Türkiye Innovation Week 2026 opens in Istanbul with AI focus

Türkiye Innovation Week 2026 has opened at the Haliç Congress Center in Istanbul, organized by the Türkiye Exporters Assembly with the support of the Ministry of Trade. The three-day event will address artificial intelligence, new company models, changing competitive conditions in industry and the human of the future.

Türkiye Innovation Week 2026 has been launched at the Haliç Congress Center in Istanbul by the Türkiye Exporters Assembly (TIM), with the support of the Ministry of Trade. The event is being held under the theme "Humanity 6.0 — A new stage in humanity’s development."

Held for the 13th time this year, the event will bring together business representatives, academics, entrepreneurs and young people over three days. The program is intended to provide a meeting platform for the emergence of new ideas, the formation of partnerships and the implementation of promising projects.

Artificial intelligence drives the new era

Speaking at the opening, TIM President Mustafa Gültepe said major technological advances had changed people’s way of life and methods of production throughout history. He said the Industrial Revolution began with steam power, followed by a new stage driven by electricity, automation and digital technologies.

Gültepe said humanity had entered a new era shaped by artificial intelligence, which was spreading across every field from production to trade. Drawing attention to the question of whether humans or machines would have the final say in the future, Gültepe stressed that people must remain at the center of this transformation.

Haliç Congress Center in Istanbul (archive)

Gültepe said innovation was a historical characteristic of these lands, recalling that underground cities capable of housing around 20,000 people had been built in Cappadocia approximately 1,000 years ago. He described these structures, which had ventilation and water systems, as examples of engineering.

Gültepe also referred to Al-Jazari, who designed water-powered mechanisms at the Artuqid Palace in Diyarbakır around 800 years ago, and said these devices were considered among the earliest examples of robotics. In his view, the search for innovation had been rooted in humanity throughout history, and people should remain the fundamental reference point in the new technological era.

Türkiye’s export target

Gültepe said the event had been prepared with this understanding, adding that over three days they would discuss trust in the age of artificial intelligence, new organizational models for companies, changing rules of competition in industry and the human of the future.

Recalling Türkiye’s goal of becoming one of the world’s 10 largest exporting countries, Gültepe said the country had the production capacity, industrial infrastructure and entrepreneurial resources needed to achieve this objective.

Gültepe said Türkiye’s exports of high- and medium-high-technology products had more than doubled over the past 10 years, reaching $112 billion last year. He said Türkiye had risen 23 places in the Global Innovation Index over 13 years, adding that they did not consider this progress sufficient.

The TIM President said he wanted ideas to originate, be designed, programmed and developed in Türkiye, with products also carrying Türkiye’s signature. He said TIM was continuing its work toward this goal.

Young people’s use of artificial intelligence

Gültepe said 65% of young people aged 16-24 in Türkiye use generative artificial intelligence. The rate stands at 14% among companies.

Gültepe said the most significant obstacle to the spread of artificial intelligence in the business world was a shortage of qualified specialists. Addressing young people, he said their knowledge, courage and creativity would help close this gap.

Gültepe announced that TIM would continue supporting young software developers and entrepreneurs, saying he believed the event would produce the technology leaders of the future and give rise to global brands.

First day’s program

On the first day of the three-day event, talks will be held under the titles "Why is humanity returning to the center in the age of artificial intelligence?", "Agentic artificial intelligence: From content creation to task execution" and "E-commerce and innovation in the age of artificial intelligence."

The program will also feature panel discussions titled "The crisis of reality: What, whom and how will we trust?", "Talent exporters: From brain drain to global networks of experts" and "The new organizational structure of companies: Humans and artificial intelligence agents working together."

The Creative Tech Zone exhibition, curated by Ayşe Demirci, also opened to visitors as part of the event. The works, created around artificial intelligence, biology, neuroscience and sustainability, explore the changing relationship between humans, machines and nature. The exhibition features Parker Heyl and Mac Van Dam’s "Cosmobloom," Hüseyin Aksoylu’s "Magnetic" and Uğur Acil’s work "I Spun and Wandered Within Myself," signed Balloon; the AI Cinema Stage section showcases artificial intelligence-based works by Can Büyükberber, Gökay Gedik and Bora Somunoğlu.

An installation from the Creative Tech Zone exhibition