Programme
humAIn 2026: AI Marketing and Creativity Conference, Sydney
13–14 October 2026, Sydney
The Collider and Stone & Chalk, 477 Pitt Street, Sydney
Sessions announced:
— Programme
The discipline of friction: Why the best brands refuse the first answer
Every marketer has the same models, so "we used AI" stopped being a differentiator the day everyone else did too.
Why AI Transformations Fail
So many AI talks focus on what the technology can do, but ignore what organisations need to do to make it work.
The Return of Big Ideas.
Making the Impossible with AI.
Jack of All Prompts, Master of None
Lessons from 1,000 AI projects across 45 countries.
The Illusion of AI — and Why "Good Enough" Isn't Good Enough
The biggest con in AI right now isn't a scam. It's a seduction. AI sounds authoritative, looks polished, and moves fast enough to bypass critical thinking.
Scale, Speed, and Soul: AI Infrastructure for Human-Centred Experiences
BytePlus (ByteDance, TikTok) is one of the few companies building both engines of the modern creative economy: content production, and the algorithm that decides what gets seen.
Bridging the Missing Rung: Nurturing Creative Talent When AI Joins the Team
Generative AI’s automation of routine execution presents a critical inflection point for creative industries: how do we mentor and safeguard the growth of emerging talent?
AdLab: How AI is Transforming Audio Production
AdLab (by Abe’s Audio) is transforming commercial audio production by combining the power of AI with human creativity.
This interactive session will show agencies, marketers, and media platforms how they can create commercial scripts and audio demos in minutes; accelerating client approvals, supercharging speed to market, reducing production costs, and unlocking new revenue.
You’ll discover how AdLab's audio-first (not tech-first) approach and ethical use of AI keeps Australian creative talent at the centre, while giving businesses a competitive advantage by allowing them to create commercial content, faster.
Lauren Joyce, Founder of Gun For Hire
Gust PR
Gust PR is an omniscient AI-native operative system for nimble marketers and modern creatives who want more from their PR. By combining media intelligence, Gust PR helps you engineer attention and build lasting media relations by sending fewer, more targeted and newsworthy pitches and building niche performing campaigns at scale. Users have landed more than 350 stories in the AFR, The Guardian, Sydney Morning Herald, Sky News and more.
Marie Dowling, Founder, Gust PR
Visit Gust PR →
lokol
We identify authentic product recommendations from trusted creators and publishers, verify and attribute them, then surface them wherever people buy products online, helping retailers increase conversion while ensuring the people behind trusted recommendations share in the value they create.
Commerce has a new front door. As product discovery shifts from search and social to AI assistants, trust becomes the scarce resource. Search indexed pages. Social indexed people. AI will index trust. Lokol is building the infrastructure that makes trusted human recommendations attributable, measurable and valuable in the AI era.
Neil Ackland, CEO and Co-founder, lokol
Held under the Chatham House Rule.
Whose version of reality does AI recreate?
How do we identify and reduce bias in AI systems, creative work and marketing decisions? What does responsible AI look like in practice?
When everything can be faked, is proof the product?
Who owns AI-assisted work? How do brands manage copyright risk? Will provenance become a competitive advantage as synthetic content becomes ubiquitous?
Can responsible AI survive contact with commercial pressures?
How should organisations balance innovation with compliance? What governance frameworks are actually working, and how do brands maintain trust in an AI-mediated world?
Is sustainable AI possible?
How do we balance the potential for AI to help reduce emissions or create innovation against its enormous energy needs and environmental footprint?
If we try to weigh the environmental cost vs benefit, how might that impact procurement and pitching? Do we even have the right data to make an informed decision, as well as to support Scope 3 reporting and reduction strategies?
Are we training our own replacements?
How are roles changing? Which skills become more valuable? How do organisations build capability, preserve expertise and create meaningful careers in an AI-first workplace?
Marketing's Fifth P — Prototype
AI gives marketers and creatives a new kind of agency: the ability to turn ideas into working products, apps and websites at speed.
Build a Business AI Can't Commoditise: What Buyers Will Value in Three Years
AI can improve margins, accelerate delivery and create new products. It can also commoditise capabilities, flatten differentiation and make a business easier to replicate or price down.
OI: original intelligence.
touch grass. make something.
Turning AI adoption into real marketing advantage
AI is already embedded in marketing teams, workflows and technology stacks. The task now is turning all that activity into measurable growth; knowing where AI creates real advantage, and how human judgement, creativity and trust remain essential to making brands worth choosing.
AI search, brand visibility and the future of customer choice
The humAIn 2026 programme tackles the questions marketing, media and creative industry leaders are confronting in practice. How does brand visibility change when search, shopping and recommendation are mediated by AI, and by agents acting on the customer's behalf? How do you remain distinctive when every competitor can produce more content, faster and cheaper? Which parts of the marketing operation should be automated, augmented or kept deliberately human?
The future of marketing teams, creativity and work
The programme also examines what AI means for the economics of agencies, creative production and in-house teams; where judgement, taste and craft still earn their keep; and how the role of the CMO is changing.
It takes on the future of work directly: how marketing roles are changing, which skills matter, and how the industry develops the talent it will need in 2030.
Synthetic media, AI influence and the future of brand trust
Trust is a central theme: how brands maintain credibility as synthetic content becomes ubiquitous, the role of artificial influencers and hyperfiction in entertainment, how audiences respond to AI influence, and whether authenticity can still create competitive advantage.
For the leaders shaping the future of AI in marketing
humAIn is built for the people making these calls: 250 marketing, media, agency and technology leaders in one room. You'll leave with a clearer view of the choices ahead, the trade-offs involved and how your peers are turning AI into meaningful results.
Tickets
All prices exclude GST.
Conference, day one
- Full main stage programme
- Hosted round table at lunch
- AI Upfronts showcase
- Networking drinks
Both days
- Everything in day one
- Your pick of workshop tracks
- Priority round table seating
- Session recordings
Workshops, day two
- Three workshop tracks
- Ninety minutes each, hands on
- Capped room sizes
- Lunch included
Member of ACA, IAB or ACAM? Your association code applies at checkout.