AI Will Be Front And Center At POWERUp 2026 Next Week - I...

April 20, 2026 Alex Woodie

Had enough of AI? Well, if you are headed to New Orleans, Louisiana, for the POWERUp 2026 conference next week, get ready to hear a lot more about the emerging technology, which is upending not only how we play but also how we work – and the IBM i platform is not immune from this change.

If recent POWERUp events are any indication, COMMON will be expecting 1,100 to 1,200 people for its annual conference, which is taking place April 27 through 30 at the New Orleans Marriott, just around the corner from Bourbon Street in the historic French Quarter. As the world’s largest IBM i community event, POWERUp attracts attendees from around the world, and next week’s event should be no different.

POWERUp conferences are never about one thing, and COMMON’s session schedule shows that there will be a wide array of topics that IBM i professionals can learn about. COMMON is planning about 310 sessions over the four-day event (four-and-a-half days if you count the three events occurring the afternoon of Sunday, April 26). Attendees will find sessions on just about every topic that’s pertinent to the IBM i: security, high availability, application development, DevOps, systems management, storage, and hardware.

There are POWERUp sessions on personal and professional development, how to become a COMMON speaker, and tips for successful business communications. One can hear about IBM i success stories, the looming 2040 date problem, or the latest updates to the operating system – although obviously not the spring IBM i Technology Refresh for 2026, which IBM is holding off on making for now.

But if there’s one overarching theme that stands out from the POWERUp 2026 session lineup, it is AI. The technology has become pervasive in our culture, and it’s making massive inroads into business. As the quintessential business machine, the IBM i server is exposed to the impact of large language models (LLMs), which are rapidly maturing.

POWERUp attendees can expect to hear quite a bit about coding copilots, especially IBM Bob, which recently became available from IBM after a short beta period. There are six POWERUp sessions on Bob, including these (all times in Central Daylight Time):

“IBM Bob – Your IBM i AI Development Partner” by IBM i Architect Tim Rowe at 1:15 p.m. on Monday, April 27
“Meet Bob – Your New AI Software Development Partner” by IBM’s Sanjula Ganepola on 9:15 a.m. on Tuesday, April 28
“How to Validate and Control AI Uncertainty from Bob or Any LLM for Reliable Business Outcomes” by Polverini & Partners; Pascal Polverini at 8 a.m. on Wednesday, April 29
“IBM Bob: A Day in the Life of an IBM i Developer” by Ryan Moeller and Ann Wilkerson at 9:15 a.m. on Wednesday, April 29
“Deep Dive with Bob” by IBMers Liam Allan, Ganepola, and Rowe at 10:45 a.m. Wednesday, April 29
“IBM Bob Success Stories: As Told by the Community” hosted by Rowe, Marina Schwenk, Todd Stewart, and Karl Haggart at 3:00 p.m. on Thursday, April 30.

But the IBM Bob content is just the tip of the AI iceberg at POWERUp, as there are nearly four dozen other sessions that are explicitly about AI, LLMs, agentic AI, or some other AI topic. Here are the AI-related sessions that COMMON and its speaker lineup have in store for POWERUp 2026 attendees:

Monday, April 27

“AI with IBM Power – Portfolio and Strategy” by IBM’s Ashwin Srinivas at 10 a.m.
“Beyond Modernization: The Year Ahead for AI and Power Systems” by Central Park Data Systems’ Charles Guarino, Dave Wiseman of The LUG, IBM’s Kavita Sehgal, and Chris Chapman at 11:15 a.m.
“AI Won’t Take Your Job: How to Become Irreplaceable in the AI Era” by Eradani’s Aaron Magid at 11:15 a.m.
“IBM i in 2026 – Collaborative Strategy in the Era of AI” with IBM Chief Architect Steve Will and IBM i engineer Kris Whitney at 11:15 a.m.
“Understand LLM and Transformer” by Seiden Group’s Jack Woehr at 3:15 p.m.
“Turnkey AI for Key Enterprise Use-Cases with IBM Spyre on IBM Power” by IBM’s Srinivas at 3:15 p.m.
“Agentic AI and IBM Storage FlashSystems” by IBMers Clint Hardy and Yves Santos at 4:30 p.m. CT
And “COBOL to Modern RPG: Using Statis Analysis, Automation, and AI Assistance” by CM First Group’s John Rhodes at 5:05 p.m.

Tuesday, April 28

“Watch It Live: A Full AI Application Built on the IBM i In Less Than an Hour” by mrc’s Rick Hurckes at 8 a.m.
“AI Throughout Your Day!” by PC Richard & Sons’ Steven Wolk at 8 a.m.
“From Insight to Autonomy: The Future of Agentic Operations on IBM Power” by IBMers Brandon Pederson and Heather Lavergne at 8 a.m.
“Intro to MCP (Model Context Protocol)” by Profound Logic’s Brian May at 8 a.m.
“The Technology Has Arrived. Is Your Organization Ready?” by American First Finance’s Reggie Britt at 9:15 a.m.
“IBM i: The First Agentic Native Operating System” by IBMer Adam Shedivy at 9:15 a.m.
“Code to Clarity: AI You Can Trust in Production” by Ozgar’s Josef Schiefer and Robert Moratti at 10:45 a.m.
“AI and Merge Conflicts in Git for RPG” by ARCAD Software’s Jeffrey Tickner at 10:45 a.m.
“Beyond the Copilot: How Agentic Coding Automates Your Engineering Workflow” by Profound Logic’s Gary Jones at 3:15 p.m.
“AI Use Cases for Systems Management Workshop” by IBMers Pederson and Lavergne at 3:15 p.m.
“AI-Driven Observability for IBM i: From Alerts to Predictive Insights” by Omnilogy’s Marek Walczak and Maciej Wielgus at 3:15 p.m.
“How AI Is Transforming IBM i Security” by Fortra’s Sandi Moore and Amy Williams at 4:30 p.m.
“Running Large Language Models (LLMs) on IBM i” by IBM’s Adam Shedivy at 4:30 p.m.
“Why Power 11 is the Best Hardware for AI” by IBM’s Bill Starke at 4:30 p.m.
And “AI over IBM i: Concepts, Patterns, and Live Examples” by mrc’s Hurckes at 5:05 p.m.

Wednesday, April 29

“A Journey to the Truth. . . with AI and Ansible” by PC Richard & Sons’ Wolk at 8 a.m.
“AI is Probabilistic – Your Testing Shouldn’t Be: Mitigating Risk in the Age of Uncertainty” by Pascal Polverini of Polverini & Partners at 8 a.m.
“Work Faster on IBM i: Using AI to Analyze, Modernize, and Deliver More” by Fresche Solutions’ Chris Koppe and Steve Cast at 9:15 a.m.
“AI on Power” by Seiden Group’s Woehr at 9:15 a.m.
“Building Your AI-Powered Knowledge Base: Preserving Expertise Before It Retires” by Eradani’s Aaron Magid at 9:15 a.m.
“Agentic AI: Let’s Design the Future” by IBMers Jesse Gorzinski, Will, Whitney, Shedivy, and Pederson at 9:15 a.m.
“AI and IBM i DevSecOps, the Current State of Tooling” by ARCAD’s Tickner at 10:45 a.m.
“Agentic AI and IBM i” by IBMer Gorzinski at 1:45 p.m.
“Using AI to Build an IBM i Web App in Under 10 Minutes” with CNX’s Robert Swanson and Richard Milone at 3:45 p.m.
“AI Agents for IBM i System Administration” by IBM’s Shedivy at 3:45 p.m.
“How Can I Recognize a Good AI Analysis/Transformation Tool, Determine Whether It Is Suitable For My Situation, and What Should I Pay Attention to?” by i and Me’s Markus Litters at 5 p.m.
“Legacy to Legendary: Unlocking AI in IBM i Workflows with N8N” by imPower Technologies Michelle Lyons and imPower consultant Patrick Behr at 5 p.m.

Thursday, April 30

“Securing Agentic AI – a Kisco and PC Richard Study” by Kisco Systems’ Steve Riedmueller and PC Richard & Sons’ Mike Zaringhalam at 8 a.m.
“AI-Powered DevOps: From Code Generation to Production Deployment” by Eradani’s Aaron Magid at 9:15 a.m.
“Creating a Simple Warehouse Optimizing AI App with Python Running on IBM i PASE” by i and Me’s Litters at 9:15 a.m.
“Deploying Native IBM i Objects with Open Source DevSecOps Tools” by ARCAD’s Tickner at 9:15 a.m.
“Using Large Language Models” by Seiden Group’s Woehr at 10:45 a.m.
“Security for You and A(i)” by IBM’s Scott Forstie and Kisco’s Carol Woodbury at 10:45 a.m.
“Success with AI: AI Use CasesYou Can Implement Now” by Profound’s May at 10:45 a.m.
“The Human Edge: How to Stay Relevant in an AI World” by PC Richard & Son’s Wolk at 1 p.m.
“A Practical Solution and Lessons Learnt from Connecting IBM watsonx Assistant to IBM Db2 for i” by Fresche’s Cast at 4:15 p.m.
“Using AI Ethically: An Open Discussion” with Central Park Data Systems Guarino and IBM’s Gorzinski at 4:15 p.m.
“AI-Based Code Understanding and Modernization” by Fresche’s Koppe at 4:15 p.m. CT
And, last but not least, “How to Build Effective Agents for IBM i” by IBM’s Shedivy at 4:15 p.m.

If these IBM i AI sessions resonate with you and you’re not yet registered for POWERUp 2026, COMMON still has space available. To register for POWERUp 2026, click here.

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