2026 Highlights
DAY 0
"Not all data is made equal, and a lot of it is about diversity." — Pim de Witte, Co-founder & CEO, General Intuition
"The bad actors have to be right once. The good guys have to be right every time." — Nikesh Arora, CEO, Palo Alto Networks
"AI without governance is simply a toy." — Stefan Weitz, Co-founder & CEO, HumanX
DAY 1
“I really came to think of AI as a force multiplier for human ingenuity.” — Kareem Ayoub, VP, AI Technical Strategy, Google DeepMind
“AI should help carry that intent forward with people remaining control over the decision.” — Xuedong Huang, CTO, Zoom
“If you can’t make people feel something, then you failed.” — Stephan Pretorius, CTO, WPP
“Search and information discovery is still the most important thing on the Internet by far.” — Jim Lanzone, CEO, Yahoo
DAY 2
“The best AI is the one AI which is completely invisible.” — Parag Parekh, CDO, IKEA
“Let’s not only regulate AI. Let’s build it.” — Melanie van der Horst, Deputy Mayor, City of Amsterdam
“I think the roadblock today is energy. I think the roadblock in the future will be energy.” — Shamillah Bankiya, Partner, Dawn Capital
“The reality is everyone’s product has to change.” — Des Traynor, Co-founder, Fin
By Numbers
2,569
ATTENDEES
Builders, buyers, investors and policymakers. In one room.
65% VP & ABOVE
The people who set AI strategy and sign off the budget.
61 COUNTRIES
More than half travelled from outside the Netherlands.
120 HOURS OF PROGRAMMING
Five tracks: Control Room, Customer Engine, Command Desk, Builders and Ecosystem.
240 MEDIA REPRESENTATIVES
Press and broadcasters covering the conversations shaping European AI.
10,441 NEW CONNECTIONS
Made through the HumanX app, SolutionBridge, VentureConnect and the HumanX Connect lounge.
Memorable Moments
Headline Conversations
KLM CEO Marjan Rintel and Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora joined leaders from OpenAI, Google DeepMind, AWS and Diageo, alongside the founders behind Lovable and Legora. The focus: moving AI from pilot to production, at scale.
Hands-On Sessions
22 roundtables. 10 masterclasses. 3 invite-only [X]changes. Fewer slides, more working sessions. Leaders compared notes on shared problems and left with takeaways they could use on Monday.
Meetings That Mattered
SolutionBridge matched buyers with vendors. VentureConnect matched founders with investors. And HumanX Connect gave every attendee a place to meet, follow up and keep the conversation going.
Why it Matters
Three days built around one test: is this worth a senior leader's time?
Earned, not bought.
No pay-to-play stage slots. Speakers are chosen for what they've built and scaled, not what they've paid.
A senior room.
65%+ of attendees held VP level and above. These are the people who set AI strategy and sign off the budget.
Built for outcomes.
Pre-arranged meetings, peer roundtables and focused tracks. Leaders went back to their organisations with decisions, not just notes.
LOOKING AHEAD
Amsterdam 2027
2,569 leaders joined us in 2026. We're building for 4,000 in 2027. Same standard. Bigger room.
If you were there, you know why you're coming back. If you weren't, don't read about it twice.
20–22 September 2027 · RAI Amsterdam
