Kathmandu, January 8
AI Conf 2026, an international conference focused on the practical design, deployment, and governance of artificial intelligence systems, will be held in Kathmandu on January 10 and 11.
Organised by the team behind Web Weekend Kathmandu (WWKTM), the two-day conference will bring together engineers, designers, founders, and AI professionals from Nepal and abroad who are actively building and deploying AI systems in real-world products and organisations.
According to the organisers, the conference aims to shift discussions beyond theoretical interest towards applied AI, covering topics such as system design, evaluation, security, observability, and governance within modern organisations.
According to a press statement released by WWKTM, the confirmed speaker lineup includes AI practitioners working across infrastructure, healthcare, design, education, and security. Among them is Vlad Dyachenko, a Madrid-based platform engineer and open-source contributor at Cybergizer, who will speak on programming language design in AI-assisted development environments. Kathmandu-based engineer Amit Timalsina will present on the use of generative AI in clinical trial reviews, highlighting how large medical documents have been processed at a production scale to significantly reduce review time.
Other speakers include Sayantika Banik, founder of DataJourneyHQ and an open-source contributor based in Chiang Mai, who will address secure and observable large language model (LLM) system design; Dijup Tuladhar, who will discuss the impact of AI tools on design leadership; and Saugat Acharya, principal engineer at Laudio, who will focus on LLM evaluation and observability in product development.
Joining from San Francisco, Manu Chatterjee will explain how modern AI systems convert unstructured inputs into decisions and workflows, while Kathmandu-based engineer and educator Pranjal Timsina will examine emerging AI security risks such as data leakage and data poisoning. Haihao Liu, founder and CEO of Ternity Education and an AI researcher with academic training at MIT and Harvard, will speak on AI safety, humanity-first AI, and long-term societal impacts.
The conference will also feature a panel discussion titled “Who Owns AI in the Company?”, examining how responsibility for AI systems is distributed across engineering, product, design, legal, and leadership teams as AI becomes embedded in business operations.
It adds that AI Conf 2026 is being held in Kathmandu to address barriers Nepali professionals face in accessing international conferences, including high costs and visa restrictions, while also positioning Nepal’s technology ecosystem alongside global AI practitioners.
In addition to conference sessions, the event will include a community hike in the Kathmandu Valley on the second day to encourage informal networking and collaboration.
More than 400 participants are expected to attend, including professionals from Nepal, the United States, Europe, and Asia. The conference is supported by companies including Programiz, Leapfrog, Care Boarding, Logpoint, SecurityPal AI, Proshore, Gritfeat Solutions, Kantipur NEO, and Fusemachines.
Further details and agenda updates are available on the official conference website. (ai.wwktm.com.)
