IEEE CAI 2026 — AI Conference, Granada

IEEE CAI 2026 is basically IEEE’s applied-AI conference — the one built less around pure model novelty and more around where AI actually gets used. The event runs May 8-10, 2026 in Granada, Spain, and the practical news right now is that the preliminary schedule is out, registration is at its deadline, and the venue has changed. Instead of the city congress center many earlier listings mentioned, attendees are now being directed to the Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería de Caminos, Canales y Puertos in Granada. (ieeesmc.org) ### What kind of conference is this? CAI sits in an interesting lane. It is an IEEE conference, but not one of the classic research-only flagships where the whole story is leaderboard gains and paper prestige. The pitch here is applications — healthcare, transportation, sustainability, robotics, finance, tourism, education, industrial systems, and the broader social effects of AI. That makes it a meeting point fo(ieeesmc.org)trying to move AI from demo to deployment. (ieeesmc.org) ### What changed most recently? Two things matter if you are actually planning to go. First, the organizers say the preliminary general schedule and detailed program have been published. Second, they say the venue changed “due to organizational issues.” That is the sort of detail people miss until travel is booked, so it is the most useful update right now. The live conference page names the new venue clearly and(ieeesmc.org). (ieeesmc.org) ### Where is it happening now? The current official conference page points to the Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería de Caminos, Canales y Puertos in Granada. That matters because other pages still point to the Granada Conference Centre or Palacio de Congresos. Turns out both are floating around online at the same time. If you are attending, the safer read is simple — trust the current conference page over older directory-style listings. (ieeesmc.org) ### Who is this aimed at? Not just academics. The conference material leans hard into industry participation, sponsorship, startups, and business networking. There is even a dedicated sponsorship and exhibition push aimed at companies that want visibility, recruiting access, and commercial leads. So the audience is broader than “people presenting papers.” It is also people scouting partnerships, customers, and talent. (ieeecai2026.org) ### What will people actually hear about? The official material highlights verticals rather than one single technical theme. Healthcare and life sciences are explicitly called out, and the broader conference pages list industrial AI, transportation, sustainability, robotics, education, tourism, and trustworthy or responsible AI themes. The shape of the event is clear — less “one big breakthrough model,” mo(ieeecai2026.org)(ieeesmc.org) ### Are there notable speakers? The keynote list is still marked “in progress,” but the current page already names Marcos Lopez de Prado, Juan Bernabé-Moreno, and G. Kumar Venayagamoorthy. That mix fits the conference’s identity — finance and quantitative systems, industrial research, and engineering-heavy AI. In other words, this is not being framed as a consumer-AI spectacle. It is an engineering and deployment conversation. (ieeesmc.org) ### What should attendees watch for now? Registration timing is the immediate pressure point. The registration page says late registration runs until May 3, 2026, and it warns about fake hotel-booking sites. It also spells out that accepted papers need at least one full registration to make the proceedings. So right now the story is less about surprise science news and more about logistics becoming real. (ieeeca([ieeesmc.org)line IEEE CAI 2026 matters if you care about where AI leaves the lab and hits actual industries. The latest useful update is not a flashy keynote or a breakout paper — it is that the program is up, the venue moved, and the conference is now close enough that logistics matter as much as ideas. (ieeesmc.org)