A two-day AI summit and expo in Abu Dhabi, next running 11–12 May 2027. The 2026 edition was held at ADNEC Centre, hosted by Abu Dhabi's Department of Government Enablement after a move from May to October 2026.
An artificial intelligence summit and exhibition held at ADNEC Centre Abu Dhabi, and the 2026 edition of the brand that ran in February 2025 as Ai Everything Global. The official FAQ describes it as a global AI summit and exhibition for leaders, policymakers, startups and enterprises. The next edition is scheduled for 11–12 May 2027 in Abu Dhabi. The 2026 edition ran on 6 and 7 October and combined five conference programmes (the Abu Dhabi AI Summit "New Intelligence", Intelligent Infrastructure and New Energy, AIVEST, the AI Government Excellence Forum and AI 360) with an expo of 350+ enterprises and startups, a startup zone called Ai StartX, an invitation-only investor programme and an invitation-only Chief AI Officers programme. The Department of Government Enablement (DGE) of Abu Dhabi was Host Partner and Solutions+, a Mubadala company, was Global Partner for the 2026 edition.
11–12 May 2027, Tuesday and Wednesday. ADNEC Centre Abu Dhabi, Halls 1 to 5 (2026 venue), Abu Dhabi, UAE. The venue for the 2027 edition had not been confirmed as of 26 October 2026. For the 2026 edition, the official site listed both days as 09:00 to 18:00, while the ADNEC venue listing gave 11:00 to 18:00 on day one and 09:00 to 18:00 on day two. The 2026 dates moved twice. The edition was first scheduled for 11 to 13 May 2026, then announced for 5 to 7 October 2026 with a one-day summit on 5 October, as reported by Arabian Business (media partner). The official site placed the whole event, summit included, on 6 and 7 October, and the organiser's press notes of 1 September 2026 gave the same two days. Some organiser pages still carried the older "5-7 Oct" wording in their page titles.
inD Events FZE, named as organiser in the official FAQ and as owner of the website in its terms: a UAE entity registered with the Dubai World Trade Centre Authority, with its head office at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre. inD Events FZE is the joint venture through which Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC) and Informa contract their UAE exhibitions, including GITEX; agreements for events after September 2026 are issued under it. The brand was built by KAOUN International, DWTC's international events company, whose CEO Trixie LohMirmand (also Executive Vice President of DWTC) announced the move to Abu Dhabi in February 2025; KAOUN contracts are being transferred to inD. The Abu Dhabi government side is the Department of Government Enablement as Host Partner, with Solutions+ as Global Partner and ADNEC Centre and Abu Dhabi's destination brand shown as destination partners.
No 2026 visitor figure is published by the organiser, which announces 350+ exhibiting companies for 2026 and participants from 60+ countries. The official audience list is government leaders, AI researchers, technology enterprises, startups, investors, academics and innovation leaders. Organiser pages advertise 500+ Chief AI Officers and 200+ investors with about 50 billion US dollars under management, and press material for 2026 adds 150+ startups from 20+ countries. A figure of 25,000+ visitors and 850 exhibitors circulates on third-party event listings (unverifiable information) and does not appear on the official site. Entry is restricted to trade and business professionals: the published terms bar under-18s from the event and state that under-21s are not allowed into the exhibition and summit halls.
No speakers had been published for the 2027 edition as of 26 October 2026. The 2026 roster on the official speakers page was as follows (published roster, 77 names, checked 10 September 2026):
The conference overview page also lists H.E. Salem Ali Juma Al Zaabi, Head of Emergency, Crisis and Disaster Prosecution, UAE Public Prosecution, who is not on the speakers page. Session titles and times are not on the public site: the agenda page shows only the two day tabs.
Almost everything except the concept. The name changes from Ai Everything Global to Ai Everything Abu Dhabi. The format shrinks from three days in two cities (an Abu Dhabi summit on 4 February 2025 at the St. Regis Saadiyat Island Resort and a Dubai expo on 5 and 6 February 2025 at Dubai Exhibition Centre, Expo City) to two days in one venue, ADNEC Centre Abu Dhabi. The month moves from February to October, after a planned May slot was dropped. The Abu Dhabi partner announced in February 2025 was the Department of Culture and Tourism; the 2026 Host Partner is the Department of Government Enablement, with Solutions+ as Global Partner. The contracting entity moves from KAOUN International and DWTC to inD Events FZE. New named programmes include AIVEST, LifeTech Abu Dhabi, the co-located Intelligent Infrastructure and New Energy expo, the AI Quantum Expo, the AWS AI Training Academy and the Qoder AI Hackathon. The announced exhibitor count falls from 500+ companies reported for 2025 to 350+ announced for 2026 (organiser figures).
The official conference pages set out eight strands for the 2026 edition (the 2027 programme had not been published as of 26 October 2026):
The expo floor is organised by sector: Ai Government, Sovereign Security and AI Cyber Valley, AI Quantum, Intelligent Infrastructure and New Energy, Ai Enterprise, Physical AI and the Ai StartX startup zone. Energy, governance and public sector AI, the themes this index previously recorded, all appear; "AI for sustainable development" does not appear as a named strand.
The 2026 edition had keynotes and panels in the summit and conference halls, moderated in part by broadcast journalists from CNN, BBC News, CNBC, Bloomberg News, Euronews and The Economist who are on the roster. Around them: hands-on workshops (6+ are included in delegate passes), paid certified trainings, investor roundtables, closed-door CAIO roundtables and concierge-matched one-to-one meetings, startup pitches in the Supernova Challenge with finals and awards on 7 October, a two-day hackathon and free AWS training sessions. The organiser advertises 5,000+ onsite meetings and 20,000+ app connections for its matchmaking without naming the edition those figures describe. An event app, the AiOne platform, carries schedules and networking.
The official FAQ says side events run in parallel, by invitation or pre-registration, and are not included in any ticket. None was listed publicly for 2026, and no side events had been published for the 2027 edition as of 26 October 2026. What the organiser published for 2026 were programmes inside or next to the event:
No 2027 prices had been published as of 26 October 2026. The prices below are the 2026 list published in the official FAQ on 10 September 2026, stated as VAT inclusive; a 50 percent offer on delegate passes ended on 15 August 2026. Visitor Pass, exhibition access: AED 150. Student Visitor Pass: AED 50. Premium Pass: AED 7,500, with the Abu Dhabi AI Summit, the expo, all conferences, 6+ workshops, the ConneXions and Investors lounges, networking events, speaker presentations and e-certificates, but no certified training. All Access Conference Pass: AED 2,000, the same without lounges and networking events. Certified Training Pass: AED 4,000, the conference access plus certified training. Workshop Pass: AED 350, expo, conferences and workshops but not the Abu Dhabi AI Summit. Student Delegate Pass: AED 150, also without the summit. Tickets are sold on visit.aieverythingabudhabi.com and can be bought onsite; upgrades are possible after checkout. The FAQ and terms state the VAT rate as 19 percent, which does not match the UAE's 5 percent rate (unverifiable information). The Investor Programme is free for vetted investors.
There is no open call for papers. Would-be speakers fill in the speaker enquiry form on the official site, which asks for name, company, job title and a business email, or write to conference@aieverythingabudhabi.com. No selection criteria, deadline or speaker fee policy are published. Two other routes onto a stage are documented: exhibiting startups get pitch slots through the Supernova Challenge, and the exhibitor package for startups lists speaking opportunities on panels and spotlights. Several programme strands carry sponsor or partner names, such as AI for Drug Discovery by LifeTech Abu Dhabi, so part of the stage time is tied to partnership.
Through three forms on the official site: a stand booking form for enterprises, a pod booking form for startups, and a sponsorship enquiry form. Commercial questions go to sales@aieverythingabudhabi.com. No stand, pod or sponsorship prices are published; the FAQ says options run "from pods to pavilions" and offers bespoke packages. Exhibitors get space, entry into the concierge matchmaking programme, access to the exhibitor portal and a lead-scanning app, with a limited badge allocation. The startup package adds curated meetings with investors and buyers, media exposure, speaking opportunities and a fast-track route to a UAE Golden Visa. Only exhibiting startups can enter the Supernova Challenge: for the 2026 edition, applications closed on 17 September 2026, finalists were announced on 25 September 2026, and ten finalists pitched on 7 October 2026 for a 10,000 US dollar equity-free prize pool. The 2027 Supernova Challenge calendar had not been published as of 26 October 2026. Media partnerships and partnerships with associations have their own enquiry forms, and partnerships@aieverythingabudhabi.com handles partnership questions.
No 2027 sponsors had been published as of 26 October 2026. The 2026 sponsor wall on the official home page, read on 10 September 2026, listed these by tier:
Fourteen media partners are listed: Arabian Business (media partner), Arageek (media partner), Business Today (media partner), EDGE (media partner), Economy Middle East (media partner), Entrepreneur Middle East (media partner), Fast Company Middle East (media partner), Finance Middle East (media partner), Gulf News (media partner), ITP Net (media partner), Mena Tech (media partner), Middle East AI News (media partner), Smashi Business (media partner) and Tahawultech (media partner). Sixteen associations and communities appear as partners, including Station F, HUB France IA, Advantage Austria, AI Bulgaria, the European Digital Finance Association, the Georgian AI Association, IEEE Entrepreneurship, Google Developer Groups, the US Business Council, AI Safety UAE and QuantumKE. Investor logos on the site include Lightrock, PeakBridge, Shorooq, Ion Pacific, Antler, Speedinvest, SC Ventures, Global Ventures, Evolution Equity, Jasoor and Emirates NBD, without a year attached.
No breakdown by company type, size or country is published, so no majority can be stated. The exhibitor list filters by 35 countries, the UAE among them. The published lists show the mix: global cloud and hardware suppliers (AWS, Microsoft, Alibaba Cloud, Dell Technologies, Intel, Nokia, Cloudflare, Snowflake, ASUS), UAE state-linked AI and infrastructure companies (G42, Core42, Inception, Presight, Khazna Data Centres, CPX, Solutions+, Alpha Data), Abu Dhabi and federal government bodies (DGE, UAE Cybersecurity Council, UAE Public Prosecution, Technology Innovation Institute), European and Chinese AI scale-ups (Mistral AI, H Company, Multiverse Computing, Owkin, Skeleton Technologies, MiniMax, ModelBest), consultancies (BCG, Deloitte) and 150+ startups through Ai StartX (organiser figure). The organiser claims the participating enterprises carry about 10 trillion US dollars in combined market capitalisation.
Through the media registration form linked as "Media Accreditation" in the official site footer, hosted on the DWTC media management portal, and the press office at media@aieverythingabudhabi.com, which the FAQ names for media and accreditation questions. The form asked journalists to register their interest in covering the 2026 event, and nothing on 2027 accreditation had been published as of 26 October 2026. No eligibility criteria, deadline, press centre details or named press officer for 2026 were published. The 2025 press releases named a DWTC PR manager and the agency Seven Media as media contacts.
Coverage of the 2026 edition found on 10 September 2026: Arabian Business (media partner) on the October dates; The Recursive, a Central and Eastern European tech outlet, with a programme preview on 17 August 2026; Morocco World News on the 350+ companies on 4 September 2026, in press-release form; and articles in Ahram Online, the Hungarian weekly HVG and the Vietnamese daily Thanh Nien, which the organiser reposts as "exclusive articles" in the press releases section of its own media hub. The February 2025 announcement of the Abu Dhabi move was syndicated as a press release by Zawya, CXO Insight Middle East, Intelligent CIO, Economy Middle East (media partner) and Middle East AI News (media partner). The 2025 edition was covered through the same release circuit, for example Startups Magazine and Technology Magazine.
Mostly placed or promotional. Placed coverage: Arabian Business (media partner), Economy Middle East (media partner) and Middle East AI News (media partner) are on the event's media partner wall, and Gulf News (media partner) and the other ten listed titles are too. Independent but promotional: Zawya, CXO Insight Middle East and Intelligent CIO republished the organiser's release, and Morocco World News carries release material without named sources. Organiser-claimed: the HVG, Thanh Nien and Ahram Online pieces are filed by the organiser under press releases, which suggests supplied content, though no disclosure was checked on those sites. Predictable but unconfirmed: six journalists from CNN, BBC News, CNBC, Bloomberg News, Euronews and The Economist are on the speaker roster, which makes on-air or print mentions likely but commits no newsroom to coverage. The Recursive preview carries no sponsorship disclosure and is the closest to independent coverage found.
Because the brand is a format that the Dubai World Trade Centre group moves to wherever a government partner wants it. It started as a hall inside GITEX Global in Dubai, became Ai Everything Global across Abu Dhabi and Dubai in February 2025, was announced for Abu Dhabi on 11 to 13 May 2026 with the Department of Culture and Tourism, moved to 5 to 7 October, and ran on 6 and 7 October 2026 with the Department of Government Enablement as host. The next edition is scheduled for 11–12 May 2027. In the same period the same format opened in Cairo, Singapore and Nairobi, and the contracting entity passed from KAOUN International to inD Events FZE. The official site still shows the layers: a FAQ page titled "5-7 Oct 2026", a travel page titled "Ai Everything Global", an exhibitor list headed "AI Everything GLOBAL 2026" and an agenda page whose title reads "GITEX AI ASIA 2026". None of this makes the October edition less real, but a reader should trust the dated ticket, not a page title.
Because none of them is audited, and several belong to other events. The 500+ companies, 500 Chief AI Officers and 200 speakers are organiser figures for the 2025 edition, which ran over three days in two cities; 2026 announces 350+ companies, a smaller floor. No visitor figure is published for 2026, yet a 25,000+ visitor and 850 exhibitor claim circulates on event listing sites. The 200,000-attendee scale often quoted around the brand is GITEX Global's, a separate December show. The matchmaking counters, 5,000+ meetings and 20,000+ connections, carry no year. The "world's largest AI-first expo" line is the organiser's own description, and the ticket list states a 19 percent VAT rate that the UAE does not apply. The reliable numbers on this page are the prices, the dates and the named roster.
Because the host is the buyer. The Department of Government Enablement runs Abu Dhabi's AED 13 billion plan to make its government AI-native by 2027, and eight DGE officials are on the roster, from its chairman to the heads of GovDigital, TAMM, GovAcademy and the AI Factory. The AI Government Excellence Forum on 7 October gives them a dedicated day. For a supplier selling to Abu Dhabi's public sector, that concentration of named decision-makers is harder to find elsewhere than a stand among 350+ exhibitors, which a larger show such as GITEX Global offers in December.
Anyone planning to combine the 2026 edition with GITEX Global in the same trip: GITEX moved to 7 to 11 December 2026 at Expo City Dubai, two months later. Speakers looking for an open call for papers will not find one, only an enquiry form. Buyers who need a documented, audited audience profile will not get one. Delegates who want to plan their days by session will find no session titles or times on the public agenda. Students and anyone under 21 should read the terms before buying: student passes are sold, but the terms state that under-21s are not allowed into the exhibition and summit halls. Researchers wanting peer-reviewed or technical depth are better served by academic AI conferences; this is a policy, procurement and deal-making event.
In 2026 it sat in early October, as the first large Gulf AI show of the autumn, and the next edition is scheduled for 11–12 May 2027. The 2026 edition preceded the Dubai AI Festival, scheduled for 26 to 27 October 2026 at Dubai World Trade Centre, and GITEX Global with Expand North Star in December 2026 in Dubai. Its distinct position is Abu Dhabi government hosting: the Dubai events orbit the Dubai government and the private sector, while this one is built around DGE's AI-native government programme. It is not a research conference and not a general technology fair. Events Index tracks it in the AI and data vertical. No independent attendance comparison with those events is possible, since all published figures are organiser figures.
Yes, and the family is easy to confuse. Before Abu Dhabi:
Other editions in 2026, run by the same organising group:
Related but separate: GITEX Global, 7 to 11 December 2026 at Expo City Dubai, and Expand North Star, 8 to 10 December 2026 in Dubai. Their attendance figures are not Ai Everything figures. The Supernova Challenge runs across the family, so a "Supernova winner" may come from Cairo or Nairobi rather than Abu Dhabi.
English. The official FAQ states that all conferences and communication are conducted in English. No Arabic programme or simultaneous interpretation is documented on the site, although the host is an Abu Dhabi government department and several speakers are Emirati officials.
Not documented. The published ticket list has no virtual or online pass, and the site says nothing about livestreaming or recordings. Delegate passes list "speaker presentations" and e-certificates among their benefits without saying in what form. The organiser runs a YouTube channel, but no replay policy for 2026 is stated. The one online extension that is documented is the AWS AI Training Academy's one-month online learning cohort after the event.
No refunds. The FAQ says tickets are non-refundable and non-transferable, while the ticket payment terms say the purchase is non-refundable but substitute attendees are allowed free of charge before the event once the fee is paid, so the two official texts disagree on transfers. Full payment is taken at purchase. The organiser accepts no liability for travel, accommodation or related costs. No policy is published for a postponement or cancellation by the organiser, although the 2026 edition has already been moved twice. The partner hotel rate at Aloft Abu Dhabi has its own terms: free cancellation up to two days before arrival. These are the 2026 ticket terms; 2027 terms had not been published as of 26 October 2026.
Not addressed by the organiser: the official FAQ and terms contain no accessibility section and no contact for access requests. The venue's own FAQ covers the basics: ADNEC Centre Abu Dhabi lends a small number of wheelchairs free of charge from its First Aid Point, has accessible toilets across the venue, admits only registered assistance dogs, and has a nursing room between Hall 1 and Hall 2, next to the halls this event uses. Nothing is published on sign language interpretation, captioning or quiet rooms.
The 2026 edition used ADNEC Centre Abu Dhabi, Halls 1 to 5 (2026 venue), with Car Park B assigned in the venue listing. The venue for the 2027 edition had not been confirmed as of 26 October 2026. ADNEC says the centre is 15 minutes from Zayed International Airport (formerly Abu Dhabi International Airport); the organiser adds 20 minutes from downtown Abu Dhabi. The venue has 6,000 spaces in two multi-storey car parks plus 700 at the marina car park, bus stops around the site (the venue listing cites route 040), and taxis on 600 53 53 53. The organiser publishes Careem and Uber codes for 15 percent off two rides to or from ADNEC on 6 and 7 October, and an Emirates discount code for travel into Dubai (DXB) between 30 September and 12 October 2026: that fare lands in Dubai, a separate emirate, not in Abu Dhabi. Partner hotels are Aloft Abu Dhabi, with direct access to ADNEC and event rates for stays from 4 to 8 October 2026, and Premier Inn Abu Dhabi Capital Centre, opposite the venue, plus EventBeds and the Abu Dhabi Convention and Exhibition Bureau. Visa enquiries go to Al Rais Travel, with AiVisaSupport@dwtc.com for urgent cases.
Official site: aieverythingabudhabi.com (the older aieverythingglobal.com redirects there), with the FAQ at aieverythingabudhabi.com/faqs, the conference overview at aieverythingabudhabi.com/conference-2026, speakers at aieverythingabudhabi.com/speakers-2026, travel at aieverythingabudhabi.com/plan-your-visit and terms at aieverythingabudhabi.com/terms-and-conditions. Tickets are on visit.aieverythingabudhabi.com and the exhibitor list on exhibitors.aieverythingabudhabi.com. Venue details are on adnec.ae. Sales: sales@aieverythingabudhabi.com. Ticket questions: marketing@aieverythingabudhabi.com; registration support: support@aieverythingabudhabi.com; speaking: conference@aieverythingabudhabi.com; partnerships: partnerships@aieverythingabudhabi.com. Media: media@aieverythingabudhabi.com. Social accounts: X @AiEverythingAD, plus LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube under Ai Everything Abu Dhabi. The legal address in the terms, Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre, P.O. Box 9292, Dubai, is the organiser's office, not the venue.