The best moments of PMI® Agile 2026 happened in conversations. In the hallways at the Gaylord, at Agile Coach Camp Worldwide, during Reimagining Agility discussions, at our CEO Dinner on Enterprise Agility, and between conference sessions, our community came together to exchange ideas, challenge conventional wisdom, and explore the future of agility in a rapidly changing world.
Those conversations reinforced something important: the future of agility will not be defined by defending familiar roles, frameworks, or ways of working. It will be shaped by our ability to learn across communities, respond responsibly to AI, and keep human judgment and value creation at the center.
For Agile Alliance, this is what community has always been about. Our role is not to prescribe a single answer or champion a particular approach. It is to create space for practitioners, leaders, technologists, and change agents to learn from one another, challenge assumptions, and help shape what agility becomes next.
It was a privilege to bring together Agile practitioners, project professionals, executives, technologists, coaches, product leaders, and organizational change agents from around the world. Throughout the week, I watched people engage in thoughtful debate, share hard-won lessons, reconnect with friends and colleagues, and make new connections that will continue long after the conference ended.
What stays with me most is not any single presentation, announcement, or keynote. It is the energy created when people come together with curiosity, humility, and a genuine desire to learn.
AI is Changing the Work, but the Answers are Still Emerging
If one topic appeared in nearly every room, it was AI.
We heard very different views about what AI means for software development, product creation, project management, leadership, and organizational change. Some people are already working in AI-native environments where traditional assumptions about backlogs, estimation, roles, and team structures are being challenged. Others are under pressure to introduce AI capabilities without the skills, governance, operating models, or safeguards needed to use them effectively.
What became clear is that the community is wrestling with two connected transformations.
Organizations will not realize the full value of AI-enabled delivery if their leadership models, decision-making processes, governance structures, and ways of working cannot evolve at the same pace.
The first is the future of software development in the age of AI. How will AI change the way products are conceived, built, tested, and maintained? Which responsibilities remain distinctly human? How will roles evolve as technology takes on more of the work once performed by people?
The second is how organizations become more adaptive. Organizations will not realize the full value of AI-enabled delivery if their leadership models, decision-making processes, governance structures, and ways of working cannot evolve at the same pace. The challenge is not simply adopting new technology. It is building the capacity to learn faster, make better decisions, and adapt effectively as conditions change.
At PMI Agile 2026, PMI and Agile Alliance committed to helping practitioners, teams, and leaders navigate these questions together. The answers will not come from a single framework, company, or conference. They will emerge through experimentation, shared learning, and the collective experience of this community.
Many of the most important experiments, insights, and lessons are already emerging within this community. Our role is to listen, learn alongside you, connect people working through similar problems, and amplify what works.
Two Keynotes, One Shared Challenge
Two keynote presentations helped frame many of those conversations. Elisabeth Hendrickson and Joel Tosi opened the conference with “Rethinking How Organizations Change,” challenging the assumption that constant change automatically leads to better results.
They encouraged attendees to view organizations as systems and look beyond visible activity to the conditions shaping outcomes. Instead of reaching for another framework or transformation program, leaders should examine where decisions stall, incentives conflict, and dependencies slow delivery. The question is not whether an organization is changing. It is whether that change is producing measurable improvement.
The conference closed with Johan Roos’s “The Fourth Value: Human Magic in the Age of Algorithms.” Johan argued that human-centricity is the foundation of enterprise agility. As AI becomes more powerful, organizations will depend even more on human judgment, curiosity, collaboration, and learning.
Together, the keynotes framed a common challenge: in an age of accelerating technology, organizations must improve how they learn, decide, and adapt while keeping people, judgment, and accountability at the center.
Applying Our Skills to Make a Difference
I am especially proud of the moments that reminded us that agility is about more than frameworks, processes, and technology.
The Hack for Good initiative with the Jubilee Association of Maryland and Project Managers Without Borders showed what happens when people apply their skills to a real need.
Led by April Jefferson and Quinton Quartel, participants combined their experience, learned quickly, and focused on creating something useful for an organization doing meaningful work. It was a powerful reminder that agility is ultimately about people working together to make a difference.
Other members of the team who deserve special thanks include Anjali Leon, Ashanti Gardner, Lada Kesseler, Brian Button, Kody Fintak, Jeff Jia, Jason Hall, and Paige Watson.
What Comes Next
As we celebrate 25 years since the creation of the Manifesto for Agile Software Development and Agile Alliance, I am optimistic about the future.
This community has always moved forward through experimentation, honest disagreement, and shared learning. That spirit will matter as AI reshapes the work and organizations rethink how they connect strategy, leadership, and delivery.
I saw that spirit throughout the week in National Harbor. In many ways, that spirit is Agile Alliance’s greatest strength and its greatest responsibility.
A Conference Created by a Community
Events like PMI Agile 2026 do not happen on their own. They are the result of countless people contributing their expertise, creativity, and passion to create meaningful experiences for others.
A heartfelt thank you to our keynote speakers, Johan Roos, Elisabeth Hendrickson, and Joel Tosi, and to every speaker who trusted this community with their ideas, experiences, and stories.
Thank you to our volunteer coordinators, Swetha Chandraprakash and Jay Rowland, and our incredible “Purple Shirt” volunteers: Alexandra Weller, Carol Dekkers, Manjit Singh, Grace Willis, Jennelle Stearns, Jane Bertram, Canessa Boyd, Kevin Sawyer, Rebecca Taylor, Alexander Wilson, Bassma Soliman Aly, David Fogel, Kenneth France, Dante Vilardi, Jacqueline Tillery, Olena Yanakova, Prince Okpalaeze, Neetu Punwani, Ricardo Abella, Junius Rowland, Summer Ismail, David Bujard, Joslyn Barton, Akuete Mathey-Apossan, and My Tran Le.
We’re also grateful to the sponsors, exhibitors, contributors, Agile Alliance Board members, programming committee, and the Agile Alliance and PMI teams. Thank you also to every attendee who showed up ready to participate rather than simply attend.
And please join us in thanking our team of volunteer review team who dedicated their time to help with the selection of our speaker sessions and workshops for PMI® Agile 2026. The team included Tobey Aumann, Brian Button, Sheila Eckert, Stan Ponder, Martin Schellert, Jenny Tarwater, Faye Thompson, Dustin Thostenson, and Olivia Vick.
Conferences like this happen because a community chooses to create something together.
A very special thank you goes to the PMI Agile 2026 Program Team: Semira Allen, Nayan Hajratwala, and Reese Schmit. Their vision, judgment, partnership, and dedication shaped an exceptional program.
This conference also marked the end of Semira’s journey as conference chair after several years of service on the Agile Alliance program team. Semira, Reese, and Nayan gave countless hours to creating a program with strong content, different perspectives, and opportunities for real participation. I am deeply grateful for their service.
Things are just getting started
The conversations at PMI Agile 2026 are not the end of the story. They are the beginning of a broader conversation about how we adapt, learn, and create value in a world being reshaped by AI and constant change.
Follow us for more details on PMI® Agile 2027 as the next gathering takes shape.
