AI Conference

AI and Data Conference 2026: Navigating opportunities, risk and purpose for social housing in Wales.  

AI isn’t coming to social housing—it’s already here, reshaping how we work, make decisions, and support communities across Wales 

Built in direct response to member feedback, Community Housing Cymru invites you to a sector-defining conference. This is your space to align leadership, explore what’s possible, and fearlessly tackle the tough questions around risk, governance, ethics, and sustainability. 

Ending Wales' housing emergency is our priority. Tech only serves that mission when it’s backed by reliable data, strong oversight, and genuine human empathy. 

Step into the room, lead with confidence, and join us in shaping a smart, safe, and purpose-driven future for Welsh housing.

Who is it for?

We’re bringing board members, executives, and digital leaders together under one roof. The goal? Aligning your leadership team so you can execute with confidence. 

• Boards, Chairs and Vice Chairs
  Sharpen your governance in the age of AI. Learn how to evaluate AI strategies, manage emerging corporate risks, and build oversight frameworks that protect your organisation without stalling innovation. 
• Chief Executives and Executive Directors
  Strategic leadership for modern social housing. Tackle the tough balance between driving digital change and managing tight budgets, shifting regulations, and net-zero commitments. 
• Transformation and operational change managers
  Turn ad-hoc AI hacks into real, organisation-wide value. Walk away with practical frameworks to upskill frontline staff, support your people through change, and encourage safe experimentation. 
• IT, Digital and Data professionals
  Great tech starts with clean, reliable data. Dive into the practicalities of modern data architecture, 24/7 cyber resilience, agentic AI systems, and ethical vendor selection. 

Key highlights

• Visionary keynotes and panel debates: Tackling policy lags, algorithmic bias, and the net-zero cost of compute head-on 
• Practical workshops: Hands-on sessions covering board risk, cyber assurance, digital literacy, and rapid prototyping. 
• The Hackathon: Fast-paced, collaborative problem-solving focused on clean data and tangible benefits for the sector. 
• Keeping the 'social' in social housing: Practical tools to ensure technology enhances—rather than replaces—compassionate human care.

Agenda

8:30 am Registration & networking breakfast

Hackathon begins for the day

10:00 am Introduction to the day - Chair’s address

10:10 am Keynote: Shaping the Future of Welsh Housing through data and AI

Welsh housing associations face a defining challenge: delivering safe, warm, and comfortable homes in an increasingly demanding landscape. AI is no longer a distant prospect—it is here to stay, and we must embrace it. However, to truly serve our communities, we must first build on a foundation of clean, reliable data.  In this opening keynote, our chair for the day, Guy Marshall, will set the scene. He will explore the practical challenges housing associations face, what we want to achieve, and how we can use smart technology to work more effectively.  We will also introduce the HALLIE Hackathon. Discover how this collaborative challenge will work and why clean data is the key to unlocking innovative, real-world solutions for our sector.

10:40 am Panel - The AI conundrum: Balancing vision, budgetary reality and policy lags

Building on our opening keynote, this session moves from setting the scene to confronting our practical realities.While AI opens up remarkable possibilities for improving tenant experiences, we cannot ignore the immediate risks. Housing associations must navigate tight budgets, shifting regulations, and policies that struggle to keep pace with fast-moving technology. How do we balance a bold vision for the future with the hard facts of our balance sheets?  Real progress cannot happen in isolation. True innovation relies on honest collaboration across borders and sectors.  Join our expert panel as they share real-world experiences, dissect the risks, and explore how Welsh housing associations can work together with government and tech pioneers to build a safe, smart, and genuinely supportive future for our communities.  

11:20 am Coffee Break/Exhibition Viewing/Networking

12:00 pm Workshops

1.) The power of play - Applying the Pixar method to AI. 

The biggest mistake an organisation can make with Artificial Intelligence is waiting for a perfect, flawless plan before getting started. True innovation thrives on the "Pixar Method"—thinking slowly, prototyping quickly, and learning through deliberate experimentation. This hands-on workshop tears up the traditional presentation slide deck to explore the future of housing technology through the power of purposeful play. Guided by a certified Lego Serious Play facilitator, you will use literal building blocks to construct metaphorical solutions to your organisation's greatest AI challenges. Discover how a culture of safe experimentation can unlock latent creativity in your teams, overcome tech anxiety, and help your association build low-cost, high-impact AI prototypes before committing to major software investments.

2.) Get on board 

For housing association boards, the speed of Artificial Intelligence development can feel incredibly daunting. With the Regulator of Social Housing demanding robust risk oversight, how can board members confidently approve AI strategies without exposing their organisations to regulatory, financial, or ethical risk? This interactive workshop strips away the technical jargon to focus on the board’s strategic role in AI adoption. We will look at how to build AI directly into your long-term strategies, design adaptable policies, and update internal control frameworks to manage risk. Learn how to ask the right assurance questions, protect tenant data, and establish clear boundaries so you can champion safe, responsible innovation without strangling creativity in red tape.

3.) Cyber Resilience in Housing Finance: Compliance, Assurance, and 24/7 Protection

Cyber security is no longer just a box for the IT department to tick—it is a critical tier of corporate risk management and regulatory compliance. A single data breach can freeze operations, compromise rent collection analytics, and fracture tenant trust. In this focused workshop, the expert team from PureCyber will outline how to build a robust, board-level framework for cyber assurance. We will explore the critical boundary between standard IT maintenance and proactive cyber defence, looking at how incident response planning, continuous threat detection, and robust governance can de-risk your digital transformation. Learn how to satisfy regulatory expectations while ensuring total continuity for your frontline services.

12:45 pm Lunch/Networking/Exhibition viewing

1:50 pm Update/progress report/wrap up of hackathon & workshop sessions from Chair

1:55 pm Keynote - AI mythbusting: the good, the bad and the ugly

Artificial Intelligence is surrounded by extreme narratives—either hailed as a flawless operational cure-all or feared as an uncontrollable risk. This keynote strips away the marketing hype to deliver a honest, evidence-based reality check for housing associations. We will bust the most common myths surrounding AI's capabilities, exposing "the good" (genuine predictive maintenance breakthroughs), "the bad" (unintended algorithmic bias in rent analytics), and "the ugly" (the massive, often unmeasured carbon footprint of generative AI data centres). Crucially, we will focus on practical, sector-specific mitigations. Discover how housing providers can balance technological innovation with ethical governance—exploring everything from data protection impact assessments to green hosting initiatives and local carbon offsetting to neutralise AI’s environmental cost.

2:25 pm Panel session - The Compute vs. Carbon Paradox: Balancing AI Innovation with Net-Zero Targets

AI offers unprecedented opportunities to streamline operations and improve tenant services—but it comes with a hidden climate cost. Running massive data models is highly energy- and water-intensive, creating a direct friction point for Welsh housing associations bound by rigorous environmental standards.

How do we reconcile digital progress with physical decarbonisation? This panel session tackles the digital carbon footprint head-on. We will explore the environmental reality of scaling AI, ask the tough questions about our indirect emissions, and discuss practical strategies to ensure our technological transformation doesn't compromise our sustainability goals.

3:00 pm Coffee Break/Exhibition Viewing/Networking

3:40 pm Workshops

1.) Navigating the AI Procurement Minefield: Compliance, ethics, and value

Housing associations operate under tight regulatory scrutiny, making the acquisition of new, unproven technologies highly sensitive. When a software vendor promises "AI-driven efficiency," how do you cut through the marketing noise to verify its actual value, safety, and compliance with data protection laws?

This interactive workshop tackles the governance of AI procurement head-on. We will discuss how to write robust tenders for AI solutions, manage intellectual property risks, and ensure third-party algorithms do not inadvertently introduce bias into your tenant-facing services. Join us to learn how to buy AI with confidence, keeping your organisation compliant and your tenants protected.

2.) The AI Disruption: Preparing our communities for an automated job market

When the wider commercial sector optimises and automates, it fundamentally alters the job market. Low-to-middle-income administrative and operational roles—the very jobs that sustain many social housing tenants—are the most susceptible to AI disruption.

As housing providers, we cannot just look inward at our own digital transformation. AI is not just an internal tool; it is an external economic force that will directly impact tenant financial stability, employment opportunities, and digital exclusion. This strategic workshop challenges leadership teams to look beyond their own balance sheets. We will explore the new patterns of vulnerability this shift is creating and discuss how housing associations can proactively prepare their communities to survive and thrive in an AI-driven economy.

3.) The Trust Boundary: Keeping the "social" in social housing AI

Predictive AI offers incredible opportunities to spot damp and mould before they appear, or flag tenancies at risk of falling into arrears. But if our models look at historical tenant data, do they risk automating bias?  This workshop uses an exclusive SFHA case study to dissect the tension between algorithmic profiling and sincere, human-led care. We will look at practical strategies for establishing "trust boundaries" within your organisation's data systems. Attendees will learn how to design safeguards that prevent automated discrimination and instead use predictive insights to guide faster, more compassionate human interventions.

4.) The Cost of Care: Is human interaction going to cost a premium?

As artificial intelligence becomes the default for routine customer service, a critical question emerges for social landlords: is human interaction set to become a premium service? When we automate tenant communications, we risk side-lining the very people who need us most.

This strategic workshop tackles the ultimate investment dilemma for housing leadership teams. Should we be investing in tenant-facing AI, or is our capital better spent on the "engine room"—using AI for strategy, data analysis, and back-end frameworks? Join us to debate where the true value of AI lies, how to protect the human touch for complex tenant needs, and where to invest to achieve the greatest impact without losing our social purpose.

4:30 pm Keynote/ Panel session: The Efficiency Illusion: Translating individual AI "hacks" into organisational value

It is easy to celebrate when a housing officer saves half an hour drafting a tenant letter, or a surveyor uses AI to summarise a complex asset report. But do these individual micro-efficiencies actually move the needle for the wider housing association? Or are we simply speeding up isolated tasks without improving overall business outcomes?

This session explores the critical gap between bottom-up productivity and top-down strategic impact. We will discuss how to move beyond "accidental AI adoption"—where staff quietly use ad-hoc tools—towards a structured, organisation-wide strategy. Join us to learn how to measure the real value of AI, ensuring that time saved by individuals is purposefully reinvested into front-line tenant services rather than lost in administrative drift.

5:00 pm Conference close - Chairs review of conference

5:10 pm Conference end