Artificial intelligence is rapidly changing the way businesses work, products are developed and decisions are made. Between September 7-8, Budapest will become a meeting point for international speakers at the forefront of this transformation. The fourth edition of this annual event will take place with an expanded AI Summit Campus spread across three venues in Városliget: the House of Music Hungary, the Museum of Ethnography and RTL Liget. Organisers describe it as the largest AI conference in Central Europe, with hundreds of speakers across 12 stages and programmes designed for both business and tech audiences.
The 2026 speaker list includes executives from major global technology companies alongside academics, entrepreneurs and researchers, as well as AI specialists from Switzerland, Germany, Canada, France, Australia, South Korea and other markets. The programme also brings together many local figures from Hungary’s technology, business, academic and creative sectors, including representatives of Semmelweis University, Corvinus University, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Óbuda University, Deloitte, Magyar Telekom and other organisations. Among the confirmed speakers are Dr Schum Kristóf, European Segment Lead for Agentic AI at Amazon Web Services; Pál Bíró, Country Manager of Google Hungary; Adrián González Sánchez, Lead AI Product Manager at Microsoft AI; and Professor Wim Vanhaverbeke of the University of Antwerp. Also on the program are roundtables on AI and immortality, sessions tracking humanoid robots moving from demo stages to actual factory floors, and a conversation on AI’s role in art and music featuring Károly Gerendai, founder of the legendary Sziget Festival.
Sessions run in both Hungarian and English, so international visitors are well covered.
Three Venues, One AI Campus
The unusual format is one of the major features of this year’s summit. Rather than being concentrated in a single conference centre, the event will connect three Városliget locations into one campus. The House of Music Hungary will host the Visionary Stage, Future Lab, Prompt Arena and Harmony Zone, while the Museum of Ethnography will feature the Quantum Stage, Innovation Hall, Meta Open Lab and Cinematic Studio. RTL Liget will host a Media Lab. Networking areas and VIP spaces will also form part of the campus.
The programme is divided into different levels and formats, making the event relevant not only to AI specialists but also to people who are still working out how artificial intelligence can be applied to their organisations.
From Agentic AI to the Future of Work
The 2026 event is built around a more practical approach to AI, moving beyond the hype to focus on working solutions, workshops, demonstrations and real-world case studies. Among the technology-focused sessions is “Ship the Next – Agentic Cloud for AI Innovation”, presented by Dr Ye Huang of Alibaba Cloud Central Europe. Other sessions address some of the questions increasingly facing businesses and employees: whether companies are ready for AI, how organisations should begin their AI journey, whether AI will replace jobs and how productivity gains should be distributed. The comprehensive programme tackles the less comfortable side of the technology, including AI ethics, its environmental and energy demands, social inequality and the concentration of technological power.
There is also a strong focus on the Hungarian technology environment, including discussion of AI models designed for the Hungarian language.
AI Beyond the Technology Sector
For business visitors, one of the most interesting aspects of AI Summit Budapest is its deliberately cross-industry approach. The organisers say the event will examine AI in areas including finance, healthcare, education and the creative industries, alongside regulation and ethics. This reflects the fact that AI adoption is increasingly becoming a management and business strategy issue rather than simply an IT project. The programme also includes sessions on AI implementation, investment, digital health, cybersecurity, media, marketing and creativity, while dedicated labs and workshops offer opportunities to explore practical applications. For international professionals working in Hungary, as well as curious expats, the summit offers an opportunity to look beyond the local technology scene and connect with companies and specialists working on AI adoption across Central Europe and further afield.
A Growing Budapest Tech Event
AI Summit Budapest began in 2023 with a few hundred visitors. According to the organisers, attendance doubled in 2024 as international speakers joined the event, while the 2025 edition featured more than 80 speakers, sold-out stages and a live AI expo in Városliget.
The 2026 edition represents another expansion, with 12 tracks and the new three-venue AI Summit Campus.
With artificial intelligence moving rapidly from experimental technology into everyday business operations, the summit’s central question is increasingly practical: not simply what AI can do, but how organisations can actually put it to work.
Source: XpatLoop
