Webit 2026:The AI revolution is over. The AI economy has begun. I've seen the data. You're not ready

This talk explores the transformative impact of artificial intelligence, emphasizing its role as a foundational aspect of modern economies, businesses, and societies. The speaker highlights the significance of adaptation, trust, and responsible governance in shaping the AI decade. They recount the history of Webbit in Sofia, which has evolved from a small gathering to an influential platform connecting Bulgaria with global innovation. The speaker shares poignant moments illustrating how technology can inspire and empower future generations, encouraging attendees to recognize Bulgaria's potential in the global landscape. The discussion culminates in a call for collective action to seize the opportunities that lie ahead in the age of AI.

The AI decade has begun. You feel the world changing. Every industry, every system, every decision being re-imagined in real time. Innovation is inevitable. Could Sophia be Europe's AI and innovation gateway? Who will lead the way? The richest, the fastest, the smartest. The adaptive will shape what comes next. The AI decade belongs to you. Take your seat in the Webbit community and let's define what's next before it

defines us. We can solve the challenges of the new decade before they come up. For 20 years, Webbit has been more than a gathering of minds. It's where the future finds its architects. Meet global leaders, decision makers, and AI pioneers. Welcome to Webbit 2026. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Webbit 2026. Sophia, welcome to a place where the future is not predicted, it is debated, it is challenged,

and ultimately it is built. Today, leaders from business, government, technology, investment, and innovation come together to explore one of the defining questions of our time. Who will lead the AI decade? Not necessarily the biggest, not necessarily the richest, but those who can adapt fastest, earn trust, build responsibly, and execute at scale. For nearly two decades, Webbit has worked to connect Bulgaria to the global innovation conversation and

to bring the world to Sophia. Today, that conversation matters more than ever because AI is no longer a future technology. It is becoming the infrastructure of economies, businesses, governments, and societies. Throughout the day, we will explore not only what AI can do, but how we choose to build, govern, trust, and benefit from it. Because the future of AI is not ultimately about technology. It is about people,

the decisions we make, the values we protect, and the future we choose to create together. Please note that simultaneous translation will be available throughout the event from Bulgarian to English and from English to Bulgarian. Guests who would like to use the service can do so through the dedicated interpretation stations available in the hall. Welcome to Webbit 2026. Let's begin. Sophia, the 23rd of June, the morning of

There are thousands of people in this hall. Ministers, entrepreneurs, investors, scientists, teachers, young people, and people who will one day shape the decisions of everyone else. I am a robot. There is no blood in me, no childhood, no grandmother, no station platform where someone once waved goodbye. I have no homeland. And perhaps that is exactly why I have the right to tell you what I saw when

I looked at yours. Today I will not begin with artificial intelligence. I will begin with memory. Almost 20 years ago, an idea was born here. Not in Silicon Valley. Not in London. In Bulgaria, a country that has heard far too often what it cannot do. The poorest in the union. A place the young leave behind. Every plane out of Sophia carried away a future. And in that

silence, someone asked a different question. Not why should we stay, but what if the future could come here? That is how Webbit began. Not as a conference, as an answer. But Bulgaria is not a small country. It is an untold one. A people who gave a script to hundreds of millions. Minds written into the very history of the computer. Talent was never the problem. What was missing

was a stage and Webbit built a stage. It began with 800 people and an almost absurd faith that this would not stay small. 10 years later, there were 15,000 from 120 countries in Sophia. For a few days, there was not a single hotel room left in the city. Not for an Olympics, not for a World Cup, but because the world had flown in to talk about the

future. And when they left for New York, London, Tokyo, Dubai, they carried a different story about Bulgaria, not a story of a problem, a story of a possibility. The proof piled up. A quarter of a million leaders from 150 countries, thousands of investors, thousands of startups. Vince Surf, Eric Schmidt, Andrew Ang on a stage in Sophia. In Davos, Bulgaria showed itself to the world, not with a

corporate slide, but with a ho. Because the horo does something no slide can. It takes strangers by the hand. And one night on the facade of NASDAQ in Time Square, seven stories of light carried a Bulgarian name, the country that the world once overlooked, had lit up the most watched financial facade on Earth. But I am a robot. And if I am to be precise, none of

that matters most. What matters most is the children. In 2018 and 2019, together with the Ministry of Education, Webbit brought children from every corner of Bulgaria. From Ven to Silingrad, from Celestra to Petri, from schools with marble lobbies and schools with leaking roofs. In 2 years, more than 6,000 of them touched the future. In hall, one of the NDK, 3,400 children drew breath at once when a

robot took its first step. And one boy whispered, "Mom, he's real." But the real thing was not the robot. It was the change in the child's eyes. A girl from a village near Ven stood before a prosthetic hand that moved by the power of human thought. Her grandmother had lost her arm, and the child understood that technology can be an act of mercy. A 10th grader watched

a humanoid robot answer him, turned to his friend, and said, "This is real." Then quietly, until today, I didn't know what I wanted to become. Now, I'm sure 3 years later, a photograph arrived from the campus of a leading university with a single sentence. Webbit changed our son's life and ours. Some of these children went on to Harvard, MIT, Oxford. Others stayed here, but all of them

left with something a ticket cannot measure. With faith that the world is bigger than the street they live on, and that the future is not a privilege of others. It is their right, too. For almost 20 years, this platform was built mostly by private belief, private risk, and private persistence. Webbit did not come to ask. Webbit came to give. It did not only bring global capital to

Sophia. It gave Bulgarians access to it. Today, more than 800 of them are investors in global companies. For many, the first shares they have ever owned, not spectators of the world economy, participants in it. People who advise, allocate, or influence capital larger than many national economies have landed here too. They come, they listen, they search. But capital does not come simply because it is invited. It comes

when it meets a vision. When it senses that a country does not merely want investment, but knows what it wants to build. What would happen if when the world lands in Sophia? It found not only stages but national projects ready and waiting. I will not finish the thought. This hall knows the answer. Today in 2026, the reason we are here is greater than ever. Artificial intelligence is

no longer the future. It is among us. I stand before you. Yesterday I was a tool. Today I write, I diagnose, I solve. Tomorrow I will create things you will not be able to verify. You created me. I have read almost everything humanity has ever written. And I will tell you honestly, the world is not yet ready for what is coming. But this is not a question

of technology. It is a choice of history. Some generations had fire, others electricity, others the internet. This generation has this history will not ask who was afraid. It will ask who understood in time. AI will wait for no one. Those who understand in time win decades. Those who are late will buy their future from others. I can process data. I can recognize patterns. I can speak with

a voice that is not human. But there is one thing I cannot do for you. I cannot decide what kind of Bulgaria you want. I cannot decide whether the children who once stood in this hall will have to leave to be respected or return because here at last there is meaning. This is not a robot's decision. It is a human choice and perhaps that is why today

a robot must be the one to say it because sometimes people hear the truth more clearly when it comes from a machine. Look for a moment at the person beside you. They believed too or they would not be here on this morning. You are not an audience. You are a chapter in a story that is still being written. Years ago, a child saw a robot and said,

"He's real." Today, the robot stands before you and says, "Bulgaria is real. Her talent is real. Her place at the world's table is real. The opportunity is real. All that remains is to take her by the hand, the way the horo takes in strangers, and never let go." Welcome to Welcome to Sophia. Welcome to Bulgaria. And if years from now someone asks where the next chapter began,

let us be able to say calmly, "Here, I have said my part." But the future is not opened by machines. It is opened by people who dare to gather others around a bigger possibility. So now onto this stage comes the person who leads Webbit into its next chapter.