At the end of each calendar year, the Academy Committee for Artificial Intelligence of SASA (ACAI) creates its work plan for the next year.

2026

Here is the English translation of the document, maintaining a formal academic and administrative tone suitable for the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SASA).

At the most recent meeting of the Academic Board for Artificial Intelligence (ABAI) held in November 2025, the members approved the proposal to utilize the remaining funds from 2025 for the organization of the Artificial Intelligence 2026 conference. Additionally, it was agreed that by the end of 2024, a Work Report and Activity Plan for the Board should be prepared—alongside the Financial Plan for the following year—and submitted to the Fund for Research in Science and Art.

Accordingly, ABAI members agreed on the necessity of drafting an outline of planned activities and events for 2026. This document serves as that framework and plan, with the note that it was not possible to detail every event comprehensively. This is due not only to standard administrative circumstances but also to the rapid evolution of the AI field, which precludes precise planning on a year-long horizon. Therefore, considering various unpredictable factors, this plan will be updated regularly.

This overview also served as the basis for the financial plan, which will subsequently be aligned with the SASA budget. Given that most planned events are scheduled for the second half of 2026, organizational efforts must commence as soon as possible.

Scientific meetings

In 2026, ABAI plans to once again organize the Artificial Intelligence conference in cooperation with the SASA Department of Technical Sciences and the Mathematical Institute of SASA. Furthermore, the plan includes organizing one smaller-scale domestic conference, workshop, forum, or panel discussion on a specific AI topic or its application in a particular domain.

1. The Artificial Intelligence Conference at SASA The Artificial Intelligence conference is scheduled for October 2026 at SASA. Its organization will be one of the Board’s primary activities in 2026. Drawing from the positive experience of organizing the 2025 conference, ABAI—as co-organizer—will strive to avoid the “last-minute work” that constrained reviewers during the 2023 and 2024 editions. Although this slightly conflicts with the rapid development of the field (where research results often have short-term relevance), ABAI believes it is essential to dedicate more attention to the organization well before the 2026 summer break.

ABAI will again attempt to organize the event as an international conference. Given the sustained popularity of AI and the high interest shown in 2023, 2024, and 2025, the Board expects engagement to remain at a similar level.

2. Small-scale Meetings Focused on Specific AI Topics A meeting of this type was planned for 2025 but did not materialize. In 2026, ABAI will attempt to organize such an event or a panel discussion/roundtable focused on the application of AI in medicine or trends in Natural Language Processing (NLP) as a critical component of AI.

Popularization and dissemination

The plan for 2025 is to continue appearances in TV segments and programs—as several ABAI members already did throughout 2025—or to delegate researchers to adequately promote the Board’s work through such media appearances.

This is not the only planned form of dissemination. Another initiative involves visits by ABAI members to the SASA Branches in Niš and Novi Sad, as well as the SASA Center in Kragujevac. During these visits, members would discuss expanding ABAI activities through these branches in collaboration with local experts.

Guest lectures from Serbia and abroad

Subject to financial feasibility, ABAI plans to organize lectures at SASA by domestic and international experts from various AI subfields during 2026. These lectures may be held for ABAI members specifically or for the broader SASA community.

One specific activity involves lectures by young Serbian AI specialists. This practice began in 2025 and proved successful. The goal is to allow doctoral candidates or recent PhD graduates in AI to present their results to ABAI and SASA members, informing the Board and the Academy about their research and its practical applications.

Cooperation with higher education institutions in Serbia

In 2024, Academician Dušan Teodorović proposed that ABAI periodically offer recommendations regarding curriculum updates at Serbian higher education institutions to reflect the rapid development of AI. ABAI intended to launch this activity in 2025, but it was delayed due to the difficult situation at Serbian universities during that year.

ABAI is aware of the slow pace of official curriculum accreditation; however, the personal connections between Board members and instructors willing to update their specific course plans offer hope that this activity can yield results.

Cooperation with researchers from China

In July 2025, a document was signed establishing the China-Serbia Center for Advanced Research and Education (CS-CARE) in Belgrade. The Center was officially registered with the Serbian Business Registers Agency (APR) in December 2025, becoming a legal entity. Operational activities for CS-CARE are planned to begin in 2026, alongside plans to expand its activities into other research and educational directions.

External associates of ABAI

During 2026, ABAI will seek to expand the Board by including external associates. These will be selected from among Serbian researchers interested in the Board’s domain, assisting members in implementing specific activities and supporting the dissemination and popularization of the Board’s work.

Publishing Activities

Following the Artificial Intelligence conference in October 2025, in addition to publishing the Book of Abstracts, work was initiated on a special issue of the journal Computer Science and Information Systems (ComSIS) featuring the best papers from the conference. This special issue is expected to be published in 2026. The guest editors will be Academician Dušan Teodorović, Corresponding Member Mirjana Ivanović, and Professor Ranka Stanković from the Faculty of Mining and Geology, University of Belgrade.

Belgrade, December 13, 2025
President of the Board for Artificial Intelligence Vladan Devedžić, Corresponding Member of SASA

2025

This text presents a general overview and plan of activities for 2025, with the note that it was not possible to examine all activities and events in detail. The reason for this is not only the complexity of the environment, which is usually cited, but also the rapid development of the field of artificial intelligence, which simply makes any precise planning on a one-year level impossible. Therefore, taking into account many unpredictable environments, this plan will be updated regularly.

Research conferences

In 2025, ACAI plans to organize again, in cooperation with the Department of Technical Sciences of the SASA and the Institute of Mathematics of the SASA, the conference Artificial Intelligence. In addition, the plan is to organize a smaller-scale national conference, or workshop, forum, panel discussion,… on a specific topic in the field of artificial intelligence or the application of artificial intelligence in a specific domain.

1. Artificial Intelligence Conference at SASA

The Artificial Intelligence conference is planned for October 2025 at SASA. The organization of the conference will be one of the most important activities of ACAI in 2025. ACAI, as a co-organizer of the conference, will try to avoid the “last-minute work” that has been done in the previous editions of the conference. Since this is partly in conflict with the already mentioned extremely rapid development of the field of artificial intelligence, which makes many research results of short-term importance, ACAI believes that putting more efforts in the organization of the conference before the summer break of 2025 is a better option.

Following the suggestion of Academician Vladimir Kostić, ACAI will try to organize the Artificial Intelligence conference as an international one in 2025. The idea is that, in the event that the enormous popularity of the field of artificial intelligence continues in the future and that the interest in the conference in 2023 and 2024 remains, the conference will be organized biennially as an international event. In other years, the conference would have a national character, with guests from abroad.

2. A smaller-scale conference/workshop, focused on a specific topic in the field of artificial intelligence

According to the previously adopted Work Program of the AI for Artificial Intelligence, Academician Predrag Peško proposed and agreed to personally engage and contact medical doctors (scientists from the field of medicine) who apply artificial intelligence in their work to organize a panel discussion or round table on this topic.

Popularization and dissemination of the work of the AIIA

Frequent invitations to the ACAI president to participate in television shows discussing the topic of artificial intelligence were conveyed to the ACAI members. The plan for 2025 is to respond to such invitations either directly or by delegating researchers who would adequately promote the work of ACAI in such appearances.

This type of popularization and dissemination of ACAI’s work is not the only one planned. Another idea is to organize visits by ACAI members to the SASA Branches in Niš and Novi Sad, as well as to the SASA Center in Kragujevac, during which they would negotiate the activities of the Branches and the Center with selected local experts.

Guest lecturers from Serbia and abroad

In accordance with financial constraints, ACAI plans to organize lectures by local and foreign experts in various fields of artificial intelligence at SASA in 2025. These lectures can be for ACAI members, but also for all those interested from SASA.

One of the activities of this type is lectures that young experts from Serbia with expertise in artificial intelligence would give at SASA. The idea is that doctoral candidates, or recently promoted doctors of science in the field of artificial intelligence, would present themselves to ACAI and SASA members by presenting the results of their work and thus inform ACAI and SASA as a whole about their research or applications of that research.

Cooperation with the Montenegrin Academy of Sciences and Arts (MASA)

In 2025, ACAI will be indirectly involved in the organization of the international conference Signal processing – state-of-the-art and perspectives, planned by MASA for mid-2025, at the invitation of Academician Igor Đurović from MASA. At the proposal of Academician Đurović and ACAI, SASA accepted the role of co-organizer of the conference without financial commitments, and some members of ACAI should also take part in the conference.

Cooperation with educational higher education institutions in Serbia

Academician Dušan Teodorović suggested that ACAI from time to time makes proposals regarding changes in curricula at higher education institutions in Serbia, taking into account the rapid development of artificial intelligence.

ACAI plans to start this activity in 2025. ACAI is aware of the slow pace of changes in curricula at the level of their accreditation, but the acquaintance of ACAI members with teachers willing to make appropriate changes to the plans of the subjects they teach raises hope that such an activity can bear fruit. In order for this idea to come to life, the President of ACAI has initiated an activity of this kind and its implementation is expected in 2025.

External associates of ACAI

During 2025, ACAI will consider the possibility of expanding the committee to include external associates. They would be from the ranks of researchers from Serbia interested in the field of ACAI work, and would assist ACAI members in the implementation of selected committee activities and in the dissemination and popularization of the committee’s work.

Publishing activities

Preparations are underway for the publication of the Proceedings of the Artificial Intelligence lecture series, which was held at the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts at the end of 2023. The papers have been submitted, as well as the reviews, and the proposal for publishing the proceedings has been submitted to the publishing plan of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts in 2025.

Belgrade, December 15, 2024 President of the Committee for Artificial Intelligence

Vladan Devedžić