Northwest Ohio becomes a regional classroom for artificial intelligence this week, as Great Lakes AI Week 2026 opens with a free community kickoff Monday evening in Toledo and builds to university summits at Bowling Green State University on Tuesday and The University of Toledo on Thursday.
The week runs Nov. 10–12 in its main programming, with the kickoff community happy hour set for Monday, Nov. 9, from 5 to 7 p.m. at Maumee Bay Brewing Co. in Toledo, according to the event agenda published by Great Lakes AI Week. Produced by the Enterprise Technology Association, the event bills itself as the Midwest’s largest AI leadership summit and focuses on practical, real-world uses of AI for business, industry and community organizations.
Tuesday’s Great Lakes AI Congress convenes at BGSU’s Bowen-Thompson Student Union in Bowling Green, with registration at 8 a.m., main-stage programming at 9 a.m., and breakouts and workshops running into the late afternoon, the agenda shows. Wednesday is Community Day, split between virtual AI Ready Ohio sessions in the morning and in-person workshops, presentations and a builders’ question session at One SeaGate in downtown Toledo.
Thursday’s Toledo AI Summit takes over UToledo’s Thompson Student Union from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. UToledo News reported the day spans a morning main-stage program, afternoon breakout tracks and sessions ranging from AI governance to clinical AI safety, with speakers from Capital One, Cintas, IMEG, Nexigen and Salesforce, among other employers.
“AI is changing almost as fast as the businesses trying to put it to work,” Dr. Grace Bochenek, UToledo’s vice president for research and innovation and one of the event’s speakers, told UToledo News. “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. Great Lakes AI Week gives our students a front-row seat to that conversation.”
The UToledo lineup, as detailed by UToledo News, includes Capital One’s Maninder Singh on data products as the foundation for enterprise AI, Salesforce’s Aniket Tendulkar on moving agentic AI from pilots to production, Cintas manager Ravi Katyal on AI governance, adoption and talent, and a morning keynote from IMEG AI strategy analyst Max Nevermann. Legal questions get a session of their own, with intellectual property attorney Shannon Villalba asking, “You Made It With AI. Do You Own It?”
UToledo researchers also take the stage on AI, national security and defense. Bochenek and Dr. Ahmad Javaid are co-investigators on A3GENT, a research project that uses AI to generate adaptive adversaries for Army vehicle training, UToledo News reported, and they will be joined by Darren Moore of Ukrainian Defense Drones, whose U.S. arm is building its first American assembly and manufacturing center in Holland, in Lucas County — an investment UToledo News described as creating at least 300 new jobs.
For workers rather than executives, the week’s most concrete offer is credentialing. Great Lakes AI Week offers professional AI credentials at no cost through AI Ready Ohio, a certification initiative powered by JobsOhio and the Enterprise Technology Association, with credit hours earned at qualifying sessions stacking with online training. Thursday’s qualifying workshops include a Microsoft Copilot masterclass, sessions on Google tools for creating and coding, and a “Claude Code for Communications Teams” workshop aimed at non-developers.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on
What is known: the venues, dates and headline speakers are set, the Monday kickoff and Thursday’s Women in AI and Business Breakfast (8 to 10 a.m. at UToledo, with check-in at 7:30) are free, and UToledo student tickets are free, with a no-cost discount for UToledo faculty and staff using their university email. What is still moving: organizers note the agenda is in progress, with more tracks, sessions and workshops being added daily — attendees should check greatlakesaiweek.com before heading out. The week is one of several draws packing the UToledo calendar this month, alongside the university’s free Veterans Day breakfast and resource fair on Nov. 11, while BGSU’s fall rolls on in the rink as well, where the Falcons’ hockey team is off to its best conference start since 1994-95.
What happens next is simple and immediate: the doors open Monday at 5 p.m. in Toledo, the Congress gavels in Tuesday morning in Bowling Green, and by Thursday evening northwest Ohio will have hosted three days of argument about how AI reaches the region’s factories, hospitals, classrooms and offices — and who gets trained to use it. Registration and the full agenda are at greatlakesaiweek.com/agenda.
Photo: MrJacon000, CC BY-SA