HumanX 2026: Europe’s AI moment moves from hype to execution (Sponsored)

European AI is entering a different phase. In August, new provisions of the EU AI Act came into effect, including transparency requirements covering interactions with AI systems and certain AI-generated content.

For Europe’s startups, investors and business leaders, the conversation around AI is increasingly moving from what the technology could do to how it must be built, deployed and scaled in practice to comply not just with the new regulations, but how customers, partners and employees want to use it.

It is against this backdrop that HumanX will bring more than 2,500 AI leaders to Amsterdam from 22-24 September, convening founders, investors and executives from across the global AI ecosystem.

“Europe is having its moment with AI,” says Stefan Weitz, co-founder and CEO of HumanX. “You’ll have world-class founders building here, global companies deploying AI here and a regulatory environment that is influencing how the technology develops far beyond Europe. It requires a platform that reflects that growing influence and not just a trade show with content sold to the highest bidder.”

What Weitz is most looking forward to, however, is less about any individual keynote and more about who will be in the room.

“You’ll have the founder building the technology sitting alongside the enterprise leader trying to deploy it and the investor deciding where the next wave of value will be created,” he says. “With my investor hat on, I see these groups too often missing each other and making bad business decisions as a result. Bringing them together is where things get interesting.”

Next week’s speakers include Nikesh Arora (CEO, Palo Alto Networks), Marjan Rintel (CEO, KLM), May Habib (co-founder & CEO, Writer), Fabian Hedin (co-founder & CTO, Lovable), Jan Oberhauser (Founder & CEO, n8n), Joelle Pineau (Chief AI Officer, Cohere), Alex Kendall (co-founder & CEO, Wayve) and Susan Jones (CDO, Diageo), alongside investors including Nick Clegg (General Partner, Hiro Capital).

Moving beyond the conference model

HumanX was created by the team behind Money20/20, Shoptalk and HLTH, but its approach to programming is deliberately different from many large technology conferences.

Sessions are editorially chosen based on what our industry, customer and VC partners tell us are critical issues facing them right now, rather than sold as part of sponsorship packages, with programming focused on practical questions facing companies implementing AI.

“The test for us is pretty simple,” says Weitz. “Do you leave knowing something you can actually do differently on Monday? If you’ve spent three days at an AI conference and leave with lots of inspiration but no clearer idea what to do next, you’ve wasted your time and money and we haven’t done our job. Most other conferences just want you in a seat so they can sell bigger sponsorships.”

It’s also why HumanX runs differently to most conferences of its scale. Sessions are curated and moderated by a journalist rather than a friendly VC, and never sold – an independence that makes any presence on stage worth something.

Multiple structured programmes exist specifically to set up 1:1 meetings between participants, rather than leaving connections to chance in an exhibition hall. And the people running it have sat in the audience’s seat through other moments when everything changed, and know how to navigate one.

“We’re at the point where AI strategy is your business strategy,” says Weitz. “The gap between organisations experimenting with AI and those actually rebuilding around it is widening quickly. HumanX is about putting the people already doing that in the same room, and if you aren’t there, you’re not just a few months behind, you’re risking your own extinction.”

HumanX Amsterdam takes place next week at RAI Amsterdam from 22-24 September 2026, and EU-Startups readers can save €500 on HumanX Amsterdam passes with code HX26E_EUSTARTUPS.

The code expires at midnight CEST on 21 September, the day before the event begins. Register now to avail of this discount.