The questions people ask about a new technology tend to follow a predictable arc. First comes "What is it?" Then "Should I care?" And finally, with a note of mild panic, "How do I actually use this thing before someone else figures it out first?"

Haymarket Media, the publisher of Campaign, MM+M and PRWeek, is betting that the advertising and marketing world has reached that third stage with artificial intelligence. The company announced that its AI Deciphered conference will return for a third year on November 12 at Convene in Manhattan, promising an agenda calibrated to an industry that has moved past the introductory course.

"When the event debuted in 2024, the prevailing questions began with words such as 'If' or 'Should I,'" said Gideon Fidelzeid, a vice president at Haymarket Studios who serves as the conference's host. "Far more questions today begin with the word 'How.'"

Mr. Fidelzeid's observation tracks with what has become a familiar pattern in these matters. The first year of any technology-focused conference series tends to feature panels with names like "Understanding the Opportunity." By year three, the sessions have titles involving words like "workflow" and "implementation" — which is to say, the language of people who have stopped debating whether to do something and started arguing about how to do it better than the person in the next office.

The 2026 edition will follow the format established last year, with general sessions bookending the day and breakout tracks organized by discipline in between. (The better to ensure that the pharmaceutical marketers and the communications professionals need not sit through each other's very specific concerns.)

For an industry that has spent the better part of two years oscillating between enthusiasm and existential dread about artificial intelligence, a conference promising "copious amounts of education and inspiration" may be precisely what the moment requires — or at least what it is willing to pay a registration fee for.

Original story published in campaignlive.com: "Haymarket Media’s AI Deciphered conference returns this November to New York City | Campaign US"