Technology, education and the future, led by UPT
Technology, education and the future, led by UPT
There's a moment in every technological revolution when the questions shift. We stop asking "What can this technology do?" and start asking something far more urgent: "What happens to us?"
We're living in that moment now.
For a decade, we've debated automation. We've watched robots on factory floors, algorithms in hospitals, AI assistants answering our questions. We've asked ourselves: What jobs will disappear? Which tasks can machines handle? How fast will this transformation happen?
But in 2026, something different is emerging. A new question is taking center stage, one that's more profound than anything we've asked before:
This isn't optimistic rhetoric about "human value." It's a rigorous intellectual inquiry into which roles, decisions, and responsibilities can only be exercised by people—and why that matters more than ever.
At Tech Talks by UPT 2026, we've chosen Irreplaceable — We Need Humans as our central theme. Not because we fear technology, but because we recognize a critical inflection point.
The global conversation has evolved. We're no longer debating if AI will reshape our economy—we're negotiating the terms of that transformation. And the terms being discussed are surprisingly specific: judgment, responsibility, creativity, imagination, ethics, negotiation, empathy, leadership, strategic decision-making, and the capacity to navigate the unknown.
These aren't soft skills anymore. They're the rare competencies that determine who thrives in an intelligent economy.
Pascal Bornet, author of Irreplaceable and one of our featured speakers, has articulated one of the clearest hypotheses of our time: Technology doesn't destroy professions—it reorganizes what human value means. We're not in a battle of "humans vs. machines." We're in a moment of radical redefinition, where the criteria for human indispensability are being rewritten in real-time.
Consider what this means across different domains:
In healthcare, AI can read scans faster than any radiologist—but who decides what to do when the data conflicts with human intuition? Who takes responsibility when a treatment plan goes wrong?
In business, algorithms can optimize supply chains with perfect precision—but who spots the opportunity no one thought to program? Who leads a team through uncertainty when the models fail?
In education, machines can personalize learning at scale—but who inspires a student to ask the question that changes everything? Who teaches judgment itself?
These aren't rhetorical questions. They're the operating system of the future economy.
Europe has entered a decisive phase. The Draghi Report of 2024 delivered an unambiguous message: Europe will remain competitive only if it invests in technical universities, advanced human capital, and innovation ecosystems. Not more technology alone—but more human capacity to create, judge, and lead in technological contexts.
Romania sits at the heart of this test. We have industry. We have technical universities. We have energy. We have technology infrastructure. What we're calibrating now—what we must get right—is human competency at the highest level.
This is where the University Politehnica Timișoara plays a strategic role. UPT doesn't just educate engineers. It constructs a platform for dialogue—connecting academic elites, industry leaders, policymakers, and media—to answer the defining question:
Tech Talks 2026 proposes a multi-disciplinary response, operating across three interconnected levels:
1. Individual level — Which professions and skills become rare and valuable? What should young people invest in learning? What makes one person indispensable while another becomes redundant?
2. Organizational level — How do companies reposition themselves in an AI-augmented world? What does leadership look like when your team includes both humans and algorithms? How do you build culture when half your workforce isn't human?
3. Societal level — Which human competencies sustain democracy, innovation, and responsibility at scale? What happens to society when we outsource judgment? Who decides what machines should and shouldn't do?
The answers aren't academic. They're immediate. They're being lived out right now in boardrooms, classrooms, hospitals, and parliaments.
Irreplaceable — we need humans is both.
It's a warning that the future isn't automatically benign. Technology doesn't optimize for human flourishing—it optimizes for efficiency. Left unexamined, AI will reorganize our economy and society according to what's computationally convenient, not what's humanly meaningful.
But it's also an invitation: to think strategically, to act deliberately, to decide for ourselves what we want to preserve, amplify, and protect—before the market, technology, or geopolitics decides for us.
On May 15, 2026, in Timișoara, Tech Talks by UPT returns with its most provocative edition yet.
We're convening at a moment when the question "What can machines do?" is becoming secondary to a far more urgent inquiry:
"What must humans do?"
The answer won't be simple. It won't be comfortable. But it will be necessary.
Because the one thing we know with certainty is this: the future needs humans who can think, judge, create, and lead in ways no algorithm ever could.
The question is whether we'll be ready.
Tech Talks by UPT 2026
Irreplaceable — We Need Humans
May 15, 2026 | Timișoara, Romania
Join the conversation that will define the next decade.
