CTO Network - State of Agents 2026 breakfast
Agents write production code. They operate browsers, terminals and APIs. They run workflows for hours, coordinate with other agents and increasingly get access to systems we used to reserve for humans.
They also get prompt-injected, leak data, find and exploit vulnerabilities, go off-script and occasionally make their creators wonder whether giving an LLM a shell was such a brilliant idea. 😱
Meanwhile, serious AI researchers are putting non-zero odds on this technology ending very badly for humanity.
So yeah. Where the hell are we with agents in 2026? This breakfast is our attempt to find out.
We’re putting a panel of people actually building with agents on stage and ‘grilling’ them. Software factories. Agent swarms. Customer-facing agents. GTM. Memory. MCP. Permissions. Evals. Security. Autonomy.
The horror stories, the stuff that genuinely works, and the things they absolutely would not let an agent touch yet.
🎙️ Opening panel: State of Agents 2026
Tjadi Peeters - Billy Grace
Dylan Moerland - Everday
Marijse van den Berg - Databricks
Hosted by Michael van Lier - Builders
No agent 101. No polished demos. Bring your hardest question.
🧠 Then, into the roundtables
After the panel we split into three tables, three topics, two rounds. Small groups of 10–15. Pick the two conversations you care about most.
🏭 The autonomous software factory How close are we actually to software building software?
💀 Giving agents the keys Shell access. Browsers. APIs. Production credentials. Customer data. Money.
🤝 Agents leave engineering Where are customer-facing agents already good enough? What needs to happen before you let one take action rather than just answer questions? And who owns the consequences when it gets something wrong?
What to expect
Breakfast. Caffeine. Real arguments. A room of CTOs and engineering leaders comparing what they're actually building, what they're willing to put into production and what they've already learned the hard way.
Why it matters
Six months is now enough time for an entire agent stack to look outdated. The models change. The harnesses change. The amount of autonomy we're comfortable giving them changes. This morning is about figuring out where that line actually sits right now.
Thursday, October 1st · 8:30–12:00
Databricks Amsterdam. RSVP to join. Limited seats. Invitation only.
Hosted in partnership with Databricks, Billy Grace and Fortino Ventures.