TechHeads

AI beyond code: smarter decisions, less admin

How project leaders can let AI do the heavy lifting.

With 25+ years in the tech industry and leadership roles at Ericsson, Sinch and Malvacom, Afaf Adawi knows what it takes to drive complex programs and organizational change. Now she's bringing that experience to Techheads 2026.

While most of the AI conversation revolves around coding assistants, Afaf will show how AI can be just as powerful for everyone else. In this session, she shares practical examples of connecting AI to existing project tools, planning systems and budgets to automate reporting, surface insights and support better decisions. You'll see how project and program leaders can spend less time collecting information and more time actually leading, solving problems and delivering value.

Don´t outsource your brain

How law firms stay in control while scaling with AI.

Our partner Yellow Elk is taking the stage at Techheads 2026 with their own session. AI platforms promise efficiency and scale, but they also come with trade-offs around data ownership, process control and where the value actually ends up.

In this session, Yellow Elk explores how to build the infrastructure and integrations that let you move fast with AI, without losing control of your business. A practical look at how knowledge-intensive organizations can stay in the driver's seat while still reaping the benefits of automation.

A new operating system for knowledge work

Beyond automation and augmentation

Jesper Bleeke is an innovation leader at Tech Concept Lab and Course Director of Speculative Design at Berghs. At Techheads, he will cover More Than Human organizations and introduce a third path for AI transformation: ensembling, where human and non-human knowledge workers co-produce outcomes without being confined to separate lanes.

Sweden Rock as an Energy Lab

A Live Energy Experiment from Techtank

Most organizations do not lack technology, they lack a way to start when complexity takes over.

At Tech Heads 2026, Fredrik Andrén shares a practical approach tested in real environments, from an advanced energy hub in Lilla Älghult to a live experiment at Sweden Rock Festival. Expect real data, real constraints, and step-by-step learning that turns complexity into progress.

If you work with energy, infrastructure, or complex operations, this is a session you do not want to miss.

Digital twin

A 3D model with real impact.

We’re excited to welcome Christoffer Carlsson Schött and Meg Nömgård as speakers at Techheads 2026. Christoffer is a Digitalisation Leader at Kalmar Municipality, and Meg is the Castle Manager of Kalmar Castle, awarded the Swedish UNESCO Prize for her work with storytelling. In their joint session, they’ll share Kalmar Castle’s journey of creating a 3D model and digital twin, what they discovered along the way, how the castle benefits from it today, and what they believe is next for digital heritage and storytelling.

The future engineer in the age of AI

Skills, hiring and upskilling in a GenAI boom

We’re excited to welcome Prof. Dr. Dr. Tony Gorschek as a speaker at TechHeads 2026. Tony is a Professor of Software Engineering at Blekinge Institute of Technology and a senior guest researcher at Fortiss (Germany). With extensive industry experience as a CTO, consultant, engineer, chief architect, and product manager, he bridges cutting-edge research with the realities of building software-intensive products and services.

In his session, Tony will share his perspective on the future skills landscape for engineers. What changes when GenAI becomes part of everyday engineering? What are the biggest challenges and blind spots for companies and education, and what practical steps can we take to avoid falling behind?

Build a talking sensor in 60 minutes

From zero to live IoT in one hour.

We’re excited to welcome Raj Nakarja as a speaker at Techheads 2026. Raj spent a decade building IoT the hard way, custom hardware, bespoke firmware, wrestling with wireless connectivity, and stitching together cloud infrastructure before a single line of application logic could be written. So he built Silicon Witchery to collapse all of that into one system. Connect a sensor and, instead of a dashboard, just talk to it in plain English.

In this hands-on session, you’ll build a connected IoT sensor from scratch. No prior hardware experience needed, just basic programming knowledge and a laptop. You’ll be given a Silicon Witchery S2 Module and a handful of sensors. By the end of the hour, your device will be live on a cellular network, collecting real data, and responding to questions in plain English, all from a web browser, no toolchains, no cloud setup, no infrastructure to wrestle with.

Connectivity changes everything 

The operating system for modern innovation.

Connectivity is no longer background infrastructure, it is the operating system for modern innovation.

At TechHeads 2026, we’re excited to welcome Andreas Kristensson, Head of Enterprise at Telenor. With more than 30 years in telecom, Andreas has worked where technology, commercial reality, and innovation collide, and where resilience has become a competitive advantage.

In this session, Andreas takes you into the intersection of innovation, resilience, and dual-use scenarios, and explains what it means when connectivity becomes a strategic leadership question, not just a technical one. Expect perspectives on how connectivity is reshaping industries, and what leaders need to prioritize to create value, reduce risk, and stay ahead in the next wave of transformation.

If you want a sharper view of what is coming next, and what it demands from leadership, this is a talk you do not want to miss.

Live hack - see the world through the eyes of an attacker

Proactive cybersecurity and hands-on hacking.

We’re thrilled to welcome the experts from Outpost24 to the stage at TechHeads 2026. In an era where cyberattacks are no longer a question of "if" but "when," Outpost24 specializes in finding your vulnerabilities before the bad guys do. They help organizations move from reactive panic to proactive control by mastering the art of Exposure Management.

In this high-stakes session, you’ll witness a Live Hack in real-time. You’ll see exactly how an attacker identifies an entry point, escalates privileges, and takes control of a system. But we don’t stop at watching—after the keynote, you’re invited to the Green Room. There, you’ll get hands-on experience at our hacking station, where you can test your own skills and try to breach a controlled environment under expert guidance. Whether you're a developer, a CISO, or just curious about the dark side of the web, this session will give you the tools to understand the threat and the strategy to defend against it.

The internet of cheese

AI and automation for small-scale farming.

We’re excited to welcome Claire and Nils Sjöström from Framtida Bruk Gårdsmejeri as speakers at TechHeads 2026. Goat farmers and artisan cheese makers with a tech background, they’ve spent the last decade building a farm and a business where innovation is part of the daily workflow, from hands-on automation to projects like “Internet of Cheese” and “Getflix.”

 In their session, they’ll share real-world lessons on AI and automation in small-scale agriculture, food processing, and animal husbandry, plus the pros and cons of building “homemade IT” when you just need something that works.

Expect practical inspiration, a little bit of McGyver energy, and a perspective on how tech can create return not only in money, but also in cultural and social capital.

How do you connect products locally and globally without months of infrastructure work?

Meet Johan Svensson, Head of Development for IoT Complete at Telenor Connexion, with more than 30 years of industry experience. He was among the pioneers who brought fixed-line phone numbers to mobile devices, and he continues to drive innovation at the intersection of IoT and AI.

In this session, you’ll learn how to connect your products locally and globally using the right technology. Johan will introduce IoT Complete, a new concept designed to give you a fast, seamless path from idea to reality, including ready-to-deploy devices, rapid application setup, and a way to move from prototype to deployed product in days, with no coding required.

The AI Paradox in organisations

You can't plan your way into AI. But you can't wing it either.

Two truths are canceling each other out in organizations right now. You need to move fast with AI or get left behind. But you also need a clear strategy before investing, or you'll waste time solving the wrong problems.

So which is it? Plan for months, or just run and hope for the best?

Anders Wengelin, partner at Friktion, says neither. At Techheads 2026 he'll share a third route: how to move forward while you're still figuring it out. Small bets, fast learning, and enough clarity to outweigh the anxiety of not having all the answers.

 This one's for leaders who are tired of waiting for the perfect map.

Law firm as a system

They didn't add AI to a law firm. They built the firm for it.

Most organizations try to bolt AI onto broken processes and wonder why it doesn't deliver. LEAD Legal did the opposite: they built the entire firm as a system from scratch, with structured data, own workflows, and a custom system of record. Not because AI told them to, but because they knew it was coming.

Now that wave is here. And they're ready.

At Techheads 2026, co-founders Jonas Axelson and Kerstin Eifrém share how they designed a law firm where AI can actually think, not just autocomplete. What worked, what didn't, and a conviction other organizations can steal: runtime is commodity, knowledge is the moat.

You don't need to be a law firm to learn from this. You just need to ask yourself: is your organization built for what's coming, or are you still patching?

From Karlskrona to accra: a payments journey

How do we bring everyone along as the world goes cashless?

Meet Kenny Stridh, Head of Technology and Evolution at Ericsson Mobile Financial Services and one of our speakers at Techheads 2026. Over 17 years, Kenny has built — and now leads the technology evolution of — a platform that today gives around 130 million people across Africa and the Middle East access to basic financial services everyday, the kind of thing most of Europe takes for granted.

In this session, Kenny will share the story of how a team in Karlskrona set out to bank the unbanked, and how that original vision has since evolved into Buy Now Pay Later, offline payments, cross-border remittance, CBDC and stablecoins, and Digital Identity. You'll hear what it takes to make financial inclusion real, at scale, in some of the world's most challenging markets.

AI in software development

From experiment to everyday: how one team made it real.

What happens when an engineering team stops treating AI as a side project and starts building through it?

Katerina Doneva, System Manager at Ericsson, led exactly that shift. Her team integrated AI agents, Model Context Protocols and knowledge graphs into their daily workflow, not as an experiment, but as the actual way they build and ship software products today.

At Techheads 2026, she'll share what worked, what failed, and the real impact on productivity and delivery. No buzzwords, no theory. Just lessons from the messy middle between "let's try ChatGPT" and a fully AI-native engineering practice.

Whether you're skeptical of the hype or already deep in it, you'll leave with concrete takeaways you can use tomorrow.

What is quantum computing, really?

Why nature is the ultimate computer.

Meet Pontus Vikstål, Quantum Applications Scientist at Chalmers Next Labs and one of our speakers at Techheads 2026. With a doctorate in quantum computing and over seven years in the field, Pontus works to take quantum computing from research to industry, with a focus on solving real-world problems like aircraft scheduling.

 In this session, Pontus will explain what quantum computing actually is, why nature itself is the ultimate computer, and what aircraft scheduling and magnets have in common. You'll also learn where the technology stands today, and how your organization can become "quantum ready".