OpenSearchCon Europe 2026 agenda puts AI & search in focus

The OpenSearch Software Foundation has published the agenda for OpenSearchCon Europe 2026, with more than 50 sessions on open source search, analytics, observability and AI-focused workloads. The event is scheduled for 16 and 17 April 2026 in Prague.

The programme features speakers from organisations including the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration, Oracle, SAP, IBM, AWS and S&P Global, with keynotes, lightning talks and breakout sessions.

Infrastructure focus

Search and observability are playing a broader role as companies roll out AI products and experiment with agentic AI. Teams increasingly treat retrieval and real-time analytics as core building blocks in application design, raising questions about data location, operational costs and dependence on a small number of vendors.

The foundation pointed to European interest in "sovereign AI", in which organisations want tighter control over data and governance. It cited research stating that 83% of European leaders view sovereign AI as a strategic priority.

Bianca Lewis, Executive Director of the OpenSearch Software Foundation, framed the event as a forum for technical and business decision-makers evaluating how search and telemetry fit into AI systems.

"Global leaders are taking a more deliberate approach to AI infrastructure. Organisations are looking for platforms that support innovation without sacrificing control, cost transparency or long-term flexibility," said Lewis.

"As AI agents become more embedded in business workflows, modern search must provide the real-time context, multi-model retrieval and governance those systems depend on. OpenSearchCon Europe gathers the builders and decision makers that are shaping how open source search, observability and vector technologies will power the next generation of AI applications," she added.

Public sector

One highlighted session comes from the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration, often referred to as NAV, and is billed as a migration case study.

"Scaling Welfare With Open Source: How NAV Migrated To Managed OpenSearch" is scheduled to be delivered by Dmitry Kan of Aiven and Hans Kristian Flaatten of the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration. The session points to operational lessons from moving to a managed OpenSearch environment and the impact on a large public service organisation.

Search techniques

Search relevance and AI retrieval methods form another theme. Oracle's Samuel Herman is scheduled to present "From Embeddings To Index: A Practitioner's Guide To Domain-Adapted Neural Search", focusing on practical approaches to neural search and how organisations adapt retrieval models to specific domains.

The programme also includes an IBM Research session on the interaction between search platforms and newer document processing tooling. "Integrating Docling With OpenSearch for Advanced RAG and Agentic Applications" is scheduled to be delivered by Cesar Berrospi Ramis.

Observability data

OpenSearch features in observability stacks as well as search use cases. A session from SAP SE is set to examine ingestion choices for telemetry data.

"Ingesting Observability Data: OpenTelemetry Collector or Data Prepper?" will be delivered by Karsten Schnitter of SAP SE and is positioned as a comparison of two approaches to bringing observability signals into OpenSearch-oriented pipelines.

Roadmap sessions

The agenda includes updates on OpenSearch feature development and roadmap discussions. It also lists analyst participation from S&P Global alongside technical sessions on best practices in analytics and observability.

OpenSearch is an open source search and analytics project that emerged as a community-led alternative in the search ecosystem. The OpenSearch Software Foundation serves as a neutral body for governance and community coordination. It is hosted by the Linux Foundation and counts AWS, SAP and Uber among its premier members.

The foundation said OpenSearch has recorded more than 1 billion software downloads since inception, with thousands of contributors. Registration for the Prague event is open, with discounted rates available for academics and full-time students.

The agenda places migration stories, operational tooling choices and AI-era retrieval methods side by side, reflecting how search and observability teams increasingly share infrastructure and engineering priorities.