What’s next in AI - Europe's AI research meets its builders
Hear what's new in AI before it's public - from the researchers and builders shaping it.
Learn more about what's to come in AI
AI Summit is built around the people who are ahead of that, researchers at ELLIS Institute Finland and others working at the frontier, alongside the founders shipping what that research becomes. One room, one day, before the rest of the world hears about it.
AI SUMMIT / 2026
Speakers 2026
First confirmed speakers joining us in Turku on 16 November 2026. More speakers to be announced.
Henna Virkkunen
EVP & Commissioner, European Commission
Markus Villig
Founder & CEO at Bolt
Meredith Whittaker
President & Board Director, Signal Foundation
Thomas Wolf
Co-Founder & CSO at Hugging Face (acquired by Nvidia)
Sauraj Gambhir
Co-Founder at Prior Labs (acquired by SAP)
Timo Ritakallio
President and Group CEO, OP Pohjola
Johannes Schaback
CTO & Co-Founder, STARK
Oliver Vince
Co-Founder, Basecamp Research
Jussi Westergren
University of Oxford, ex-Academia.edu, DeepMind & Intellectual Ventures
Björn Wahlroos
Chairman of Wahlroos Capital
Janne Jaakkola
Chief of Defense of Finnish Defense Forces
Kuan Yen Tan
CTO & Co-Founder, QuTwo & IQM Quantum Computers
Pekka Lundmark
Board Member, QuTwo & Siemens Energy (ex-President & CEO, Nokia)
Jaroslav Beck
Co-Founder & CEO, BottleCap AI (Founder of Beat Saber, acq. by Meta)
Jacomo Corbo
Co-Founder & CEO, PhysicsX
David Barber
Professor of Machine Learning & Director, UCL AI Centre
Neil Rimer
Co-Founder, Index Ventures
Samuel Kaski
Founding director & Professor at ELLIS Institute Finland
Eric Malmi
Professor at Aalto University and Lovable (ex-Google DeepMind)
Patrik Gayer
VP, NestAI (ex-AMD, Silo AI & Tesla)
Erkki Oja
Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Aalto University (Inventor of Oja's rule)
Oliver Molander
Founder & GP, Inception Fund
Anna Heim
Reporter, TechCrunch
Tomas Nyström
ex-MD at Accenture
Maddy Savage
Freelance BBC Broadcaster
More Speakers to be Announced
Stay tuned for further speaker reveals throughout 2026
2026 Program
16.11.2026
Turku, Finland
Morning: ELLIS & Frontier Research
Opening words
Peter Sarlin, Founder, Foundation PS — Henna Virkkunen, EVP & Commissioner, European Commission
ELLIS Opening: Status of AI research in Finland and Europe
Keynote presentation
An overview of where European AI research stands today, and what's ahead.
ELLIS Panel: AI & Research
Frontier AI research and academic breakthroughs
Researchers working at the edge of what's technically possible discuss the open problems in AI research right now, and what commercial innovations the next generation of models and methods will enable.
ELLIS Panel: AI & Enterprises
Enterprise transformation and industrial AI adoption
How European enterprises are adopting AI across operations, bridging research innovations with corporate deployment and industrial scale.
Lunch
Networking and lunch for participants
Afternoon: State of Europe Panels
Panel 1: State of Europe — AI & Economy
Competitiveness, industrial adoption, and economic growth
How European industry is actually adopting AI today, where competitiveness is being won or lost against the US and China, and what it will take to convert Europe's research strength into economic growth.
Panel 2: State of Europe — AI & Security
Defense, critical infrastructure, and security resilience
AI's growing role in defense and critical infrastructure, from military applications to the broader question of resilience as security systems increasingly depend on AI.
Coffee Break
Short break between afternoon sessions
Panel 3: State of Europe — AI & Startups
Venture scale, founders, and the commercial frontier
What it takes to build and scale AI companies in Europe, from founders turning research into products, to the investors deciding which European AI startups can compete globally.
Panel 4: State of Europe — AI & Geopolitics
How middle powers navigate a shifting AI landscape
Drawing on the Finnish Foreign Ministry's AI expert working group, this panel looks at how middle powers create leverage in the AI value chain — and where dependency has to be capped rather than accepted.
Cocktail Reception & AI Gala
Cocktail reception with networking opportunities, including recognition of Finland’s leading AI talents and achievements
ELLIS Institute Finland.
World-class AI researchers, as core partners — not guest appearances.
Builders, not just thinkers.
Founders who've turned frontier research into companies people use.
Invitation only.
A room sized for conversation, not a conference sized for ticket sales.
Request access. Seats are limited and allocated by invitation.
(Note: This enrolls you also for updates on side events, live streams and other event updates)
Sign up for the waitlist
AI SUMMIT 2025
AI SUMMIT 2025 HAS COME TO A CLOSE. WE EXTEND OUR SINCERE GRATITUDE TO OUR PANELISTS, PARTNERS, AND THE GLOBAL AUDIENCE.
This year also marked an important milestone: the launch of the ELLIS Institute Finland. Our congratulations to the entire ELLIS team on an achievement that will strengthen research, talent and collaboration across Europe for years to come.