Post-Industrial Summit 2026:
Autonomous Organizations

Kick off the day with a continental breakfast while connecting with fellow delegates. It's the perfect chance to meet industry leaders, share ideas, and set the tone for a productive summit.

Our host for the Summit, SRI, has been a pioneer in AI since the 1960s, playing a pivotal role in shaping the field. SRI developed the world's first mobile robot with the ability to perceive and reason, the "great-grandfather" of self-driving cars and military drones. SRI's contributions extend to core AI technologies like speech recognition (which powered Siri) and breakthroughs in planning, reasoning, and machine learning.

In this keynote we will discuss how technology has impacted the evolution of organizations, and how decentralization and AI are changing our expectations for what's possible and desirable. Post-Industrial Organizations will be focused on the creation of knowledge, and AI Agents will increasingly be involved not just in making knowledge work more productive. but in coordination of work performed by networks of humans and AIs. Soon we will see organizations that are not just self-managing, but also proactively evolving. This is not the end of human work, it's a better foundation for it. Organizations should serve us, not the other way around.

In this session we will examine how AI is transforming organizations and entire industries. We will analyze successes and failures, explore the biggest challenges encountered, and highlight key emerging trends. We will also project a few years ahead: What will organizations look like—and can leaders transform them quickly enough?

Connect with fellow delegates.

In the last three years we have seen an explosive development in AI agent capailities and usage. Industry standards for interoperability and best practices for managing risk and reliabilty are emerging. There are still many technical challenges to be addressed, and tremendous potential for the near future. In this session we will discuss what's in store for the rest of this decade and beyond. How will the agent tech stack evolve as AI agents become networked and are embedded everywhere and in everything?

As organizations grow large, they slow down due to increased coordination overhead. They also become more risk averse and conservative. Organizational silos inhibit knowledge sharing, and it becomes harder for the organization to learn and implement new capabilities.In this session we will discuss how AI Agents will help overcome these challenges. Context Graphs have emerged as an important mechanism for agents to capture both explicit and tacit knowledge, improve judgement, and share knowledge.  We will explore how even large organizations can become fast learners that can quickly reconfigure as necessary.

Fuel up and forge connections! Join your fellow delegates for an energizing lunch and the chance to network with industry leaders, innovators, and peers. This is the perfect opportunity to exchange ideas, collaborate on future ventures, and expand your network in a relaxed setting.

As enterprises become increasingly autonomous, their workforce will be a mix of AI agents and humans. This transition is happening quickly as agents become increasingly capable, bringing significant productivity gains. It also brings new contradictions. Organizations are flattening as they lay off managers, but they also need managers with the capacity to execute transformation projects. The competition for much-needed AI talent is tough, and executives in traditional firms have an AI literacy disadvantage. Leaders are underestimating the impact of AI in their industries, and overestimating their capacity for rapid change. In this session we will explore these challenges and look for solutions together.

AI agents are rapidly transforming the way companies attract, convert, and serve customers. They now prospect leads, personalize outreach at scale, negotiate terms, and resolve complex support issues in real time. But how effective are these systems in practice? This session explores the state of autonomous customer acquisition and support today, examines what's working (and what's not), and looks ahead to the next wave of innovation: multi-agent systems that coordinate across the entire customer journey, hyper-personalized interactions powered by real-time data, and agents seamlessly integrated into CRM and enterprise platforms.

Shake off the afternoon slump with a caffeine boost and energizing conversations. Connect with fellow attendees to recharge your mind, exchange ideas, explore collaboration opportunities, and build new relationships.

In this session we will dive into common challenges with AI transformations. We know that a large percentage of transformations get bogged down going form pilot projects to production. There are legimitate concerns about customer, financial, regulatory, and brand risks when something goes wrong. Many organizations also find themselves ill-prepared for anything but the most cosmetic changes. How can they find a path to success before it's too late and they overtaken by faster-moving competitors?

In the post-industrial transition, AI is accelerating change at a pace unseen in human history. The opportunity for prosperity and human flourishing is unprecedented, while organizations that fail to adapt will quickly become obsolete. Leaders must execute radical transformations in an environment full of social, political, and technical uncertainty. In this session, we will explore the personal journey leaders must undertake. What mindsets, skill sets, behaviors, and relationships are needed to succeed? What assumptions must be left behind, and how can leaders build a clear vision of the future? Join us for a lively and thought-provoking discussion.

Join us for an unforgettable evening of connection and relaxation! Mingle with fellow delegates and speakers in a lively atmosphere as you unwind with an open bar and delicious refreshments. This is your chance to strengthen relationships, share ideas, and enjoy engaging conversations in a casual setting. Let loose and celebrate the day's insights while forging new connections that could spark future collaborations!

Join fellow delegates over a warm cup of coffee and a delicious continental breakfast as you prepare for another day of insightful discussions and networking. This is the perfect opportunity to share thoughts from day one, exchange ideas, and build connections that will enhance your experience throughout the summit. Let's set the tone for an inspiring day ahead!

AI Agents are making a big impact on product development, increasing productivity and making new solutions possible that would otherwise not be considered. In this session we will discuss the latest progress and the path forward to fully autonomous product and venture development.

Recharge with a refreshing cup of coffee and take advantage of this mid-morning break to connect with fellow delegates. Share insights from the sessions, discuss emerging ideas, and build relationships.

Autonomous Organizations must manage a combination of deterministic and non-deterministic work, with and without humans in the loop. In addition to IT infrastructure, they may also operate physical infrastructure, both inside the organization and externally. In this session we will examine what is technologically possible already, and what's coming next.

We are witnessing the rise of AI agents capable of autonomously discovering products and services, negotiating terms, and executing transactions—all at unprecedented speed and scale. These AI agents are poised to become active participants in the global economy. Within the next decade, it is likely that the vast majority of transactions will take place between AI agents. This shift will reshape supply chains, reduce coordination costs, accelerate growth, and challenge traditional firms as the primary units of economic organization. The implications for infrastructure, governance, and competition are profound.

As we move into the second day, join us for a delightful lunch and connect with fellow delegates and speakers. Enjoy lively conversations, share insights, and build meaningful connections in a relaxed setting. This lunch also marks the closing of the day’s main program, so take the opportunity to reflect, exchange ideas, and end on an inspiring note.

Strategy began with warfare in the Bronze Age and emerged as a field in business in the 1960s thanks to Igor Ansoff. Key aspects of strategy include keeping track of resources and capabilities, coping with uncertainthy, managing against goals, generating and updating plans, and communicating with other parties. This is precisely what AI agents do. We will discuss the application of AI agents to strategy and tactics, the art of arranging resources based on situational challenges and opportunities. We will explore how this works in firms as well as in warfare, with drone warfare as a recent example.

As organizations become more autonomous, they will evolve faster, and so will the industries they are engaged in. What industries will be most affected and what are the greatest opportunities for value creation?

In this workshop we will walk through major elements of AI transformations, with participants discussing problems and solutions. The major aim is to find ways to accelerate progress. Selected speakers from the Summit will be available to help participants work through issues. We will discuss and work on: Assessing Threats and Opportunities in your industry; Assessing your Resources and Capabilities; Envisioning where you need to be to win; Organizational Structure; Leadership and Culture; Workforce transformation; Governance for the Transformation Effort; Risks: Privacy, Safety, Security; Selecting Transformation Projects; Crossing the Pilot to Production Boundary.