AI, Secured: Inside Navigate Austin 2026

Let’s be honest with each other for a moment: we’ve all sat through tech conferences that felt like a parade of the same recycled buzzwords. You walk through an expo hall, collect a canvas tote bag, and listen to well-rehearsed slides about "the power of AI"—only to head back to your hotel room wondering what, if anything, you can actually put to work on Monday morning.

When our team sat down to curate Navigate Austin 2026, we made a conscious decision to cut the noise, skip the theoretical posturing, and focus on real substance.

Because right now, the security community doesn’t need more hype.

We are standing in the middle of the most consequential transformation our industry has seen in twenty years. Your workforce is no longer just people logging into laptops; it’s an expanding web of autonomous agents, ephemeral cloud instances, and machine identities executing code at 2:00am while your team is asleep. The question isn't whether automation is coming—it's already here, running at breakneck speed.

If we don't get the identity and governance layer right today, the wheels come off tomorrow.

That is why Navigate Austin 2026 isn't a victory lap. It’s an intensive, collaborative workshop for the future of enterprise security. Here is an inside look at the conversations, masterclasses, and minds we’ve brought together—and why I believe this will be the most valuable few days on your calendar this year.

Keynotes from pioneers who built autonomy

We didn’t invite talking heads. We invited leaders who have tackled autonomy and security in the real world:

• Dr. Sebastian Thrun: As the co-founder of Waymo, the mind behind Google X and now the founder of autonomous robotics company Dulo, Sebastian proved autonomous vehicles could navigate real roads under split-second decision constraints. He’ll share firsthand lessons on how autonomous systems succeed, fail, and create critical new security challenges at scale.
• Sarah Guo: Founder of Conviction Partners and co-host of No Priors, Sarah will lead a high-energy panel with an unvarnished vantage point on the frontier risks and realities of enterprise AI adoption.
• Dr. Margaret Mitchell: Chief Ethics Scientist at Hugging Face, Dr. Mitchell’s team has been at the center of agentic activity and will break down what responsible, secure AI deployment demands before an incident forces your hand.

A masterclass in orchestration: Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis

What does producing dozens of #1 hits for Janet Jackson, Mariah Carey, and Boyz II Men have to do with enterprise security? Mastering complex orchestration.

Rock & Roll Hall of Fame legends Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis know how to harmonize dozens of volatile moving parts under intense pressure. Alongside our AI luminaries, they’ll share a rare, candid look at systems thinking, creative collaboration, and orchestrating under fire.

Executive keynotes: Taking back the conductor’s baton

Before diving into technical breakouts, SailPoint’s leadership team will take the main stage to cut through the vendor hype and outline where enterprise security is heading next. Across their sessions, the shared focus is clear: silencing the chaotic noise of multiplying autonomous agents, taking back the conductor’s baton, and proving how a unified control plane turns "AI, Secured" from an industry slogan into a live, scalable operational reality.

You'll hear keynotes from CEO and Founder Mark McClain alongside President Matt Mills on taking back the baton to orchestrate the agentic symphony and silence workforce chaos. CTO and EVP of Product Chandra Gnanasambandam will deliver a live platform demonstration orchestrating both Agentic and Human Fabrics for the near-AGI era, followed by a myth-busting session with Matt Mills to unpack hard truths about the agentic age. Chief Product Officer Levent Besik will convene frontline leaders from Deloitte, PwC, and Accenture to break down the reality of building modern cyber resilience, while Chief Customer Officer Meredith Blanchar leads a candid practitioner panel on safely conducting a converged human and agent workforce. Finally, I’ll be joined by Jérôme Robin, Director of Corporate Security at Criteo, using live audience polling to stress-test our newest Horizons of Identity findings across today's shifting regulatory landscape.

High-stakes masterclasses

Jump straight into the tactical front lines with deep-dive masterclasses built for identity’s highest-stakes challenges:

• Retire Standing Access for Good: Move beyond "always-on" privileges to architect real-time authorization and true Zero Standing Privilege (ZSP).
• Govern the Human + Agent Workforce: Practical frameworks to secure hybrid environments where employees and autonomous agents collaborate side-by-side.
• The Universal Control Plane: Why a single, unified governance plane across every identity in your ecosystem is now non-negotiable.

Real blueprints from identity leaders

No sanitized marketing slides. Security architects and identity leaders from Nvidia, ExxonMobil, State Farm, Criteo, Main Line Health, and partners including Accenture, AWS, Deloitte, Optiv, PwC, and many more will take the stage to share honest, under-the-hood stories: what worked, what broke, and how they scaled.

Roll up your sleeves (and celebrate)

• Get Hands-On: Deepen your technical chops with interactive AI workshops, Hack Day challenges, and specialized SailPoint Identity University training.
• Experience Austin: Unwind with legendary local food trucks, ice-cold drinks, and a full live set from The All-American Rejects.

Join us in Austin

Modern identity moves too quickly to navigate alone. I look forward to seeing you in Austin! Register now.