Patron Dinner: AI is delivering value, but only for CEOs that scale it

Daniel Lenardić, Partner and Head of Advisory Services for KPMG in the Adria Region, will present insights on why AI value is real but unevenly realized across organizations and how CEOs should strategically manage AI investments to improve operational productivity, enhance market agility and customer perceptions, as well as enable new business models in legacy business sectors.

The presentation will explore the gap that is present between organizations still in the AI experimentation phase and those that have moved beyond pilots to fully scale AI agents and capture real business value outcomes. It will also comprise several case examples of how CEOs who are AI leaders are seeing clear returns from how AI agents are deployed and used across the enterprise.

In addition, the presentation will address the widening performance gap between organizations that treat AI as the CEO led enterprise-wide transformation and those that are trying to bolster AI onto existing operating models or functions and seeing incremental gains.

Finally, we will provide recommendations on how CEOs of regional companies or regional subsidiaries of international corporates can achieve the benefits of faster transformation through developing, prioritizing and deploying AI investments, while reflecting the Adria
region context in terms of market dynamics, organizational scale and operations digitalization maturity.

Daniel Lenardić is Partner responsible for Advisory services at KPMG Adria region. He holds a B.Sc., a M.Sc. and a Ph.D. degree in Computer Engineering, University of Zagreb, where he also completed a postgraduate study in Business Management. In addition, he completed an Executive MBA program in International Business at the University of Edinburgh and the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées in Paris.

Projects that Daniel has worked on have spanned areas of business strategy and planning, financial modelling, market research and feasibility studies, corporate restructuring, organizational development, business process improvement, performance management, operations management, as well as commercial due diligence.

The event is intended exclusively for Presidents and members of the Patron Member's Boards.

Please confirm your attendance no later than Monday, November 9, 2026. Please note that the number of seats is limited, and reservations will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis.