Join us Tuesday 29th – Wednesday 30th September at Trondheim Tech Festival 

NorwAI Innovate 2026 will this year be integrated into the newly established Trondheim Tech Festival, a three-day tech and innovation festival where the region’s technological community comes together to share their stories.  

NorwAI Innovate will be a lunch-to-lunch event during the first days of the festival. It is a national meeting place for the AI community in Norway - an arena for inspiration and knowledge where you can meet professionals from business and the public sector, researchers, students, and AI enthusiasts. It offers a great opportunity for networking, matchmaking, gaining insights into how AI is used in Norway today, and staying updated on research and developments. 

This is knowledge that is difficult to obtain by simply reading news and articles online. At NorwAI Innovate, the people shaping the  future AI-driven society meet, connect and learn.

A strong coming together 

• SFI NorwAI's consortium of 15 industry and research partners with an innovation focus has gathered the Norwegian AI community annually since 2021.
• NTNU Business School is offering the special AI in business program BRIDGE 
• The NTNU Department of Industrial Economics and Technology Management will present its AI innovation ecosystem. 

The Day 1 sessions will take place at SpareBank 1 SMN's auditorium.  A poster competition featuring the next generation of AI talent will also be exhibited at the venue.

The NorwAI sessions

NorwAI places strong emphasis on practical innovation examples from Norwegian businesses, public governance and organizations. Session 1 on Day 2 will focus on Large Language Models (LLMs), featuring three outstanding keynote speakers.

The University of Oslo, the National Library, and NorwAI are spearheading the development of Norwegian language models - meet key contributors at NorwAI Innovate. The session will be chaired by Professor Jon Atle Gulla, NTNU.

Industry and innovation ecosystem sessions

Statnett, a NorwAI partner, is a key player in the Norwegian and European energy systems. Statnett will present work from its AI labs. Additional contributions from NorwAI partners will be announced.

To conclude the Day 1 program, chaired by Research Manager Till Lech (SINTEF Digital), the new NorwAI AI Innovation Ecosystem will be presented by Associate Professor Nhien Nguyen (Department of Industrial Economics and Technology Management, NTNU). Start-up entrepreneur Hanne Dahl Vonen (Hugin Medical) will share her innovation journey.

NorwAI develops responsible Norwegian language models. At NorwAI Innovate Bouvet Department Manager and Adjunct Associate Professor Terje Brasethvik will present the state-of-the-art LLM, NorwAI-Mistral-24B-Reasoning which serves as the foundation for Norwegian domain-trained language models now to be integrated in both public and private sectors.

Health and recruitment

On Day 2 NorwAI moves to Frimurerlosjen, the main venue of the Trondheim Tech Festival, where the impact of AI in healthcare on business and society will be highlighted.

First, the 2026 HER Tech Entrepreneur of the Year Jorunn Thaulow (HER: a digital platform supporting women in exploring business opportunities) will present the start-up story of Medbric which is pioneering AI agents in healthcare. Their speech-to-summary solution is ranked among the best  in Norway for quality and functionality, and Medbric has recently secured a major contract in Denmark. Thousands of doctors across the Nordics will use Medbric in their practice. Jorunn and her close associate, CTO Jon Espen Ingvaldsen, also an Adjunct Associate Professor at NorwAI, will share their incredible journey. 

Secondly, Hemit HT (the IT unit of Central Norway Regional Health Authority), the St. Olav Hospital, and NorwAI are piloting a groundbreaking AI project to integrate domain-trained LLMs into hospital workflow. Close collaboration with clinicians helps guide and evaluate the project, which is well underway in real-life testing. CEO Trond Utne (Hemit HF) will present insights into AI in the healthcare sector.

AI in Business and Society

To conclude NorwAI Innovate, Professor Are Oust (NTNU Business School) will chair an insightful session on a new initiative and a discussion on recruitment in the age of AI.

The initiative BRIDGE AI is NTNU Business School's new research and innovation center for generative AI. The center explores how AI transforms society and businesses while educating the future workforce. By building bridges between academia, industry and the public sector, BRIDGE AI contributes to innovation, productivity, responsible value creation and positive social development. 

In the final session, the participants will explore the societal significance of AI and how it affects, among other things, recruitment. The discussion will be introduced by Professor Ingar Haaland (Norwegian School of Economics (NHH), also Adjunct Associate Professor at NTNU), with a distinguished panel including NTNU Rector Tor Grande.