Bilbao 2026 — Designing the Next Layer of Health Data Collaboration

Following the momentum created in Wales and Dubai, the next chapter of this journey will unfold in Bilbao in 2026 — not as another conference competing for attention, but as a carefully curated space designed to create signal from noise.

The original Data First, AI Later movement began with a clear proposition: meaningful artificial intelligence cannot be built on weak, fragmented or poorly governed data foundations. That principle remains essential. But the conversation has evolved.

Today, the challenge is no longer simply to place data before AI. It is to ensure that the data being used is relevant, trustworthy, representative and capable of supporting better decisions in real health systems. This evolution is now expressed through Real Data, Better AI: a wider movement focused on rebuilding trust before scaling intelligence.

For those working in complex systems, the Bilbao Summit will therefore be less about showcasing isolated solutions and more about architecting the conditions in which better ones can emerge.

At its core lies a deceptively simple question:

How do we design collaboration environments where data, trust and decision-making can evolve together?

The programme will bring together policymakers, clinicians, health-system leaders, data experts and industry partners not merely to speak alongside one another, but to work across organisational, professional and national boundaries.

The discussions will address data governance, interoperability, real-world evidence, trusted research environments and the practical integration of AI into healthcare. Yet the deeper purpose is to understand how these elements can be connected into systems that people are willing and able to use.

For the Architecting Collaboration community, Bilbao represents something more than a health data summit.

It is a live laboratory for facilitation, dialogue design and systems thinking — an opportunity to explore how carefully designed conversations can help diverse actors move from competing perspectives towards shared understanding, practical commitments and better collective decisions.

Because better AI will not emerge from technology alone.

It will depend on the quality of the data, the legitimacy of the governance and, above all, the quality of the collaboration around it.