12 AI Conferences to Uplevel Your Skills in 2026
Participation in AI conferences is instrumental in keeping up with the swift pace of advancements in artificial intelligence. These events provide a platform for experts to disseminate knowledge through the lens of their real-world applications, enriching the learning experience significantly.
Engaging in networking opportunities with peers and gleaning insights from their experiences can uplevel your teams and organization.
The innovations revealed at these conferences are astounding, and individuals aiming to deepen their comprehension, integrate AI into their operational frameworks, or stay informed on emerging trends and novel technologies should add these AI conferences to their list.
Best AI Conferences in 2026 Shortlist
Here's a shortlist of the best AI Conferences I think are worth attending in 2026:
- AAAI Conference - Singapore (January 20-27, 2026)
- AI and Big Data Expo - Multiple locations and dates
- Data Science Salon - Austin, TX, USA (February 18-19, 2026)
- Big Data & AI World - London, UK (March 4-5, 2026)
- NVIDIA GTC - San Jose, CA, USA (March 16-19, 2026)
- Generative AI Summit - London, UK (April 13-15, 2026)
- Embedded Vision Summit - Santa Clara, CA, USA (May 11-13, 2026)
- Canadian AI 2026 - Vancouver, BC, Canada (May 25-29, 2026)
- IJCAI-ECAI 2026 - Bremen, Germany (August 15-21, 2026)
- AI Infra Summit - Santa Clara, CA, USA (September 15-17, 2026)
- AI Conference - San Francisco, CA, USA (September 30-October 1, 2026)
- DataConnect Conference - Columbus, OH, USA (October 29-30, 2026)
12 Best AI Conferences of 2026
Below are my summaries of the best AI Conferences that made it onto my shortlist. My reviews offer a look at each event’s dates, location, pricing, and unique offering.
1. AAAI Conference - Singapore (January 20-27, 2026)
- Dates: January 20-27, 2026
- Location: Singapore EXPO
- Pricing: Starts at $350
- Social Media: Facebook, LinkedIn
The AAAI Conference is the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI)'s flagship annual gathering, focused on artificial intelligence research. It promotes theoretical and applied AI research and fosters scientific exchange among researchers, students, and engineers across disciplines.
Why attend? This event will host diverse sessions on natural language processing (NLP), dialogue systems, and human–AI interaction. Top academics, industry researchers, and students will attend for an early look into emerging topics affecting businesses and talks on deployment, systems, and applications.
2. AI and Big Data Expo - Multiple locations and dates
- Dates: Multiple dates (see table below)
- Location: Multiple locations (see table below)
- Pricing: Varied (see table below)
- Social Media: Facebook, LinkedIn, X
| Locations | Dates | Pricing |
| London, UK | February 4-5, 2026 | Starts from £499 + VAT |
| California, USA | May 18-19, 2026 | Starts from $399 |
| Amsterdam, Netherlands | October 20-21, 2026 | TBA |
Put on by TechEx, 2026 will see three seperate AI and Big Data Expos. These are major events for tech professionals and data scientists, focusing on AI strategy, practical skills, and ethical AI. These expos combine practical business content, vendor engagement, and networking opportunities across the industry.
Why attend? These events will have a comprehensive coverage of the latest developments in AI, machine learning, security, and IoT. They feature keynote addresses, panel discussions, and an exhibition floor covering edge computing, automation, data management, and infrastructure. You'll get strategic insights into the AI and practical use cases, showing how organizations are implementing these technologies.
Notable event speakers include Allison Sol, VP of Software Engineering at Capital One; Tanping Wang, Senior Director of ML and AI Development at Visa; and Venkatesh Shivanna, Senior Technical Director of Data & AI Engineering at EA.
3. Data Science Salon - Austin, TX, USA (February 18-19, 2026)
- Dates: February 18-19, 2026
- Location: Netsuite Oracle’s HQ, Austin, TX
- Pricing: Starts at $500
- Social Media: LinkedIn
The Data Science Salon is a two-day conference focused on applied data science, machine learning (ML), and generative AI in the enterprise business space. It's a platform for industry leaders and engineers to share use cases, technical talks, workshops, and panels.
Why attend? The program will emphasize how organizations are using AI/ML in production, offering a dedicated track for AI/ML startups, and a start-up pitch showcase with awards. It's also available on-demand, if you can't make it in-person.
You and your team will hear specific case studies in AI/ML deployment and generative AI solutions. Meanwhile, the start-up discovery gives a chance to engage with emerging companies—or promote your own!
4. Big Data & AI World - London, UK (March 4-5, 2026)
- Dates: March 4-5, 2026
- Location: ExCeL London
- Pricing: TBA
- Social Media: Facebook, LinkedIn, X
The Big Data & AI World is an in-person, large-scale conference and exhibition focused on big data, analytics, artificial intelligence, and data infrastructure. It's a great event for agencies or consultancies to explore emerging technologies, discover vendor/partner solutions, and gain cross-industry insights.
Why attend? The event will feature keynote addresses, panel discussions, and sessions on data engineering, machine learning deployment, and cloud-native data platforms.
It will combine high-level strategy (what’s next in data and AI) and practical implementation (how organizations are deploying it). It will also offer live demos, workshops, and networking zones for enterprise data teams and innovators.
5. NVIDIA GTC - San Jose, CA, USA (March 16-19, 2026)
NVIDIA GTC is a global event organised by NVIDIA for developers, researchers, engineers, technologists, and business thought leaders. The event focuses on AI, deep learning, and high-performance computing, drawing professionals from around the globe.
Why attend? The event will cover technical content (skills, tools, platforms) and offer signals for where the industry is headed in infrastructure, business models, and applications.
It will offer hundreds of sessions, workshops, hands-on training, live demos, and exhibits. It’s a place to discover new capabilities, see what leading-edge hardware/software will enable, and get ahead of trends.
6. Generative AI Summit - London, UK (April 13-15, 2026)
- Dates: April 13-15, 2026
- Location: Novotel London West, London
- Pricing: Starts at £799 + VAT
- Social Media: LinkedIn
The Generative AI Summit is a focused event for professionals exploring generative AI applications in business. It delivers a strong practitioner-led format oriented toward business outcomes, real-world deployments and enterprise AI maturity.
Why attend? The summit will offer discussions on AI strategies and hands-on workshops, making it ideal for those looking to integrate AI into their business practices. It will showcase sectors spanning technology, finance, healthcare, media, and more.
There will also be interactive workshops, live demos, and breakout sessions on generative AI security, scaling agentic systems, and integrating AI into business workflows.
7. Embedded Vision Summit - Santa Clara, CA, USA (May 11-13, 2026)
- Dates: May 11-13, 2026
- Location: Santa Clara Convention Center
- Pricing: TBA
- Social Media: LinkedIn, X
The Embedded Vision Summit is an annual conference put on by Edge AI and Vision Alliance. It's dedicated to practical, deployable computer vision and edge-AI technologies.
This event is helpful for product creators integrating perceptual intelligence into embedded systems, mobile devices, cloud-edge solutions, robotics and more.
Why attend? The program will feature 80+ sessions in multiple tracks, including vision algorithms and business, and over 70 exhibitors plus live demos. It will offer practical case studies of vision/AI in action, the latest tools, and the chance to connect with others facing the same technical and business challenges. The summit focuses on actionable engineering and product applications rather than purely theoretical research.
8. Canadian AI 2026 - Vancouver, BC, Canada (May 25-29, 2026)
- Dates: May 25-29, 2026
- Location: Simon Fraser University
- Pricing: TBA
- Social Media: LinkedIn
The Canadian AI 2026 conference is an event for AI researchers and practitioners, organized by the Canadian Artificial Intelligence Association. It offers a platform for sharing the latest AI research and developments and discussing original work in artificial intelligence.
Why attend? The conference brings together academic researchers, practitioners, and NGOs focusing on intelligent systems in Canada. Its Call for Papers will cover various topics, including agent systems and ethics in AI. There will also be a dedicated Graduate Student Symposium as part of the event structure, offering full participation for early-career researchers.
9. IJCAI-ECAI 2026 - Bremen, Germany (August 15-21, 2026)
- Dates: August 15-21, 2026
- Location: Bremen, Germany
- Pricing: TBA
IJCAI-ECAI 2026 is a prestigious joint conference for AI professionals, organized by the International Joint Conferences on Artificial Intelligence. It features a comprehensive program with a main track of peer-reviewed papers, making it a must-attend for researchers and industry leaders.
Why attend? This international conference will cover AI research and applications through keynote speeches, paper presentations, workshops and tutorials. You'll get to engage with pioneering practitioners in AI and discover cutting-edge AI research and methodologies. There will be discussions on both theoretical foundations and applied problems in AI.
10. AI Infra Summit - Santa Clara, CA, USA (September 15-17, 2026)
- Dates: September 15-17, 2026
- Location: Santa Clara Convention Center, California
- Pricing: TBA
- Social Media: LinkedIn
The AI Infra Summit is a specialized conference focused on the infrastructure that supports AI technologies. It's for engineers, architects, and IT professionals looking to deepen their understanding of AI infrastructure.
Notable key speakers include Ian Buck, VP of Hyperscale and High-Performance Computing at NVIDIA; Berta Rodriguez-Hervas, Chief AI and Analytics Officer at Pfizer; and Sam Hamilton, SVP, Head of Data & AI at Visa.
Why attend? The summit offers insights into the underlying technology stack and exposure to infrastructure partnerships that can influence client-tech roadmaps. It will also include a stage where selected startups and new technologies pitch solutions and perform live demos before investors and infrastructure decision-makers. There’s also the AI Data Center, a new track that focuses on sustainable infrastructure.
11. AI Conference - San Francisco, CA, USA (September 30-October 1, 2026)
- Dates: September 30-October 1, 2026
- Location: Pier 48, San Francisco, CA
- Pricing: TBA
- Social Media: Facebook, LinkedIn
The AI Conference in San Francisco is an event for AI professionals, offering comprehensive sessions on AI's latest trends and technologies. Speakers from Salesforce, Uber, AWS, and other notable organizations have been announced for 2026. One attendee from a past year shared:
"What an amazing few days at The AI Conference in San Francisco! As an AI enthusiast, it was incredible to hear from so many leading experts pushing the boundaries of generative AI."
Why attend? The event will feature breakthrough innovations, including multimodal models, open-source and compact models, and AI safety and governance. It will discuss hands-on tools and techniques, and practical case studies in AI applications in different industries. There will also be hands-on sessions tackling prompt engineering, fine-tuning, and automation workflows.
12. DataConnect Conference - Columbus, OH, USA (October 29-30, 2026)
- Dates: October 29-30, 2026
- Location: The Ohioan Hotel & Event Center, Columbus, Ohio, USA
- Pricing: Starts at $525 (virtual passes for $50)
- Social Media: LinkedIn
The DataConnect Conference is organized by Women in Analytics and focuses on data analytics, data science, and AI. It is community/diversity-focused and is perfect for people looking to network with underrepresented and new groups in data roles.
Why attend? The event will feature multiple tracks so you can pick sessions tailored for your level (technical or strategic) and interest area. There will be keynote presentations, panel discussions, and workshops on data, analytics, machine learning, and AI. It will also host a start-up showcase and recruitment sessions for job seekers and founders.
What's Next?
Boost your SaaS growth and leadership skills. Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest insights from CTOs and aspiring tech leaders. We'll help you scale smarter and lead stronger with guides, resources, and strategies from top experts.
