Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo 2026 opens on Monday, October 19, in Orlando, Florida, and runs through October 22. For anyone building or buying data and analytics technology, the published agenda offers an early read on where enterprise priorities are heading in 2027. The trend lists themselves have not been released yet, so this preview sticks to what Gartner has said publicly about the program.

The event at a glance

According to Gartner’s July 9 announcement, the conference is expected to draw more than 7,000 CIOs and senior technology leaders. The program includes more than 350 sessions, more than 140 Gartner experts as speakers, and an IT Xpo with over 180 solution providers. Sessions are grouped around AI, business transformation, cybersecurity, customer experience, data and analytics, and executive leadership.

The theme is “Ignite Intelligence.” Gartner’s framing is blunt: AI is no longer a differentiator and is now part of the foundation. The opening keynote is titled “Reaching Escape Velocity – Shaping an Effective Enterprise AI Economy.”

Signature sessions to track

Gartner’s Signature Series is where its headline research tends to surface. This year’s list includes:

• The 2027 CIO and Tech Executive Agenda
• CEO Watch 2026
• Top Strategic Technology Trends for 2027
• Top Strategic Predictions for 2027 and Beyond
• Emerging Trends Vision 2027: Human-AI Relationships Will Reshape the World

The strategic technology trends session is scheduled for Tuesday, October 20, at 10:30 a.m. Eastern, presented by Gene Alvarez, a Distinguished VP Analyst at Gartner. The session page promises ten technologies, but does not name them. Coverage after that session will be the first reliable source for the full list.

The data and analytics session

For this audience, the more specific clue is a session titled “Top Data and Analytics Trends 2027,” scheduled for Monday, October 19, at 12:45 p.m. Eastern. It will be led by Deepak Seth, a Senior Director Analyst at Gartner. The session description states that AI agent adoption transforms data and analytics strategy and operations, and says the trends fall under three themes.

• Agentic data and analytics. AI agents take on more of the work that analysts and dashboards handled before.
• Semantics at the core. Shared definitions of metrics, entities and relationships become central, so that both people and agents interpret data the same way.
• Platformization. Data and analytics capabilities consolidate onto fewer, broader platforms rather than a patchwork of separate tools.

Gartner has not published details beyond those three headings, so how each theme is defined and prioritized remains to be seen.

Why the three themes fit together

The grouping is coherent even without the detail. Agents that query and act on data need unambiguous meaning to work reliably, which is the argument for putting semantics at the core. Organizations that want to run agents at scale also need governed, connected infrastructure, which is the logic behind platformization. Read together, the themes suggest that 2027 planning will focus less on adding new analytics tools and more on making existing data trustworthy and machine-readable.

That direction matches themes already visible in the market, including the shift from static dashboards toward autonomous analytics and growing attention to data readiness for AI. Whether Gartner’s research confirms, refines or challenges those trends is the open question for next week.

What to look for in the announcements

• Specific definitions. Whether “semantics” means semantic layers, knowledge graphs, metadata management or something broader.
• Evidence behind the trends. Any survey figures or adoption data Gartner attaches to its claims.
• Vendor positioning. With more than 180 exhibitors on site, expect product announcements to be framed around these themes.
• Overlap with the CIO agenda. How data priorities line up with the broader 2027 agenda and strategic predictions.

The takeaway

Conference agendas are marketing as well as research, and session descriptions are not findings. Still, the pairing of agents, semantics and platforms is a clear statement of what Gartner believes data leaders should be discussing heading into 2027. The substance will arrive on October 19 and 20, and it is worth reading the actual research rather than the summaries that follow.

This article is informational only and is not investment or business advice.

Sources: Gartner (press release of July 9, 2026, and session pages for Top Data and Analytics Trends 2027 and Top Strategic Technology Trends for 2027).