- June 24 – 26, 2026
2026 Chicago AI Week
Where Responsible AI comes alive. Powering progress that matters.
- EVENT
About the Event
Chicago AI Week 2026 (June 24–26) returns for its fourth year, bringing together global leaders from industry, government, and academia to shape the responsible AI future. Powered by AI 2030 in collaboration with 1871 and Chicago AI Council, the program features Women in AI Day, Responsible AI Day and AI Industry Day, and high-impact networking—where bold ideas turn into real-world action.
- Featured Speakers
Trusted Voices in Responsible AI
Real leaders. Real use cases. Real Responsible AI impact
- Why Attend?
What Makes Us Different
Cross-sector by design
Financial services, healthcare, public sector, and supply chain leaders in one room—unlocking collaboration that rarely happens anywhere else.
Responsible AI, operationalized
Financial services, healthcare, public sector, and supply chain leaders in one room—unlocking
Move beyond principles to people, processes, and technology—driving real-world adoption at scale.
that rarely happens anywhere else.
Real partnership creation
Structured opportunities to form deals, pilots, and collaborations on-site.
Global meets local
Connect international perspectives with Chicago’s fast-growing AI ecosystem.
- Agenda
3 Days at AI Excellence
SESSION TIME:
3:00PM – 4:00PM
EVENT LOCATION:
Morningstar Office; Address: 22 W Washington St #7, Chicago, IL 60602
Women in AI Forum - AI 2030 Chicago AI Week
Agenda
3:00 – 3:30 PM | Arrival and Networking
3:30 – 4:00 PM | Opening Remarks
● Marie Roker-Jones, Women in AI and NYC Partnerships Lead, AI 2030.
● Marisa Mann,CEO, UpLift All
● Kenya K. Merritt, Commissioner of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE), City of Chicago (TBD) Change to “City of Chicago Representative”
● Betsy Ziegler, CEO, 1871; Steering Committee, Chicago AI Council
● Morningstar
● Marisa AI 2030
SESSION TIME:
4:00 PM –4:30 PM
EVENT LOCATION:
Morningstar Office; Address: 22 W Washington St #7, Chicago, IL 60602
How Women Leaders Are Building What Comes Next
Moderator: Marie
● Hyunzoo Chai, SVP Head of Enterprise Automation, Oaktree Capital Management
● Anne Lee, CTO, AI Research Lab, Bell Labs Solutions Research, Nokia Bell Labs
● Mari Velonaki, Director and Founder, National Facility for Human-Robot Interaction Research
SESSION TIME:
4:40 PM–5:10 PM
EVENT LOCATION:
Morningstar Office; Address: 22 W Washington St #7, Chicago, IL 60602
Women Driving Responsible AI Across Industries
Moderator: Veronica Canton, Partner, Pierson Ferdinand LLP
● Liza Levitt, Vice President, Deputy General Counsel – Platforms, Responsible AI, Emerging Technology, Intuit
● Anitha Yeddula, Sr. Director Application Development, Capital One
● Smriti Kirubanandan, Managing Director, Enterprise AI Transformation, Innovaccer
SESSION TIME:
5:20 PM-5:50 PM
EVENT LOCATION:
Morningstar Office; Address: 22 W Washington St #7, Chicago, IL 60602
Women at the Center of Chicago’s AI Transformation
Moderator: Jennifer Dickey, AI/Privacy Attorney, Dykema
● Aja Carr Favors, First Deputy Corporation Counsel and Head of Privacy & AI, City of Chicago
● Mary Grygleski, VP of Global (Western Hemisphere), The AI Collective
● Klara Nahrstedt, Director of Coordinated Science Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
SESSION TIME:
6:00 PM–6:30 PM
EVENT LOCATION:
Morningstar Office; Address: 22 W Washington St #7, Chicago, IL 60602
Closing the AI Leadership Gap: Collaboration, Capital, and Career Pathways for Women
Moderator: Diya Wynn, Responsible AI Lead, Amazon Web Services
● Angle Bush, Founder- Black Women In Artificial Intelligence
● Jessica Yeats, Principal Data Scientist, Autonomous Vehicles, NVIDIA
● Ilona Logvinova, Chief AI Officer, Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer
SESSION TIME:
6:30 PM-8:00 PM
EVENT LOCATION:
Morningstar Office; Address: 22 W Washington St #7, Chicago, IL 60602
Lisa Closing &. Reception & Awards
SESSION TIME:
9:00 AM – 9:20 AM
EVENT LOCATION:
Las Vegas Convention
Center
Welcome & Opening Remarks Chicago as Responsible AI Hub
1871 & AI 2030 & Partners
- Betsy Ziegler, CEO, 1871
- Xiaochen Zhang, Executive Director, AI 2030
SESSION TIME:
9:20 AM – 9:40 AM
EVENT LOCATION:
Las Vegas Convention
Center
Keynote Fireside: Building the Responsible AI Capital: Illinois’ Vision for the Future of AI.
State of Illinois
SESSION TIME:
9:40 AM – 10:20 AM
EVENT LOCATION:
Las Vegas Convention
Center
AI, Quantum, and the Next Computing Frontier: Illinois’ Opportunity to Lead
- Rashid Bashir, Dean, The Grainger College of Engineering, Vice Chancellor Strategic Partnerships Chicago
- Hanhee Paik, Director, Quantum Algorithm Centers, IBM
- Meera Raja Meera Raja, SVP, Deep Tech, P33
SESSION TIME:
10:20 AM – 10:35 AM
EVENT LOCATION:
Las Vegas Convention
Center
Break
SESSION TIME:
10:35 AM – 11:15 AM
EVENT LOCATION:
Las Vegas Convention
Center
Regulating AI Without Borders: Toward Global Alignment on Safety, Trust, and Accountability
- Moderator: Nitin Sharma, Project Lead- Regulatory Sandbox Lab, World Economic Forum
- Sabeen Malik, Chief Global Policy Officer, Rapid7
- Jake Bernstein, Global AI and Innovation Partner, K&L Gates LLP
- Aja Carr Favors, First Deputy Corporation Counsel and Head of Privacy & AI, City of Chicago
SESSION TIME:
11:15 AM – 12:00 AM
EVENT LOCATION:
Las Vegas Convention
Center
What Role Should Chief AI Officers Play in Building Trustworthy AI Enterprises?
- Parminder Bhatia, Global Chief AI Officer, GE HealthCare
- Ilona Logvinova, Chief AI Officer, Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer
- Julia Penfield, Senior Vice President, Chief AI Officer (CAIO), VelocityEHS;
SESSION TIME:
12:00 AM – 1:00 PM
EVENT LOCATION:
Las Vegas Convention
Center
LUNCH
SESSION TIME:
1:00 PM – 1:40 PM
EVENT LOCATION:
Las Vegas Convention
Center
Governing Systems Across the Implementation Lifecycle
- Liza Levitt, Vice President, Deputy General Counsel – Platforms, Responsible AI, Emerging Technology, Intuit;
- Joseph Lopez, Director of Data Strategy & AI Governance, Michigan First Credit Union;
- Hellena Crompton, Director of Data and AI Governance and Risk, dentsu
SESSION TIME:
1:40 PM – 2:20 PM
EVENT LOCATION:
Las Vegas Convention
Center
From Data to Intelligence: Building Trusted Knowledge Foundations Across Industries
- Amit Shivpuja, Director of Data Product and AI Enablement, Walmart;
- Jessica Yeats, Principal Data Scientist, Autonomous Vehicles, NVIDIA;
- Arjun Ravi Kannan, Director, Data Science Research, Discover Financial Services
- Will Rowlands-Rees , Chief AI Officer, Lionbridge
SESSION TIME:
2:20 PM – 3:00 PM
EVENT LOCATION:
Las Vegas Convention
Center
From Models to Systems: Engineering Production-Grade AI
- Moderator: Tahera Zamanzada, Executive Advisor, SAP
- Madhavi Rajan, Head of Product Management and Strategy, Rackspace Technology;
- Brittany Phillips, Senior Engineering Program Lead, Manager, Google
- Giorgio Natili, Senior Director — Head of AI Engineering (Oracle Cloud Support), Oracle
- Peter Smart, Chief Experience Officer, Fantasy
SESSION TIME:
1:00 PM – 3:00 PM
EVENT LOCATION:
Las Vegas Convention
Center
From Chicago to the World: Backing in Responsible AI Innovators
- Betsy Ziegler, CEO, 1871
- Jed Taylor, Assistant Dean for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Executive Director of TEC, and Clinical Professor, UIUC
- Samir Mayekar, Associate Vice President and Managing Director, Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, UChicago
- Luke Tanen, President and CEO, Chicago Innovation
- Peter Mulford, Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer, Global Head, AI and Innovation Practice, BTS
SESSION TIME:
3:00PM – 3:15 PM
EVENT LOCATION:
Las Vegas Convention
Center
Break
SESSION TIME:
3:15 PM – 4:00 PM
EVENT LOCATION:
Las Vegas Convention
Center
Lighting Talks:
Track 1: AGI and Digital Dignity
Track 3: Building Responsible AI Workforce
Track 3: Governance, Risk and Compliance Deep Dive
- Soheil Feizi, Founder & CSO, RELAI.ai
- Swetha Sekhar, Member of Technical Staff, OpenAI
- Shila Kastl, Director Compliance Risk Programs, SoFi
- Kristof Horompoly, Head of AI, ValidMind
- Sara Tangdall, Governance, Nike
- Alvin Chen, Visiting Clinical Assistant Professor, University of Illinois Chicago
SESSION TIME:
4:10 PM – 5:00 PM
EVENT LOCATION:
Las Vegas Convention
Center
Keynote Fireside chat & Closing Remarks: Call to Responsible AI Leadership
- Chair: Dorri McWhorter, President and Chief Executive Officer, Executives’ Club of Chicago
- Clark Cully, Division Chair, DeVoe School of Business, Technology, & Leadership, Indiana Wesleyan University; Former Deputy CDO, US Department of Defense
- James Landay, Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University, Director Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI (HAI)
- Xiaochen Zhang, Executive Director, AI 2030
SESSION TIME:
5:00 PM – 6:00 PM
EVENT LOCATION:
Las Vegas Convention
Center
Reception
SESSION TIME:
7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
EVENT LOCATION:
Las Vegas Convention
Center
VIP Dinner (By in invitation only)
SESSION TIME:
9:00 AM – 9:10 AM
EVENT LOCATION:
Las Vegas Convention
Center
Opening Remarks
- AI 2030, 1871 & Partners
SESSION TIME:
9:10 AM – 9:30 AM
EVENT LOCATION:
Las Vegas Convention
Center
From Chicago to the World: Shaping the Future of Responsible AI
- City of Chicago
SESSION TIME:
9:30 AM – 9:50 AM
EVENT LOCATION:
Las Vegas Convention
Center
Operationalizing AI in Healthcare: From Breakthrough Research to Better Patient Care
- Daniel Zikovitz, Head of Siemens Healthineers Global AI COE, Siemens-Healthineers
SESSION TIME:
9:50 AM – 10:35 AM
EVENT LOCATION:
Las Vegas Convention
Center
AI Across the Specialty Care Continuum: Aligning Pharma, Specialty Pharmacy, and Payers
- Chair: Eshaa Gogia, Data Science Consultant, CGI
- Anne Michelle Cruz, Vice President of Technology, Walgreens
- Adrienne Kline, Assistant Professor, Northwestern University
SESSION TIME:
10:35 AM – 10:50 AM
EVENT LOCATION:
Las Vegas Convention
Center
Coffee Break
SESSION TIME:
10:35 AM – 10:50 AM
EVENT LOCATION:
Las Vegas Convention
Center
The New AI Operating Model for Banking
- Prashant Mehrotra, EVP, Chief AI Officer U.S. Bank
SESSION TIME:
10:50 AM – 11:10 AM
EVENT LOCATION:
Las Vegas Convention
Center
No Margin for Error: AI in Financial Systems at Scale
- Chair: Archana Lamoureux, Vice President – Head of Corporate Digital Solutions Northwestern Mutual
- Shanthi Gudavalli, Senior Executive Director At JPMorgan Chase
- Deepak Konale, Partner Enterprise AI and Data Transformation, Cognizant;
- Sandeep Maira -Managing Director Al and Data, Accenture;
SESSION TIME:
11:10 AM – 12:00 AM
EVENT LOCATION:
Las Vegas Convention
Center
Leading AI Transformation: What CEOs and Directors Need to Operationalize Now (By invitation only)
- Moderator: Arthur Zards, Founder, Lab Z
SESSION TIME:
12:00 PM – 1:00 PM
EVENT LOCATION:
Las Vegas Convention
Center
Lunch
SESSION TIME:
1:00 PM – 1:20 PM
EVENT LOCATION:
Las Vegas Convention
Center
AI for Public Good: How States Are Turning Data into Better Services
- Flo Wright, Chief Data Officer, Department of Innovation & Technology, State of Illinois
- Eleonore Fournier-Tombs,Chief AI Officer, New York State
SESSION TIME:
1:20 AM – 2:00 PM
EVENT LOCATION:
Las Vegas Convention
Center
Public Sector AI, Real Economic Impact: Illinois’ Blueprint for Responsible Growth
- Chair: Regina Heyward, Senior Vice President for Economic Opportunity, Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago
- Adam Sutherland, Worldwide Public Sector Strategy Lead, AWS Generative AI Innovation Center, AWS
- Joe Peedikayil, Managing Director-North America Enterprise Finance, Risk, AI & Analytics Leader Accenture
- Kristi Dula-Ferguson, Deputy Director, Illinois Department of Commerce & Economic Opportunity, State of Illinois
SESSION TIME:
1:00 PM – 2:00 PM
EVENT LOCATION:
Las Vegas Convention
Center
AI in Healthcare Deep Dive: Scaling Innovation Safely and Responsibly
- Juan C. Rojas, Associate Chief Medical Information Officer, Rush University Medical Center;
- Pei-Yun Sabrina Hsueh, Director of AI Enablement and External Innovation, Pfizer
- Aparna Ahuja, Divisional Vice President Medical, Clinical and Scientific Affairs ID Rapid Diagnostics, Abbott
- Smriti Kirubanandan, Managing Director, Enterprise AI Transformation, Innovaccer
- Meltem Singh, Managing Partner, Gartner
SESSION TIME:
2:00 PM – 2:20 PM
EVENT LOCATION:
Las Vegas Convention
Center
The Internet of Value Meets the Intelligence Economy
- Chris Tyrrell, Managing Director, Head of Digital Assets Risk and Controls, Services, Citi
SESSION TIME:
2:20 PM – 3:00 PM
EVENT LOCATION:
Las Vegas Convention
Center
Stablecoins, Smart Contracts, and AI: The New Stack for Global Finance
- Chair: Arry Yu, Executive Director, Convergence: Tech Policy Institute
- Jyoti Ponnapalli, VP, Head of Applied AI at Frontier Internet
SESSION TIME:
2:00 PM – 3:00 PM
EVENT LOCATION:
Las Vegas Convention
Center
Managing the New Risk Frontier: AI, Data, and Insurance Transformation
- Jesus Gonzalez, Deputy Global Practice Leader, Intangible Assets Aon
- Tushar Ambalia, Chief AI Officer, Tivly
SESSION TIME:
3:00 pM – 3:15 PM
EVENT LOCATION:
Las Vegas Convention
Center
Break
SESSION TIME:
3:15 PM – 4:00 PM
EVENT LOCATION:
Las Vegas Convention
Center
Closing Panel: Building the Future of Physical AI: Responsible Innovation for Machines That Act
- Nancy Amato, Abel Bliss Professor and Director, Siebel School of Computing and Data Science, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
- Chris (Xiangzhe) Chen, Co-CEO of FF AI-Robotics, Head of Global User Ecosystem, and Global Partner, Faraday Future
- Mari Velonaki, Professor, Director, The University of New South Wales UNSW
SESSION TIME:
4:00 PM – 5:00 PM
EVENT LOCATION:
Las Vegas Convention
Center
Closing Remarks &. Networking
- Featured Speakers
Choose Your Pass
Government & Non-Profit Pass
$499
/ person
Designed to support mission-driven leaders advancing AI for public good
- Full access to all main conference sessions
- Entry to AI Industry Day & Responsible AI Day
- Access to networking sessions and community events
- Opportunity to engage with cross-sector leaders and partners
Standard Pass
$999
/ person
Designed to support mission-driven leaders advancing AI for public good
- Full access to all conference sessions and keynotes
- Entry to AI Industry Day & Responsible AI Day
- Access to curated networking events
- Access to select workshops and panels
VIP Pass
$1,999
/ person
For senior leaders seeking deeper access, influence, and connection
- All Standard Pass benefits
- Priority seating at key sessions
- Access to exclusive, closed-door roundtables
- Invitation to VIP receptions and private networking events
- Dedicated speaker meet-and-greet opportunities
Get Ticket Now!
Don’t Miss Your Chance to Shape the Future of Finance with AI.