JNUC 2026 Day 2 recap

Day 2 kept the momentum going in Kansas City, with the Education State of the Union headlining a full day of breakouts on AI governance, third-party app management and more. Blueprints and third-party app management led the pack in attendance; AI and agentic admin workflows showed up across several sessions, and the night ended at CPKC Stadium for the Jamf Nation Party.

In case you missed it

Jamf's Suraj Mohandas opened the EDU State of the Union by naming the moment school IT is in: an era of accountability, where the question has shifted from simply putting devices in classrooms to proving those devices improve learning outcomes. The session laid out three interconnected moves for getting there:

1. Identity that removes friction from every login
2. Device management that goes beyond MDM
3. Digital governance that ties it all together

The session also touched on new PSSO enhancements coming with macOS 27 and the shift from measuring screen time to measuring screen value.

Day 2 themes

• Blueprints and third-party app management led the day. The clearest theme of Day 2 was built around blueprints or third-party app deployment. They appeared in three of the top five sessions.
• AI and agentic admin workflows had broad, distributed interest. Two of the top ten sessions showed this theme spread across multiple sessions rather than concentrating on one.
• Admin fundamentals drew strong crowds. With two sessions landing in the top 10, proof that back-to-basics content still resonates alongside the more advanced material.
• The Education State of the Union set the tone for the day. Beyond the breakouts, EDU SOTU made the case for going beyond MDM with identity, device management and digital governance working together, setting screen value as a measurable metric from screen time.

Top attended sessions

1. App Installers, Reimagined: Third-Party Apps in Blueprints. Jamf's Marko Heijnen and Przemek Słota introduced a rebuilt approach to third-party app management inside blueprints, walking through how admins can browse the app catalog, add apps to a blueprint, and keep them automatically up to date with full control over install timing.
2. Tips and Tricks from the Jamf Engineers. Jamf's JK Krisko, Ant Darlow, Luke Allen and Rob Potvin packed the session with practical, immediately actionable tips from the Solutions Engineering team, giving every admin in the room something they could try the same day.
3. Practical Guide to Blueprints: One Year in Production. Jamf's Michael Managhan and Jakub Talaš were joined by Brewster Academy's Chris Hafner for an honest, one-year retrospective on blueprints in production, comparing notes on software update workflows, privacy controls and the reality of running legacy profiles alongside modern management.
4. DDM OS Reminder. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' Dan Snelson introduced an MDM-agnostic, “set-it-and-forget-it” approach to end-user messaging for Apple's DDM-enforced macOS update deadlines.
5. Automating Third Party Patching with App Auto Patch and Jamf. Zillow's Andrew Spokes and Lululemon's Robert Schroeder showed how App Auto Patch automates discovery, version comparison and deployment for third-party apps, giving admins a clear, scalable patching strategy.
6. 10 More Things New Jamf Pro Admins Should Know. Jamf's William Smith followed up his JNUC 2022 session with a fresh round of hints and recommendations collected from the Services team's years working with new customers, aimed at admins who are new to Apple management or just new to Jamf.
7. The State of State Management. Jamf's Katie English took attendees deep into the technical differences between legacy MDM and DDM, explaining Jamf's implementation through blueprints, platform APIs and updated inventory, including everything new in the OS 27 releases.
8. From Shadow IT to Shadow AI: Govern AI Tools with Jamf. Jamf's Vincent Bonnin walked through a practical framework for detecting and governing AI agents and coding assistants across a Jamf-managed Mac fleet, including a reusable detection-to-remediation pipeline and content filtering strategies for browser-based AI.
9. Productive from the Start: Closing the Gap in Mac Onboarding. Jamf's Mischa van der Bent tackled the overlooked gap between enrollment and true productivity — the first-login moment — showing how Jamf Setup Manager and Setup Checklist close it with a guided, profile-configured experience that requires no scripting.
10. The AI-Empowered Jamf Admin: From Scripts to Agents. Jamf's Rob Potvin and Daniel MacLaughlin showed how AI is changing what one admin can do, demoing an MCP server that lets an AI agent run Jamf workflows natively on macOS, natural language queries against the Jamf Pro API and AI-assisted health scoring that flags at-risk devices before a ticket gets filed.

Quotable moments

At the Education State of the Union, Jamf's Mat Pullen drew a line between two ways of measuring impact:

"Screen time tells you a number. Screen value tells you what that number is worth."

Mohandas grounded the whole session in a simple idea: the real impact of Jamf's work isn't felt in policies or blueprints; it shows up when a teacher finds a new way to inspire a lesson, or a student rushes home excited to show what they've learned. As he put it:

"What we do with technology matters."

Last night: Jamf Nation Party at CPKC Stadium

On Thursday night, the Jamf Nation Party took over CPKC Stadium for two hours of live music, great food and even better company. Attendees street-carred and bussed in from downtown, badges still on, ready to catch up with old friends and meet new ones. The band on stage, Fast Times, had a familiar face behind the mic: a fellow Jamf customer, proving talent in Jamf Nation isn't limited to IT.

What's up next

Before we say goodbye to Kansas City, Day 3 of the conference still offers plenty to learn. From a final lineup of sessions to the hands-on Braindates – there's something for everyone before wrapping up JNUC 2026.

So, if you haven’t checked either (or both) of those out, there’s still time to grab yourself a slot.