CMSWire: 12,000 People Came to Vegas to Talk About Something Invisible

This article was written by Greg Kihlström for CMSWire. Read the full article here.

Nobody says "electric light" anymore, and as far back as 2017, Andrew Ng wrote that AI is the new electricity. The electric qualifier wasn’t needed anymore once the capability was taken for granted, and "AI-powered" is on the same trajectory. Which raises a fair question about the first week of August 2026: what explains 12,000 people flying to Las Vegas to talk about something on its way to becoming invisible?

Ai4 ran August 4–6 at The Venetian in Las Vegas, its ninth year. Organizers reported attendance above 12,000 from 100 countries, up from 8,000 the previous year. Exhibitors and sponsors grew from 250 to more than 400. Startup Alley went from 25 to 66 companies. Credentialed media more than doubled, to 225.

From those numbers (and the on-site registration lines, which strained to meet demand for the opening keynotes), we can quantify what we’ve all likely been feeling: a 50% jump in buyers walking the floor, while the number of companies selling to them nearly doubled. The topics and focus of the event were perhaps more meaningful, with accountability recurring across keynotes.

This article was written by Greg Kihlström for CMSWire. Read the full article here.