World Summit AI returns to Amsterdam in 2026 for its tenth edition

On 7 and 8 October 2026, Knowledge Networks will organise the tenth edition of the World Summit AI in Amsterdam. The event will take place at Taets Art & Event Park in Zaandam and is expected to attract more than 10,000 attendees, over 300 speakers and more than 100 exhibitors, according to the organisers. Content will be spread across ten thematic tracks.

The theme of this anniversary year is 'Guardians of Tomorrow: Shaping the New AI Paradigm'. With this, the summit aims to emphasise that the direction of AI is shaped not only by technology, but also by the choices made by people and organisations.

The World Summit AI serves as the anchor event of World AI Week, a series of more than a hundred events in the fields of business, science, technology and networking taking place simultaneously across the city.

Speakers from academia, industry and policy

The speaker line-up includes names from diverse corners of the AI field. From academia, the programme features Yoshua Bengio (Mila, Université de Montréal), Stuart Russell (UC Berkeley), Yann LeCun (Meta) and Daphne Koller (Insitro, co-founder of Coursera). Gary Marcus of New York University and Zoubin Ghahramani, Chief Scientist at Uber and affiliated with the University of Cambridge, have also been announced.

From the technology sector, speakers include Werner Vogels (VP and CTO, Amazon), Mark Papermaster (CTO, AMD), Joëlle Pineau (VP AI Research, Meta), Tony Jebara (VP Engineering and Head of AI, Spotify) and Harrison Chase, co-founder and CEO of LangChain. Zico Kolter, board member of OpenAI and Chief Scientist at Gray Swan AI, is also on the list.

The policy and governance side is represented by Marietje Schaake, former Member of the European Parliament and fellow at Stanford's Institute for Human-Centered AI, and Audrey Tang, Cyber Ambassador of Taiwan. Lambert Hogenhout, Chief Data, Analytics & Emerging Technologies at the United Nations, and Prince Constantijn of the Netherlands as Special Envoy round out this part of the programme.

Ten years of World Summit AI

The 2026 edition marks the summit's tenth anniversary. Since its inaugural edition, the event has grown into one of the larger international AI conferences, drawing participants from business, academia, government and the investment community. Knowledge Networks also organises the World Summit AI Canada, where organisations such as Mila and Accenture have served as content partners.

I amsterdam is involved as a city partner for the 2026 edition. The choice of Taets Art & Event Park, located on the border of Amsterdam and Zaandam, is consistent with previous editions, which were also held in the Amsterdam region.

Practical information

• Date: 7 and 8 October 2026
• Venue: Taets Art & Event Park, Middenweg 62, 1505 RK Zaandam
• Organiser: Knowledge Networks
• Expected number of attendees: more than 10,000
• Speakers: more than 300, across 10 content tracks
• Exhibitors: more than 100

World Summit AI 2026 is part of World AI Week, during which more than a hundred related events will take place in Amsterdam alongside the main summit. Further information and registration are available via the organiser's website.

For the Dutch and broader European AI scene, the recurring presence of an event of this scale in Amsterdam underlines the city's established position on the international AI calendar. This not only draws international attention to the local ecosystem, but also offers Dutch founders, investors and policymakers an accessible platform to connect with global players, from frontier researchers to decision-makers at major technology companies and multilateral organisations.