The 2026 Inclusion·Bund Summit will take place from September 9 to 12 at the Shanghai Huangpu Expo Park, as confirmed during a media briefing held on September 3. This year's summit is themed around "Co-creating the AI New Economy," with audience registrations having already exceeded 50,000 attendees.
The event will feature one main forum and over 40 insight forums, bringing together more than 600 domestic and international scholars, scientists, entrepreneurs, investors, and innovators as guest speakers. A 15,000-square-meter themed technology exhibition will be set up, alongside a variety of activities including an Innovator Stage, a Technology and Intelligence Innovation Competition, Developer Day, a Venture Capital Meetup, and a tech talent job fair.
For the first time, an AI Art Festival will be introduced, showcasing the new transformations brought by artificial intelligence across dimensions such as music, film, and art exhibitions.
On the guest front, Nobel laureate in Economics and macroeconomist Thomas Sargent, along with 2025 Nobel Economics Prize winner Philippe Aghion, a leading scholar of the "creative destruction" theory, will share their insights on the AI-driven new economy, growth, and innovation from their respective research perspectives. Additionally, several academicians from the Chinese Academy of Engineering and the Chinese Academy of Sciences—including Zheng Weimin, Wang Jian, Ling Wen, Su Jilan, and Zhang Tongyi—will join practitioners from global tech industry leaders such as Alibaba, Stripe, and SenseTime to discuss frontier trends in artificial intelligence and industrial transformation.
During the summit, a series of announcements will be made around AI payments and agent-based commerce, with a concentration of practical examples from the AI new economy set to be showcased. These examples will range from agents connecting with businesses and AI health services entering households, to embodied intelligence being deployed in pharmacies, factories, and inspection sites, and to AI becoming a new driver of efficiency and growth across various industries. Artificial intelligence is lowering the barriers to software development and content production, while also fostering new entrepreneurial models and organizational structures.
According to the organizing committee, "new species" will be a key innovative force highlighted at this year's event. The Bund Summit's Technology and Intelligence Innovation Competition consists of three major competition units: the "Bund Hackathon AI Coding Competition," the "Green Technology Innovation Competition," and the "AFAC Financial Intelligence Innovation Competition," showcasing the innovative power of youth in the AI era where "everyone can create."
Among these, the Bund Hackathon has attracted over 10,000 participants, with more than ten leading domestic AI coding platforms involved. Nearly 70% of participants are teenagers under 18 years old, with the youngest contestant being just 6 years old, using natural language to collaborate with AI in turning ideas into completed creations. Furthermore, leveraging venture capital platforms including Ant Group's investment ecosystem, the Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund, Plug and Play China, and Shanghai Jiao Tong University, the summit will showcase nearly 120 tech startups and innovative projects, attracting more than 100 investment institutions from around the globe to the event.