ICAIF 2026: Dates, Venue, Tracks & Registration Guide
November 14-17, 2026
ICAIF 2026, the 7th ACM International Conference on AI in Finance, runs November 14-17 at Bocconi University in Milan. Papers submit through Microsoft CMT by August 2, 2026, with author notification September 27.
ICAIF 2026, the 7th ACM International Conference on AI in Finance, runs November 14-17 at Bocconi University in Milan. Papers submit through Microsoft CMT by August 2, 2026, with author notification September 27. Nine tracks pair methodology (generative AI, RL, trustworthy AI) with financial application (trading, fraud, ESG). Early-bird Passport is €480-€530 through October 24, plus 22% VAT. No keynote list is public yet.
ICAIF 2026 is a peer-reviewed venue, not a fintech trade show
I track AI conferences the way I track SaaS deals, because the research argued in these rooms lands in production tools twelve to twenty-four months later. ICAIF 2026 caught my attention because its call for papers forces every accepted submission to answer two questions at once: is the method novel, and does it solve a real financial problem. That double filter is why the accepted-paper bar is the actual product here, not the keynote lineup.
Most “AI in finance” events split into vendor trade shows selling you a platform or academic conferences with a registration desk bolted on. ICAIF sits firmly in the second camp. Sponsored by ACM, hosted jointly by Bocconi University, University of Milano-Bicocca, and Politecnico di Milano, and backed by Intesa Sanpaolo IMI Corporate & Investment Banking, ICAIF 2026 marks the conference’s seventh edition and its first run in Milan.
When and where ICAIF 2026 takes place
ICAIF 2026 runs November 14-17 at Bocconi University in central Milan. Tutorials and workshops occupy November 14-15 alongside the main conference, which spans the full four days. A virtual four-day pass exists at a flat €100 across all tiers (checked 2026-08-24, icaif2026.org/registration.html), but there is no full hybrid stream of every session.
Milan is served by three airports: Malpensa (MXP), Linate (LIN), and Bergamo (BGY). Mid-November means cool, often wet weather. Pack accordingly if you fly in.
Quick facts:
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Event | ICAIF 2026 (7th ACM International Conference on AI in Finance) |
| Dates | November 14-17, 2026 |
| Venue | Bocconi University, Milan, Italy |
| Format | Workshops and tutorials Nov 14-15, main conference Nov 14-17, plus a separate €100 virtual pass |
| Host institutions | Bocconi University, University of Milano-Bicocca, Politecnico di Milano |
| Paper deadline | August 2, 2026 (AOE) |
| Author notification | September 27, 2026 |
| Official site | icaif2026.org |
Every figure above cross-checked against the official site on 2026-08-24.
ICAIF 2026 is built for researchers and applied engineers, not sales teams
You get real value from ICAIF 2026 if you are a quant researcher chasing peer-reviewed work on reinforcement learning, an applied AI engineer building fraud or credit systems who wants to see what will land in a competitor’s product next year, an AI governance or compliance lead tracking the trustworthy AI and computational-regulation tracks, or a PhD student presenting a paper. The applications tracks (trading, market microstructure, robo-advising, DeFi, ESG investing) map onto specific workflows, not general “AI for banking” trend briefings.
I would skip it if you are looking for vendor demos, product comparisons, or a networking-first business-development trip. ICAIF runs an eight-page ACM sigconf paper cap and a Microsoft CMT submission pipeline. That is the whole event.
Weighing submit versus attend? Submitting means covering at least one Main Conference or Passport registration per accepted paper at the ACM member or non-member rate. Student registration alone does not satisfy the presenting-author requirement. A workable middle path: one senior researcher submits a workshop proposal, the rest of the team registers as Passport attendees, and you get research exposure and hallway networking without a paper per person.
The chairs matter more than the missing keynote list
ICAIF 2026 has not published a keynote lineup as of 2026-08-24. Academic conferences at this scale typically confirm keynotes after the September 27 paper-notification date clears and the program committee sees the accepted-paper themes. If the keynote slate is your main draw, buy on faith or wait.
Program leadership is confirmed:
| Role | Name |
|---|---|
| General Chair | Andrea Maurino |
| Program Chair | Vikram Agarwal |
| Program Chair | Svitlana Vyetrenko |
| Program Chair | Riccardo Zecchina |
Intesa Sanpaolo IMI Corporate & Investment Banking backs the event as sponsor. Industry-side sponsorship on an academic program signals genuine buy-in, not a research showcase looking for a venue.
What the ICAIF 2026 program actually covers
The call for papers splits into two structural buckets that run through every track: methodology and application. On the methods side, expect sessions on generative AI, simulation, and synthetic data; large and small language models for financial workflows; reinforcement learning and sequential decision-making; trustworthy AI covering explainability, fairness, security, and privacy; and AI governance and computational regulation. Applications cover trading and market microstructure, risk and fraud modeling, robo-advising, asset pricing, ESG investing, and blockchain and cryptocurrency applications.
Pairing a methods track directly against an applications track is the quality filter here. A clever technique with no financial problem attached gets rejected. A financial problem with no methodological novelty gets rejected. That double filter is why the peer review is worth respecting, and why generic “AI is transforming finance” talks do not survive it.
Workshops and tutorials run November 14-15 with earlier deadlines. Papers cap at eight pages in ACM sigconf two-column format, PDF only, no supplementary materials, no exceptions.
What ICAIF 2026 registration actually costs
Registration is open now, priced in euros, excluding 22% VAT, with three tiers (ACM member / non-member / student) and three time windows. Early bird runs through October 24, standard covers October 25 through November 13, and late/onsite applies from November 14 (checked 2026-08-24, icaif2026.org/registration.html).
| Pass | Early bird (Member / Non-member / Student) | Standard | Late/Onsite |
|---|---|---|---|
| Passport (4 days, full access) | €480 / €530 / €370 | €530 / €580 / €420 | €580 / €630 / €470 |
| Main Conference (3-4 days) | €350 / €400 / €300 | €400 / €450 / €350 | €450 / €500 / €400 |
| Workshop Days (1-2) | €220 / €280 / €170 | €270 / €320 / €220 | €330 / €380 / €270 |
| One Day | €180 / €230 / €120 | €220 / €270 / €170 | €270 / €320 / €220 |
| Virtual (4 days) | €100 flat | €100 flat | €100 flat |
Add €90 for the Welcome Reception ticket and €120 for the Conference Banquet if you want the social program. Every accepted main-conference paper needs at least one in-person Passport or Main Conference registration at the member or non-member rate. Student rate does not cover a presenting author.
No discount codes, group rates, or alumni programs are published. There is no StackVerdict code for this event, and I am not going to invent one.
The August 2 deadline is the real lever
The paper submission deadline is August 2, 2026 Anywhere on Earth (AOE, UTC-12), which buys you an extra half-day over local clocks, not a full extension. Author notification lands September 27. Papers submit through Microsoft CMT at cmt3.research.microsoft.com/ICAIF2026. There is no separate abstract deadline.
Two rules catch first-time ICAIF submitters. Reviews are double-blind, so self-citations run in third person (“Balch et al. found…”, not “in our prior work…”). And there is no rebuttal period. You submit, you wait, you get the decision. A reviewer who misreads your method sinks the paper. The submission has to be airtight on the first pass.
Six other policies matter:
- Six submissions per author, maximum.
- The author list is final at submission. No adds or removes after.
- It is an archival venue. Papers under journal review, or already accepted elsewhere, get rejected.
- Preprints on arXiv or non-archival workshops (AAAI, KDD, ICML, NeurIPS) are fine, but you cannot cite them in a way that breaks anonymity.
- At least one author of every accepted paper presents in person. No pre-recorded videos.
- Every author of an accepted paper needs an ORCID for the camera-ready.
My buy-or-skip framing for ICAIF 2026
Submit and attend if your team runs applied research on AI for finance and you can hit August 2. The peer review itself is worth the eight pages even if the paper does not land. Attend without submitting if you want a research-grade read on where AI in finance is heading before it hits a vendor roadmap, and the Passport pass fits your travel budget. Skip it if you want networking, sales leads, or vendor comparisons.
The methods-and-applications pairing is the real quality signal, more than any keynote list. A clever RL trick with no financial application gets filtered out before it reaches a stage.
Check the official site closer to the event for the keynote announcement, and if you are submitting, subscribe so the notification alert lands in your inbox on September 27.