We’re really betting on people and how quickly they can learn, find opportunity, iterate and integrate this new technology.”
— Lily Lyman, Underscore VC at the 2024 BIG.AI@MIT
Need further evidence of the blistering pace of artificial intelligence implementation? Compare the agenda of MIT’s upcoming AI conference with that of the program’s agenda two years ago and the progress is clear. In roughly a year and a half, the conversation has shifted from implementation challenges and building a business case to agentic AI and delivering ROI.
“Is AI a game changer?” asked Des Dearlove, Co-Founder of Thinkers50, at the 2024 session. “Or is it a whole new game?”
When business leaders, MIT Sloan faculty, and research scientists from around the globe gather next month, they will not only discuss how the game has changed, but get insights on what’s coming next for GenAI.
Business Implications of AI 2026
The 2026 Business Implications of Generative AI@MIT (or BIG.AI@MIT for short) conference will be held at MIT’s Samberg Conference Center in Cambridge, Mass., on April 2-3. Co-organized by the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy (IDE), this event will feature leading AI thinkers from both business and academia, discussing the next phase of AI capabilities and best practices in business.
Two years ago, the conference was gazing into the future. Today, it’s all about now. AI has become a mainstream business tool. Consider:
- A recent survey by consultants McKinsey & Co. finds nearly nine in 10 organizations (88%) using AI regularly for at least one business function.
- The Wall Street Journal reports that merely piloting AI tools isn’t cool anymore. “Companies used to get a stock boost from touting AI pilots,” the newspaper says. “Today, the term has become a sign that they might be falling behind.”
- Research by Morgan Stanley finds companies using AI enjoy an average productivity gain of 11.5%. Even bigger AI productivity gains of over 20% were reported by more than one in 10 respondents.
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Agenda for a New Reality
This changed reality is reflected in the BIG.AI@MIT agenda for 2026.
One of two panel discussions at this year’s BIG.AI conference will focus on Generative AI in practice. The panelists will examine how the technology is reshaping products, work and organizations—again, not how GenAI could reshape these factors in the future, but how it’s doing so right now.
This discussion will be led by Harang Ju, Assistant Professor at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School and the BIG.AI@MIT conference organizer. Joining him will be H. James Wilson of Accenture, the services and solutions provider; Julia Neagu of Quotient AI, an agentic AI company; Nicole Immortica, a Microsoft researcher; and Ernie Tedeschi, head of research at Stripe, a builder of programmable financial services.
This year’s BIG.AI@MIT event hasn’t abandoned forecasts entirely. The panel “What Comes Next? Economic futures in the age of GenAI,” takes a look at what businesses should watch for in the next phase of AI. Led by David Holtz, Assistant Professor at Columbia Business School, he’ll be joined by panelists Laura Burkhauser, Head of Product at Descript, an AI video editor provider; Avi Goldfarb, the Rotman Chair in AI and Healthcare at University of Toronto; Annie Liang, Associate Professor of Economics at Northwestern University; and Rudina Seseri, co-founder of Glasswing Ventures, an investment firm specializing in early-stage AI companies.
In addition, this year’s BIG.AI@MIT conference will feature 16 parallel sessions, all reflecting the rapid adoption of AI technology, including:
- Agent adoption and productivity
- Consumer choice and nudging
- Simulating economic behavior
- LLM training and alignment
Each parallel session, in turn, will feature several short presentations, each 10 to 12 minutes, from leading researchers. In all, there will be some 60 presentations on topics that include multisensory GenAI, the impact of reasoning AI on consumer behavior, and voice AI in firms.
Looking Ahead
In addition, at this year’s BIG.AI@MIT event, Sinan Aral, Director of the IDE and Professor of Management at the MIT Sloan School, will lead three fireside chats, focusing deeper on the human impacts of GenAI in one-on-one conversations.
The first chat is with Rumman Chowdury, CEO and Co-Founder of Humane Intelligence, a nonprofit working to make AI systems more accountable, responsible and fair. In the second, Sinan will talk with Rana el Kaliouby, Deputy CEO of Smart Eye, a human insight AI company. And in the third, Sinan will chat with investor, journalist and author Esther Dyson, whose forthcoming book (to be published by MIT Press in 2027) is Term Limits: Time and Scale in the Age of AI.
There will also be a special Poster Session at the end of Day 1, with some 50 presenters discussing their work. Poster topics will drill down into specific AI applications and explore emerging issues, including:
- Cybersecurity in the age of autonomous decisions.
- Uncovering hidden competitors with GenAI embeddings.
- Responsible use of AI at the U.S. Library of Congress.
→ Check out the agenda and register to attend 2026 BIG.AI@MIT
→ Watch videos from 2024’s BIG.AI@MIT
Peter Krass is a contributing writer and editor to the MIT IDE.
Can you find a god quote from one of the videos that captures one or more of these sentiments and add it below this paragraph?
This can come from the report on the conference or one of the videos.