The convergence of Knowledge Management (KM) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming how organizations generate, share, and apply knowledge to pursue sustainability. At the heart of this transformation lies the concept of intelligent knowledge: systems that dynamically combine human cognitive capacities with advanced AI-based tools to foster ethical, inclusive, and purpose-driven innovation.

In a time of ecological, social, economic, and technological upheaval, organizations must innovate while meeting long-term sustainability goals such as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) commitments. Intelligent knowledge offers a way to navigate this complexity by positioning AI not as a replacement for human thinking but as an enhancement — expanding analytical capacity while preserving human judgment, imagination, aesthetic experience, and values.

For decades, KM has addressed the challenges of systematically creating, storing, sharing, and applying knowledge within organizations. Traditional problems included how to capture and diffuse technical knowledge, how to bridge silos, and how to ensure that knowledge supports decision-making and innovation. Today, AI promises to solve some of these long-standing challenges by providing unprecedented computational power, automating processes, and enabling rapid access to vast knowledge repositories.

At the same time, new and pressing challenges are emerging. Organizations must now question what it truly means to create intelligent knowledge in an era dominated by digital technologies. How can they ensure the validity and reliability of AI-generated knowledge? How can they manage the ethical risks of algorithmic bias and automated decision-making? How can they preserve the richness of tacit, embodied, and emotional expertise that machines cannot codify? The task ahead is not only to adopt advanced technologies but also to re-imagine KM practices that cultivate hybrid knowledge ecosystems where human creativity, critical judgment, and relational intelligence work in synergy with AI’s computational power.

This shift calls for a new vision of KM: one that views knowledge not just as information to be stored, retrieved, and managed mainly by people, but as a dynamic capability integrating the capacity of both human and new digital systems, which enables organizations to adapt, learn, and thrive in complex environments. Intelligent knowledge thus becomes a cornerstone of organizational excellence, resilience, and sustainability.

IFKAD 2026 will offer an international platform to explore key frontier issues. The conference will promote dialogue on how intelligent knowledge can support sustainable innovation, organizational resilience, and responsible governance in the digital age. It encourages contributions that analyse the opportunities, challenges, and implications of AI-enabled knowledge systems for organizations, economies, and societies.

Also, IFKAD is primarily a scientific event that brings together academics. It aims to foster conversation and create a learning experience in which academics, practitioners, and policymakers discuss the role of intelligent knowledge in building sustainable future organizations. IFKAD 2026 will explore these urgent questions, advancing both theoretical understanding and practical insights. The conference will serve as a vibrant platform for co-creating knowledge to build intelligent, adaptive, and sustainable organizations that can flourish in an age of complexity.