NUS-ISS has unveiled the 11th edition of its flagship Learning Festival, a six-week programme taking place from 28 August to 10 October 2026. Entering its second decade, the festival carries the theme “The Next AI Transformation,” highlighting the growing need for organisations to move beyond AI experimentation and translate emerging technologies into tangible, measurable business outcomes.
With enterprise AI adoption gaining momentum worldwide, the NUS-ISS Learning Festival 2026 brings together practitioners, business leaders, professionals and organisations to examine the critical capabilities needed to thrive in an AI-driven environment. Key areas of focus include building AI-ready data ecosystems, implementing AI responsibly, reshaping leadership approaches, preparing the workforce for evolving roles, and developing the skills required for the future of work.
“As AI moves from experimentation into everyday operations, the challenge is no longer simply understanding what AI can do, but scaling it effectively and responsibly. This year’s Learning Festival focuses on what matters next: strong data foundations, governance, workforce skills, and leadership.”
– Mr Khoong Chan Meng, Chief Executive Officer of NUS-ISS
Participants can look forward to a dynamic lineup of activities, including talks, expert panels, hands-on workshops, and a hackathon designed to bring the NUS-ISS community together throughout the festival.
Key event highlights include:
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Main festival opening (28 Aug)
NUS-ISS opens the festival with a full-day campus event featuring 28 sessions, including talks, panels, fireside chats, and workshops – for industry leaders, professionals and practitioners across the public and private sectors.
The agenda focuses on key organisational priorities, including governing autonomous AI agents, scaling AI impact, and building the enterprise architecture and data foundations needed to support AI adoption.
Experts from Alibaba Cloud Group, Nvidia Singapore, Salesforce, Visa, Grab and the Infocomm Media Development Authority of Singapore will share hands-on AI strategies and best practices alongside NUS-ISS’ practice-based lecturers.
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“Show Me Your Agents” hackathon – Powered by AWS (5 Sep and 10 Oct)
A new addition to this year’s Learning Festival, Show Me Your Agents is an open innovation competition that aims to bridge the gap between emerging AI technology and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Singapore.
Hosted by NUS-ISS and powered by Amazon Web Services (AWS), the hackathon brings together students, professionals, startups and SMEs to design, build and present agentic AI solutions to real business challenges.
Competing in the SME and Public categories, teams will have five weeks to develop AI agent-powered solutions for administrative automation, customer service, supply chain operations, and more.
The teams will present their final solutions to a panel of judges at Demo Day on 10 October, vying for top honours and AWS cloud credits, alongside special awards recognising real-world readiness, agent design and social impact.
Demo Day will serve as a key culmination of the Learning Festival, bringing together participants to showcase their solutions and celebrate a season of learning, experimentation and innovation.
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“AI won’t take your job. AI will change your organization.” (15 Sep)
In a collaboration with the IT Management Association (ITMA), Damien Cummings, Chief of AI Strategy and Organizational Transformation at NUS-ISS, will speak at a by-invitation session for ITMA members. He will explore why AI initiatives often stall because of organisational challenges rather than technical limitations, and how the role of the CIO is evolving as organisations navigate an increasingly AI-driven future.
The National University of Singapore (NUS) is Singapore’s flagship university, which offers a global approach to education, research and entrepreneurship, with a focus on Asian perspectives and expertise. We have 15 colleges, faculties and schools across three campuses in Singapore, with more than 40,000 students from 100 countries enriching our vibrant and diverse campus community. We have also established more than 20 NUS Overseas Colleges entrepreneurial hubs around the world.
Our multidisciplinary and real-world approach to education, research and entrepreneurship enables us to work closely with industry, governments and academia to address crucial and complex issues relevant to Asia and the world. Researchers in our faculties, research centres of excellence, corporate labs and more than 30 university-level research institutes focus on themes that include energy; environmental and urban sustainability; treatment and prevention of diseases; active ageing; advanced materials; risk management and resilience of financial systems; Asian studies; and Smart Nation capabilities such as artificial intelligence, data science, operations research and cybersecurity.
