JMI 2025 CEO Summit: Leading Through AI Transformation

Last week, more than 50 high growth software CEOs joined us in Dallas for our 2025 CEO Summit, a day focused on the leadership, strategy, and execution required to build enterprise value through AI. Sessions centered on how CEOs can lead through disruption, reallocate resources toward AI-driven transformation, and build defensible competitive advantage in rapidly evolving markets.

Across every session, one theme was constant: transformation starts when leaders move real capacity toward AI initiatives, set clear outcomes, and make speed a core part of their culture.

Geoffrey Moore, bestselling author of Crossing the Chasm and Zone to Win, opened the day with a powerful reminder that every technological wave creates a crisis of prioritization.  He challenged CEOs to separate how they think about running the business and reinventing it and to reallocate meaningful capacity to the next wave before competitors do. AI is not a feature shift but a structural one, reshaping how software companies create and capture value.

Throughout the Summit, portfolio CEOs shared how they’re moving from AI pilots to platform change. Attendees heard stories from companies at different stages of product and operational transformation, from building agentic products that deliver measurable outcomes, to reorganizing teams for speed and embedding AI into daily workflows. The focus was on orchestration—connecting people, data, and systems so that AI becomes part of how the business runs, not a side project.

Bain & Company provided a forward-looking market lens and outlined a playbook for offense and defense in this once in a generation disruption. Bain’s analysis underscored that while incumbents hold powerful advantages such as customer trust, data, and distribution, AI-native entrants are moving quickly to redefine categories. The CEOs in the room agreed advantage now depends on speed of execution and clarity of focus.

The Summit closed with a discussion on shareholder value and M&A led by William Blair, where data made clear that AI adoption and credible product narratives are already driving premium valuations. The message is simple: companies that can demonstrate measurable AI progress will command attention; those without a credible growth story will find fewer options.

The CEO Summit capped a year of six immersive AI-focused leadership forums that brought together more than 500 Finance, HR, GTM, and Product & Technology leaders to advance growth and efficiency through AI innovation. Looking ahead to 2026, we’re excited to kick off the year with our CFO Roundtable in March, launching the first of several in-person AI forums planned for the year to empower software executives to lead in this next wave of innovation.

This post is for informational purposes only and reflects general observations from JMI Equity’s 2025 CEO Summit. References to AI initiatives and third-party presenters are provided for illustrative and educational purposes only and should not be interpreted as research, investment advice, or any investment recommendation. AI involves evolving opportunities and risks, including technological change, competitive dynamics, and regulatory developments. Past trends and forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future outcomes.