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The 2nd edition of the Data Science Next Conference opens on May 7 at the Park Plaza Amsterdam Airport Hotel. Finonity is covering the event as a media partner.
European companies spent an estimated $116 billion on AI and data analytics infrastructure in 2025, according to IDC’s Worldwide Artificial Intelligence Spending Guide, and that number is expected to climb past $140 billion this year. The investment is no longer concentrated in a handful of tech giants. Banks, logistics operators, pharmaceutical companies, and energy firms across the continent are hiring data scientists faster than universities can produce them. Conferences like DSC Next exist because the gap between what the technology can do and what organisations know how to deploy keeps widening.
The Amsterdam edition runs for two days and focuses on applied problems rather than theoretical research alone. Sessions cover generative AI in production environments, responsible machine learning, and the kind of scalable analytics work that mid-sized European companies are now attempting for the first time. Healthcare, fintech, cybersecurity, and retail all have dedicated tracks. The format mixes keynotes with hands-on technical workshops, which tends to attract a more practitioner-heavy audience than the purely academic circuit.
Amsterdam is a natural host. The Netherlands ranks among the top three European countries for AI readiness, alongside the UK and Germany, per the European Commission’s Digital Economy and Society Index. The city’s density of data-intensive companies, from Booking.com and Adyen to a growing cluster of AI startups around the Amsterdam Science Park, gives the conference a local talent pool that most European venues outside London and Berlin can’t match.
The timing is also relevant. European policymakers are moving fast on AI regulation. The EU AI Act’s first compliance deadlines begin taking effect in August 2026, and companies that haven’t started mapping their high-risk AI systems are running out of runway. Events like DSC Next increasingly serve a dual function: technical upskilling and regulatory orientation. For data teams operating across EU member states, understanding what the Act means in practice is no longer optional.
Next Business Media, the conference organiser, has structured the programme around abstract submissions from both industry and academia, which means the speaker list reflects working professionals alongside researchers. Registration details, the full agenda, and speaker profiles are available at dscnextconference.com.
Finonity is a media partner of DSC Next 2026.
