Web Summit Lisbon 2026 has not happened yet, but its published programme already gives us some clues about the AI automation trends likely to get attention in Lisbon. With 17 content tracks, including a dedicated AI Summit, the event is set to bring together conversations around automation trends.
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AI automation is becoming less about asking an AI tool to produce something and more about getting AI to participate in an entire business workflow. That shift is important for Web Summit because the event's current AI programme is already moving beyond basic chatbot conversations towards agents, infrastructure and AI systems operating in the real world.
In other words, the interesting question for Lisbon is no longer simply "What can AI generate?" It is increasingly "What can AI actually do?"
AI automation may not have its own dedicated "AI Automation Summit" at Web Summit Lisbon 2026, but the subject is already woven into the event's AI programming. Web Summit 2026 features several content tracks, with the dedicated AI Summit covering topics that sit very close to the future of business automation.
The Web Summit Lisbon’s AI Summit page lists “Godfather of AI” Geoffrey Hinton of the University of Toronto, Sam Altman of OpenAI, Michelle Zatlyn of Cloudflare and Anton Osika of Lovable among the AI leaders who have joined the line-up.
And more.
With names like these on the bill, the upcoming automation conversation in Lisbon should have plenty to work with.
The published AI Summit Lisbon programme already sets out five themes:
Those themes give us a pretty good preview of the conversation we expect to hear around automation in Lisbon.
AI agents are likely to be one of the biggest automation conversations at Web Summit Lisbon 2026. The reason is simple: an AI that answers a question is useful, but an AI system that can plan, make decisions and complete several steps of a workflow has much bigger implications for businesses.
The programme itself already hints at this shift with "The agentic era", a theme that asks what it will take for agents to go mainstream. It points to slow adoption, security concerns, poor API integration and unsophisticated agents as the obstacles holding deployment back, which is one of the biggest questions around agentic AI right now: what happens when these systems have to work reliably outside a controlled demonstration?
Our guess is that the conversation will move away from "Look what this agent can do" and towards "Can this agent actually run part of a business process?"
That could mean everything from customer support and lead qualification to reporting, research, internal administration and content operations.
AI automation cannot run without infrastructure, so expect the less glamorous side of AI to get plenty of attention too. The AI Summit's "Accelerate or hold back?" theme already points that way, touching on rising energy demand, hardware caught up in tariffs and embargoes, and regulation that differs from one region to the next. That signals that the conversation is not just about clever applications but also about the systems supporting them.
For businesses, this matters because automation at scale needs more than a good prompt. It needs data access, integrations, security, computing resources, monitoring and sensible controls.
So while "infrastructure" may sound like the bit that makes everyone reach for another coffee, it could become one of the most important parts of the automation discussion.
Open-source AI could change what businesses automate by giving them more choice over where their AI systems run and who controls them. It is the heart of the "Open vs closed" theme, which asks whether the future of intelligence will be open-source, community-driven and transparent, or proprietary, heavily guarded and delivered through secure APIs.
If open-source models continue to become more capable and practical, businesses could have more flexibility over where their AI systems run, how they are integrated and how much control they have over their data.
For automation, that could eventually make customised AI workflows more accessible to companies that do not want every process tied to a single platform.
We will have to see how far that conversation goes in Lisbon.
Web Summit is also likely to include plenty of conversations about what AI actually costs once the demo is over. The AI Summit's "The ROI of AI" theme is particularly relevant to businesses considering automation, because it asks what separates real operational returns from venture-backed hype.
AI automation is not automatically cheaper simply because fewer people are manually clicking buttons. Businesses still have to account for implementation, integrations, data, model usage, monitoring, maintenance and human oversight.
That could make ROI a much more important part of the AI conversation in 2026.
Trust could decide how far automation goes, and the AI Summit's "Building utopia on digital slop" theme puts it in the spotlight. It sets the promise of superintelligence against the messier reality of deepfakes, low-quality AI content, disruptive automation and shifting trust in institutions.
For most businesses, that is a useful reminder that automation reaches customers and teams as well as processes. Output people cannot trust is unlikely to save anyone time.
Perhaps the most interesting automation signal from the current programme is the focus on AI agents stalling in production.
That is a very different conversation from the AI hype we have been hearing for the last few years.
Getting an AI system to work once is one thing. Getting it to work reliably every day, handle exceptions, connect to existing systems and know when to involve a human is another.
That is where we expect the practical automation conversation to get much more interesting at Web Summit Lisbon.
AI adoption data suggests there will be plenty of businesses at Web Summit with a genuine reason to care about this conversation. McKinsey's 2025 State of AI research found that 88 percent of respondents reported regular AI use in at least one business function, up from 78 percent the previous year.
But adoption does not necessarily mean successful automation. McKinsey also found that only around one-third of respondents said their organisations had begun scaling AI programmes, suggesting that the gap between experimentation and implementation remains significant.
The UK figures tell a similar story. Office for National Statistics data published in January 2026 found that 25 percent of businesses reported using AI in late December 2025, increasing to 44 percent among businesses with 250 or more employees.
Across the EU, 19.95 percent of enterprises with 10 or more employees used AI technologies in 2025, an increase of 6.47 percent compared to 2024. Among SMEs, the figure was 17 percent, compared with 30.36 percent for large enterprises.
So yes, AI adoption is moving quickly. The more interesting question for Web Summit 2026 is likely to be what businesses are actually doing with it.
The biggest automation problem may not be the technology at all. Businesses can run into trouble when they automate an unclear process, choose an impressive use case without a measurable business outcome, or underestimate the work required to maintain an AI system.
Gartner predicts that more than 40 percent of agentic AI projects will be cancelled by the end of 2027 because of escalating costs, unclear business value or inadequate risk controls.
That prediction makes the Web Summit discussion around production particularly relevant.
If AI agents are going to become a major part of business automation, companies will need to work out where those agents can operate safely, what information they can access, when humans need to step in and how their performance will be measured.
In other words, expect less "AI can do everything!" and more "OK, but how do we actually deploy this?"
At least, that is what we are hoping to hear.
The best first automation target is usually a repetitive workflow that already has a clear process and measurable outcome. Businesses do not need to start by handing their entire operation to an AI agent.
Think reporting, data handling, customer support triage, internal administration, lead processing, research or repetitive content workflows.
For Malta-based businesses working out where to start, schemes such as the Digitalise Your SME grant can help offset the cost of that first automation project.
The wider labour market also suggests that automation is more complicated than simply replacing human jobs. The World Economic Forum expects 170 million jobs to be created and 92 million displaced by 2030, resulting in a net increase of 78 million jobs.
That makes the more useful question less about "What can we replace?" and more about "Which repetitive work can we remove so people can spend more time on higher-value work?"
That is the kind of automation conversation we would like to see getting more attention in Lisbon.
The businesses most likely to get useful results from AI automation are the ones that start with a real workflow rather than a shiny new AI tool.
And if Web Summit Lisbon 2026 does end up being dominated by conversations about AI agents, infrastructure and production, these principles will probably become even more relevant.
MPiFY helps businesses turn AI automation from an interesting idea into a practical workflow. Rather than adding AI simply because everyone else is talking about it, the focus is on identifying where automation can remove repetitive work, improve processes and create useful capacity for teams.
That can sit alongside MPiFY's work in AI-aware search and digital growth, including AEO strategy built for AI answers. The wider MPiFY marketing strategy team can then connect that visibility with content and marketing activity.
The bigger point is that automation does not have to mean handing everything over to AI. Human specialists still need to define the process, set the boundaries, check the output and make the decisions that require actual judgement.
That is also why Web Summit is interesting for us. We are not going to Lisbon expecting one magic AI tool to change everything. We are going to see what the industry is actually building, where the technology is heading and which ideas might genuinely be useful for businesses.
AI automation can be worth exploring when it solves a specific business problem, but Web Summit Lisbon 2026 may be particularly useful for seeing which automation ideas are moving beyond hype. The current programme already points towards AI agents, open-source versus closed AI, the return on AI investment and the challenges of putting AI into production.
Will AI agents dominate the conversation? Will businesses start asking tougher questions about ROI? Will open-source models change how companies build their automation stacks? Will someone unveil something nobody saw coming?
Web Summit Lisbon 2026 takes place from 9 to 12 November 2026, with a dedicated AI Summit as one of its content tracks.
MPiFY will be there too. So if automation is on your roadmap and you are heading to Web Summit, come and compare notes with us. Let’s talk about what is happening on stage, what is actually useful for businesses and, importantly, what you could automate when you get back home.
The agentic era, open-source versus closed AI, the ROI of AI, pressure on computing and regulation, and the question of trust are already visible in the published AI Summit programme.
Yes. Web Summit 2026 includes a dedicated AI Summit alongside other content tracks.
AI agents are already part of the published programme, including a theme called "The agentic era" that looks at what it will take for agents to go mainstream.
AI automation depends on infrastructure for data, integrations, computing, security and reliable deployment. Web Summit's AI Summit already includes a theme, "Accelerate or hold back?", that looks at rising energy demand, hardware access, and regulation.
McKinsey found that 88 percent of respondents reported regular AI use in at least one business function in 2025, compared with 78 percent in the previous year.
AI projects can struggle when businesses cannot demonstrate clear value, underestimate costs or try to deploy agents without appropriate controls. Gartner predicts that more than 40 percent of agentic AI projects could be cancelled by the end of 2027.
Yes. MPiFY will be attending Web Summit Lisbon from 9 to 12 November 2026 and can help businesses explore practical AI automation opportunities.
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