AI Council Events

AI Council is a technical, vendor-neutral, community-led AI conference that has run every year since 2015 (evolving out of the Data Council community). It is built for the people who actually build and ship AI systems — software engineers, data engineers, technical leaders, and data scientists — rather than a C-suite or sales audience. The agenda favors practical insights over hype, with talks from practitioners at companies like Anthropic, OpenAI, Perplexity, Databricks, Replit, and DuckDB Labs. The format goes beyond standard talks: engineering office hours let you discuss architecture problems directly with speakers, and hands-on workshops are led by the people who maintain the systems. Browse our verified attendee reviews above to see how past participants describe the room.

AI Council sells tickets directly (through its ticketing partner) rather than using a free or invitation-only model, and prices vary by edition and by how early you register — earlier passes are typically cheaper, and tickets have sold out in past years. Separate sponsor packages are available for companies that want a presence at the event. Because exact pricing and tier availability change each year, check the upcoming events section above for current ticket prices and availability for the next AI Council.

AI Council is a three-day conference held in San Francisco at the SF Marriott Marquis, putting it in the heart of the city most associated with foundation-model labs and AI infrastructure companies. Editions are dated by year and host city — for example, AI Council 2026 San Francisco, which ran May 12–14. Because the dates shift slightly each year, check the upcoming events section above for the confirmed dates of the next AI Council.

AI Council is organized into technical tracks covering inference systems, AI engineering, agent infrastructure, coding agents, model systems, data engineering and databases, and AI security. Sessions concentrate on real production challenges and lessons from teams operating AI at scale rather than vendor product demos. Recent editions featured 50+ speakers, and beyond the talks the program includes engineering office hours and hands-on workshops where you can dig into architecture problems directly with the people who build and maintain the systems.

For engineers, data engineers, and technical leaders building AI systems, AI Council’s value is its practitioner depth and vendor-neutral stance — talks and workshops come from people maintaining real systems, and the engineering office hours let you work through architecture problems directly with speakers. Attendees tend to value the hands-on, hype-free format over a polished keynote-and-expo experience. If you are looking for a high-level executive or sales-oriented summit, a different event may fit better. Browse our verified attendee reviews above to judge whether the room matches your role.