South by Southwest (SXSW) appears to be nearing the completion of its conference schedule, having announced a third round of featured speakers and new keynote talks on January 20. The festival and conference are scheduled for March 12-18, and much of the music, film, and TV lineups are also largely fleshed out.

As usual, sessions will be organized into "programming tracks," guided by industry or timely topics such as health, tech and AI, and the creator economy, i.e. business driven by individuals' online content. Some sessions also overlap with SXSW's festivals: picture a music industry talk or a behind-the-scenes analysis of creating an XR experience. Today's announcement focuses on featured sessions, which are usually discussions or panels, and keynote presentations.

Two new keynotes anchor the announcement: a discussion about centering people in the rise of artificial intelligence, and a presentation about the processes behind multimedia art.

The former talk, Why the Future of AI Must be Human Centric, will be held by AI scientist and entrepreneur Dr. Rana el Kaliouby and journalist Bob Safian. They'll discuss how to keep people "at the center of the rapidly evolving AI revolution" while also heralding "massive economic opportunities" and the possibility to "unlock human potential and solve our most challenging problems."

The latter is Tom Sachs: Show The Work, Tell The Story. New York-based artist Tom Sachs will show off his work along with "the rituals that drive his creative process." He'll also invite the audience to join his ISRU (In-Situ Resource Utilization) self-challenging project with Nike.

SXSW has added the following Featured Sessions to the Conference program:

• The Culture Layer of Financial Markets — with Kalshi Co-Founder and CEO Tarek Monsour.
• A Conversation With Spotify's New Co-CEO About The Past, Present And Future Of Delivering Creativity To The World —with Co-President and CTO of Spotify Gustav Söderström.
• Enough with the Bullsh*T: BuzzFeed Founder Shares His Plan to Make the Internet Fun Again — with Jonah Peretti.
• The Three Laws of a Healthy Relationship — with authors and relationship experts Yung Pueblo, Jillian Turecki, and Case Kenny.
• A Conversation with Garry Tan — with President & CEO of Y Combinator Garry Tan and Josephine Chen of Sequoia Capital.
• Multiplayer Futures: Co-Creating a Vision of SXSW 2030: Live — with author and futurist Henry Coutinho-Mason.
• Shit You Should Care About: Live — with CEO and Co-Founder of Shit You Should Care About Lucy Blakiston.
• A Conversation with Andrew Ross Sorkin — with award-winning journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin, author of Fall—1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History--and How It Shattered a Nation .
• David Pogue on Apple’s First 50 Years — with author David Pogue (Apple: The First 50 Years).
• Shaping Brand Relevance for a New Generation — with President of Disney Consumer Products Tasia Filippatos.
• From Meme to Meaning: Making the Most of Accidental Virality — with Kim Gallagher, Executive Director, Marketing & Customer Success for Nuuly; Rachel Karten, social media consultant and author of the industry newsletter Link in Bio; Gabby Fowler, Senior Manager of Social Media and Influencer for Graza; and Casey Lewis, trend expert and founder of After School.

In addition to sessions around town, the announcement includes information about the return of the Vox Media Podcast Stage. Podcast fans can engage with titles like Pivot, On with Kara Swisher, Prof G Markets, Waveform: The MKBHD Podcast, Where Should We Begin?, Networth & Chill, Tefi Talks, and more at the Hilton Austin from March 13-15.

Committed conference attendees might want to start browsing the SXSW GO mobile app, which has been updated with 2026 content. Users can see the full lineup to date, save sessions, and start building their personal schedule ahead of time.

Badges are available for purchase now at sxsw.com. All badges unlock conference access, with different priorities for each festival. Platinum badges ($1,865) give priority access to all events. Prices will rise on February 5.