
FTV Partner Richard Earnshaw and Chief Technology Advisor Milo Sprague opened the day discussing the state and direction of AI, followed by a panel of practitioners – Stephanie Anani of OpenAI, Toby O’Rourke of FundApps, Alex Cesar of Zema Global and Anush Newman from JMAN Group – who focused on business and product transformation with AI.
After that, FTV Senior AI Advisor Ankit Agarwal and FTV Vice President Adrian Radzyminski led AI strategy workshops. Four teams of six to eight leaders dug into AI projects for real companies, pressure-testing them honestly with peers from different organizations and sectors. The objective wasn’t to produce polished slides but to develop plans someone could carry back to their company and act on the following week. The afternoon closed with Adam Dawson of Blackstone discussing Blackstone’s technology offering and partnership with FTV.
AI is reshaping every business function, from product, pricing and go-to-market to development, talent and organizational design. Leaders making decisions across these areas gain immense value from learning how their peers are navigating similar opportunities and challenges.
By bringing together technology experts, operators and investors for candid conversations, FTV is ensuring every company in our network can make better AI decisions faster. More forums like this are ahead. Our goal: give operators across the FTV portfolio and our broader network the tools they need to deliver impact.