AI Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum 2026
Event Overview
Join us for a full-day event where AI meets entrepreneurship. Founders, investors and the innovation community come together to explore emerging ventures, hear investor perspectives, learn from founder stories, and join a structured networking reception designed to help like-minded people connect, learn, and grow together.
In partnership with Ox Tech Week, we're delighted to invite you to a day-long forum where AI meets entrepreneurship, featuring a keynote from global AI and ethics leader Professor Sir Nigel Shadbolt FRS FREng FBCS. The AI Innovation & Entrepreneurship Forum 2026 is an opportunity for founders, investors, and the innovation community to come together in the Digital Hub at Jesus College to explore emerging ventures, hear investor perspectives, learn from founder stories, and join a structured networking reception designed to help like-minded people connect, learn, and grow together.
The full programme can be viewed below.
BOOK TICKETS FOR THE VARIOUS SESSIONS BELOW:
Morning programme
Agentic AI | Building and applying intelligent systems
Afternoon programme
Evening programme
pROGRAMME
10.00-12.00 AGENTIC AI: BUILDING & APPLYING INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS
A session exploring how agentic AI systems are being designed and deployed in practice. Guest speakers include a Jesus College founder building an AI agent platform, a UK health data partner deploying agents for personal wellbeing in conversation with A representative from a major AI platform.
13.30-16.30 AI START-UP SHOWCASE
An afternoon of live demos from early-stage AI ventures emerging from Jesus College, wider Oxbridge, and beyond. Meet the people behind the prototypes and connect with investors who are actively exploring the next wave of AI-driven growth.
In partnership with the Oxbridge AI(x) Society and Jesus College Entrepreneur Network.
17.00 AI INNOVATION & ENTREPRENEURSHIP FORUM KEYNOTE - PROSPECTS FOR ETHICAL AI
Professor Sir Nigel Shadbolt FRS FREng FBCS, Principal of Jesus College, Professor of Computer Science and Chair of the AI@Oxford Research initiative, examines the ethical questions when building the future with AI we can trust.
18.00 INVESTOR PANEL: PERSPECTIVES ON AI & INVESTMENT
A panel discussion with investors sharing insights on evaluating AI ventures, market trends, and the realities of funding in this space.
19.00 ENTREPRENEUR PANEL: BUILDING AI VENTURES
A panel discussion with founders at different stages of building AI-driven businesses share practical experience, lessons learned, and challenges when scaling their ventures.
20.00 OUx FOUNDER & INVESTOR ECOSYSTEM MEGAMIXER
Structured networking reception bringing together founders, investors, and the wider Oxford innovation ecosystem including partners from beyond Oxbridge.
21.00 EVENT CLOSES
Keynote Speaker
Professor Sir Nigel Shadbolt
Sir Nigel is a leading researcher in Artificial Intelligence and one of the originators of the interdisciplinary field of Web Science. He is Principal of Jesus College Oxford and Professor of Computing Science at Oxford University. He is chairman of the Open Data Institute which he co-founded with Sir Tim Berners-Lee. He was knighted in 2013 for ‘services to science and engineering’. With over 500 publications, he has researched and published on topics from cognitive psychology to computational neuroscience, Artificial Intelligence to the Semantic Web. In May 2024 he published ‘As If Human’, which provides a new approach to the challenges surrounding AI. In 2025 he was appointed to the Council for Science and Technology, which advises the Prime Minister and Cabinet on strategic science and technology policy issues. Most recently he was asked to lead the setting up of the Oxford Institute of Ethics in AI and, in November 2025, was appointed as Chair of AI@Oxford Research. He is a Fellow of The Royal Society, the Royal Academy of Engineering and the British Computer Society.
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