AI leaders from around the globe descend on Pittsburgh for AI Horizons Summit, "No better place."

Top minds in artificial intelligence and corporate America are in Pittsburgh to discuss the future of AI and how cities across the nation can implement it.

Thursday and Friday, the AI Horizons 2026 Summit is being held in Bakery Square, where global leaders are talking about the latest innovations and how Pittsburgh is helping to forge the way.

"When we're talking about AI globally - its safety, security, adoption, trust - there is no better place to have that conversation than in Pittsburgh," Joanna Doven said, the CEO of the AI Strike team and a producer of AI Horizons.

A lot of conversation during workshop sessions on Thursday involved what happens when AI "meets the real world."

Pittsburgh Mayor Corey O'Connor was a key speaker during one session where leaders talked about using AI to change the way we work in our communities.

"We're talking about AI for safer streets, for national security. We're talking about autonomous driving, where there's less vehicular accidents for all of us and safer streets," Doven said. "We're also talking about things like you know, where humans go sometimes, and where it's dangerous. Where can we have robots go instead? Physical AI."

Other topics included using AI to create "smart cities" to help improve public safety, traffic congestion and energy efficiency.

"Waymo will be here talking about deploying in Pittsburgh. In fact, they have technology right now that the Waymo driver is reporting potholes autonomously to public works," Doven said.

"All that technology streamlines our services," O'Connor said. "It's something we have to be innovative with."

Leaders from NVIDIA and Ernst and Young gave examples of how AI is already being implemented in cities in other countries.

In Hamburg, Germany, officials said AI is using "digital twin technology" to determine where leaks are in older buildings. From there, crews work to repair them first.

Speakers said they also have smart sensors to turn lighting on and off for a reduction in power consumption.

"There's a return on investment of 50%," Jumbi Edulbehram said with NVIDIA.

In Phoenix, Arizona, Joe Depa with Ernst and Young said AI is using traffic light control that has already reduced congestion by 50%.

"The question is, what's the cost of not doing it? That's what we should be thinking about," Depa said.

AI is also advancing medical breakthroughs.

"AI is helping to not only predict diseases but find cures faster and get cures on the market faster," Doven said.

O'Connor said Pittsburgh is becoming an AI hub and asked residents to be open-minded.

"We are sitting in an ecosystem that competes with the world," O'Connor said. "If we don't tap into resources now, we are going to lose long-term."

As fears about job loss and trust in AI have sparked controversy across the nation recently, innovators at the summit stress that cities must have AI safety regulations with three key elements.

"You need to ask, 'Do I have the right guardrails in place? Have I enabled my workforce to have the right training and skills for future jobs that will happen … and the third thing is trust,'" Joe Depa said, the global chief innovation officer at Ernst & Young.

O'Connor said it's all about building that trust and claims AI will not take jobs away in the Steel City.

"We are not replacing individuals, especially in Pittsburgh. We want that individual touch. That individual interaction," O'Connor said.

Global leaders stressed that the only cost to pay is by not moving forward with AI advancements.

"The rules of jobs have changed, and while we're looking at that and we're paying attention to it, we have not yet seen any job loss that people thought we would see. We're seeing instead that if you don't adopt AI as an employee, no matter what you do, that's when you can get off the line. So, what we're seeing is AI is not going to take your job. If you're afraid to use AI and you don't use it, the person who's using AI will take your job. So, it is time for everyone to lean into the moment because it's here and it's not going away," Doven said.

Doven said two things are being launched at AI Horizons this year. Its AI and housing initiative is one of them.

"Housing is a global problem," Doven said. "How do we get more housing online, more new housing, faster, more affordably across all income levels? So, we have an AI challenge that we're launching statewide with universities, startups, and developers."

The second is a statewide AI challenge with middle schoolers.

"As a parent, I want to make sure that my kids are using AI safely, but that they're using it to become better, to create, to innovate," Doven said. "We are leaning into the moment and not waiting for Frontier AI Labs to tell us how to use AI. There are ways we can use it now for good, for benefit, and we're moving forward."