At every Oracle Ascend conference, the latest trends take the spotlight at sessions and in conversations. This year was no different, and a familiar star was on most people’s minds: AI. It showed up in sessions, demos, and hallway or conference floor conversations. But the more valuable takeaway wasn’t just about AI itself. The most important lesson was what organizations need to do to be ready for it and to drive real value from it.

AI Was Everywhere

It was no surprise to hear AI was on everyone’s minds. Agentic AI and automated workflows came up in conversations alongside the AI capabilities built directly into Oracle’s applications and databases. AI certainly isn’t a new topic, but this year’s Ascend solidified one theme: AI is no longer an add-on to the Oracle ecosystem, but it’s become a foundational and integral part of it.

Oracle Database 26ai drew particular attention for its built-in vector search and integrated large language model (LLM) capabilities, alongside tools for building custom AI agents and low-code development in Oracle APEX for extending existing applications quickly and without a long runway.

As in years past, Ascend wasn’t a launchpad for Oracle to announce new products (such moments are typically saved for Oracle’s CloudWorld, which will this year be called Oracle AI World). Instead, Ascend was a space to show how already-announced capabilities work in practice, through demonstrations, use cases, and real-world walkthroughs. The conversations around AI weren’t about what’s coming; rather, they were about what’s already here and how to actually use it to its full potential.

The Real Conversation: AI Readiness and Implementation

Behind the curtain of AI momentum lay a much more consequential theme. Sessions and conversations returned to a familiar point: AI outcomes depend closely on the quality and accessibility of your data and on the maturity of your organization’s environment.

Many businesses are still operating with siloed data and using legacy systems that are deeply embedded into their operations. They, too, want to reap the benefits of AI’s transformative power.

For that reason, so much of the conversation centered on the fundamentals: modernizing infrastructure, moving to scalable cloud environments, upgrading applications and databases, consolidating data sources, improving data quality, and simplifying integrations between systems. At the same time, to make the most of AI, many organizations are looking at migrating their environment to hyperscalers and modernizing their architecture and database to create a strong foundation for AI.

What Conferencegoers Were Actually Asking

Attendee questions leaned on the practical. They wanted clear ways to ready their environment and start seeing the benefits of AI’s agentic and automative powers.

Among the questions were:

• How can I use AI in my environment today?
• What are other organizations already doing with it?
• Do I need to upgrade before I can benefit?
• Which use cases deliver value fast?

Attendees were looking for actionable steps and reality. They wanted to know the ways they could immediately begin to see AI providing efficiency and value. They wanted to know the ways other organizations, from the most modernized environments to the legacy systems, can quickly begin to see AI value.

How Navisite Helps

Ascend is familiar ground for Navisite, Part of Accenture, just like AI readiness is. The work that readies organizations – such as infrastructure modernization, cloud migration, Oracle upgrades, application modernization, and managed services across OCI, AWS, and Azure – is exactly what Navisite does every day.

But how we approach readiness is just as important. Many organizations assume AI requires a costly, disruptive overhaul before they can see any value. Navisite helps customers put AI to work in existing environments by prioritizing the modernizations steps that matter the most and phasing in the rest. With Navisite’s approach to readiness, organizations can capture value without the stress of a rip-and-replace project.

Looking to the Next Ascend

It’s no doubt that AI will continue to demand attention at events like Ascend. There’s little argument that it will be a critical theme at next year’s Ascend as well. But organizations that get the most from AI won’t necessarily be the ones with the flashiest tools. They’ll be the ones that did the groundwork: clean and accessible data, scalable infrastructure, and modern, well-integrated applications.

Wherever your organization is on that journey, the path forward starts with a clear picture of where you stand today. We’re here to help you with that.

Ready to map your route forward? Watch our on-demand webcast The Roadmap to AI Readiness for a practical framework to prepare your data, applications, and infrastructure for what’s next.

Contact us when you’re ready to get started!