AI meetups in Chicago

Chicago's AI meetups are where the scene actually gathers: LLM and machine-learning nights, live demos, and the hallway conversations that happen after the talks. Every upcoming AI meetup in the city, verified daily and almost always free to join.

Workshops Hackathons Conferences Networking Free events

Sep

Wed

Today

6:00 PM – 8:00 PM CDT

AI Assisted Engineering Series: Planning

by Chicago ML

Chicago ML convenes a Loop-area planning session for a new hands-on series on using AI tools in engineering workflows and application development.

MeetupFreeAll levelsDevelopersStudents

6:00 PM – 9:00 PM CDT

Chicago | How Businesses Use AI

Ferris & Coby Claude Community Events Chicago

A Chicago panel for owners and operators on choosing AI use cases that earn their cost, with candid examples, a live workflow demonstration and peer discussion.

MeetupFreeAll levelsBusinessDevelopers

Sep

Tue

4:00 PM – 6:00 PM CDT

Caught on Camera: Vision AI on the Warehouse Floor

1111 W 22nd Streetby Arvist

Arvist, Hanwha Vision and PLT host a Chicago demonstration of vision-AI quality control in a freight warehouse, including live footage-to-claims workflows and discussion of deploying the systems in operating facilities.

MeetupFreeAll levelsDevelopersBusiness

5:30 PM – 8:00 PM CDT

Automation, MCP, and Vibe Coding: What Gets Built vs. What Gets Shipped

Aon Centerby Digital Delivery Chicago

Digital Delivery Chicago convenes a practical AI-adoption meetup on automation, MCP and vibe coding, focusing on the difference between promising prototypes and tools teams actually put into use.

MeetupFreeIntermediateDevelopersBusiness

6:00 PM – 8:00 PM CDT

How Does AI Impact the Way We Learn?

Pilot Project Brewing - Logan Squareby Edtech Institute of Chicago

Edtech Institute of Chicago launches its Future of Learning meetup series with a hands-on evening on AI and learning research, practical opportunities and open questions.

MeetupFreeAll levelsDevelopersResearchersStudentsGeneral

Sep

Thu

5:00 PM – 7:00 PM CDT

September 2026 Meetup: Chicago AI Engineering Group

nvisia Conference Centerby Chicago AI Engineering Group

An in-person Chicago AI Engineering Group meetup for local practitioners, with networking followed by a technical presentation at the nvisia Conference Center.

MeetupFreeAll levelsDevelopersStudentsGeneral

Sep

Tue

6:00 PM – 8:00 PM CDT

Building AI Agents That Teams Can Trust: 6th Chicago Meetup

by The Test Tribe

A Chicago meetup on the engineering and governance choices involved in moving from individual AI agents to reliable multi-agent systems, with a practitioner talk and peer exchange.

MeetupFreeIntermediateDevelopersBusiness

6:00 PM – 8:00 PM CDT

Your Agent Hasn't Faced Adversity Yet!

TeamWorking by TechNexusby Agent Loop Chicago

Agent Loop Chicago hosts a Loop meetup on the realities of agent failure, resilience and production-oriented AI-agent engineering.

MeetupFreeIntermediateDevelopers

Sep

Wed

5:30 PM – 7:30 PM CDT

Chicago: Building Apps with Lakebase

Analytics8by Databricks Community Meetup Chicago

A Chicago Databricks Community Meetup featuring a live Lakebase demo and practical discussion of building AI-native applications with the Databricks data platform.

MeetupFreeIntermediateDevelopersBusiness

5:30 PM – 8:00 PM CDT

From Root Cause to AI Agents: Elastic & Gigamon in Action

Improving Chicagoby Elastic Chicago User Group

The Elastic Chicago User Group and Gigamon present an in-person meetup on evidence-based root-cause analysis and building AI agents with Elastic skills, workflows and Agent Builder.

MeetupFreeIntermediateDevelopers

6:00 PM – 9:00 PM CDT

Chicago | Claude for Finance

Ferris & Coby Claude Community Events Chicago

A free Loop gathering for finance practitioners sharing real AI workflows, live demonstrations, governance concerns and candid lessons from attempts that did not work.

MeetupFreeIntermediateBusinessDevelopers

Sep

Thu

6:00 PM – 8:00 PM CDT

Chicago: Agentics Foundation Meetup

by Chicago Agentics Foundation Meetups

A Chicago gathering for builders, researchers, founders and enterprise leaders exploring deployable agentic-AI systems, open-source projects and practical automation.

MeetupFreeAll levelsDevelopersBusinessResearchers

Oct

Thu

5:00 PM – 8:30 PM CDT

HPA Member Meeting: Industrial, Physical AI & Supply Chain

mHUBby Hardtech Partners Alliance

A Chicago hardtech gathering on industrial and physical AI, supply-chain innovation and investment perspectives, with speakers from mHUB, Booz Allen Venture and HPA portfolio companies.

MeetupFreeIntermediateBusinessDevelopersGeneral

Oct

Tue

4:00 PM – 5:00 PM CDT

Schmidt AI in Science Speaker Series: Meng Jiang (Notre Dame)

John Crerar Library, University of Chicagoby University of Chicago Data Science Institute

A free public talk at the University of Chicago's John Crerar Library from Notre Dame computer scientist Meng Jiang, part of the weekly Schmidt AI in Science series on AI-driven work across the physical and biological sciences.

MeetupFreeAdvancedResearchersStudents

5:00 PM – 8:00 PM CDT

Tech Pulse 2030 Chicago: October Session

Discovery Partners Instituteby AI 2030 | Responsible AI Chicago

A free Chicago meetup for practitioners, entrepreneurs and community leaders examining responsible AI and the real-world impact of emerging technology, followed by local networking.

MeetupFreeAll levelsDevelopersBusinessResearchersStudents

Oct

Thu

6:00 PM – 8:00 PM CDT

Artificial Intelligence: Sam Basu

Aon Centerby Chicago Cloud Computing Meetup Group

A Chicago Cloud Computing Meetup technical session with Sam Basu on artificial intelligence, for local developers interested in current AI practice and engineering discussion.

MeetupFreeAll levelsDevelopersStudents

Oct

Tue

4:00 PM – 5:00 PM CDT

Schmidt AI in Science Speaker Series: Doug Brinkerhoff (University of Montana)

John Crerar Library, University of Chicagoby University of Chicago Data Science Institute

A free talk at UChicago on why a machine learning glacier flow emulator ended up back as a PDE solver, covering GPU-accelerated multigrid methods and ML-inspired transport operators in scientific computing.

MeetupFreeAdvancedResearchersStudents

Oct

Tue

5:30 PM – 7:30 PM CDT

Tech Pulse 2030: Responsible AI Investing & Pitch Showcase

by AI 2030 | Responsible AI Chicago

A Chicago Tech Pulse 2030 gathering for investors, founders and innovation leaders, focused on responsible-AI investment and a showcase of early-stage AI startups across sectors.

MeetupFreeAll levelsBusinessDevelopersGeneral

Oct

Tue

4:00 PM – 5:00 PM CDT

Schmidt AI in Science Speaker Series: Ella King (Northwestern)

John Crerar Library, University of Chicagoby University of Chicago Data Science Institute

A free UChicago talk from Northwestern engineer Ella King, whose work applies AI methods to designing dynamic, self-correcting materials, part of the weekly Schmidt AI in Science series.

MeetupFreeAdvancedResearchersStudents

6:00 PM – 8:00 PM CDT

Tiller: Structure, Gates, and State for Human + Agent Teams

TeamWorking by TechNexusby Agent Loop Chicago

An Agent Loop Chicago technical meetup on structuring collaborative software development between people and AI agents, with a presentation from Made In Tandem's JC Grubbs.

MeetupFreeIntermediateDevelopers

Nov

Tue

5:00 PM – 8:00 PM CST

Tech Pulse 2030 Chicago: November

Discovery Partners Instituteby AI 2030 | Responsible AI Chicago

A free responsible-AI community meetup at Discovery Partners Institute for Chicago practitioners, entrepreneurs and leaders discussing emerging technology and responsible innovation.

MeetupFreeAll levelsDevelopersBusinessResearchersStudents

Nov

Thu

6:00 PM – 8:00 PM CST

Generative AI Transformers: A Deep Dive

Aon Centerby Chicago Cloud Computing Meetup Group

A Chicago Cloud Computing Meetup technical walkthrough of transformer internals, from embeddings and attention to agents and AI application harnesses.

MeetupFreeIntermediateDevelopersStudents

Nov

Tue

4:00 PM – 5:00 PM CST

Schmidt AI in Science Speaker Series: Greg Bryan (Columbia)

David Rubenstein Forum, University of Chicagoby University of Chicago Data Science Institute

A free University of Chicago research talk by Columbia astronomer Greg Bryan, part of the Schmidt AI in Science series on AI-driven advances across the physical and biological sciences.

MeetupFreeAdvancedResearchersStudents