Engage 2026
In April, the Oval team attended Engage 2026, a key event for the HCL Notes and Domino community. This year’s conference made one thing clear: Domino is evolving quickly - with AI and data sovereignty at its core.
A standout moment for us was our very own Adam Foster presenting his session on AI-powered helpdesk solutions using Domino IQ.
Turning AI into practical outcomes
Adam's session focused on how organisations can enhance support services by embedding AI directly into a Domino helpdesk application.
Using Domino IQ - HCL’s on-premise AI solution powered by local LLMs - he demonstrated how businesses can:
Deliver faster, more accurate support responses
Reduce resolution times and downtime
Maintain full control over sensitive data
The key point was simple: AI can deliver real operational value without relying on external cloud services.
It was a strong example of how AI is already being applied in practical, business-focused ways - and a great reflection of the work we've been doing at Oval.
Domino's general AI direction
Across the conference, the broader AI message aligned closely with this approach.
There's a clear shift toward sovereign AI - keeping data, processing, and intelligence within your own environment. This is ever more important given the legal and regulatory implications of using externally hosted platforms, within an increasingly volatile geopolitical world.
Domino IQ plays a key role here, enabling organisations to adopt AI while retaining control over their data estate - all with minimal work. HCL presented a new sidebar in the Notes client with full context awareness of the current application, providing responses relevant to the data within it.
Introducing Leona: Agentic AI for Domino
Another major development was Leona, HCL's new agentic AI platform.
Leona takes things a step further - enabling users to build Domino applications from natural language prompts, working directly with native Designer elements. Rather than sitting on top of Domino, it's deeply integrated into the platform itself.
The result is faster development, reduced complexity, and a fundamentally different way of creating applications. This was demonstrated live, when HCL's Jason Roy Gary created a fully web-enabled dashboard application with SMS texting capabilities - all using native Domino design elements, and from a single prompt in Leona.
What this means for businesses
The direction is clear - Domino is positioning itself as a platform that combines:
AI capability (Domino IQ)
Automation and development acceleration (Leona)
Data sovereignty and control
For organisations, this means being able to innovate with AI without compromising on security, compliance, or ownership of data.
Looking ahead
Engage 2026 reinforced our confidence in where Domino is heading - and our role within that journey.
Seeing Adam present was a proud moment for the team, and a strong example of how we're contributing to the community as well as learning from it.
Most importantly, it highlighted a shift in HCL thinking that's becoming impossible to ignore: AI adoption isn’t just about capability - it’s about control. That is exactly where Domino is focusing its future.
