San Jose, CA | May 18–19, 2026
Elsner Technologies will be at the AI & Big Data Expo North America 2026 in San Jose this May 18–19. The event runs at the McEnery Convention Center and pulls together over 8,000 enterprise technology professionals, 250+ speakers, and 250+ exhibitors across seven co-located tracks. It is one of the largest gatherings of AI and data professionals in North America. It covers topics that directly matter to the work we do with our clients.
About the Event
Organized by TechEx Events, AI & Big Data Expo North America covers the full stack of enterprise technology in 2026. AI & Big Data, Cyber Security & Cloud, IoT, Digital Transformation, Intelligent Automation & Robotics, Edge Computing, and Data Center. All seven tracks run simultaneously under one roof in Silicon Valley.
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8,000+
Enterprise technology professionals attending
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250+
Speakers across seven co-located tracks
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250+
Exhibitors showcasing at McEnery Convention Center
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7
Parallel tracks covering the full enterprise stack
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The audience skews senior and technical: CIOs, CTOs, Chief Data Officers, machine learning engineers, enterprise architects, and investors across finance, healthcare, retail, manufacturing, and government. These are the people deciding where AI budgets go and how implementations get built, which makes it a useful event.
What the Two Days Cover?
A focused look at what each day brings, from strategy and infrastructure on day one to execution and developer-led implementation on day two.
Day 1 — May 18
- AI Strategy, Autonomous Intelligence & Enterprise Transformation: Moving AI from pilot to production. That is what this track is about. Agentic AI, autonomous systems, and real roadmaps. Not theory.
- Data at Scale (Platforms, Pipelines & Value Extraction): The infrastructure conversation most organizations avoid until it is too late. Real-time pipelines, lakehouse architectures, and governance. The basics that break things when ignored.
- Data, Platforms & Systems: Built for practitioners. Infrastructure choices, vendor decisions, and the engineering behind data platforms that actually scale.
Day 2 — May 19 shifts to execution:
- Enterprise AI Implementation & ROI: Case studies from companies that have moved past the proof-of-concept phase. The ROI gap is real. Most organizations investing in AI are not seeing returns proportional to their spend. This track takes that problem seriously.
- AI Developer Day (From Prototype to Production): A developer-focused day. Conversations covering MLOps, model deployment, and API integration. Experts will discuss the gap between what works in a notebook and what runs in production.
- Physical AI: Robotics, autonomous vehicles, industrial automation, and edge-deployed AI — the part of the field that is moving fast and not getting enough attention in most enterprise conversations.
The TechEx Learning Hub runs workshops and masterclasses alongside the main program, and the TechEx Meetup Program organizes structured peer discussions on topics like ethical AI, cloud integration, and real-time analytics.
Speakers Worth Noting at AI & Big Data Expo North America 2026
The confirmed speaker list is strong. A few names stand out:
| Speaker | Title | Company | Focus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Franziska Bell | Chief Data, AI and Analytics Officer | Ford Motor Company | AI deployment in manufacturing |
| Arun Nandi | Chief AI & Data Officer | Carrier | AI in industrial and climate technology |
| Tony Ambrozie | Chief Digital & Technology Officer | CVS Health | Healthcare AI governance and patient data |
| Rahul Priyadarshi | Chief Architect | VISA | AI-powered transaction infrastructure |
| Lutz Beck | Chief Information Officer | Daimler Truck North America | Automotive technology and IT strategy |
| Ebenezer Dadson | Chief AI Architect & Technical Fellow | Northrop Grumman | AI architecture in defence |
The Numbers Behind the Timing
AI budgets are growing. So is the gap between spending and results.
Deloitte’s 2026 State of AI Report found that worker access to AI grew 50% in 2025. Companies with 40% or more of their AI projects in production are on track to double within six months. NVIDIA surveyed 3,200 respondents globally. 86% plan to increase AI budgets this year. In North America, 48% plan to grow spending by 10% or more.
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50%
Growth in worker access to AI in 2025
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86%
Plan to increase AI budgets this year (NVIDIA)
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29%
Report significant ROI from generative AI
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65%
Of organizations using GenAI in at least one function
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But bigger budgets do not mean better outcomes.
The ROI gap is real
Writer’s 2026 Enterprise AI Adoption survey put it plainly: 97% of executives say AI benefits their work. Only 29% report significant ROI from generative AI at the organizational level. That is a wide gap. It is also the gap that most enterprises are quietly struggling with right now.
Day 2 of the expo is largely built around this problem.
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$67 Billion
Generative AI market expected size in 2026
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$1.3 Trillion
Bloomberg Intelligence projection by 2032
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The market numbers are hard to ignore. Generative AI is expected to reach $67 billion in 2026. Bloomberg Intelligence puts it at $1.3 trillion by 2032. McKinsey’s Q1 2026 data shows 65% of organizations using generative AI in at least one business function. That’s double the rate from ten months ago.
Adoption is moving fast. Implementation quality is not keeping pace. That is exactly the conversation worth having in San Jose.
What Elsner Is There For?
We will be at sessions across AI strategy, data pipeline architecture, and enterprise AI ROI. These three areas come up most often in conversations with our clients.
The work we do in e-commerce, retail, healthcare, and financial services touches each of these directly, whether that is building AI-powered automation into order workflows, designing data infrastructure that can support machine learning at scale, or helping teams move from a working prototype to something that runs reliably in production.
The Physical AI track is also on our radar. AI moves into robotics and industrial systems. The line between software and operational infrastructure keeps shifting. And we want to understand where it is heading.
Beyond the sessions, the expo is a good place for conversations. TechEx North America brings together CIOs, Chief Architects, and Heads of Data alongside Infrastructure Leads and engineering teams. Those cross-functional meetings are where useful partnerships tend to start.
Connect With Us in San Jose
McEnery Convention Center, San Jose, CA
May 18–19, 2026
Elsner will be at AI & Big Data Expo North America 2026. If you are attending, come find us.
Got an AI implementation challenge? Let’s talk. Curious about data infrastructure? We have thoughts. Want to meet the Elsner team? We will be there.
More on the event at ai-expo.net/northamerica. To reach us directly before the expo, visit elsner.com.
Meet Elsner at AI & Big Data Expo 2026
Whether you are stuck between AI pilot and production, rethinking your data infrastructure, or trying to close the ROI gap on enterprise AI investments, we would love to talk it through. Schedule time with our team before the show.
