Scaled Agile to Host SAFe & AI Summit San Diego, Unveiling AI-Native SAFe for the Age of AI

Keynotes from industry leaders will show organizations how to move beyond AI pilots
and turn AI capabilities into measurable business value

SAN DIEGO, Sept. 9, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Scaled Agile, Inc. (SAI), provider of SAFe®, the world's most trusted system for business agility and AI-Native enterprise training solutions, announced the SAFe & AI Summit San Diego, which will take place September 14-18 at the Gaylord Pacific Resort & Convention Center. The event will bring together business leaders, transformation practitioners, and Agile professionals to explore how AI is reshaping the way organizations deliver business outcomes.

AI is changing how work gets done, and to meet the needs of organizations working to become AI-Native, Scaled Agile has developed AI-Native SAFe to help guide and accelerate their journey. The need is great. Despite unprecedented investment in AI, a survey from the Return on AI Institute of 1,000 C-suite executives found that only 9% report realizing significant value from generative AI. The barrier to achieving ROI is not technical, but rather a lack of an operating model that helps organizations govern AI, transform how work gets done, and consistently turn AI capabilities into business value.

The summit's main keynote, AI-Native SAFe, The Operating Model for the Age of AI, will be delivered by Andrew Sales, SAFe's chief methodologist and Scaled Agile's chief product officer. Andrew will explain how the bottleneck has shifted from building faster to validating value responsibly and how Lean-Agile principles provide the foundation for scaling AI with confidence. The session will show how AI-Native SAFe reimagines teams, Agile Release Trains, leadership and governance to help organizations become faster, more adaptive and fundamentally AI-native.

Additional main-stage keynotes will feature Lindsay Wirthlin of the Red Cross, Kate O'Neill, author of Tech Humanist, and Mik Kersten, author of Project to Product, who will preview ideas from his upcoming book Output to Outcome. Their sessions will examine how funding, leadership, and team structures must evolve as AI systems generate far more output than traditional organizations are built to absorb, and why Fortune 500 operating models need to be rewired to optimize for outcomes rather than output.

The two-day summit will combine customer-led case studies, partner showcases, and hands-on labs so attendees will not just learn about AI-Native practices but also apply them. Participants will build an AI-enabled workflow, create a 90-day AI roadmap and practice new ways of working with AI inside SAFe. Additionally, on Sept. 14, Scaled Agile will host a partner day, a SAFe Practice Consultant Trainer (SPCT) master class and immersive preconference training. Sept. 17-18, Scaled Agile will conduct post-conference training to further equip leaders with real, prioritized plans and applications to drive change upon their return.

Speakers and sessions at the summit will draw on organizations already applying SAFe and AI-Native SAFe in practice, including AWS, Collins Aerospace, Barclays, Benco Dental, Navy Federal Credit Union, Panasonic, the VA Office of Clinical Informatics, and VW Credit.

"Large organizations know they need to become AI-native, but seeing real ROI from AI requires changing the way work happens, and that's a difficult task to do all on your own," said Andrew Sales, chief methodologist at Scaled Agile. "AI-Native SAFe provides a framework for AI transformation built on proven Agile principals, and the SAFe & AI Summit provides hands-on experience, practical application, and content focused on achieving business outcomes from AI such as increased speed, improved quality, and significant ROI."

To register for the SAFe AI Summit in San Diego, visit the registration site.

About Scaled Agile, Inc.
Scaled Agile, Inc. is the provider of SAFe®, the world's most trusted system for business agility, and the creator of AI-Native, a transformation system that helps organizations scale AI from proof-of-concept to enterprise-wide impact. With more than 2 million professionals trained across 60-plus countries and more than 20,000 enterprises and government agencies in its global network, Scaled Agile brings over 15 years of enterprise transformation experience to today's AI-driven world. Learn more at scaledagile.com.

SOURCE Scaled Agile, Inc.