Drupal AI Initiative: AI at DrupalCon Rotterdam
Written by Duncan Worrell (dunx)
DrupalCon Rotterdam is almost here. Alongside two dedicated AI summits and the main conference keynote, the program is stacked with high-value AI content for developers, strategists, and leaders alike. Whether you're looking to push agentic workflows, scale digital governance, streamline content operations, or keep your AI integrations trustworthy, here is a complete breakdown of the top AI sessions to help you optimize your schedule.
Full schedule at https://events.drupal.org/rotterdam2026/schedule
Tickets at https://events.drupal.org/rotterdam2026/registration-information
All session times are local CEST.
SummitsIn addition to the main DrupalCon event, there are two AI-specific summits being held catering for two very different audiences.
Enterprise Drupal AI SummitAn executive-focused event for CXOs, Heads of Digital, and enterprise leaders connecting with curated Drupal AI partners. Hosted on the historic former ocean liner, SS Rotterdam.
Date & Time: All day Monday, 28 September
Event details here: https://summit.enterprisedrupal.eu/schedule.html
Getting Drupal developers up to speed on AI coding tools, AI in PHP/Symfony/Drupal frameworks, Canvas, and Drupal CMS innovations.
Date & Time: All day Monday, 28 September
Event details here: https://events.drupal.org/rotterdam2026/ai-dev-summit
For many, the DriesNote by Drupal founder Dries Buytaert is the week’s highlight. Expect a keynote packed with the latest AI roadmap updates, architectural reveals, and live technical demos.
Date & Time: Tuesday, September 29, 2026 - 10:30 to 11:45
DriesNote will live stream on YouTube if you can’t make the event in person.
SessionsEvery session is likely to mention “AI” but we expect these sessions to be focused on AI.
Unblocking AI: Why Programmes Stall at Pilot Stage, and How to Move Past ItResearch and strategies for moving AI initiatives past the pilot phase to deliver real-world impact.
Date & Time: Tuesday, 29 September 2026, 13:00 – 13:10
Speakers: Amanda Falshaw (AI Enablement Lead at Reading Room) & Megan Harvey (Reading Room)
Features AI-assisted content creation as part of an open-source Drupal intranet workspace.
Date & Time: Tuesday, 29 September 2026, 13:15 – 13:25
Speaker: Maciej Łukiański (CEO and Co-founder of Droptica)
Leadership and organizational change management required to guide teams through fast-moving AI adoption.
Date & Time: Tuesday, 29 September 2026, 13:30 – 14:15Speaker: Timi Csontos (Culture Consultant/Freelygive)
Reviewer-Friendly AI: A Practical Drupal Contribution Workshop
Practical AI-assisted workflows designed to turn ideas into high-quality, review-ready open-source contributions.
Date & Time: Tuesday, 29 September 2026, 13:30 – 14:15
Speaker: Scott Falconer (Senior Principal Software Engineer at Acquia)
Engineering reliable, trustworthy AI agent integrations in Drupal using modules like AI, ECA, and agentic tools.
Date & Time: Tuesday, 29 September 2026, 13:30 – 14:15
Speaker: Shibin Devadas Kakanat (Backend Pro Lead at Factorial)
Structuring, scoping, and natively managing AI context within Drupal CMS for downstream agents and tools.
Date & Time: Tuesday, 29 September 2026, 14:25 – 15:10
Speakers: Emma Horrell (User Experience Manager University of Edinburgh and UX Research Lead for Drupal CMS) & James Abrahams (Technical Director at Freelygive)
Applying UX research methods to train and ground AI content tools to output domain-specific quality.
Date & Time: Tuesday, 29 September 2026, 14:25 – 15:10
Speaker: Aidan Foster (Senior UX Strategist at Kanopi Studios)
Addressing data security, compliance, provider selection, and cost control as AI adoption scales.
Date & Time: Tuesday, 29 September 2026, 14:25 – 15:10
Speaker: Michael Schmid (Head of Technology and Co-Founder of amazee.io)
Testing AI coding agents on live projects to automate complex site migrations into Drupal Canvas, examining real metrics, wins, and limitations.
Date & Time: Wednesday, 30 September 2026, 10:45 – 11:30
Speakers: Wolfgang Ziegler (Architect, Founder of drunomics) & Jeremy Chinquist (Project Manager at drunomics)
Automating inclusive governance and identifying accessibility errors early by bridging code, humans, and AI workflows.
Date & Time: Wednesday, 30 September 2026, 10:45 – 11:30
Speaker: Mike Gifford (Senior Accessibility Strategist at CivicActions)
Adapting content architecture for direct answer delivery to AI systems while increasing Drupal’s strategic value.
Date & Time: Wednesday, 30 September 2026, 10:45 – 11:30
Speakers: Tomi Mikola & Ulla Koho (both digital strategists and content architects at Wunder)
Maintaining human readability, software architecture, and clean code standards when using AI generators.
Date & Time: Wednesday, 30 September 2026, 11:40 – 12:25
Speaker: Len Swaneveld (Senior Drupal Developer at iO)
Unifying 35 national voices into a cohesive travel brand using generative AI integrated into Drupal.
Date & Time: Wednesday, 30 September 2026, 11:40 – 12:25
Speakers: Krisztián Kása & Zsófia Alföldi (both Project Managers at Brainsum)
Leveraging Drupal’s structured architecture to build optimized environments for AI Agents running inside and outside CMS boundaries.
Date & Time: Wednesday, 30 September 2026, 12:30 – 12:40
Speaker: James Abrahams (Technical Director at Freelygive)
How autonomous AI agents act as primary decision-makers selecting, building, and verifying Drupal systems.
Date & Time: Wednesday, 30 September 2026, 12:45 – 13:30
Speaker: Scott Falconer (Senior Principal Software Engineer at Acquia)
Official product update from the Drupal AI Initiative leadership on building production-ready Agentic CMS capabilities.
Date & Time: Wednesday, 30 September 2026, 13:40 – 14:25
Speakers: Niels Aers (CTO/AI Tech Lead at Dropsolid) & Dr. Christoph Breidert (CEO and Founder of 1xINTERNET)
Generating governed, high-quality draft campaign pages straight from PDF briefs in minutes without code tickets.
Date & Time: Wednesday, 30 September 2026, 13:40 – 14:00
Speaker: Kieran Cott (Executive Creative Technology Director at Delete Agency)
Open discussion on improving how LLMs describe, evaluate, and recommend Drupal to users.
Date & Time: Wednesday, 30 September 2026, 13:40 – 14:25
Speaker: Larissa Tropp (Digital Marketing & Growth Specialist at 1xINTERNET)
Leveraging AI tools to simplify, re-architect, and map legacy un-typed data into clean destination bundles during migrations.
Date & Time: Wednesday, 30 September 2026, 14:45 – 15:30
Speaker: Roberto Peruzzo (Principal Architect and Founder of Sparklingboys)
Honest post-mortems on AI project failures and pragmatic ways to navigate rapid technological shifts.
Date & Time: Wednesday, 30 September 2026, 14:45 – 15:30
Speakers: Dieter Blomme (Drupal Architect at Dropsolid) & Valery Lourie (Lead Software Engineer at EPAM Systems)
Running lightweight, client-side search powered by Pagefind with an AI layer for query expansion and summaries.
Date & Time: Wednesday, 30 September 2026, 14:45 – 15:30
Speaker: Jeremy Andrews (CEO and Founder of Tag1 Consulting)
Training AI agents to generate Single Directory Components, insert them into pages, and verify browser rendering.
Date & Time: Wednesday, 30 September 2026, 14:45 – 15:30
Speaker: Matt Glaman (Principal Software Engineer at Acquia)
Agentic translation and governance workflows developed for the European Commission across 24 languages.
Date & Time: Wednesday, 30 September 2026, 16:00 – 16:45
Speakers: David Galeano & Adam Nagy (both work in the DIGIT department at the European Commission)
Enabling non-technical users to build, style, and structure complete Drupal sites via conversational prompts.
Date & Time: Wednesday, 30 September 2026, 16:00 – 16:45
Speakers: Francesco Pesenti & Francesco Quagliati (both are Developer Advocates and Solution Engineers at Platform.sh)
From Drupal Content to AI Answers: Learnings from EPSY
Designing constrained AI search engines over standard chatbots to deliver structured content answers.
Date & Time: Wednesday, 30 September 2026, 16:00 – 16:45
Speaker: Antonella Picarella (Head of Digital Communications & Content Strategy at BFF Banking Group)
Strategic shifts from Search Engine Optimization to Generative Engine Optimization as AI engines handle discovery.
Date & Time: Wednesday, 30 September 2026, 16:00 – 16:45
Speaker: Wouter De Bruycker (Digital Marketing Strategist at Dropsolid)
Translating and moderating hundreds of high-volume personal stories across 60+ languages using AI tools.
Date & Time: Wednesday, 30 September 2026, 17:00 – 17:45
Speakers: Charles Andrew Revkin & Diego Fernando Costa (both part of the digital communications team at the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC), which runs World Cancer Day)
Practical tactics for Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) and maintaining content discoverability in AI platforms.
Date & Time: Wednesday, 30 September 2026, 17:00 – 17:45
Speakers: Reena Tripathi (Digital Marketing Manager at OpenSense Labs) & Anubhav Gupta (CEO/Technical Architect at OpenSense Labs)
Whether you’re coming to DrupalCon Rotterdam to build with AI, figure out how to govern it, or understand where it is taking Drupal next, there is a lot to choose from. From the two Monday summits through the DriesNote and a packed slate of sessions, AI is clearly woven throughout this year’s programme. Check the full schedule, plan around the sessions that matter most to you, and we’ll see you in Rotterdam.
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