The AI Conference 2026

The AI Conference 2026 runs 29 September to 1 October 2026 at Pier 48, Sheds A and B, in San Francisco's Mission Rock waterfront district beside Oracle Park, and expects 5,500 builders, researchers and AI leaders with more than 120 speakers. Programming splits across five tracks: AI Frontiers on governance, ethics and frontier research; AI Builders on shipping agentic systems, fine-tuning and LLM toolchains; The AI Stack on model design, training, inference, data and accelerators; Applied AI on real-world deployments and case studies; and AI Strategy on enterprise adoption, governance and ROI. Day ZERØ on 29 September is a smaller kickoff of eight focused workshops plus a live AI Hack Day, and is already sold out. Speakers include Peter Norvig of Stanford HAI, Anthropic interpretability researcher Emmanuel Ameisen, Modular chief executive Chris Lattner, Jaclyn Konzelmann of Google Labs and NEAR AI co-founder Illia Polosukhin. It is deliberately in-person only, with no livestream.

Date

September 29 – October 1, 2026

Location

Pier 48, Sheds A and B, 48 Pier 48, San Francisco, California

Format

In-Person

Event Type

Conference

Status

Upcoming

Expected Attendance

5,500+

Pricing

Paid

Organizer

The AI Conference

Added

Jun 21, 2026

Updated

Aug 15, 2026

• ✓Machine learning and AI engineers
• ✓AI platform and infrastructure architects
• ✓Data scientists and research engineers
• ✓AI startup founders
• ✓VPs of Engineering and Heads of AI
• ✓CTOs evaluating build-versus-buy
• ✓Product leaders shipping AI features

This is a practitioner conference rather than a vendor roadshow, which makes it unusually efficient for a VP of Engineering deciding what to build versus what to buy. Three days cover the entire stack — accelerator and inference economics, through agent frameworks and evaluation, to production case studies — so an architecture bet can be sanity-checked against teams already running it at Google, Netflix, Microsoft and Anthropic rather than against a roadmap slide. Team tickets are priced below individual passes, so the realistic move is sending the engineers who will own the decision and having them come back with a shortlist.

• ✓Day ZERØ on 29 September — eight focused workshops plus a live AI Hack Day, VIP dinner and full conference access; currently sold out
• ✓AI Frontiers track — governance, ethics and frontier research
• ✓AI Builders track — shipping agentic systems, fine-tuning and LLM toolchains
• ✓The AI Stack track — model design, training, inference, data and accelerators
• ✓Applied AI track — real-world deployments, automation and case studies
• ✓AI Strategy track — enterprise adoption, governance and ROI
• ✓Startup Showdown pitch competition and an Innovation Hub exhibition
• ✓Party in the Park social and structured networking events across the three days

• ★Practitioner-first rather than vendor-first: 120+ speakers across five tracks for 5,500 attendees, with the room drawn from Google, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, Netflix, OpenAI and Anthropic engineering teams as well as startups
• ★The speaker bench crosses research and shipping — Peter Norvig from Stanford HAI, an Anthropic interpretability researcher, Modular's CEO and a co-author of 'Attention Is All You Need' on the same programme
• ★Deliberately in-person only with no livestream, which the organisers frame as a community and networking decision rather than a production constraint
• ★Team tickets for groups of two or more are priced below individual tickets, so the economics favour sending the engineers who will own the decision instead of one executive
• ★Day ZERØ is a genuinely separate small-room format — eight focused workshops plus a live AI Hack Day — rather than a pre-conference vendor training day, and it sells out ahead of the main conference

The AI Conference does not publish a price table on its public site — current rates appear only in the checkout at tix.aiconference.com, and the organisers state that the rate shown today is 'the lowest rate available—even beyond any future discounts', rising as the event approaches. Two categories are sold: Team tickets for groups of two or more, which carry the lowest cost per person, and Individual tickets. The third-party Founderpath listing puts entry-level passes from $199. Cancellations up to 30 days before the event get a full refund minus a 5% processing fee (tickets@aiconference.com). Day ZERØ on 29 September is listed as sold out.

When is The AI Conference 2026?

The AI Conference 2026 takes place September 29 – October 1, 2026 in San Francisco, California.

Where is The AI Conference 2026 held?

The AI Conference 2026 is held in San Francisco, California. The event format is in-person.

How much does The AI Conference 2026 cost?

The AI Conference 2026 is paid. The AI Conference does not publish a price table on its public site — current rates appear only in the checkout at tix.aiconference.com, and the organisers state that the rate shown today is 'the lowest rate available—even beyond any future discounts', rising as the event approaches. Two categories are sold: Team tickets for groups of two or more, which carry the lowest cost per person, and Individual tickets. The third-party Founderpath listing puts entry-level passes from $199. Cancellations up to 30 days before the event get a full refund minus a 5% processing fee (tickets@aiconference.com). Day ZERØ on 29 September is listed as sold out.

Who should attend The AI Conference 2026?

The AI Conference 2026 is aimed at Machine learning and AI engineers, AI platform and infrastructure architects, Data scientists and research engineers, AI startup founders, VPs of Engineering and Heads of AI, CTOs evaluating build-versus-buy, Product leaders shipping AI features.

What topics does The AI Conference 2026 cover?

The AI Conference 2026 covers Agentic AI and production agent systems, Large language models and fine-tuning, AI infrastructure, inference and accelerators, AGI and frontier research, Applied AI and real-world deployments, Enterprise AI strategy, adoption and ROI, AI governance and ethics, Model design, training and data pipelines.

This page was written from 4 sources, 2 on domains other than aiconference.com.

1. 1.aiconference.com — aiconference.comvendor
2. 2.aiconference.com — faqvendor
3. 3.vktr.com — ai conference san francisco 2026
4. 4.founderpath.com — 2026 san francisco