A total of 1300 delegates from more than 80 countries joined the Tallinn Digital Summit in November 2026, facilitating conversations among political leaders, academia and entrepreneurs. More than 100 speakers from 26 countries explored the opportunities and challenges of the agentic era from a range of perspectives. With 64% of speakers coming from outside Estonia, the summit brought together international voices, particularly from the United States, the United Kingdom, EU institutions, France, Germany and Ukraine.
This year’s central question was “How to Thrive in the Agentic Era?”, explored through three pillars: competitiveness, security and efficiency. The summit focused on turning high expectations for artificial intelligence into pragmatic, trusted and accountable solutions.
Hosting the summit, Estonia’s Prime Minister Kristen Michal said: “AI can give more power to many, or it can put more power in the hands of a select few. The future is not decided by technology; it is decided by us.” Michal emphasised that Europe must have the ability to develop AI itself rather than just buying it: “Europe had already paid a high price for its dependence on Russian energy; it must not repeat a similar mistake with key technologies.”
While many speakers focused on the possibilities and solutions promised by the agentic AI, more sceptical views were also expressed. Founder, investor and visionary Jaan Tallinn asked whether humans will remain in the loop. He warned: “If you are not going to remain in the loop, like once AI starts self-sustaining infrastructure build-out, the environment will be completely destroyed.”
Professor Stuart Russell of the University of California, Berkeley, asked bluntly: “Are you on the side of the human race or are you on the side of our future AI overlords?”
Anna-Kaisa Ikonen, Finland’s Minister of Local and Regional Government, emphasised one rule in particular: “Access that can be switched off is actually not a capability.”
During the Tallinn Stress Test, Patrick J. Dempsey of Cybexer demonstrated a dialogue between an AI agent and a subagent, in which the former asked the latter to stop breaking the system.
In a conversation with Estonia’s former president Toomas H. Ilves on the transatlantic relationship, Rod Beckström described the Nordic-Baltic region as the “California of Europe”. Ilves pleaded with the US and Europe “just to get along”.
More than 70 Future delegates included university students from Estonia and abroad for the first time. A Future Delegate from Tartu University described his motivation: “I wish to bring the knowledge and insights gained at the Summit back to the student community in Tartu.” A PhD student at Tallinn Technical University said: “My key objective is to bring my doctoral research into direct dialogue with the people who are actually building the agentic state.”
For more inspiring quotes from the debates and keynotes, visit the Tallinn Digital Summit’s social media channels: LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook and X.
Photo galleries of the Summit.
All keynotes and discussion panels are now available on YouTube.
The 10th Tallinn Digital Summit will take place on 3–4 November 2027.
