AI Con USA 2026 - Half-day Tutorials
Monday, June 8
Getting Started with AI and Machine Learning
Are you a software professional who would like to learn to use AI and machine learning (ML), but don't know how to get started? One of the best ways to get into ML is by designing and completing small projects. Although you will ultimately need to understand the fundamentals of AI/ML, there's no reason why you can't learn foundational terms, concepts and principles as you put them into practice. Join Dionny Santiago as he introduces you to the world of applied machine learning. Dionny will guide you through a series of ML projects end-to-end, enabling you to gain experience with creating...
Human in the Loop
New"We love AI and use it for everything we do!" "We hate AI and will NEVER use it for anything ever, I swear to god!" Which camp are you in? This will be a question that will come up over and over in 2026 and beyond. If you use AI for EVERYTHING and think you can be mistaken for AI…has AI not already taken your job? We all need to get INTENTIONAL about our stance in the AI-verse. Have you thought deeply about what is a good activity for AI to lead on and what should be uniquely human? We are already seeing a premium price tag on in-person, uniquely human-to-human experiences, and this will...
AI Governance as Code: An Introduction to AIGovOps
NewAI governance is no longer optional. Like privacy and security before it, governance is quickly becoming a production requirement, enforced through regulation, audits, and fines—often after real harm has already occurred. Ken Johnston and Bob Rapp, founders of the AiGovOps Foundation, introduce AIGovOps: the practice of implementing AI Governance as Code, embedded directly into delivery pipelines and operational workflows. This hands-on session begins with a concise review of Responsible AI and the NIST AI Risk Management Framework, followed by an interactive HARMS workshop using real AI...
Model Context Protocol Fundamentals
NewTired of staring at the chat box of an AI assistant wishing it could actually do a task for you rather than just telling you what to do? Model Context Protocol (MCP) is the glue between an AI agent and your data and tools. With MCP, AI assistants can read your documents, conversations, and other context and take action for you by sending emails, submitting tickets and more. But what really is MCP and how do you use MCP servers safely in practice as part of your day-to-day workflow? This half-day course introduces MCP and dives into practical use cases. Laurel will walk you through how to...
A Quality Engineering Introduction to AI and Machine Learning
Although there are several controversies and misunderstandings surrounding AI and machine learning, one thing is apparent — people have quality concerns about the safety, reliability, and trustworthiness of these types of systems. Not only are ML-based systems shrouded in mystery due to their largely black-box nature, they also tend to be unpredictable since they can adapt and learn new things at runtime. Validating ML systems is challenging and requires a cross-section of knowledge, skills, and experience from areas such as mathematics, data science, software engineering, cyber-security,...
Become an AI Power User
Impostering a bit in the AI-verse? Overwhelmed by daily AI announcements? Unsure you're using AI most effectively? Tiny bit of FOMO? We've got you covered! In this workshop, we'll help you become an AI Power User. Become a boss at your job, whatever your role or industry! We'll show you where AI shines and where you'll want to be careful, plus toss you lots of hands-on practice. In our time together, we'll help you pinpoint YOUR niche, build a custom AI assistant, and develop a comms strategy to show off your new skills. You'll walk out with cutting-edge knowledge, a prompt library...
Build Your Own AI News Agent with Redis + LangGraph.js.
NewTired of sifting through endless news sources and missing the topics you care about? This hands-on workshop empowers you to build a personalized AI news assistant using Redis and LangGraph.js. You’ll learn to ingest articles from RSS feeds, summarize and analyze them, extract structured data, and generate embeddings—all stored in Redis for powerful hybrid (vector + structured) search. Your agent will provide a web interface for browsing and semantic search, and even chat with you about current events, retrieving relevant articles and metadata using RAG techniques. LangGraph.js orchestrates...
AI Transformation Workshop: Rethinking Change Through the Human Lens
NewArtificial Intelligence is reshaping organizations, but technology alone doesn’t deliver transformation — people do. This half-day, hands-on workshop helps leaders and teams manage the human side of AI adoption through proven frameworks and real-world application. Grounded in the change-management principles of the ACMP (Association of Change Management Professionals) and informed by coaching practices from the ICF (International Coach Federation), the session walks participants through a detailed, action-oriented playbook for guiding AI transformation while keeping trust, learning, and...
Tuesday, June 9
Prompt Engineering for Software Practitioners
With the sudden rise of ChatGPT and large language models (LLMs), practitioners are using these tools for all aspects of engineering. This includes leveraging LLMs for creating software artifacts such as requirements documents, source code, and tests; reviewing them for issues and making corrective suggestions, and analyzing or summarizing results or outcomes. However, if LLM's are not fed good prompts describing the task that the AI is supposed to perform, their responses can be inaccurate and unreliable. Join Tariq King as he teaches you how to craft high-quality AI prompts and...
AI-Assisted Development: Supercharge Your Coding with GitHub Copilot and More
The world of software development is rapidly evolving, and AI-powered tools are leading the charge. Generative AI tools like GitHub Copilot, Cursor, and Continue are revolutionizing how we code by offering intelligent code suggestions, complete function generation, and other advanced features that streamline the development process, improve code quality, and significantly boost developer productivity. In this hands-on workshop, Jeffery Payne will guide you through leveraging these powerful tools to accelerate your coding, reduce errors, and unlock new levels of creativity. Learn how to...
AI-Enabled Building: Let the Robot Do the Work
NewTheory is great, but what about getting your hands dirty with some real problem-solving? Lets build your own AI Operating System that you'll take home and use immediately. Join Melissa Benua and Ryan Lee for a hands-on session where you'll construct a personalized AI toolkit that solves YOUR specific testing problems, regardless of your coding background. We'll start by deconstructing the modern software development lifecycle used by all tech companies to safely ship software solutions to their customers, and show you exactly where AI accelerates each phase. Then we'll prove a critical...
This Is Our Agent, We Make the Call
Agents! Finally, a term that might be even more over-hyped than AI! But what exactly are Agents, and more importantly, how do you use them? Where do Agents fit within the overall AI toolkit? What capabilities do they add, and what tasks can they help us perform? Dona and Jeremiah will help you gain a solid understanding of Agents and the fundamental components of an Agent-based AI system. You’ll learn key design principles for Agents, as well as when to leverage them and scenarios where they may not be the best choice. We'll cover how to identify business problems that are well-suited for...
Strategies for Testing Autonomous AI and Multi-Agent Architectures
NewTesting Artificial Intelligence (AI) agents presents a paradigm shift from traditional software quality assurance. Unlike deterministic, rule-based applications, AI agents exhibit emergent behaviors, learn from their environments, and make autonomous decisions, making conventional test case design and execution insufficient. This tutorial will provide a comprehensive understanding of the unique challenges and advanced strategies required to effectively test single and multi-agent AI systems. Participants will learn how testing agents differ significantly from testing traditional software....
AI Deep Dive: Exploring AWS Using Real-World Scenarios
Deepen your AI and machine learning expertise using AWS in an Immersive, hands-on workshop. You’ll use real-world AI challenges while leveraging AWS services like Amazon SageMaker, Bedrock, and Lambda to build and optimize AI-driven solutions. As the session unfolds, new constraints and data anomalies will emerge, mirroring the complexities of real-world AI/ML implementation. Gain insight into how AI solutions perform under evolving conditions, learning to adapt, optimize, and troubleshoot unexpected challenges. Learn the importance of collaboration, strategic thinking, problem-solving,...
Agentic AI: From Rules to Reasoning
NewAI agents have existed for decades, but generative AI has fundamentally changed what agents can do and how they are designed and built. Come and explore the evolution of AI agents across two major waves. First, learn the foundations of Agentic AI through agents built using rules, heuristics, and traditional machine learning, examining where these approaches excel and why they struggle with complexity, ambiguity, and scale. Then dive into the second wave of agents powered by generative AI and multimodal large language models. These modern agents can reason, plan, use tools, and interact...
Vibe-Coding a Business: Using AI to Rapidly Build, Test, and Validate Real Products
NewAI has fundamentally changed how quickly new businesses can be created. With modern, high-end models, individuals and teams can now move from a raw idea to a functioning product, market narrative, sales motion, and operating loop in days rather than months. The challenge is no longer whether AI can generate assets—it’s how to use AI intentionally across the entire business lifecycle to produce outcomes that are relevant, credible, and sustainable. In this hands-on tutorial, Jason Arbon leads participants through a practical, end-to-end approach to “vibe-coding” a business using AI. The...