Important Dates

Note: all deadlines are “anywhere on earth” (UTC-12)

September 19, 2025: 
Electronic applications due 

November 3, 2025: 
Notification of acceptance or rejection

November 15, 2025: 
Talk title and abstract, and speaker bio and photo due to AAAI

November 21, 2025: 
Camera-ready versions at the AAAI CRC site

December 15, 2025 (Tentative):
Links to video of selected talks due to AAAI for review. Details about video format and content will be announced after acceptance.

New Faculty Highlights: Call for Proposals

This year, AAAI is continuing its invited speaker program, highlighting AI researchers who have just begun careers as new faculty members or the equivalent in industry. 

New Faculty Highlight talks will be allotted 20-30  minutes each (final duration will be informed with the notifications); the aim for these talks is to broadly survey the candidate’s research to date. Several talks will be released online and publicized each day of the AAAI conference, following which they will be available archivally as part of the conference program. Invited speakers will be further invited to contribute an article to a corresponding series in AI Magazine. 

To qualify, applicants must have taken up a faculty position at a research-intensive university or a broadly equivalent position in industry (e.g., a position in a research lab that involves independent research and publication at AI venues), with a start date between July 1, 2023 and December 31, 2025. 

We invite applications from qualified researchers. All documents must be in PDF format and use the AAAI 2026 Author Kit. Applications should consist of:

• a cover letter (at most 2 pages) that explains the promise and impact of the candidate’s research to-date (e.g., publications in top-tier forums, citations, awards, adoption or application by others, deployed systems, broader impacts) and future plans in AAAI format;  
• the candidate’s CV in your preferred format;  
• a link to the candidate’s Google Scholar profile or equivalent at the top of your CV;  
• and a one-page statement describing the work that would be surveyed by the talk in AAAI format. 

Applications may be submitted at and are due on or before September 19, 2025. The final selections are competitive and will be done based on the strength of the candidate’s track record, and the promise of the research plan.  

For More Information 

Inquiries concerning submissions and suggestions for the new faculty highlight program may be directed to the program co-chairs at aaai26fhchairs@aaai.org. All other inquiries should be directed to AAAI at aaai26@aaai.org.

New Faculty Highlight Co-Chairs 

Noa Agmon (Bar-Ilan University, Israel)

Yuhong Guo (Carleton University, Canada)