AI Summit Budapest 2026

What happens within us when uncertainty and anxiety take over - and how can we find our way back from a state in which our next steps are no longer determined by our fears?
Based on the approach presented in the book Lost Harmony, this 30-minute interactive workshop explores the journey from survival mode towards inner safety and a more creative, empowered way of functioning, through the interconnectedness of the body, nervous system, emotions, and thoughts.
We will explore how anxiety can manifest across different states of the polyvagal ladder, what messages our emotions may carry, and how we can recognize the underlying fears that may unconsciously influence our decisions. Through simple mindfulness, breathing, and awareness exercises, we will also experience how to create a little space between an automatic reaction and our next choice.

Réka Ibolya Tóth

Founder, Mindfulness Coach
MNDFL Flow

In the age of AI, it is more important than ever to consciously harness one of the greatest strengths of human thinking: creative association. After a brief theoretical introduction, we will experiment with scents and guided exercises to experience how feelings, memories, images, and impressions can be connected to generate new ideas and fresh perspectives - even in relation to a current professional or business challenge.

Éva Molnár

Naturopath, coach

The opening address of the AI Healthcare Summit sets the frame for the day: what connects the international project block of the morning to the clinical and development talks of the afternoon, and in what policy environment these developments operate. The section runs from system-level data analysis to applications at the bedside.

Dr. Péter Horváth

State Secretary for Science Policy and Innovation
Ministry of Science and Technology

How can artificial intelligence become a tool for health-system governance? A joint answer from Semmelweis University, Harvard, Northeastern University and the Prague University of Economics.

Mauricio Santillana

Professor of Physics and Electrical and Computer Engineering
Northeastern University

Where the project presentation shows what HAI-SO builds, this discussion asks how much technology actually helps in passing that knowledge on. How does the data-use model developed in the United States work in Europe? How well does knowledge transfer work regionally and globally, and does artificial intelligence make it faster - or do social, cultural and legal differences matter more than technological alignment? The discussion sets American research, Hungarian health policy and Czech health economics against one another.

Dr. Miklós Szócska

director
Semmelweis University - EMK

Mauricio Santillana

Professor of Physics and Electrical and Computer Engineering
Northeastern University

Peter Pažitný

Lecturer
Prague University of Economics and Business, Faculty of Management

How are the region's healthcare collaborations built and run from a market player's perspective? Artificial intelligence analysing medical images now runs live in several countries at once - from chest X-rays through fractures, bone-age assessment and mammography to head and lung CT - and in nationwide radiology programmes as well. Through concrete regional projects the talk shows what a technology vendor's real job is: where the product ends and where implementation, training and support for everyday clinical work begin. The recurring question is which difference between two neighbouring health systems is most likely to stall the roll-out of a solution that already works.

Matěj Misař

Co-founder and CEO of Carebot
Carebot

The discussion builds on the preceding talk: the talk shows what happened, the roundtable shows how - and what it takes to repeat it elsewhere. It is built around four questions: what makes a cross-border collaboration work in practice and what makes it fail; how knowledge is actually transferred between institutions and countries, and what can and cannot be carried across; what such a project demands of clinical practice and how much practice can realistically absorb; and finally what it takes for a successful project to become routine use. The roundtable deliberately keeps three perspectives apart: that of the company building and deploying the technology, that of clinical practice, and that of the international industry.

Róbert Láng

Chairman of the Supervisory Board
Healthcare Services Plc

PharmDr. Karin Bacmanakova

Managing Director
Bristol Myers Squibb

Matěj Misař

Co-founder and CEO of Carebot
Carebot

Dr. med. habil. Dávid Tárnoki PhD

Center for Oncological Imaging and Invasive Diagnostics, National Institute of Oncology, Semmelweis University Medical Imaging Centre

DIGI4Care is a project of the Interreg Danube Region Programme in which some eleven partners from eight countries worked on rethinking patient journeys with digital and AI solutions. Four international pilots ran: AI-based diabetic retinopathy screening in primary care, emergency ultrasound with teledidactic training, cardiac telerehabilitation, and digital support in dementia and cognitive disorders. The project's main message is that technology alone is not the solution: value comes from embedding it in the workflow, from training and from sustainable financing - its recommendations are gradual, evidence-based adoption, supportive rather than obstructive technology assessment, cooperation between levels of care, and a clear regulatory framework. The roundtable discusses the pilot results and the conditions for system-wide adoption.

Dr. Réka Kovács

Senior Health Policy Advisor & Grant Portfolio Lead
Semmelweis University Health Services Management Training Centre

Lisa Lichtenegger

Public Health Researcher
Ludwig Boltzmann Institute Digital Health and Patient Safety

Mira Ganova

CEO
Digital Health and Innovation Cluster Bulgaria

Peter Pažitný

Lecturer
Prague University of Economics and Business, Faculty of Management

The longest and highest-level session of the morning: a government-level discussion on how regional cooperation in healthcare AI can be strengthened. The focus is on who does what and what the state can contribute: how far strategy is from actual adoption, how financing can be solved, and what the region can achieve faster together than separately. The discussion was deliberately placed at the end of the morning so that it can respond to the projects presented before it; a short regional situation report opens it.

Dr. Miklós Szócska

director
Semmelweis University - EMK

Dr. Péter Horváth

State Secretary for Science Policy and Innovation
Ministry of Science and Technology

Ing. Mgr. Markéta Foldyna Hellová MHA

Director General for Healthcare Technologies
Ministry of Health of the Czech Republic

On what conditions can a digital health solution travel from development to the bedside in Europe today? The talk gives an overview of the regulatory environment: how far EU harmonisation has come, how closely member states move together, and which single element would accelerate the region's healthcare AI developments most if harmonised. This talk closes the morning and ties it together: after the international projects and the government roundtable, it shows what the European framework permits and what it demands.

Dr. Fruzsina Mezei

Digital Health and Innovation Expert
Medistance, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore

Where does the line run today between a health wellness app and an AI development that qualifies as a medical device, and what does that mean for the developer? The talk walks through the legal framework an AI-based healthcare development has to fit into: classification, conformity assessment, data protection, questions of liability - and the decisions developers most often get wrong. This talk opens the afternoon: the regulatory framework sets the boundaries for everything that follows on stage.

Dr. Kinga Weidinger

Attorney-at-Law, Data Protection Officer (DPO), Specialist in Health Law
Independent law firms

Continuous monitoring of water quality is an increasing challenge, from drinking-water networks and industrial processes to the surveillance of surface waters and wastewater. The talk shows how the Holodetect microscope system makes the automatic, real-time examination of microscopic particles, algae, microorganisms and other contaminants possible. Combining digital holographic imaging with artificial intelligence not only allows fast and objective evaluation of samples, but takes water monitoring to a new level: with trainable AI models the system can recognise and classify arbitrary object types. Through practical examples the talk shows how AI turns laboratory microscopy into a decision-support tool for industry and the environment, and what this opens up for the intelligent water management of the future.

Dr. Ákos Zarándy

Scientific Consultant
HUN-REN SZTAKI

The neurological development of premature infants depends critically on the quality of the first weeks spent in intensive care, yet until now there has been no tool for measuring that quality objectively and continuously. Joint work by HUN-REN SZTAKI and Semmelweis University has produced a camera-based, AI-centred monitoring system that follows the key indicators of neurological maturation contact-free, without burdening the infant, and identifies sleep-wake cycles in real time - established biomarkers of neurodevelopmental outcome. The models were validated on clinical data; sleep-wake detection and posture classification reached reliable accuracy in clinical practice as well. Medically, the technology makes the quality of neurodevelopmental care (NIDCAP, FINE) objectively measurable for the first time where it could previously only be judged subjectively; socially, it can help reduce the risk of cognitive impairment in premature infants and make finite intensive-care capacity go further.

Dr Péter Földesy

researcher
SZTAKI

Large language models and chatbots are already part of everyday life: patients ask them to explain lab results, blood-glucose readings, meals, lifestyle or treatment. What does the diabetologist see of this in the consulting room, and what can these tools safely be used for? Modern sensors and insulin pumps analyse ever more data and support or automate certain therapeutic decisions, while other solutions - AI-based glucose prediction, meal and activity recognition, reinforcement-learning insulin dosing, digital twins - are still at the research stage. The discussion brings the researcher's, the diabetologist's and the patient's perspective to where the technology stands, and which decisions must not be handed over to algorithms.

Antónia Erős

One Drop of Attention Foundation
founder

Dr. Tibor János Kis

Internal Medicine and Diabetology Specialist
North Buda Saint John Central Hospital,One Drop of Attention Foundation

Máté Siket

Assistant Professor
Óbudai University

One of the most common complications of diabetes is retinopathy: treatable when caught early, a cause of vision loss when it is not - and the bottleneck in screening is specialist capacity. The talk explores a nationwide, telemedicine-based screening network operating where patients live, in GP surgeries: images taken with a dedicated camera are analysed by artificial intelligence, and according to a Semmelweis University study the system flags abnormalities with over 90 percent accuracy. The closing question is what is missing most for such screening to become part of routine care: technology, financing or organisation.

Prof. Dr. Zsolt Zoltán Nagy

Ophthalmologist, Professor, Director
Semmelweis University

The relationship between brain research and artificial intelligence runs both ways: the workings of the nervous system inspired part of today's learning systems, while machine learning now makes it possible to analyse volumes of brain data that were previously intractable. The talk takes up the question at the point where the data is produced: real-time, three-dimensional brain imaging. Acousto-optical multiphoton technology makes measurements in the living brain orders of magnitude faster, producing the resolution and data volume without which machine-learning models of brain function would not be possible. The recurring question: which direction has given more so far - AI to brain research, or brain research to AI?

Dr. Balázs Rózsa

Founder & Scientific Director
BrainVisionCenter Kutatóintézetet és Kompetenciaközpont és a Femtonics Kft

What happens to attention, memory and problem-solving when part of our everyday thinking is routinely delegated to an AI assistant? Drawing on clinical studies, the talk separates what can already be measured about cognitive effects from what is still only assumed. The question is not abstract: screen use now reaches even the youngest age groups, and artificial intelligence is the next factor in that sequence. This is the only talk of the day that examines not care delivery but the user.

Dr. Magor Papp

CEO
Semmelweis University Health Development Center

Where does artificial intelligence belong in mental health care - what can it do with empathy, where are its safety boundaries, and under what clinical supervision can it be admitted? The discussion makes the question concrete through Anna AI: a free chat-based support tool running since 2023 for cancer patients, their families and health professionals, in some fifteen languages, around the clock. Its practice is clearly bounded: it declines medical questions outside psycho-oncological competence and refers to the clinic, a clinical psychologist reviews the anonymised conversations, and its declared design goal is not to imitate psychotherapy. The international debate turns on the same points: what the system should refuse, who is responsible for recognising and escalating a crisis, and in what form supervision is carried out. The panel opens with a live demo and sets the developers' and the clinicians' perspectives against each other.

Gitta Perényi

pszichológus, pszichopedagógus terapeuta

Bence Csernák

Co-Founder and AI CTO of MedHubAI; AI Strategist, Product Designer, and Development Engineer

Tamás Csernák

Co-Founder & Business Development Lead
MedHubAI

Dr. Péter Kovács

clinical psychologist, psychotherapist and psycho-oncologist
National Institute of Oncology

Dr. Ágnes Viola Riskó

clinical psychologist, psychotherapist

The surgical decision - where to place the incision - rested for decades on the surgeon's training, experience and spatial judgement. Augmented reality and image-guided navigation can now project information derived from imaging onto exactly where the surgeon is looking: the operating field. Drawing on the practice of robot-assisted thoracic surgery, the talk shows what this adds to the decision, where the system is more precise than the human, and where intuition remains indispensable. In the end the question is one of accountability: at what point in the operating theatre does the surgeon override the system's suggestion - and on what grounds.

Dr. Áron Ghimessy

Head of the Department of Thoracic Surgery, Director of the Robotic Surgery Programme, Deputy Medical Director
National Institute of Oncology, Budapest

The promise of precision oncology is that therapy should follow the molecular properties of a tumour rather than its location - which requires interpreting a volume of genomic and clinical data no human can survey. The talk shows where artificial intelligence helps today in evaluating cancer-genetic data, identifying biomarkers and supporting personalised treatment decisions, and how much it shortens the path from genetic report to therapeutic decision. The talk closes the programme of the AI Healthcare Summit.

Dr. Attila Patócs

Center Director and Head Physician; University Professor; Deputy Medical Director for Diagnostics
National Institute of Oncology

Take a refreshing walk with Imagine in the City Park, one of the most important locations in millennial Budapest, and discover what we can learn today from the amazingly dynamic, future-shaping development of the turn of the century!

Take a refreshing walk with Imagine in the City Park, one of the most important locations in millennial Budapest, and discover what we can learn today from the amazingly dynamic, future-shaping development of the turn of the century!

Take a refreshing walk with Imagine in the City Park, one of the most important locations in millennial Budapest, and discover what we can learn today from the amazingly dynamic, future-shaping development of the turn of the century!