MAICON 2026 brought nearly 2,000 people to Cleveland for conversations about putting AI to work and confronting its human costs.
This recap connects practical sessions on agents and business transformation with Karen Hao's examination of how AI is built and who bears the costs.
The Marketing AI Conference, MAICON, wrapped up in Cleveland with nearly 2,000 attendees, up from 300 at its first event in 2019. Sessions on agents and business transformation shared the stage ones asking difficult questions about AI labs, economic disruption, and responsibility. Speakers included journalist Karen Hao, former presidential candidate Andrew Yang, and author Kevin Roose.
The program reflected how far the conversation has moved. In 2019, talks focused on narrow applications such as email subject lines, translation, and advertising predictions. This year's discussions included AI systems that perform multistep tasks and the changing roles of people who build, direct, and learn alongside them. For Marketing AI Institute and SmarterX founder and CEO Paul Roetzer, helping companies act on those capabilities also requires confronting their consequences.
On Episode 247 of The Artificial Intelligence Show, Roetzer reflected on the sessions, hallway conversations, and emotional moments that stayed with him.
Nearly 2,000 - MAICON 2026 attendees
300 - Attendees at the inaugural conference in 2019
Oct. 4-7, 2027 - Dates announced for next year's MAICON
Beginners and advanced builders share the room. Some attendees were just starting their AI journeys. Others were already building agents into workflows and organizational structures. Roetzer highlighted talks from Holly Chen of Samsara and Dan Slagen of Zapier as examples of the work being shared.
“The audience's AI maturity is becoming increasingly diverse,” Roetzer says. That creates a programming challenge: helping newcomers get started while giving experienced practitioners material they can use.
Karen Hao's session brought the costs into focus. Her discussion of intellectual property theft and AI labs' extractive behavior followed upbeat sessions about what the technology makes possible. Roetzer wrote an introduction explaining why those uncomfortable subjects belonged on stage.
“We cannot take a responsible human-centered approach to AI without understanding the human impact behind it.”
— Paul Roetzer, founder and CEO of SmarterX on Episode 247 of The Artificial Intelligence Show
His 14-year-old daughter surprised him by coming to volunteer at the conference. Before she entered Hao's session, he texted her the introduction for context. Thinking about her, the material, and Hao's courage left him emotional as he walked onstage to conduct the interview with Hao.
The human connections matter. Roetzer described friendships, partnerships, and groups formed from MAICON that now reunite each year. He especially valued Yang's willingness to propose concrete responses to economic change from AI, and enjoyed his conversation with Roose.
For Roetzer, the conference is so much about community: “People crave the human connection and the support of their peers now more than ever.” He saw that sense of community strengthening as attendance grew.
Business leaders bringing MAICON lessons back to the office face two connected responsibilities: help people use AI well and take their concerns seriously. A promising application gives a team something concrete to explore. An honest discussion about its effects gives employees a way to influence how it is adopted.
Leave room for concerns, too. Roetzer's introduction acknowledged that employees might resist AI because they understand its economic, environmental, or human costs. An adoption conversation that welcomes those questions gives people a reason to participate honestly.
AI is changing the conference experience itself. Attendees reported finding MAICON through recommendations from AI's large language models and also using AI to work with session materials. Gemini was also built into the event app to recommend sessions based on attendees' interests.
The next MAICON is scheduled for October 4-7, 2027, in Cleveland. For those catching up on this year's program, recordings of main-stage and featured sessions are available through the MAICON 2026 on-demand bundle.
Only 25% of respondents say their organization has reached the Scaling phase of AI adoption, according to the 2026 State of AI for Business Report. That means achieving widespread adoption with consistent efficiency and performance gains. The finding adds context to the varied experience levels Roetzer encountered at MAICON: enthusiasm for AI does not tell leaders how far their organizations have actually progressed.
Based on 2,100+ responses from professionals across roles, functions, and industries, the report examines adoption, training, governance, and the gap between individual progress and organizational readiness. It provides a useful benchmark for deciding what support a team needs after the conference. Read the full report →