As AI accelerates decision-making, consumers become harder to predict and economic pressure forces companies to reassess priorities, InnVolve by Innobyte 2026 will bring together business, retail and technology leaders to examine a more practical question: what is actually working?

For several years, the business and eCommerce agenda has been dominated by transformation, not only in Romania, but all over the globe. Artificial intelligence, automation, new commerce models, global marketplaces and increasingly sophisticated customer experiences have all been presented as forces capable of reshaping the way companies operate.

In 2026, however, the conversation is becoming more demanding.

Businesses are no longer evaluating technology simply by asking what it can do. They increasingly need to understand what it delivers, where it creates measurable value and which investments remain difficult to justify beyond the initial enthusiasm surrounding them.

This is the premise behind the third edition of InnVolve by Innobyte, taking place on September 10 in Bucharest under the theme “Commerce That Delivers – Built on Results, Not Hype”.

The event brings together executives, entrepreneurs and professionals from eCommerce, retail, technology and business for a full day of discussions focused on decisions, experiences and lessons that can be applied inside organisations.

From technology adoption to technology accountability

The shift is particularly visible around artificial intelligence.

AI is now capable of shortening processes that previously required considerably more time: from research and product development to analysis, content creation and customer interaction. But faster execution also raises another question: if companies can test ideas faster, can they also recognise bad decisions faster?

This tension between speed, experience and judgement will run through several InnVolve 2026 conversations.

Entrepreneur and investor Radu Georgescu, Founding Partner at Gecad Ventures, will explore the lessons behind success in an AI era in which both experimentation and failure can happen at unprecedented speed.

The discussion will look beyond the usual debate around AI adoption and address a more fundamental issue: if access to technology and information becomes increasingly democratised, where does competitive advantage move next?

Dr. Carlos Davidovich – neuromarketing expert, executive coach, and physician by training—will unpack the subconscious emotions, split-second trust evaluations, and hidden cognitive drivers that dictate customer buying behaviour. Moving beyond standard product features and pricing models, his session reveals how to leverage these neurological mechanisms to remove purchase friction and systematically drive immediate e-commerce conversions.

What Romanian eCommerce data is beginning to reveal

Another major theme of InnVolve 2026 will be the evolution of the Romanian online consumer.

Elena Gheorghe, Country Manager PayU Romania & Hungary, will present a data-led perspective on how Romanians are paying in 2026 and what transaction patterns reveal about changing consumer behaviour.

The discussion around payments has moved well beyond the traditional card-versus-cash question. Digital wallets, instalments, Buy Now Pay Later solutions and faster refund mechanisms are increasingly part of the overall commerce experience.

For retailers, this makes payments not simply an operational layer at checkout, but part of a broader discussion around convenience, conversion and customer expectations.

These changes will also be addressed during the dedicated eCommerce panel, where Alexandru Chiriac, E-commerce Director at Auchan Romania, Cătălin Bordei, Managing Partner at Innobyte, and other industry representatives will examine how the online channel is evolving across different retail categories.

The discussion will focus on several practical questions.

Is online commerce returning to broader growth, or is expansion increasingly concentrated in specific verticals? What does the 2026 customer expect from delivery, availability, payment options, promotions and returns? And which initiatives have produced tangible outcomes for retailers – versus those that have been postponed or abandoned because their potential did not justify further investment?

The panel will also examine where AI is already generating measurable results in eCommerce and where the gap between expectations and business impact remains significant.

Resilience is becoming an operating model

Technology is only one part of the 2026 business equation.

Companies continue to operate in an environment shaped by cost pressure, cautious consumption, regulatory changes and geopolitical uncertainty. Under these conditions, resilience is moving away from being a crisis-management concept and becoming part of everyday management.

The InnVolve business panel will examine what this means in practical terms.

How much of a cost increase can a company absorb before it needs to adjust prices? Which investments should remain protected when visibility decreases? When should management postpone a project and when can uncertainty itself create an opportunity?

Among the speakers joining this conversation is Marius Petrache, CEO and co-founder of Marcoser, whose experience combines entrepreneurship with a highly practical approach to testing and validation in agriculture and Robert Berza, the Executive Director of Edge Institute and a leader with over 20 years of experience in media, e-commerce, and digital (former GM of Fashion Days, eMAG), recognized for combining strategic vision with human-centered innovation to drive sustainable digitalization in Romania.

Together with business leaders including Cătălin Șomfalean, CEO of Innobyte, the panel will discuss the difference between companies that repeatedly react to disruption and those that have developed the capacity to adapt as a permanent part of their operating model.

The conversation will also return to AI, this time through the lens of management experience: can AI help less experienced leaders close part of the knowledge gap, or does its value still depend heavily on the human ability to ask the right questions, understand context and challenge the answers received?

Cybersecurity as a business design decision

As commerce becomes more dependent on connected infrastructure, cybersecurity is also becoming harder to treat as an isolated technical function.

Cosmin Moldoveanu, Chief Technology Officer at Data Core Systems, will bring a perspective shaped by more than 19 years of experience in IT governance, IT risk and cybersecurity, including experience in the banking sector.

His InnVolve 2026 session will address the relationship between design decisions, infrastructure, operations and application resilience.

The underlying pont is straightforward: many security and operational problems are not created when an incident occurs. They originate much earlier, in architectural and design decisions whose consequences may only become visible as systems grow in complexity.

For companies managing large digital ecosystems, security therefore becomes part of business continuity, customer trust and long-term technology governance rather than a separate technical checklist.

A broader conversation about what comes next

The 2026 edition also extends beyond eCommerce itself.

Sergiu Neguț, co-founder of FintechOS, will open the main programme with a discussion about business trends, challenges and opportunities in the current market.

Ioanna Christopoulou, Country General Manager of L’Oréal Romania, will contribute a perspective on innovation, growth and changing consumer expectations, while entrepreneur and investor Marius Ghenea, Managing Partner at Catalyst Romania, will close the content programme by reflecting on the decisions shaping the next stage of business development.

Together, these sessions reflect a deliberate expansion of InnVolve’s original eCommerce focus.

Commerce does not operate independently from leadership, investment decisions, consumer psychology, cybersecurity or economic context. For companies operating online, these areas increasingly intersect.

This is also why the central question of InnVolve by Innobyte 2026 is not whether another major technological shift is coming. Many are already underway.

The more relevant questions are which changes deserve investment, which assumptions need to be challenged, which experiments have produced evidence and what organisations can learn from the initiatives that did not work.

In an environment where almost every new technology arrives accompanied by ambitious claims, the ability to separate possibility from performance may itself become a competitive capability.

InnVolve by Innobyte 2026 takes place on September 10 at Le Chateau in Bucharest. The event is supported by: Innobyte, Auchan, Data Core Systems, GRF+, PayU, LIFT Learning, GPeC, LIFE IS HARD, BISM, Tripstoria, Blue, SendSMS.

 

Limited seats available – Request your spot for InnVolve 2026 here to join top leaders shaping the future of business and eCommerce: https://ic.events/landing/bDZXWQ==/innvolve-by-innobyte-2026.html

The agenda is currently being finalised. Follow InnVolve on LinkedIn for the latest speaker and programme updates.