World Summit AI returns to Amsterdam after ten years with anniversary edition

In exactly one month, World Summit AI will open its doors for the tenth time, on 7 and 8 October 2026 at the Taets Art & Event Park in Amsterdam. The organiser, InspiredMinds!, expects more than 10,000 visitors from over 130 countries, spread across ten content tracks and more than 100 exhibitors. That places it among the larger AI conferences in Europe.

This year's summit is themed "Guardians of Tomorrow: Shaping the New AI Paradigm". The event serves as the anchor of World AI Week, which runs from 5 to 9 October and includes more than one hundred side events in Amsterdam. On 6 October, a private opening evening will be held for speakers, VIPs and supporters.

Over the past ten editions, more than 45,000 participants from more than 160 countries have registered, and more than 1,600 AI leaders have appeared on stage. The community claims a membership of more than 500,000.

Speakers from research, industry and policy

The speaker line-up combines prominent researchers, tech executives and policy experts. From academia, confirmed speakers include Yoshua Bengio (Université de Montréal, Mila & IVADO), Stuart Russell (UC Berkeley) and Zico Kolter (Carnegie Mellon University, also a board member of OpenAI and chief scientist at Gray Swan AI). Daphne Koller, co-founder of Coursera and now founder and CEO of biotech company insitro, is also speaking. Joëlle Pineau is a professor at McGill University and Vice President AI Research at Meta.

From industry, confirmed participants include Mark Papermaster (CTO and EVP of AMD), Harrison Chase (co-founder and CEO of LangChain) and Werner Vogels (VP and CTO of Amazon). Simon See represents NVIDIA as Global Head of the NVAITC programme and is also a professor at Nanyang Technological University.

On the technology and policy side, Marietje Schaake will appear, a former Member of the European Parliament and now a fellow at Stanford University. Audrey Tang, cyber ambassador of the Taiwanese government, has also been announced. Prince Constantijn of the Netherlands has been added to the speaker list as special envoy.

Amsterdam as permanent home base

The City of Amsterdam is the official city host partner of the summit, collaborating with Amsterdam AI, StartupAmsterdam and the Amsterdam Convention Bureau. This structural involvement aligns with city policy to position Amsterdam as a European AI hub.

On the commercial side, major tech companies such as SAP, HP, Microsoft and MongoDB feature on the partner list, alongside specialised AI companies including LangChain, Glean, SambaNova and Writer. Software companies such as Figma, Docker, JetBrains and Camunda are also involved as partners.

In addition to the main conference, the programme offers more than forty workshops and masterclasses in smaller group settings. Community partners such as DutchBasecamp, Women in Product NL and Amsterdam AI contribute to extending the event's reach beyond the conference floor.

Significance for the Dutch AI scene

For the Dutch and European AI scene, the anniversary edition is relevant as a reference point: ten years of World Summit AI coincides with a period in which AI regulation, such as the European AI Act, is becoming concrete. Speakers like Marietje Schaake and Audrey Tang bring the policy agenda explicitly onto the conference floor. This draws policymakers and founders to the same stage, giving Dutch startups and investors direct access to international conversations about regulation, funding and market development. Amsterdam is thereby positioning itself not only as a congress city, but as a permanent venue for the debate on the direction of AI in Europe.