January 2026 The AI Readiness Journey From Foundational Tech to Agentic AI

Hosted by NEW AITP

Date: Tuesday January 27, 2026.

Time: 5:00pm Doors open, food & networking

• Come hungry! Plenty of hors d'oeuvres (veggies, fruit, wings and pizza) will be served

5:45 pm Welcome & Speaker Presentation, additional networking to follow

Event location: Holidays Pub & Grill, Appleton, 3950 N. Richmond Street, Appleton WI

Cost: $0 Members (free), $20 non-Members, $10 Students with school ID

Join Jake Beyer, Chief Technology Officer at EDCi, as he helps to cut through the AI Hype.

Everybody is talking about AI - but where should an organization actually begin? In this session, Jake Beyer of EDCi breaks down the AI Readiness Journey, helping attendees understand how companies progress from foundational technologies to more advanced capabilities like agentic AI and A2A.

Everybody is talking about AI - but where should an organization actually begin? In this session, Jake Beyer of EDCi breaks down the AI Readiness Journey, helping attendees understand how companies progress from foundational technologies to more advanced capabilities like agentic AI and A2A.

Whether you're just starting to explore AI or already running advanced initiatives, this session will provide practical insights and a clear frame to help you move forward with confidence.

• Understand the progression from foundational AI technologies to agentic AI
• Learn what "AI readiness" really means and how to evaluate it within your organization.
• Explore AI maturity models and how they apply to real-world business environments.
• Identify common gaps and challenges organizations face on their AI journey.
• Gain practical guidance for building a realistic, business-aligned AI roadmap.

After several years providing stellar engineering support and expertise in the contact center arena, Jake Beyer now focuses on enriching the patient, member and customer experience through the use of technology.
Since 2003, Jake has been focused on all aspects of the contact center, performing roles of principal engineer, database and software architect, consulting and sales. Using the philosophy that contact centers need to be integrated in order to provide the expected consumer experience, Jake and team have nominated and won numerous innovation awards Jake additionally invests a great deal of time networking with contact center leaders to keep abreast of current challenges and trends.
While continuing with past successes, in 2019 Jake started the healthcare vertical at EDCi and now leads one of the top health care focused contact center VARs in the country. Jake focuses on delivering lower costs, increased revenue via patient and agent experience using innovation. And on top of all of this, Jake makes sure that work and fun come together on a regular basis!

Who Should Attend

• IT leaders, architects, and technologists evaluating or implementing AI initiatives.
• Business leaders responsible for digital transformation or initiative strategy.
• Data analytics and AI practitioners at any stage of maturity.
• Professionals seeking a clearer, less-hyped understanding of AI adoption.
• Anyone looking to confidently guide their organization through AI planning.

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

Get App

Host or Publisher NEW AITP