by GAIA

GAIA presents / 2026

Builders × Applied

Radisson Blu Iveria Hotel

Tbilisi, Georgia

Builders × Applied

How AI transforms knowledge work.

A one-day conference about shipped AI systems, production constraints and hard-won lessons.

Buy tickets Register for workshops
Meet the speakers Programme

What Crossroad is for

(01) Why

GAIA's first conference at this scale in Georgia and the Caucasus, built on focused technical gatherings since 2023.

International practitioners meet the region's builders and operators for lessons specific enough to use on Monday.

  • (01)

    AI-augmented development

    How AI-native tools change prototyping, shipping and what comes next.

  • (02)

    Agents and automation

    Real agents and workflows across knowledge work.

  • (03)

    From pilot to impact

    How teams scale and measure AI adoption under real constraints.

The two tracks

(02) Who it is for

Two audiences, one conference: people building AI and people putting it to work.

Builders/ 01

For engineers, AI engineers, researchers and data scientists.

  • 01Coding agents
  • 02Evals and reliability
  • 03Agents and orchestration
  • 04Context engineering
  • 05AI-native software
  • 06Voice and multimodal

Applied/ 02

For product, business and technology leaders.

  • 01AI products
  • 02Enterprise implementation
  • 03Workflows and automation
  • 04Operations
  • 05Product management
  • 06Organisational change

What we are here to find out

(03) Questions

  1. When agents write code, what does the engineer own?

  2. How do you evaluate a system whose answers change?

  3. Which AI pilots reached production — and which stopped?

  4. What changed in teams that got adoption right?

  5. Who does the work when the first draft is free?

  6. Where are agents worse than simpler software?

Speakers

(04) 28 named in the programme

People building and operating AI internationally and across Georgia.

Sara Maldon

Head of AI Transformation, Make

Jan Smerhovsky

Gen AI Go-to-Market Lead, Google

Arnas Matiukas

Builder, Google

Kinga Asbóth

Product Manager, YouTubeex Spotify

Evžen Wybitul

Research Fellow, Anthropic

Irakli Salia

AI Engineer, Hugging Face

Natia Kukhilava

Co-Founder & CTO, Helio AI

Shota Elkanishvili

Senior ML Engineer, Stealth AI startup

Ani Janelidze

Head of Data Operations, ElevenLabs

Beka Zakaidze

Founder, SeekerClaw

Levan Tsinadze

AI Researcher, Olmait

Tsotne Zhghenti

Researcher, Business and Technology University

Muka Alavidze

AI Literacy & Innovation Programs Manager, TBC Bank

Giorgi Jvaridze

Founding Engineer, Solid

Medea Tabatadze

Managing Partner, Insource

Nutsa Abazadze

Head of External AI Interactions, TBC Bank

Tata Bakradze

Chief People Officer, Upgaming

Beka Guledani

Head of CRM and Business Intelligence, ALTA

Maia Macharashvili

Sales and Marketing Director, ALTA

Anastasia Kvinikadze

Director of Engineering, Impel

Kuba Abramczyk

Forward Deployed Engineer, ElevenLabs

Pavel Krejsa

Principal Architect, Google

Lasha Pantskhava

AI R&D Team Lead, TBC Bank

Ilia Kipshidze

Researcher, Max Planck Institute for Informatics

Nika Mikaberidze

Senior AI Engineer, Liberty Bank

Artemy Malkov

Founder & CEO, Data Monsters

Ninutsa (Nino) Nanitashvili

Co-Founder and Board Member, GAIA

Giorgi Maisuradze

CEO, UGT Cloud

Explore the full line-up in the programme below.

Programme

(05) 3 October / Tbilisi

Three rooms, one day. Follow the time line to see what is happening in parallel.

Programme preview. Times, rooms, speakers and topics may change.

All times are local to Tbilisi.

Hands-on workshops

4 workshops run alongside the talks. Register and you are seated first.

  • 12:20–13:20 AI Transformation Masterclass: From Playbook to ROI
  • 14:30–15:30 Your Full-Time Chief of Staff: How to Run a Grok Bot
  • 15:30–16:20 Running Models Locally on MacBooks
  • 16:45–17:30 From Vibecoded AI Agent to Enterprise Production
Register for workshops
  1. Opening

    Making Georgia an AI Country

  2. Fable

    Making AI Work: Where Enterprise AI Is Today

  3. Fable

    How Do You Build, When Anything Is Possible?

  4. Break

  5. Fable

    Rewards, Environments, and Agents: A Practical Look at LLM Post-Training

    Astra

    A Human-First Playbook for Enterprise AI Adoption

    Argon

    Workshop · 12:20–13:20

    AI Transformation Masterclass: From Playbook to ROI

    Register

    Runs until 13:20

  6. Fable

    Open Source LLMs: From Open Models to Practical Applications

    Astra

    AI: A Recipe for Destroying Your Company

  7. Fable

    From Enterprise AI Agents to On-Prem Deployment

    Astra

    The AI Workplace: Skills, Roles and How Work Gets Done

  8. Break

  9. Fable

    Unpacking the AI-Native Survival Kit

    Astra

    Customer-Facing AI in a Regulated Bank: Why It’s Not Just Another Cool AI Product

    Argon

    Workshop · 14:30–15:30

    Your Full-Time Chief of Staff: How to Run a Grok Bot

    Register

    Runs until 15:30

  10. Fable

    Unwanted Side-Effects of Fine-Tuning

    Astra

    Panel

    Running AI Transformation

  11. Fable

    After 20 years in AI and 10 years with NVIDIA, I learned one truth: Every AI project is a Quest.

    Astra

    AI: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

    Argon

    Workshop · 15:30–16:20

    Running Models Locally on MacBooks

    Register

    Runs until 16:20

  12. Fable

    Taming the Slop Machine: Getting Better Code from AI Agents

    Astra

    AI Infrastructure in Practice: What Compute Is Available and How to Get It

  13. Break

  14. Fable

    AI in Biology: Virtual Cells, Interpretability, and the Future of Experimentation

    Astra

    It Listens. It Doesn’t Judge. Or Should It?

    Argon

    Workshop · 16:45–17:30

    From Vibecoded AI Agent to Enterprise Production

    Register

    Runs until 17:30

  15. Fable

    R&D Inside a Bank?

    Astra

    Teaching Open-Source AI to Speak (and Hear) Georgian

  16. Fable

    Where Bias Enters: Annotation Guidelines and What Models Learn

    Astra

    An Algebraic Lens on AI Features

    Argon

    7 Facts of the AI Ecosystem in Georgia

  17. Fable

    The Latest AI News from Google and the Agentic Enterprise Shift

  18. GAIA closing

Tbilisi

(06) Place

One day at the Radisson Blu Iveria Hotel, bringing international practitioners together with Georgia's AI ecosystem.

Coordinates
41.7151° N, 44.8271° E
Venue
Radisson Blu Iveria Hotel
Location
Central Tbilisi

Crossroad is built by GAIA.

(07) Organiser

Since 2023, GAIA has connected AI professionals, academia and business around talent, adoption and public understanding.

To support Georgia's economic development by promoting the effective and responsible use of AI by society and business.

100+
Full members
500+
Associate members
40+
Member organisations
50+
Projects and events
  • AI Olympiad

    Georgia sent its first national student team to the International Olympiad in AI in 2025.

  • Student AI Club

    Georgian university students work on AI research with curators.

  • National AI Hackathon

    An annual programme for building AI products.

  • Georgia AI Summit

    An annual gathering for AI and data science professionals.

  • AI strategy

    Work with public, community and business partners on Georgia's AI strategy.

  • International cooperation

    Membership of the European AI Forum and work with international partners.

  • A full room at a GAIA event, with a speaker presenting from the front.
  • A standing-room audience at a GAIA event.
All of GAIA's work

With support from

(08) 15 confirmed

More partners to be announced.

General partners

Partners

Media partners

Tbilisi, 3 October 2026

(09) Take part

Building, applying or supporting AI? Get involved.

General admission

One day, two tracks, at the Radisson Blu Iveria Hotel.

General admission, sold through tkt.ge.

Buy tickets
Registration
tkt.ge
Workshops
Register for priority seating
Speaking and partnerships
info@aiassociation.ge
Organiser
Georgian Artificial Intelligence Association