From October 14–16, the AI Builders Global Conference 2026 brought founders, engineers, investors, executives, and technology professionals together online to explore how AI is being built, adopted, and scaled.
Across three days dedicated to AI leadership, startup growth, and practical engineering, the conference connected people turning ideas into products, navigating enterprise adoption, and building the systems behind AI.
Conference Highlights
The conference featured professionals from OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, Meta, NVIDIA, IBM, Salesforce, Qualcomm, HP, and other organizations, alongside startup founders, investors, and independent experts. Together, the speaker community brought perspectives spanning enterprise technology, emerging businesses, investment, and applied AI.
The program unfolded across three dedicated days:
- October 14: Chief in AI Summit: Focused on AI strategy, organizational adoption, industry applications, and responsible governance, the summit explored the decisions facing leaders as AI becomes part of everyday business operations.
- October 15: Startups & Investors Summit: Connecting founders, investors, and product leaders, the summit covered product development, product-market fit, fundraising, go-to-market strategy, and scaling AI businesses.
- October 16: AI Engineering Day: Dedicated to the technical work behind AI systems, the program explored agent architecture, retrieval, evaluation, observability, infrastructure, and deployment.
Beyond the presentations, live chats, polls, and networking meetings gave participants opportunities to exchange perspectives and connect with fellow builders.
AI Builders Global Conference 2026 in Numbers
🌟 Highly rated experience: Attendees gave the conference a score of 9.0/10.
⭐ Sessions that delivered: An average session rating of 4.80/5, with 92% of session ratings at 5 stars.
⌛ Deeply engaged: Attendees spent an average of 8 hours and 47 minutes participating.
💬 Active conversations: 4,759 chat messages and 1,330 reactions were exchanged.
🤝 Meaningful connections: 111 networking meetings brought participants together.
📊 Interactive participation: Attendees contributed 764 poll votes.
AI Startup Pitch Competition
The AI Startup Pitch Competition gave emerging startups an opportunity to present their businesses and connect with investors.
Congratulations to thr top three startups:
🥇 First Place: InferKNOW
🥈 Second Place: University Startups
🥉 Third Place: Vetra
InferKNOW receives the Grand Prize package, including a guaranteed one-to-one meeting with investor judges, a three-year Humenta Startup Growth Program, and resources from competition partners.
All three winners also gain access to startup tools, credits, and growth resources from partners including Miro, Notion, Linear, Make, Clay, Remote, HubSpot, and every.io, subject to eligibility requirements.
The Grand Prize winner also advances toward the Global AI Builders Cup, with an opportunity to compete for $50,000–$250,000 in investment, subject to due diligence.
AI Builder Challenge
The AI Builder Challenge brought together 180 builders from 34 countries, with 10 finalists progressing to the final stage.
Ellen Ivanovic’s Luvray earned recognition from both the jury and the community. Built in five days, Luvray is a voice-first AI companion for parents, designed to help families log updates for each child, ask questions using their recorded history, and share information across the household. The project also includes check-ins for parents.
Luvray received three awards:
🏅 Challenge Winner: Chosen by the jury, with speaking, mentoring, and visibility opportunities through AI Builders Network in 2027.
🗳️ Community Choice: Selected through community voting, receiving the Community Choice Prize Fund.
💜 WomenTech Network Award: A Global Awards nomination, an interview, VIP tickets, and a speaking opportunity at the Women in Tech Global Conference 2027.
Congratulations to Ellen and all the finalists. We look forward to seeing these projects continue to develop beyond the Challenge.
Thank You to Our Community
We extend our appreciation to our Gold Sponsors, EY, Chief in Tech Capital, and Reindeer, and our Silver Sponsors, RadarFirst, EPAM, and AI Monster, for supporting the conference.
Thank you also to Chief in Tech Capital, Humenta, Clarify, MeetGeek, HaiFi, and Pubflow, for supporting the Pitch Competition, and to the Challenge partners WomenTech Network, Render, n8n, Amplitude, SSOJet, Socratyc, DataTalksClub, and Eestec, jury, voters, and everyone who contributed to the Community Choice Prize Fund.
The AI Builders Global Conference 2026 was shaped by the people who showed up, shared their experiences, asked questions, and supported one another. To our speakers, attendees, judges, mentors, volunteers, and community partners: thank you for your time, expertise, and contributions.
Keep Building with AI Builders Network
Your conference experience can continue beyond the three days. Stay connected through AI Builders Network to explore expert insights, develop your skills through learning paths, and connect with people building and working with AI.
💡 Continue Learning
Explore resources on AI engineering, product development, leadership, and enterprise adoption.
🤝 Grow Your Network
Connect with fellow engineers, founders, investors, and technology leaders to exchange ideas and experiences.
🎤 Share Your Expertise
Contribute your perspective and stay informed about future speaking, community, and builder opportunities.
👉 Join WomenTech Network, Women AI Builders, and AI Builders Network
Thank you to everyone who made the AI Builders Global Conference 2026 possible. We’re already looking forward to the next edition and seeing what our community builds along the way.
Follow AI Builders Network on LinkedIn and visit the conference website for future updates and opportunities to get involved.