TechCrunch Disrupt 2026’s Real World AI Stage features robots, automated factories, and extinct animals

At our past TechCrunch Disrupt events, AI has taken center stage, both throughout our programming and in a stage of its own. This year, the technology, implications, and players are so rapidly developing and widespread that we’re expanding the single AI stage into two!

The AI Stage will continue as you’d expect, with a rundown of sessions and speakers available for review right here. But the Real World AI Stage is brand-new for TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 .

On this stage, we’ll be focusing on that intersection between the digital and physical, and all the ways we’ll continue to see a blending of the two, as autonomous hardware goes beyond self-driving cars and enters public spaces, battlefields, our homes, and even potentially helps extinct species reenter Earth.

It’s a packed lineup featuring speakers from Shield AI, Colossal Biosciences, FieldAI, Foxglove, and more still to come.

You can join in on all the excitement October 13 to 15 at San Francisco’s Moscone West. As a bonus, if you’re catching this before 11:59 p.m. PT on August 7, you can get an extra $100 off your ticket by following this link .

Here’s the first breakdown of our Real World AI Stage lineup:

When AI enters the physical world, the consequences of failure change. A mistake could lead to a grounded aircraft, a vehicle crash, or a compromised mission.

In this session, leaders who are building autonomous vehicles, defense technologies, and industrial systems will talk about one of the toughest questions that every hard tech founder must face: How do you know when your system is ready to be safely deployed?

We’ll dig into how founders can create a safety culture, test and validate AI, navigate regulatory hurdles, and build companies that can earn trust when the stakes are high.

Ben Lamm has built one of the most controversial companies in tech by turning de-extinction from science fiction into a billion-dollar business. In this fireside chat, the Colossal Biosciences CEO will discuss the technologies used to revive extinct species, the role AI plays in modern biology, and the growing debate over whether engineering nature is a conservation breakthrough or a distraction from protecting what’s already here.

With Dr. Ali Agha, CEO and founder of FieldAI; Michelle Lee, CEO and founder, Medra; and Aidan Madigan-Curtis, partner, Eclipse Ventures

The most valuable AI deployments in the world operate where the cloud can’t reach. And building for them requires a different technological playbook.