Machines can think 2026 opened in Abu Dhabi with 1,500 global AI experts

Two-day summit focused on applied AI, offering access to a 25,000-strong global AI community

Abu Dhabi's flagship AI Adopters event, Machines Can Think 2026, featured a keynote by Yann LeCun, Professor at New York University on Objective-Driven AI: World Models, Reasoning, and Efficiency which examined how AI systems can move beyond pattern recognition toward goal-oriented reasoning, improved efficiency, and more reliable decision-making in real-world environments. Machines Can Think 2026 is co-organised and co-hosted by Polynome and the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence.

The flagship executive AI summit brings together global innovators, leading UAE institutions, government decision-makers, and world-class researchers shaping the future of intelligent technologies, with a strong focus on governance, infrastructure, and measurable impact.

In his opening remarks, Alexander Khanin, Founder and Director of Polynome Group, positioned Machines Can Think as a strong platform for public and private sector leaders to address AI adoption at scale. He noted that the calibre of speakers and the depth of discussion were designed to move beyond vision-setting, enabling informed debate and actionable outcomes.

Alexander Khanin, Founder and Director of Polynome Group, said: “Machines Can Think brings together researchers, policymakers, investors, and enterprise leaders to examine how AI systems are designed, governed, and embedded into real operational environments.

As AI moves deeper into public infrastructure and regulated sectors across the UAE, large-scale adoption depends as much on informed leadership and organisational readiness as it does on technical capability. Building on the success of earlier initiatives such as Machines Can See, this year marks the expansion of the platform to Abu Dhabi, where the summit is co-hosted with Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence. This reflects the UAE’s broader ambition to develop AI as a national capability that is governed responsibly, scaled with confidence, and positioned to attract serious talent and long-term investment.”

Machines Can Think 2026 featured 50+ topics and 1,500 experts from 30+ countries across its two-day agenda. Day one features a dense program across its Co-Evolution and Tech tracks, with sessions on AI Factories: Enabling AI at State Scale, examining national AI infrastructure and large-scale deployment.

Keynotes explored advances in World Models, alongside technical perspectives on Three and a Half Generations of Video Generation Models, Gamification of Large Language Models, From Intelligence to Awareness: The Next Layer in Enterprise AI, A New Playbook for Drug Discovery and Development, and Foundation Models for Biology: From Structures to Systems explored advances in reasoning, generation, enterprise intelligence, and life sciences.

Practical deployment was addressed through workshops such as From AI Ambition to Delivery: Practical Insights from the UAE Public Sector, Your AI, Your Control: Sovereign AI, From Strategy to Practice, Trace & Proof First: Build Proof-Backed Search Agents with Evals and Live Observability, What C-levels Must Know About AI and Architecting an AI-First Culture: The AI Academy’s 2026 Roadmap.

Governance, investment, and societal impact were examined in Pilot to Policy: AI Safety, Why Unicorn Logic Breaks in AI, and The Future at the Crossroads of People, Business and the City. Sector-focused discussions examined drug discovery and development, foundation models for biology, personalised human phenotyping, and AI in education and the knowledge economy, setting a rigorous foundation for deeper exploration as the summit continues into day two.

Andrey Doronichev, CEO of Bioptic, said, “What makes Machines Can Think is that it connects people working across the full AI stack, from researchers training neural networks to teams applying AI in highly regulated industries like pharma. The region is reaching an inflexion point where compute and infrastructure are advancing, but the real opportunity lies in building research depth and attracting specialised scientific talent. Platforms shift the perception that serious AI research and long-term innovation can be built from here, not just deployed here.”

Vladimir Razuvaev, Chief Executive of Yango Tech, commented, “At a time when global AI spending is approaching $2 trillion, the more difficult question for governments and high-compliance industries is building systems that can support complex public services at scale. As service volumes grow across licensing, permits, healthcare, and social services, institutions are looking beyond isolated automation toward AI agents that can manage multi-step processes with consistency and auditability.

At Machines Can Think 2026, Yango Group shared practical insight through an exclusive roundtable and workshop based on joint applied research. The sessions debuted original findings on AI adoption at scale, combining academic analysis with real-world public sector implementation experience.”

Machines Can Think sits within the wider Machines Can Summits series, which has become a global reference point for applied AI dialogue, bringing together 25,000 participants from the AI community. With previous editions generating over 6 million online engagements and attendees from 82+ countries, the event catalyses partnerships, research initiatives, and strategic MoUs. It continues to scale both in reach and influence as a forum where AI ambition is translated into action.

The summit is supported by a growing ecosystem of partners, including the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence, Abu Dhabi Convention and Exhibition Bureau, Yango Group, Mubadala, Abu Dhabi Police, DDN, e&, Tahaluf, aiphoria, Backwell Tech, Women in AI (global network and UAE chapter), Sandooq Al Watan, XPANCEO, MBuzz, Beco Capital, Hub71 Orbit, Jupiter E-Power, and VAST Data.

To learn more, visit www.machinescanthink.ai.