For the past decade, CIO conversations have focused on growth: more data, more insight, more AI, more monetisation. Success has been measured by how much we can capture, store, and exploit. But few are asking the opposite question: how do we intentionally forget? Securely, ethically, and at scale. Yet this is becoming one of the biggest and least developed challenges in modern IT.

The problem is that organisations have lost control of where data lives. It no longer sits neatly in databases but is spread across AI models, logs, backups, derived datasets, and third party ecosystems. Meanwhile, regulation is tightening, from the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) to emerging AI governance. The "right to be forgotten" sounds straightforward, but true and provable data erasure remains technically difficult.

At the same time, the risk is changing. The focus is no longer just data loss, but data persistence. Old backups, forgotten datasets, and legacy archives create hidden vulnerabilities, turning what was once considered prudent retention into an invisible liability.

This is no longer just a technical issue. It is a boardroom priority. CFOs are questioning indefinite data retention, regulators expect evidence of deletion, and sustainability agendas are exposing the environmental cost of storing unused data.

This session challenges CIOs to rethink their role. The future is not just about driving data growth, but controlling the entire data lifecycle: knowing what to keep, what to use, and what to let go. The next frontier of leadership is designing for intentional data decay, ensuring information is retained only while it creates value and removed before it becomes a liability.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    In that context, the real provocation for this discussion is simple: what if the organisations that outperform over the next decade are not those that know the most, but those that are best at forgetting deliberately, responsibly, and provably?