How AI Can Build a Future that Works for Everyone [MAICON 2026]

Every leader trying to navigate AI faces a similar challenge: How to keep pace with a technology moving faster than our institutions, our policies, and our economic framework.

Entrepreneur, former presidential candidate and best-selling author Andrew Yang has been at the forefront of the conversation around AI’s impact before it became mainstream.

As a keynote speaker at MAICON 2026, Yang will bring a perspective shaped by years as a leader in the debate. He made AI central to his presidential platform and through his nonprofit work and writing, has brought the complex technology to the attention of millions of Americans.

The Man Who Saw It Coming

When Yang launched his 2020 presidential campaign, his central argument was simple and alarming: AI and automation were about to fundamentally disrupt the American workforce, and no one in Washington was ready for it.

Most political observers dismissed him. The economy was humming. The disruption felt abstract.

Not any longer.

“I’m personally very confident that AI is going to eat through many American jobs,” Yang wrote in a blog post titled “AI and the Rest of Us” in 2024. “Just the other day I spoke to someone who said they used to have 15 designers suggesting various ideas for graphics and clothing.

“They recently fired them all because now they use AI for the same task. A lot of creative work is being changed to utilize AI, which often means fewer workers. What 4 years ago was hypothetical is now immediate.”

What makes Yang’s voice distinctive is not just that he was early to this conversation. He has a rare ability to take the most technically and economically complex dynamics of the AI era and make them digestible, urgent, and actionable for everyday audiences and decision-makers.

A Track Record of Getting It Right Early

Yang’s 2020 campaign introduced Universal Basic Income to mainstream America, a program to pay every U.S. adult $1,000 a month. His book “Forward,” a national bestseller, laid out a comprehensive critique of the institutional failures holding America back from navigating 21st-century challenges, with AI chief among them.

Since then, he has interviewed leading technologists and researchers on the front lines of AI policy. He also co-founded the independent Forward Party, convened conversations across the political spectrum, and continues to press for the kind of structural reforms that would enable workers to benefit from, rather than be displaced by, AI.

“I went around the U.S. making the case that AI was going to come and change everything and that we needed to evolve our economy, adopting measures like universal basic income, to prepare for the future,” Yang said in a 2025 TED Talk.

Why This Matters for AI Leaders Now

Yang’s argument is not anti-technology. He is clear about the potential for AI to improve healthcare, advance scientific breakthroughs, and expand human capacity in meaningful ways.

But he is equally focused on what happens when transformative technology outpaces the systems meant to govern it.

“Left to its own devices, there will be some major downsides,” he has written. “If we want more of the good and less of the bad, it will be up to us and our leaders.”

For leaders responsible for AI strategy, adoption, and governance, those stakes are real and immediate. They affect decisions about workforce planning, vendor evaluation, risk management, and long-term positioning.

Yang offers something rare: a head-on approach for thinking about those decisions that is grounded in economics, policy, and a realistic understanding of where this technology is headed.

What Yang Will Explore at MAICON

Yang’s keynote, “The Human-Centered Economy: Building a Future That Works for Everyone,” will explore:

• How exponential technologies, including AI, are transforming the economy. And it’s happening faster than our systems can adapt. Drawing from his groundbreaking presidential campaign, bestselling books, and policy work with his nonprofit Humanity Forward, Yang makes a compelling case for a reimagined economy that places people at the center, not corporations or algorithms.
• The urgent need to rethink traditional economic models. He’ll offer bold, actionable solutions such as Universal Basic Income, data as a property right, and a modern safety net to support workers in the age of disruption.
• The need for optimism, practicality, and empathy in the age of AI. This is Yang’s signature: The ability to look for the positive and be realistic and compassionate as we navigate the changes AI will bring. Yang empowers audiences to embrace innovation while ensuring that progress is inclusive, sustainable, and deeply human.

Whether speaking to corporate leaders, technologists, policymakers, or students, Yang’s message resonates as a roadmap for how we can thrive in the workplace in the future.

Join Us at MAICON 2026

Yang, host of The Andrew Yang Podcast, headlines MAICON 2026 alongside more than 50 AI and business leaders. While much of the program focuses on implementation, Yang zooms out to explore how AI is reshaping the workforce and economy, and the implications for leaders navigating that shift.

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If you are responsible for how your organization prepares for, adopts, and governs AI, this keynote is for you. Yang will give you a grounded, honest framework for understanding the forces shaping workplace decisions and the choices available to us.

Join us at MAICON 2026 to hear Yang and more than 50 other AI and business leaders. Register today