Major employers, free professional credentials and a full day of hands-on artificial intelligence programming are coming to The University of Toledo next week, when the campus hosts the Thursday, Nov. 12 program of Great Lakes AI Week 2026, according to UToledo News, the university’s news service.
Great Lakes AI Week runs Tuesday, Nov. 10 through Thursday, Nov. 12, with programming split between Bowling Green State University and The University of Toledo, according to UToledo News. Produced by the Enterprise Technology Association, the event bills itself as the Midwest’s largest AI leadership summit, focused on practical, real-world uses of the technology rather than theory.
UToledo’s Thursday program pairs a morning main-stage program with afternoon breakout tracks and sessions ranging from AI governance to clinical AI safety, according to UToledo News. Speakers from major employers include Capital One, Cintas, IMEG, Nexigen and Salesforce.
Among the named sessions UToledo News lists: Capital One senior director of data engineering Maninder Singh on data products as the missing foundation for enterprise AI; Salesforce enterprise architect and senior director Aniket Tendulkar on moving agentic AI from pilots to production; Cintas manager of emerging technology Ravi Katyal on AI governance, adoption and talent; and IMEG AI strategy analyst Max Nevermann delivering the morning keynote.
Dr. Grace Bochenek, UToledo’s vice president for research and innovation and an event speaker, told UToledo News: “AI is changing almost as fast as the businesses trying to put it to work,” adding, “The organizations that will lead are the ones asking not just what these tools can do, but how to use them responsibly and in ways people can trust.”
The credential offer may be the week’s most practical draw for northwest Ohio workers. Attendees can earn professional AI credentials at no cost through AI Ready Ohio, a certification initiative powered by JobsOhio and the Enterprise Technology Association, according to UToledo News; qualifying sessions earn credit hours that stack with approved online training.
The Nov. 12 day opens with a free Women in AI and Business Breakfast from 8 to 10 a.m. in the Thompson Student Union, built around women executives and founders from Toledo-area companies, according to UToledo News, which notes the room is intentionally small and space is limited. Midday Lunch and Learns and afternoon sessions cover digital twins and smarter manufacturing, shadow AI, and AI agents in finance, healthcare, manufacturing and supply chain, across six breakout tracks.
The program also carries a research and defense angle with direct local stakes. Bochenek and Dr. Ahmad Javaid, interim chair and associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science, are co-investigators on A3GENT, a project using AI to generate adaptive adversaries for Army vehicle training, and will discuss AI, national security and defense, according to UToledo News. They are joined by Darren Moore, president of Ukrainian Defense Drones, who, UToledo News reported, played a leading role in bringing the company to Lucas County for its first U.S. assembly and manufacturing center — a multimillion-dollar investment creating at least 300 new jobs in Holland, Ohio.
Other agenda items include intellectual-property attorney Shannon Villalba of Heartsong Legal on “You Made It With AI. Do You Own It?”; a Microsoft Copilot Masterclass for beginner and expert users led by Scott Phillips of Nexigen; and “AI Is Your New Superpower,” covering Google Vids, Vibe Coding and Gemini Notebook, led by Heidi Orvosh of the Northern Buckeye Education Council, according to UToledo News.
For northwest Ohio, the week lands at the intersection of the region’s workforce and research economies. The free AI Ready Ohio credentials give area workers a no-cost entry point into a skill employers at the summit — Capital One, Cintas, Salesforce and others — are actively hiring around, while the defense programming ties Toledo’s university research directly to a manufacturing investment UToledo News puts at least 300 new jobs in Holland. That combination — training, research and jobs in one program — is the practical pitch the Enterprise Technology Association and the two host universities are making to the region.
What happens next: Full agendas and tickets are posted at greatlakesaiweek.com/agenda, which UToledo News links for registration. UToledo student tickets are free, and faculty and staff can claim a no-cost discount on two-day general admission using their UToledo email address with the code UTSTAFF, according to UToledo News. The week opens Tuesday, Nov. 10, with the Bowling Green State University portion of the program before the focus shifts to Toledo on Thursday, Nov. 12.
Photo: MrJacon000, CC BY-SA 4.0