Day one
10.00-10.35
Opening Panel
Ballroom
AI Factories: Enabling AI at State Scale
This session explores AI Factories as a new class of digital infrastructure designed to enable large-scale AI development and deployment. AI Factories integrate compute, data, and software platforms to support training, inference, and operationalization of AI systems across multiple sectors. The focus is on how such infrastructure can serve as a foundational enabler for AI adoption at state scale — powering use cases in transportation, energy, public services, and advanced industry, while ensuring scalability, resilience, and long-term impact.
Lenah Hassaballah
Editor
CNN Business Arabic
Faris Al Mazrui
Head of Technology Investments
Mubadala
Andrew Jackson
Group Chief AI Officer
G42
Richard Morton
Managing Director
Institute of Foundation Models
Dr. Abdelrahman Al Mahmoud
Director
AI, Digital Economy and Remote Work Applications Office in the Prime Minister's Office
10.35-10.40
Opening Panel
Ballroom
Welcome Speech
Opening remarks setting the vision and context for Machines Can Think 2026
Alexander Khanin
Founder of Machines Can Think and Polynome
Polynome
10.40-11.00
Keynote
Ballroom
H.E. Omar Sultan Al Olama
Minister
UAE Ministry of State for Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy and Remote Work Applications
11.00-11.20
Keynote
Ballroom
Fireside chat
Aya Zhang
Editor
Business Today
Roman Axelrod
Founder
XPANCEO
11.20-11.50
Keynote
Ballroom
World Models
Eric Xing
President and University Professor
MBZUAI
Keynote
Tech track
Long story short – how we keep AI agents focused on your business goal
Anton Masalovich
ML Lead
Aiphoria
Workshop
From AI Ambition to Delivery: Practical Insights from the UAE Public Sector
YANGO GROUP
Workshop
11.50-12.20
Keynote
Ballroom
Gamification of Large Language Models
Michal Valko
Chief Models Officer
Stealth AI Startup
12.00-12.30
Keynote
Tech track
From Intelligence to Awareness: The Next Layer in Enterprise AI
J. "Scotch" McClure
Founder, CEO & Chairman
Maxwell Biosciences
12.20-13.00
Panel
Ballroom
AI: Within Us, Around Us, Beyond Us — The Future at the Crossroads of People, Business and the City
Kelsey Warner
Gulf Reporter
Semafor
Sergej Loiter
CEO of Search, AI, and AdTech
Yango Group
Maximilian Gismondi
CEO
Backwelltech
Hassan Alnoon
COO
Tahaluf
Roman Axelrod
Founder
XPANCEO
Round table
Pilot to Policy: AI Safety
Women in AI
Workshop
13.00-14.00
Lunch
14.00-14.40
Panel
Ballroom
Why Unicorn Logic Breaks in AI — and What Investors Should Do Instead
Peter Vesterbacka
Co-founder
Rovio Gamesm, Slush
Dany Farha
Co-Founder & Managing Partner
BECO Capital
Eddy Farhat
Executive Director/CVC
e& capital
Ahmad Ali Alwan
Chief Executive Officer
Hub71
Workshop
The Future of AI – Key Trends Shaping What’s Next
NVIDIA
Workshop
14.40-15.10
Keynote
Ballroom
A New Playbook for Drug Discovery and Development
Andrey Doronichev
CEO
Bioptic
Workshop
Trace & Proof First: Build Proof-Backed Search Agents with Evals and Live Observability
Optic
Workshop
Workshop
What C-levels must know about AI
Polynome AI Academy
Workshop
15.10-15.40
Keynote
Ballroom
Foundation Models for Biology: From Structures to Systems
Jean-Philippe Vert
CEO
Bioptimus
Workshop
Workshop (continued)
Optic
Workshop
Workshop
Workshop (continued)
Polynome AI Academy
Workshop
17.00-17.40
Ballroom
Fireside chat
Faris Al Mazrui
Head of Technology Investments
Mubadala
Prashant K. Gulati
16.10-17.00
Session
Ballroom
AI Classroom: Rethinking Education for the Knowledge Economy
Prof. Merouane Debbah
Director of 6G Research Center
Khalifa University
Prof. Timothy Baldwin
Provost
MBZUAI
Prof. Saman Sarbazvatan
COO and Vice Dean
ENPC
Dr. Ray Johnson
Senior Advisor
Office of the President, Khalifa University, UAE
Dr. Horst Simon
Director
ADIA Lab, UAE
Mastercalss
Tech track
The Human Phenotype Project: Personalized
Hagai Rossman
Researcher
MBZUAI
Session
Tech track
K2 Think: advancing AI reasoning - from model to real-world impact
Haonan Li
Xudong Han
Workshop Session
Architecting an AI-First Culture: The AI Academy’s 2026 Roadmap
Polynome AI Academy
Workshop
17.00-17.40
Keynote
Ballroom
Objective-Driven AI: World Models, Reasoning, and Efficiency
Yann LeCun
Professor
New York University