AI Conferences You Can't Miss in 2026

If you're building anything with AI in 2026, you already know the landscape is moving fast. Models are improving, production patterns are solidifying, and the gap between experimentation and deployment is narrowing. The conferences below are where those patterns get shared, where the practitioners building AI systems at scale show up to talk about what's actually working, and where you can figure out which direction to take your own work.

This isn't about hype. It's about finding the specific events that match what you're building, learning from people who've already hit the problems you're about to encounter, and making connections with teams solving similar challenges. Here's what 2026 looks like.

2026 AI Conference Calendar

CES 2026

Date: January 6-10, 2026
Location: Las Vegas
Register: https://www.ces.tech/

CES 2026 is the year's flagship tech show, spotlighting AI-driven products and breakthroughs. CES convenes global brands, startups, and media to unveil new technologies across AI, robotics, digital health, mobility, and more. Expect major keynotes from leaders at AMD, Lenovo, and Caterpillar, immersive demos, curated show floor tours, and the CES Innovation Awards showcasing standout products. With scale proven by 142,000+ attendees, 4,500+ exhibitors, and 1,400 startups in Eureka Park (2025), CES is where partnerships form and next-gen AI solutions launch. If you're working on consumer-facing AI products or need to understand how AI is being integrated into hardware and edge devices, this is where you see it first.

World AI Cannes

Date: February 12-13, 2026
Location: Cannes, France
Register: https://worldaicannes.com/

WAICF 2026 in Cannes focuses on business AI, governance, next-gen tech, and health. The conference brings 10,000 attendees, 320+ speakers, and 220+ exhibitors for AI applied to business and society. Tracks span AI for Business (POCs, scaling), AI Governance (ethics, regulation), The Next AI Tech (LLMs, agentic AI, quantum, robotics), and a Health AI Summit. If you're working in regulated industries or need to understand the European perspective on AI deployment and governance, WAICF offers a different lens than US-centric events, with practical sessions on moving pilots to production at scale.

MIT Sloan Product, Tech & AI Conference

Date: February 13-14, 2026
Location: Samberg Conference Center, Cambridge, MA
Register: https://mitsloan.mit.edu/events/2026-02-13-mit-sloan-product-tech-and-ai-conference

The MIT Sloan conference connects product leaders, innovators, and professionals from top tech companies and high-growth startups through panel discussions, keynotes, and interactive sessions. Past speakers have included leaders from Microsoft, Google, Facebook, and Coursera, with a focus on bridging product thinking and AI capabilities. The student-led format keeps it grounded in practical challenges rather than vendor pitches. If you're a PM or technical leader trying to translate AI capabilities into actual product features, or if you're fighting the "how do we actually ship this" battle, you'll find your people here early in the year while roadmaps are still being finalized.

AI DevWorld

Date: February 18-20, 2026
Location: San Jose
Register: https://www.aidevworld.com/

AI DevWorld 2026 is a developer-focused AI conference with hands-on tracks and a hackathon. AI DevWorld (part of DeveloperWeek) gathers 2,500 attendees, 250 speakers, and 100 exhibitors. Programming spans three pillars: AI/ML Engineering (applied ML, NLP/bots, MLOps/AIOps, TensorFlow/PyTorch), Industry AI (enterprise, healthcare, finance, marketing, retail), and AI Strategy (ethics, governance, security, generative AI/LLMs). Expect workshops, keynotes, an expo, a multi-day hackathon, and startup alley, geared to software engineers and data scientists building production AI. If you're hands-on with code and want practical implementation patterns rather than high-level strategy, this delivers.

DeveloperWeek 2026

Date: February 18-20, 2026
Location: San Jose
Register: https://www.developerweek.com/

DeveloperWeek 2026 is a multi-track developer conference and expo with a major Gen AI focus. DeveloperWeek is the world's largest independent dev and engineering event, featuring a pro Workshop Day, two Conference and Expo days, a large hackathon, and awards. Programming spans core tracks like Gen AI/LLMs, APIs, DevOps, platform engineering, data engineering, and developer tools, alongside co-located conferences (AI DevWorld, ProductWorld, Cloud Native World, DevSec, Frontend). Expect 250+ speakers, 100+ sponsors/partners, and broad networking designed for engineers, architects, and technical leaders. If you're looking for a comprehensive view of the developer ecosystem with AI as one component of your stack, this gives you the full picture.

Gartner Data & Analytics Summit

Date: March 9-12, 2026
Location: Orlando, FL
Register: https://www.gartner.com/en/conferences/na/data-analytics-us

Gartner Data & Analytics Summit 2026 is a premier event for CDAOs and AI leaders. The summit delivers data-driven research, strategic validation, and networking across featured topics like AI/Gen AI and agentic systems, business value and ROI, governance (risk, privacy, ethics), data architecture and ecosystems, and leadership/org design. Attendees use the Conference Navigator to build agendas, join roundtables/workshops and schedule one-on-ones with 60+ Gartner experts, explore the Exhibit Showcase with 150+ solution providers, and access post-event materials to implement insights. If you need to build business cases or align executive stakeholders, Gartner's research-backed approach gives you the data and frameworks to make those conversations work.

Enterprise Connect

Date: March 10-13, 2026
Location: Las Vegas
Register: https://www.enterpriseconnect.com/

Enterprise Connect covers the full enterprise communications stack: voice, collaboration, CX, and cloud, with tracks on AI-powered solutions, hybrid workplace, next-gen CX platforms, and migration strategies. Expect keynotes (including Heather McGowan), deep-dive sessions, and a large expo, designed to deliver implementation-ready insights and peer networking for IT leaders and decision-makers. If you're integrating AI into enterprise communication systems or building AI-powered customer experience platforms, Enterprise Connect shows how established organizations are navigating these transitions in production environments.

SXSW

Date: March 12-21, 2026
Location: Austin
Register: https://www.sxsw.com/

SXSW's Tech & AI Track is part of the broader Innovation Conference with 10 tracks and formats spanning keynotes, featured sessions, panels, and workshops. Programming examines how AI and tech redefine industries, enable new business models, and drive next-gen breakthroughs, highlighting visionary speakers, advanced tooling, and state-of-the-art systems. Access requires Platinum or Innovation badges. SXSW brings a unique mix of tech, culture, and business perspectives. If you're thinking about how AI intersects with media, entertainment, or consumer behavior, or if you want to see where creative and technical communities converge, this offers a different angle than pure tech conferences.

NVIDIA GTC

Date: March 16-19, 2026
Location: San Jose
Register: https://www.nvidia.com/gtc/

NVIDIA GTC 2026 is an AI conference with workshops, keynotes, and a major expo. GTC returns to San Jose, featuring a Jensen Huang keynote, hands-on workshops and training (March 15), technical sessions, demos, and a large exhibitor showcase. Content spans agentic AI, accelerated computing, robotics, healthcare, customer experience, productivity automation, and developer tooling (CUDA, performance optimization, LLMs). At GTC 2025, NVIDIA confirmed the Blackwell Ultra upgrade, followed by the Vera Rubin architecture in 2026, and previewed Rubin Ultra for 2027 and Feynman architecture for 2028. If you're working on inference optimization, model deployment at scale, or anything touching AI infrastructure, this is where you understand what your 2027 stack could look like.

International Conference on Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence and Data Science (ICMLAIDS 2026)

Date: March 20-21, 2026
Location: TBA

ICMLAIDS 2026 is an academic conference focusing on machine learning, artificial intelligence, and data science research. The conference brings together researchers, academics, and practitioners to present and discuss cutting-edge work across ML algorithms, AI applications, and data science methodologies. If you're staying current on research trends or bridging academic and applied work, these conferences help you track what's moving from papers to production. Academic conferences often preview techniques that become industry standard 12-18 months later.

HumanX 2026

Date: April 6-9, 2026
Location: Moscone Center, San Francisco
Register: https://www.humanx.com/

HumanX 2026 focuses on practical AI execution: end-to-end system design, evals and observability, guardrails and governance, and moving pilots to production. Workshops and ROI labs cover agent/LLM evaluation, human-in-the-loop feedback, cost/performance tradeoffs, and vendor selection, so attendees leave with metrics, roadmaps, and next steps. This is where the C-suite shows up to figure out what AI means for organizations at the strategic level. If you're an AI PM who needs to speak executive language, or you're building business cases for AI initiatives, HumanX helps you understand how leadership thinks about these systems and what the organizational risks actually are.

AI Week

Date: April 20-26, 2026
Location: Virtual and in-person nationwide
Register: https://aiweek.org/

AI Week 2026 is a week-long U.S. festival of AI talks, workshops, and networking. AI Week, presented by AIScoop, unites 10,000 C-suite leaders and influencers across government, tech, and education through 100+ community events, interactive sessions, lightning talks, and nationwide meetups (virtual and in-person). Programming spotlights responsible AI, policy, public-sector use cases, and practical deployment, with 150 VIP speakers, partner-hosted forums, and city activations. If you're working on AI in government, education, or public sector contexts, or if you need to understand the policy landscape, AI Week brings those perspectives together with a nationwide reach.

AI Summit 2026

Date: April 21-22, 2026
Location: Madison, Wisconsin
Register: https://www.culturecon.com/ai-summit

CultureCon's AI Summit 2026 explores human-centered AI for the future of work. The inaugural summit focuses on using AI to enhance creativity, collaboration, and productivity while keeping people and culture at the core. Expect practical tools, leadership frameworks, and sessions on responsible adoption for HR, team leads, consultants, and innovators. Attendees receive a free Certificate in AI & Organizational Culture Leadership. If you're thinking about how AI changes team dynamics, workflows, and organizational culture rather than just technical implementation, this summit addresses the human side of AI adoption.

Google Cloud NEXT

Date: April 22-24, 2026
Location: Las Vegas
Register: https://cloud.withgoogle.com/next

Google Cloud NEXT hosts product news, sessions, and training. The event aggregates Google Cloud conference details and learning resources, including session agendas, workshops, demos, and user research programs. Content covers security, multicloud, sustainability, and case studies, with published Terms of Service and Code of Conduct. Use it to track upcoming Google Cloud events and access material on Vertex AI, Gemini integration, and Google's approach to AI infrastructure. If you're working in the Google Cloud ecosystem or evaluating cloud platforms for AI workloads, NEXT shows what's coming and how enterprises are using Google's AI stack in production.

ODSC AI East 2026 / Gen AI X Summit

Date: April 28-30, 2026
Location: Boston (Hynes Convention Center and BCEC)
Register: https://odsc.com/boston/

ODSC AI East 2026 centers on GenAI strategy, agentic AI, and hands-on training. ODSC's Gen AI X Summit and AI Expo feature keynotes, panels, and workshops on LLMs/RAG, agentic AI and workflow automation, AI engineering/MLOps, and the future of work, plus roundtables, startup showcases, and networking. Tracks include the AI Mini-Bootcamp and technical sessions for builders and leaders. Passes range from free Expo access to discounted 1- and 3-day Business passes under "First 100" pricing. If you're on the East Coast and want comprehensive technical training without flying to California, ODSC delivers hands-on sessions across the full AI engineering stack.

AI Agent Conference

Date: May 4-5, 2026
Location: New York
Register: https://www.aiagentconference.com/

AI Agent Conference 2026 is a two-day summit on autonomous, agentic AI for enterprises. This event convenes executives, AI engineers, product leaders, founders, and investors to explore agent architectures, enterprise automation, and real-world deployments. Expect keynotes, panels, and showcases featuring leaders previously from Citi, Eli Lilly, Anyscale, and Bloomberg, with attendees across Fortune 500 and top tech firms. Calls are open for talks and sponsorships. If you're building agent-based systems or trying to understand how autonomous AI fits into enterprise workflows, this conference focuses specifically on that architecture pattern with case studies from production deployments.

IBM Think 2026

Date: May 4-7, 2026
Location: Thomas M. Menino Convention and Exhibition Center, Boston
Register: https://www.ibm.com/events/think

IBM Think takes place in Boston's Seaport District, featuring industry, business, and tech pioneers sharing actionable insights and AI expertise, packed with strategies to maximize investment in AI and emerging technologies. Past attendees have praised the conference for its very insightful keynotes and being a great forum to see new solutions. The conference focuses heavily on enterprise AI adoption, hybrid cloud strategies, and agentic AI frameworks, with an exclusive, invitation-only program for senior executives. If you're working in enterprise environments or dealing with complex integration challenges and legacy system modernization, Think addresses those specific pain points with an enterprise lens.

Data Council AI

Date: May 12-14, 2026
Location: San Francisco
Register: https://www.datacouncil.ai/data-council-2026

Data Council AI (also known as AI Council) is the world's largest vendor-neutral, community-driven AI, data engineering, and analytics conference. The technical conference built by engineers, for engineers, brings 2,000+ practitioners building real AI and data systems for 3 full days of deep-dives, battle-tested architectures, and production insights in San Francisco. Past speakers include creators of DuckDB, leaders from ServiceNow, LinkedIn, and Capital One, focusing on engineers and scientists building production systems and architects handling billion-parameter inference. Expect rapid-fire lightning talks, speaker office hours, and a strong emphasis on no-bullshit technical content. If you're building the data infrastructure and engineering systems that AI depends on, Data Council connects you with the people who built the tools you use every day.

AI & Big Data Expo NA

Date: May 18-19, 2026
Location: San Jose
Register: https://www.ai-expo.net/northamerica/

AI & Big Data Expo North America 2026 spotlights GenAI, enterprise AI, and ROI. The expo (part of TechEx North America) features co-located tracks on agentic/autonomous AI, data platforms, governance and trust, and an AI Developer Conference moving prototypes to production. Expect 250+ speakers, 200+ exhibitors, startup showcases, and networking across eight tech events. The expo format means you can see a wide range of vendors and solutions in a compressed timeframe, useful if you're in vendor evaluation mode or need to understand what tools are available across the AI stack.

AI DevSummit

Date: May 27-28, 2026 (with online edition June 2-3)
Location: South San Francisco
Register: https://www.aidevworld.com/devsummit/

AI DevSummit 2026 is a developer-first conference on building and shipping AI systems. Running May 27-28 in South San Francisco with a follow-on online edition June 2-3, AI DevSummit gathers engineers and data scientists for tracks on AI leadership, ML architectures, frameworks/tools, data ops, productizing AI, case studies, and security/ethics/governance. Expect sessions on agents, LLMs, GenAI, integration strategy, and code generation, plus keynotes, an expo, and community programs. Scale-friendly programming is aimed at practical implementation and enterprise impact, with both in-person and virtual options to accommodate different schedules and budgets.

AI Con USA

Date: June 7-10, 2026
Location: Seattle
Register: https://aiconusa.com/

AI Con USA 2026 is a hybrid conference for real-world AI, strategy, and MLOps. AI Con USA covers Generative AI, LLMs, RAG, agentic AI, and the software development impacts of AI, with keynotes, concurrent sessions, tutorials, and pre-conference training. The program includes a Leadership Summit, networking events, an expo of tools and solutions, and virtual participation options. Seattle's tech ecosystem means you're likely to meet engineers from Amazon, Microsoft, and the region's AI startups, giving you a Pacific Northwest perspective on AI development.

Data + AI Summit

Date: June 15-18, 2026
Location: Moscone Center, San Francisco
Register: https://www.databricks.com/dataaisummit

Data + AI Summit 2026 is Databricks' flagship event on data, AI, and governance. The summit features 700+ sessions across data intelligence, warehousing, analytics/BI, governance, and applied AI, plus keynotes from leaders spanning Databricks, big tech, and enterprise. Past speakers have included Ali Ghodsi, Jamie Dimon, Satya Nadella, Dario Amodei, and Thomas Kurian. Expect real-world case studies from organizations like Walmart, Rivian, T-Mobile, Mastercard, and PepsiCo, with deep dives into platforms like Unity Catalog. If you're responsible for the data infrastructure that AI depends on, or if you're fighting data quality issues, governance problems, or scaling challenges, this is where those patterns get shared at massive scale.

PlatformCon 2026

Date: June 22-26, 2026
Location: NYC (with virtual access and Live Days in London and Paris)
Register: https://platformcon.com/

PlatformCon 2026 is a global platform engineering event with virtual access and live days. PlatformCon brings 50,000+ practitioners, 200+ speakers, and 300+ sessions across five days. Expect panels by persona and industry, curated networking, hands-on workshops, and two in-person Live Days in London and New York (plus Paris content). Speakers include leaders like Kelsey Hightower, Gregor Hohpe, and Camille Fournier. If you're building internal platforms that support AI/ML workloads, or if you're thinking about developer experience and infrastructure abstraction, PlatformCon addresses those concerns with a global community.

AI Engineer World's Fair 2026

Date: June 30-July 2, 2026
Location: Moscone Center, San Francisco
Register: https://www.ai.engineer/worldsfair

AI Engineer World's Fair 2026 is the largest technical AI conference in the world, with 20 tracks, 250 speakers, 100 expo partners, and 6,000 AI Engineers, founders, and VPs of AI. The conference exists to serve three specific personas: the generalist software engineer onboarding to AI, the shipped-to-production AI engineer, and VPs of AI. Past events have shaped ideas and methods that the rest of the world catches up to the following year, with deep technical treatment of agent reliability, evals, RAG implementations, and production patterns. If you're writing code that calls LLMs or building AI-native applications, this is your conference with people showing actual code and sharing what broke in production.

Ai4 2026

Date: August 4-6, 2026
Location: The Venetian, Las Vegas
Register: https://ai4.io/

Ai4 2026 is projected to host 12,000 attendees, 1,000 speakers, and 400 exhibitors across nearly 1 million square feet of space, nearly doubling its scale from previous years. The 2026 program features 20 new industry and technical tracks highlighting emerging AI use cases across financial services, healthcare, cybersecurity, retail, manufacturing, energy, transportation, national security, insurance, media, and more. Organizations expected to participate include Google, Amazon, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Meta, Databricks, Capital One, Walmart, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, J.P. Morgan, Lockheed Martin, NASA, Mayo Clinic, Comcast, and Samsung. Super early registration offers a 56% discount off final ticket prices through February 5, 2026. If you need to understand how AI is being deployed in specific industries with real implementations and results, Ai4 gives you those case studies at scale.

ALIGN AI Summit SF

Date: August 19, 2026
Location: San Francisco (McCormick & Kuleto's, Ghirardelli Square)
Register: https://www.alignaisummit.com/

ALIGN AI Executive Summit is invite-only for senior data and AI leaders. Hosted in San Francisco, ALIGN AI gathers 150+ executives for keynotes, expert panels, and invite-only roundtables on agentic AI, RAG, enterprise-grade AI, data governance, observability, infrastructure at scale, and measuring AI ROI. Pass options include a limited free application for qualified leaders or a $2,499 all-access registration. The intimate format means deeper conversations than you'd get at a massive conference. If you're at the VP or director level and need peer insights from other AI leaders navigating similar organizational challenges, ALIGN focuses on executive-level concerns.

The AI Enterprise Conference

Date: September 2, 2026
Location: New York
Register: https://www.datascienceconnect.com/ai-enterprise

The AI Enterprise Conference spotlights scalable, governed enterprise AI. Hosted by Data Science Connect, this in-person event convenes Fortune 500 data and AI executives for keynotes, panels, and networking focused on operationalizing AI with measurable ROI. Themes include agentic AI, RAG, enterprise-grade architectures, governance, observability, and infrastructure at scale. Passes include an early-bird All-Access and a limited, qualified, complimentary option. If you're working in large enterprises where governance, compliance, and risk management are critical constraints, this conference addresses how to move fast within those boundaries.

AI Conference 2026

Date: September 30-October 1, 2026
Location: San Francisco (Pier 48, Mission Rock)
Register: https://ai.wtf/

The AI Conference 2026 is a vendor-neutral, two-day event covering AGI, LLMs, agents, and applied AI. The conference features keynotes, expert sessions, industry panels, mixers, and a Startup Showdown. Tracks span AI Frontiers, AI Developers, AI Strategy, and Applied AI, with topics like multimodal models, agentic workflows, MLOps/LLMOps, ethics and alignment, infrastructure, and real-world use cases across healthcare, retail, and more. Past speakers include leaders from Google DeepMind, AWS, Uber, Meta, and academia. If you want broad coverage of the AI landscape with a vendor-neutral lens late in the year, this conference gives you a comprehensive snapshot of where the field stands.

Closing Thoughts

AI conferences in 2026 serve a practical purpose: they help you solve specific problems faster. You meet people who've debugged issues you're facing. You see production systems that actually work. You learn which tools handle scale and which ones don't. The best part about 2026 is that enough teams have now shipped AI to production that the conversations are getting real. Less speculation, more "here's what broke and how we fixed it." That's what makes these events worth your time.

Happy building!