humAIn 2026 · The human signal in the age of AI

What remains
irreducibly human
in the AI era.

AI can generate content, analyse information and automate decisions. What it cannot replace — yet — is human judgment, taste, responsibility and meaning.

humAIn is where these questions are explored in practice.

Get tickets — 13 + 14 October · Sydney '26 Read the media → Early bird closes 25 August
humAIn 2026 AI conference, Sydney
AI & Creative WorkThe Taste GapBrand Discovery in the AI AgeCulture as Training DataBuilding in PublicDebate & Dissent AI & Creative WorkThe Taste GapBrand Discovery in the AI AgeCulture as Training DataBuilding in PublicDebate & Dissent

Two conversations,
one room.

01 — The premise
The builders

How AI works

Models, tools, capabilities, speed. The people shipping the systems; what's actually possible this quarter, and what's still hype.

The leaders

What AI means

For creativity, culture, jobs and decision-making. The marketers, creatives and leaders putting these systems to work in the real world.

Most events pick a lane. humAIn brings them together.

Get tickets → Early bird closes 25 August

Who humAIn is for.

02 — The room
M

CMOs & marketing leaders

Using AI in brand & growth — navigating content velocity, AI search and what earns trust when machines mediate discovery.

In-house · Brand · Growth
F

Founders & builders

Building AI products & startups who want the cultural context and the hard questions, not just the next changelog.

Startups · Product · Engineering
R

Researchers

Exploring AI & culture — operators and thinkers who need judgment and perspective more than another hype cycle.

Research · Academia · Policy
C

Creative directors & strategists

Working with generative AI — designers, directors and strategists navigating craft and authorship when generation is effectively free.

Studios · Agencies · Independents
Past delegates
24% CMO + marketing directors
17% Founders + Builders
35% Senior creatives, strategists and agency leaders
81% Decision-makers in the room
Previous attendees
Get tickets → Early bird closes 25 August

Our partners.

— Partners
Content Partner R/GA
Ecosystem Partner Stone & Chalk
Media Partner B&T
Supporting Association IAB Australia
▶ The flagship event

humAIn
2026

13–14 OctTwo days
SydneyCBD · AUSTRALIA
40+ voicesBUILDERS & LEADERS
250+ delegatesSENIOR MARKETERS & CREATIVES

Two days of talks, debate: thinking out loud and building in public; connecting the people making AI with the people making meaning with it.

Conference only
Day one only
$595 + gst
Save $150 · Early bird
Standard $745 + gst
Register now Early bird closes 25 August
Conference + Workshop
Both days
$795 + gst
Save $200 · Early bird
Standard $995 + gst
Register now Early bird closes 25 August
Workshop only
Day two only
$475 + gst
Save $120 · Early bird
Standard $595 + gst
Register now Early bird closes 25 August

The big questions.

03 — The themes
↗
Theme 01

AI & Creative Work

How AI is changing who makes creative work, how it gets made, and what it is worth.

AI is altering the economics of agencies, production and in-house teams. Workflows, roles, costs and the relationship between time, output and value are all moving at once. What gets automated, and who takes the benefit when production gets faster and cheaper? And if AI does the work juniors used to do, who becomes senior?

Covers the future of marketing teams and roles, the changing CMO, the skills the industry needs by 2030, and the talent pipeline.

↗
Theme 02

Brand Discovery in the AI Age

What happens to visibility and customer choice when machines sit between brands and people?

Search, shopping and recommendation now run through AI. Consumers ask an LLM what to buy, or hand the decision to an agent. What makes a brand more likely to be surfaced, recommended or chosen by a machine? And how does marketing change when the machine is the first thing the customer meets?

Covers AI search, brand visibility, agentic commerce and what it takes to grow a brand today.

↗
Theme 03

The Taste Gap

As the cost of making falls, the value of knowing what's worth making rises.

AI generates competent work at extraordinary scale. The harder problem is choosing: what is distinctive, what deserves attention, what should be rejected, and what carries a point of view rather than an average. The capability at stake is telling the plausible from the meaningful. We ask whether judgement, craft and intention become the real competitive advantage, and how organisations build them deliberately rather than assuming they survive automation.

Covers taste, creative direction, editorial judgement and how creative capability gets developed.

↗
Theme 04

Culture as Training Data

AI learned from us. Now it shapes what audiences see, and whether they believe any of it.

AI systems are trained on accumulated output, assumptions and bias, and they now sit inside marketing, media and everyday decisions. That makes representation, influence and responsibility hard to separate from performance. Who gets represented when a machine generates at scale, and who is responsible? And the commercial question underneath: how does a brand keep credibility when audiences can no longer assume that what they see, hear or read was made by a person?

Covers bias, representation, provenance, synthetic media, AI influence and the growing backlash.

Get tickets → Early bird closes 25 August

Thinking out loud.

04 — Media & articles
Proof of Life: AI provenance over purity
Essay - AI provenance over purity

Proof of Life: AI provenance over purity

by Cat McGinn
humAIn 2026 announces first sessions: a BytePlus keynote, three practitioners go head to head about what AI is doing to creative work, and Chatham House Rule roundtables
News - humAIn's first sessions announced

humAIn 2026 announces first sessions: a BytePlus keynote, three practitioners go head to head about what AI is doing to creative work, and Chatham House Rule roundtables

by the humAIn desk
The Paradox Of AI And The Slide Toward Creative Homogeneity
Podcast

The Paradox Of AI And The Slide Toward Creative Homogeneity

Podcast - 49 minutes by the humAIn desk
Browse all media → Get tickets → Early bird closes 25 August

The voices.

05 — Speakers
Bridget Cleary

Bridget Cleary

Co-founder and CEO, BRX

Advisory panel
James Caldwell

James Caldwell

Regional GTM Director, ByteDance

Speaker
Lucinda Barlow

Lucinda Barlow

Head of International Marketing, Uber

Speaker
Tea Uglow

Tea Uglow

CMO and AI consultant

Advisory panel
See the full lineup →+ 36 more being announced
Get tickets → Early bird closes 25 August

What people leave with.

07 — Testimonials
“

humAIn is where builders go to share what they're actually doing and hearing. Less theatre, more honesty. Less AI hype, more people making things, testing things, and being generous about what's working and what isn't.

It will always mean a lot to us — humAIn was the first stage for Springboards, and helped us launch into the world.

PB
Pip BingemannCo-Founder & CEO, Springboards
“humAIn is one of those rare events where you know you will always bring home a new type of knowledge.”
MM
Marko MarkovicFounder, AdFixus
“I find that when I go to a conference, there is usually one session if I'm lucky that inspires. At humAIn, every session was current, relevant and informative. Congrats on curating such great content — I went back to work with lots of ideas to share.”
CH
Carolyn HyamsMarketing Director, Aquent
“I learnt a lot from others in the media and marketing ecosystem who are applying AI in very smart ways. humAIn is a really lovely community of practice at the heart of AI in comms — people are very generous with their knowledge.”
SK
Samara KitchenerFounder & MD, House of Kitch
“humAIn brings together all the leaders in AI in media and marketing — be there if you want to be part of creating the future of the industry!”
RD
Ross DawsonChairman, Advanced Human Technologies Group
“AI is quietly rewriting the relationships between agencies, platforms, publishers and brands. humAIn matters because it brings those voices together around the same table — to share what we're learning in real time and design better futures for the industry instead of having change done to us.”
KP
Karen PowellFounder & CEO, Omnipresence
Get tickets → Early bird closes 25 August

Get in touch.

— Contact

Whether you'd like to speak, join our advisory panel, partner with us, or simply stay in the loop — we'd love to hear from you.

Get tickets → Early bird closes 25 August

The community.

08 — Community
Members' area · Coming 2026

A year-round home for the humAIn community.

The conference is two days. The conversation continues. We're building a members' area — a place to keep sharing what's working, what isn't and what's next, in between events.

Year-round sessionsMember directoryWorking groupsRecordings vault
Register interest → Details to be confirmed
Coming soon
Get tickets → Early bird closes 25 August

Get the signal,
not the noise.

One considered email a fortnight on what AI is doing to creativity, brands and work — and what it can't touch.

Get tickets → Early bird closes 25 August