6 Things to Know about AIE World's Fair 2026

Six things to know about AI Engineer Worlds Fair. Hi, I'm Swix. If you didn't

Worlds Fair. Hi, I'm Swix. If you didn't know, I'm one of the co-founders of AI Engineer and there's uh 15 of us now working really hard day and night, even

on weekends, to bring you this show.

We've been really uh overblown by how uh positive the response has been, especially for this World's Fair. And we

figured we should pull some kind of update uh from people behind the scenes, but we didn't have a ton of budget to do

it. So, This is me in my uh working

it. So, This is me in my uh working place and uh doing all this in one shot.

Uh we we you know we don't have like we're busy producing the show. So we

just wanted to give you an update, give you a guide. If you're new, welcome. If

you're uh an AIE veteran, there's a lot of new things that you should be aware of that we're trying out this year.

That's why we're making this. So, um, if you stick around, I've been told for YouTube purposes, I'm going to tell you how we're going to getting all these exclusive attendee perks, uh, featuring

$38,000 in terms of, uh, sponsor offers, which I'm very excited about. So, stay

tuned and hit subs. Um, the general vibe of this video is we want to show you a little bit behind the scenes of what we're building. Um, and, uh, I figured,

we're building. Um, and, uh, I figured, you know, like I think I like the number six. Six is good. like well not too many

six. Six is good. like well not too many like there is a lot of stuff going on when you're organizing people but here are the big six things that you okay well first thing it's bigger than

all the previous AIES I almost wanted to say it's all previous AIES combined but that's not exactly true because if you do the math actually we're we're a little bit over that um but a lot of it

is I mean size is one thing I think size um there's such a thing as too large anyway so size doesn't appeal to me or to a lot of other people. Uh but what thing one thing it does do is offer us

the space to give everyone a little bit of something. And really how the way I

of something. And really how the way I think about AIE is that it is a buffet of things that uh you might be interested in that we are curating for

you and one ticket uh basically cover your selection of all these things. Um

so we've grown a lot over the last six seven events that we've done and also uh you may have seen the really successful

Melbourne Miami and Singapore event Paris coming up in um we've also really grown a lot on YouTube. U I just it just shocks me to

YouTube. U I just it just shocks me to see the growth like we thought that AIE World's Fair 2024 was big uh and now we're roughly 10x the size as well just

for Europe. uh and we're expecting this

for Europe. uh and we're expecting this to the largest AI that we've so uh we're really glad about the all the support online. Uh the way that I'm thinking

online. Uh the way that I'm thinking about curating this is that we're bringing back some roughly about 50% topics that are evergreen and then throwing away the other 50% and

completely um adding new completely new topics that are super relevant. Um our

top tracks are like auto research didn't exist that last year. We've split out um the sort of GPUs track into inference and post- training and pre-training

which is the data quality track and then we've also added memory and continual learning. We've added verticals. We

learning. We've added verticals. We

we'll talk about all those things but basically the idea is that it's larger than ever before uh compared to last year. There's there's an actually a

year. There's there's an actually a whole extra day of extra content. Um I

know a lot of you are planning to fly out on July 2nd. Don't um it's actually some of the best stuff that we have. Uh

so as far as I can convince you to stay on America's birthday, you should. All

right. Uh part two is uh even the expo itself. Um part of the dream with

itself. Um part of the dream with oldfair actually is that the talks are kind of optional like um actually what you want to do is the hallway track.

Actually the whole point of a conference is to meet in person because everything's recorded anyway. Um and you can spend the whole day. There's

actually four expo stages for people just talking about um you know all the stuff that they're shipping and and launching and and answering questions and some of these are actually really popular uh on YouTube. Obviously like

everything's recorded. I think obviously the interesting thing is like the stuff that you get off right like which is real the real off. Uh but it's to me it's really insane that for the price of

an explore explorer ticket which is kind of like our cheapest like entry level tier um you just get to just wander the the floor uh that to me that was always the vision of a world's fair as compared

to a summit. Um the world's fair itself it's so compelling the expo has everyone relevant uh that you just wander and you catch up on AI engineering for 2026.

It's a pretty good deal um compared to last year. This is how it looks last year for 2025. Um it is roughly 4x bigger. Uh we've got a lot of entertainment. So it's not all just

entertainment. So it's not all just business business. Um it is at Moscone

business business. Um it is at Moscone West which um we you know we've we're very familiar with now and we're really loving hosting the show there.

Everything happens in that building. U

but we're really using this place really well which I'm really liking. So uh

we're starting to sort of name all these streets. One of the things that you

streets. One of the things that you might like seeing as an Easter egg is Attention Avenue, uh, Backdrop Boulevard, Context Crescent, and Diffusion Drive. That's my baby. Uh,

Diffusion Drive. That's my baby. Uh,

keep a lookout for the water stations as well. That's that's also another really

well. That's that's also another really fun one. As well as a lot of the robots.

fun one. As well as a lot of the robots.

Uh, we're starting to serve things that are not human in AIE as um, and also something I'm really proud of is all the great logos that we have, which I which I'm just saying like it's really

everyone at AI in AI engine. So if you want to catch up, this is the spot. Um

the other thing that I often talk about when uh when sort of explaining like what is our trend of AI AI engineering um it is that we want to be inclusive

and wants to sort of grow the audience a little bit every every single year and the relationship of industry and research is something that is increasingly important. I think um in my

increasingly important. I think um in my podcast conversations with the labs and the researchers and all those things actually I think they are more fluid in their conception of research and

engineering than um the people externally might feel u like when I had my conversation with Greg Brockman last year at the world's fair he was talking about how people just switch back and

forth for research and engineering over and I think that's definitely very true and I think it should be true for us like we uh are setting ourselves up to be the industry counterpart of academic

conferences in AI like the ICML or like the Europe. Um and we have a real

the Europe. Um and we have a real partnership with the ACM which um this year set up the conference on the AI agentic systems supported by these

lovely people u some of whom have been our speakers and some of our speakers as well. Um but really what they've done is

well. Um but really what they've done is basically let us do an industry spotlight selection some of the stuff that is relevant for you this year. Some

of whom are are just uh speaking again Uh if you haven't been to any of these academic conferences, they're really mass sort of like industry uh academic sort of presentation markets. This is a

photo of new repres.

But um really like they're I think they're a way for someone who spent a lot of time on something to present their work and for you to serendipitously walk past and go what is

that? And you find a lot of things. And

that? And you find a lot of things. And

I I think a lot of my favorite new apps experiences has been just discovering something I didn't know about from just walking past it. And I think this is some is a very important thing for

breaking through the algorithm because um I think the the feed is and and the recommendation systems another topic we really care about is really hyper optimized to feeding you clickbait,

feeding you 10 of the same thing that you liked one time. um and uh not really having much taste because the the regression to the mean is super high. I

think if you have a community that is curated, that is high effort, that is really sincerely inherently deeply involved in this topic, you get a very different feel and I hope you get to experience it with our poster sessions.

Um the other thing that we're trying is we're really trying to innovate on this 40-year paradigm of poster sessions which are papers which are, you know, six months out of date by the time they reach the floor, all those things. And

really like I you know a fundamental belief of mine is that there is something to learn not just from a paper that is published although that is a very good artifact of work. Um there's

there's something to learn from a blog post from a product from a talk and even a tweet. Um and so we actually put out a

a tweet. Um and so we actually put out a call for posters. Poster is an a um so if you like posting on Twitter uh and if you have a hot take we're going to print it out. We're going to put it on the

it out. We're going to put it on the same level as a poster session with with no a and you're going to just defend your tweet. Oh my god, where is that uh

your tweet. Oh my god, where is that uh image that I prepared?

GPT image did not follow my instructions. I I asked it to actually

instructions. I I asked it to actually put an example of a kind of tweet that we would get. But the idea is that you would print out your tweet. Um GPT image fail, tell me how to fix it or actually

tell Gabriel how to fix it because that's who we invited. uh from open AI.

Okay. Um part four, another very very important constituency is the leadership uh the enterprises, the CTOs, the VPs of AI who are managing AI engineers, hiring, recruiting, setting up aentic

organizations. Um we have a few new

organizations. Um we have a few new initiatives. So we've had this sort of

initiatives. So we've had this sort of track for the last three years. We had

this new a few new initiatives that I want to go over and uh the first of all is that the entire level three is basically reserved for the leadership track which is 50% of the floor space of

the breakout space and here we're doing a lot of new stuff apart from just obviously content from fellow leaders and you know talking to them. Um one of the largest concepts that has emerged over the last year is this concept of

token billionaires. Here's Ryan La Pablo

token billionaires. Here's Ryan La Pablo at AIE Europe talking about how he wants everyone to be token billionaires. And

there's a lot of these uh basically if you spend something on the order of a billion tokens a month that's actually a really low bar for some of these people.

Some of them spend 10 trillion a month.

Um, in that order, you're you qualify for our token billionaire program. Uh,

which is basically a lounge and think of it as like an MX platinum lounge or something where you're just going to have a different kind of for someone who uses it. Um, some of this there are

uses it. Um, some of this there are going to be heavily LM psychosis as in I think there'll be about even split between people who are trying to spend more in smart ways and people who are

trying to spend less. And it's going to be a really interesting diversion. Alex

Vulov from Weights and Biases calls this the ZL spectrum after Mario Zachner.

Also a talk that is coming up. It's

fair. And we also are introducing thematic focuses. We used to just have

thematic focuses. We used to just have sort of undifferiated like you're a leader, you're an architect, we'll just slot you in with someone who's like something vaguely related. Here to uh

this year we're pursuing daily themes.

the the themes that people are asking me for is they want to see real workflows from other people who are not selling them anything. They are looking at token

them anything. They are looking at token maxing obviously the extremes and the the sort of reductions as we talked about as well as setting up EF factories companies. Um and I think that also maps

companies. Um and I think that also maps to like some of the networking that people want to do. So, we actually have two opportunities for off therecord networking. Uh, from the networking room

networking. Uh, from the networking room that we're setting up where you can book meetings with speakers and fellow attendees with a new system that we're cooking as well as Mckenzie, one of our

top speakers from CodeSummit, uh, this beautiful shirt. Um, Mackenzie is just

beautiful shirt. Um, Mackenzie is just doing a session every day where you can just meet with them and talk off the record again with them about what's going on at your company and what they think about it. Um so they're working on

a tokconomics thing uh working a genetic organization and a third thing that we haven't announced.

Okay so what's the fifth thing? Fifth

thing is we're betting hard on AI verticals as opposed to horizontals of last year. So last year for example we

last year. So last year for example we added uh design engineering as a track and product management as a track. Um

that's still very broad and I think that's still relevant and and worthwhile. But I think a lot of the big

worthwhile. But I think a lot of the big themes of this year is that AI is being deployed in these very high value vertical. Uh so for this year we've

vertical. Uh so for this year we've picked uh for deployed engineering, enjected commerce, healthcare, finance and GTM. Um this is partially inspired

and GTM. Um this is partially inspired by Chris Lovejoy who was one of our top speakers from a couple years now. Um and

I really like this screen share that I've set up. You watch it. So we have all these tracks right FDE uh HS commerce healthcare and AI GTM the

special one that takes precedence above all of them is AI in finance which is our big B for New York um so we are uh also going to pre-announce AI engineer New York um this is our third New York

conference now but our first entirely focused on fin um we I think I come from a finance background I used to be a sellside trader and a buyside hedge fund

guy um and so I think u if there was the vertical after code that is the most likely and closest for takeoff is finance uh closely followed by

healthcare law FDM things um so I think that's interesting and self-evident but um this in itself it's its own like a collection of verticals and um

understanding what they are and then finally I think um to make the most use out of uh your time at World's Fair there's a whole bunch of side events um I should I intended to show you how to

navigate the website. Just go to ai.engineer/wf.

ai.engineer/wf.

Um we have a lsmd that's that has uh inputs into all the other guys. It's

really fun. Um but if you just click side events here, uh you can see all the side events. We have 41 listed as of

side events. We have 41 listed as of time of recording. People keep adding stuff. Uh but if you want to, you know,

stuff. Uh but if you want to, you know, hang out with people outside and um continue conversation after the the the main day of events, this is where you go.

A few side events I would highlight.

Um NEO is uh sorry well first of all the ultimate side event world cup happening with us now confirmed to be a team USA event. Very excited about it. Um

event. Very excited about it. Um

obviously there's no single venue that will accommodate 6,000 people but just join one of the things watch it with nerds and talk about AI.

Um we're actually doing after some feedback from Engineer Europe we're actually doing our first NEO new engineer orientation. Uh this is

engineer orientation. Uh this is literally for people who are coming on their own. Uh so usually Wolter is kind

their own. Uh so usually Wolter is kind of designed as kind of come go with your friends, go with your team. Uh divide

and conquer. There's you know 10 to 12 simultaneous tracks. So you just split

simultaneous tracks. So you just split up with your team, pick like one per one track per person and then you gather it back at the end of the day. Sort of like a map reduce.

Um uh for NEO uh if you're coming alone, you're completely new or if you're just returning and you're open to networking and helping others out, uh this is the uh orientation the night before the

first day where people will just meet up. Um so far we have 300 people signed

up. Um so far we have 300 people signed up. I think this is going to go to a

up. I think this is going to go to a thousand people. So we need help. Um

thousand people. So we need help. Um

we're going to have a lot of newbies. A

lot everyone's going to ask the same exact questions. We have a chatbot. No

exact questions. We have a chatbot. No

one's going to use it. We know this. So

we just people want to talk to humans. I

know. Um, so it's the it's the irony of AI that, you know, even as much as we believe and like AI, we do still want to talk to humans. That's why we're all here. So, we're setting up NEO. Um, also

here. So, we're setting up NEO. Um, also

a new one. This one I had nothing to do with because I don't have kids. Um, but

the the kind of people at Neo Forj have set up a kids event. Like literally, if you have kids, bring your kid. This is

not about how to be a better parent.

This is bring your kid and get them interested. Um, I don't know the rules

interested. Um, I don't know the rules around this. I and they're doing it, but

around this. I and they're doing it, but I just I'm just highlighting it because it's cool. U I do think that we do want

it's cool. U I do think that we do want to be supportive and inclusive and um you know, I guess one of our KPIs is like the amount of relationships that we're starting to for form for families

and couples. Um there have been couples

and couples. Um there have been couples that have met at AIE and you know, that's that's like one of the my my dearest sort of impact stories that that I love and and the team loves that's

organizing this thing. We do have a dating event uh that is in the expo on opening night. It's not even listed. We

opening night. It's not even listed. We

just don't have the space. Just just

come. Just come for everything, okay?

Like I just don't have the bandwidth or capacity. I'm making this video, okay?

capacity. I'm making this video, okay?

I'm like taking time out from like messing around with my schedule and like doing migrations on the database. Just

come. Okay. Yeah. Anyway, so that's the recap. Uh six things to know about AIE.

recap. Uh six things to know about AIE.

Um there's a lot. These are the six things that me the, you know, co-founder chooses. I'm sure there's stuff I

chooses. I'm sure there's stuff I missed. Um, there's MC's I'm really

missed. Um, there's MC's I'm really proud of. There's track hosts I'm really

proud of. There's track hosts I'm really happy to work with. Uh, it is a village.

I cannot take credit for how well AI AIE has gone. People have just decided to

has gone. People have just decided to pitch in and make this community meaningful because there's so much slop out there and we are still on the war on slop. We're still fighting SLOP. What

slop. We're still fighting SLOP. What

everything I said in New York last time if you saw my last talk still stands.

So, we're doing this. Join us. Um,

there's a promo in here if you need the the sort of discount. Don't really need it. It's quite affordable. Um, and you

it. It's quite affordable. Um, and you get your money back in credits anyway.

So, uh, what's there to lose? Come spend

some time with us. Don't travel outside of the US for, uh, the week of July 2nd.

See you.