Top AI Conferences in 2026: In-Person and Virtual Events

Between general AI conferences and more industry-specific events, there are literally hundreds of opportunities to hear from genuine leaders within the field. These events can give you up-to-date tips on how to use AI to gain a real advantage over competitors.

Not only that, but AI conferences present valuable networking opportunities. You might meet a perfect hire for a job opening or hear from someone who is putting AI to work in a way that would be invaluable for your business.

With virtual and in-person events available around the world, there has never been a better time to attend an AI conference.

Here are some of the top events I’m looking out for in 2026.

Upcoming In-Person AI Conferences

AI and Big Data Expo

Kicking off the new year, you can attend the AI and Big Data Expo in London from February 4-5, 2026.

There will be more than 200 speakers in total. Representatives from ING, AXA, Vodafone, Mastercard and more are already lined up.

More than 150 exhibitors will also be demonstrating their newest AI products. On top of that, there is an AI startup area, where new businesses can meet with potential investors.

Tickets cost £999 (around $1,342) plus tax, although you may be able to get a discount by buying in advance. There’s also a free pass, which grants access to the event app and certain free tracks.

Global AI Show

The Global AI Show will be held from February 9-10 in Riyadh. More than 10,000 attendees are expected, along with 250+ speakers and 200+ exhibitors.

Keynote addresses include talks on virtual health and AI ethics. Other topics to be covered include AI processors, brain machine interfaces, quantum computing, and AI in cybersecurity. 

Unlike some other events on my list, tickets to this event are available for free. However, you can pay to access delegate and VIP benefits, with the delegate package currently available for $499 and the VIP pass discounted to $1,699.

NVIDIA GTC AI Conference

NVIDIA is a key pillar in the AI ecosystem. Its GTC Conference is therefore highly respected: this year, it will be in San Jose from March 16-19.

There will be a keynote address from Jensen Huang. Other industry leaders will also host talks and panels.

Access to all 4 days of the conference costs $2,172 at an Early Bird rate, or you can attend a single day for $1,083. There are also add-ons for workshops and training labs, or you can select virtual attendance for free.

HumanX

HumanX is being held in San Francisco from April 6-9, 2026. It brands itself as the #1 AI conference.

The conference is broken into five tracks: builders, command desk, control room, customer engine, and ecosystem. Between them, there’s something for anyone looking to learn more about how they can make the most of AI.

It’s a strong slate of speakers, with senior figures from Amazon, Mercedes Benz, Cisco, Diageo, Salesforce, and LinkedIn in attendance, to name a few. Over 6500 attendees are expected, with 60% holding the title of VP or higher.

The All Access Pass is currently on sale for $2,650. Rates will increase as the event gets closer, up to $3,995.

As well as Early Bird discounts, there are preferential rates for certain groups. Media and buyers can attend for free, qualifying startups pay $950, and investor passes cost $2,650 right up until the event begins.

AI Con

AI Con is taking place in Seattle from June 7-12, 2026. There will be more than 50 talks, with a mix of keynotes, sessions, and tutorials.

The program of speakers is yet to be released, but some of the general themes have been revealed. LLMs, AIOps and MLOps, AI application development, and data strategy will all be on the agenda.

Tickets are eligible for Super Early Bird savings until April 10, with the cheapest pass (2 days) costing $1,795. Access to the full 5 days currently costs $2,945.

The previous edition of the conference featured speakers from Google, Microsoft, AWS, and Yahoo News.

AI Summit London

The AI Summit will hold its 10th annual event next year. It will take place in London from June 10-11, 2026.

Ticket sales aren’t open yet, but you can register interest. You can also buy the 2025 AI Summit conference videos on demand for £599 (roughly $817) plus tax.

Last year’s conference included speakers from Reuters, Vodafone, Barclays, HP, and KPMG. Themes included sustainable innovation, data excellence, and startup/investor.

AI World Congress

The AI World Congress is packed full of AI industry heavyweights. It’s taking place in London from June 23-24.

Speakers include Tejas Joshi, the CTO of Data Platform and AI at Oracle, and Benjamin Summerfield, AI Delivery Leader at IBM. There will also be representatives from Microsoft, McKinsey, and more.

Keynote topics include scaling AI with MLOps, autonomous AI, and using AI for faster application-building. There will also be panels, sessions, and networking breaks.

Early Bird tickets cost £495 ($665) for a full 2-day pass. Once the promotional period ends, a 2-day pass will cost £2,295 (a little over $3,000). 

Ai4 Conference

Ai4 is being held in Las Vegas from August 4-6. 12,000 attendees and 1,000 speakers are expected, making this one of the biggest AI conferences in the world.

The conference has been running since 2018, so it has fairly long-standing AI credentials. And it's able to attract some big-ticket speakers.

The "Godfather of AI" (Geoffrey Hinton) and "Godmother of AI" (Fei-Fei Li) will both be in attendance in 2026, as will Andrew Ng (founder of DeepLearning.AI). There will also be speakers from Ford, NBC, AstraZeneca and more.

That justifies a premium price point. But there's a good Early Bird discount, down from $3,195 to $1,395 for a standard pass.

Generative AI Week

Generative AI Week is geared toward business leaders who want actionable tips on how to implement and scale generative AI. It’s being held from November 4-5, with the location (within the US) still to be finalized. 

Last year, it was held in Austin. There were speakers from NASA, OpenAI, and Coca-Cola, with event tracks including AI agents, data governance, and adoption.

Some of the Generative AI Week 2025 line-up.

This year's agenda will be released closer to the time. But you can already purchase a bronze "in-house practitioner" pass for $1,599, or a "solution provider" pass for $2,999. 

GEO Conference

Most of the conferences on my list are general AI conferences. But there are also plenty of industry-specific AI events.

If you check out my list of SEO conferences and marketing conferences, the vast majority have AI tracks. But the GEO Conference is an example of a dedicated AI SEO event.

GEO stands for generative engine optimization. The Princeton researcher who coined the term was among last year's speakers, as was the CISO of Anthropic.

Dates and speakers for 2026 are TBC. Last year, the conference was held in December in San Francisco.

If you’re interested in GEO, then also check out the Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit. This lets you track your visibility, share of voice, perception, and citations across major LLMs like ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Gemini, and Perplexity.

Virtual AI Conferences

Think 2025

Think 2025 was actually an in-person conference - and as the name suggests, it was held last year. But IBM has made a wealth of resources from the conferences available online.

You can access all of the keynote addresses free of charge, without needing to register. That’s 8 talks from leading IBM figures, including the CEO, and the Head of Data and AI.

For those wanting to attend in-person, Think is on tour, and will visit Washington in January 2026.

AI: Smart Business and Entrepreneurship Summit

The AI: Smart Business and Entrepreneurship Summit will be held on February 27, 2026.

10 sessions will cover foundations, AI in business planning, AI for product innovation, and more. Speakers are still to be confirmed. 

Tickets are available at an early bird rate of €199 (around $236).

Museum AI Summit

As I mentioned earlier, AI conferences can be very general or very specific. This one is designed especially for helping museums to embrace AI.

As such, the Museum AI Summit clearly won't be for everyone. But if this happens to be your niche, you can attend virtually from May 27-28.

Tickets cost £88 (around $118) at the Early Bird rate. That includes access to all 16 livestream presentations, plus the chance to ask questions of expert speakers (who are yet to be announced).

AI Con

I listed AI Con earlier. But it deserves a mention in the virtual section as well, because it is a truly hybrid conference.

The location is listed as Seattle + online. Taking place from June 7-12, 2026, the sessions are designed to accommodate virtual attendees as much as those in Washington.

Hundreds will attend in Seattle, with thousands present online. AI leadership, ethics, governance, and productivity tools are all on the agenda.

Get Ahead of the Game with AI Conferences

AI is changing the way we work. Just about every industry is feeling the impact of this transformative technology, which continues to innovate and improve at a rapid rate.

Original Exploding Topics research found that 83% of AI users are now using AI tools at work. That’s despite the fact that only 42.7% of workplaces are actively encouraging AI.

In fact, more than 1 in 4 workplace AI users are funding their own tools. If you are a business decision maker, your workers are already adopting AI.

The only question is whether your organization is going to facilitate and support that usage in order to maximize efficiency gains.

It can be difficult to stay on the cutting edge of such a fast-moving topic. That’s where AI conferences can be hugely valuable, whether you’re a business leader, researcher, or simply an enthusiast.

Be sure to check back in, because I keep this page updated regularly. So this is the best place to find the latest events, prices, and ticket availability for the best conferences over the next 12 months.

And remember, pairing AI conferences with Semrush’s powerful AI toolkit is the best way to get ahead.