🔥 Gearing Up for AAAI 2026: What You Need to Know to Win the Game

root

The road to AAAI 2026 begins now. Don't wait for the deadline to chase you; get ahead and tell a story that reviewers won't forget.

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AAAI 2026: The Journey Begins

AAAI 2025 just wrapped up with a staggering 12,957 valid submissions and 3,032 accepted papers. That’s a tough 23.4% acceptance rate, and only 4.6% made it to Oral presentations.

For AAAI 2026, the conference date is expected to be much earlier, which means the submission deadline may also shift forward, possibly as early as July 2025. June is unlikely but not impossible. So if you’re aiming to submit, now is the perfect time to start.

Changes in the Submission Process

AAAI 2025 adopted OpenReview for its submission system, and AAAI 2026 is expected to continue using OpenReview. Key guidelines include:

No third-party links or supplemental URLs
Submissions must be made directly on OpenReview
No PDF uploads for initial abstract submission
Authors must register all co-authors by the abstract deadline

Also, remember:

Abstracts and full titles must be finalized by the abstract deadline
Author list and order cannot be changed after abstract submission.
Papers will be rejected without review if placeholders or vague titles/abstracts are used.

It’s Not Just a Paper. It’s a Story.

In today’s top-tier conferences, submissions are often jokingly referred to as storytelling contests. Yes, your technical contribution matters — but, how you tell your story could make or break the review.

Build a coherent, compelling narrative around your results.
Ensure your logic is watertight: no glaring holes or "hard bugs".
Your paper should be visually and linguistically polished:
- Consistent figures and tables
- Smooth, clear sentences
- Minimal grammar mistakes

Think of your paper as an experience. Make the reviewer want to keep reading.

Common Struggles (You’re Not Alone)

Many researchers share the same pain points. Here's what often stands in the way — and how to fight back:

Challenge	What it Feels Like	What You Can Do
Lack of guidance	"My advisor is MIA."	Find a mentor or community peer group
Topic paralysis	"What if I pick the wrong direction?"	Stay close to problems with real-world impact
No solid idea	"I’m stuck."	Read broadly, ask ‘what’s missing’, talk with others
Experimental hell	"No data. Too many bugs."	Start small, prototype, use synthetic data if needed
Writing a mess	"No structure. No logic."	Use outlines, reverse-engineer accepted papers
Submission confusion	"What does the conference even want?"	Read CFPs, join info sessions, study accepted works

A Bitter Lesson from the Community

One recurring lesson: Don’t assume brilliance can save you from a bad presentation.

Brilliant ideas often get buried under poor storytelling or inconsistent formatting. One researcher shared how their technically impressive paper was desk-rejected for violating formatting rules. Another lost a strong submission due to a single unexplained figure.

Lesson: Details matter. Reviewers are human. A well-told, visually clean paper will often win over a half-baked genius idea.

Pro Tips for the AAAI 2026 Season

Start early. You don’t want to be debugging at 3AM on submission day.
Tell a clean, logical, and relatable story.
Write in Markdown. Collaborate early, especially with remote co-authors.
Use the OpenReview format from the start.
Polish your paper like it’s a product. The UX of reading your paper matters.
Follow all author and submission policies strictly.
Include a reproducibility checklist in your paper (after references, not counted toward page limit).
Ensure anonymity and double-blind compliance.
Seek feedback. From friends, collaborators, even your AI assistant ().

AAAI is not just a competition of algorithms. It’s a showcase of ideas and how you communicate them. Think beyond the model. Think beyond the numbers. Show reviewers how your work fits into the world, and why it matters.

Good luck, and may your submissions be bug-free and beautifully told.

You are more than welcome to register (verified or anonymous) to Join the discussion here.

root

Historical acceptance rate of AAAI conference:

Year	Long Paper Acceptance Rate
AAAI'14	28.0% (398/1406)
AAAI'15	26.7% (531/1991)
AAAI'16	25.8% (549/2132)
AAAI'17	24.6% (638/2590)
AAAI'18	24.6% (933/3800)
AAAI'19	16.2% (1150/7095)
AAAI'20	20.6% (1591/7737)
AAAI'21	21.4% (1692/7911)
AAAI'22	15.0% (1349/9020)
AAAI'23	19.6% (1721/8777)
AAAI'24	23.75% (2342/9862)
AAAI'25	23.40% (3032/12957)

root

Already thinking about best way to collab on rebuttal writting?

Tip: Write locally in Markdown first and sync with collaborators. Tools like HackMD make this easy and efficient for collaboration.

cocktailfreedom

Update: AAAI 2026 Deadline Confirmed & Earlier Than Expected!

As predicted, the submission deadline for AAAI 2026 has been officially announced, and it's significantly earlier! Mark your calendars:

Abstract Deadline: June 30, 2025, 11:59 PM UTC-12
Full Paper Deadline: July 7, 2025, 11:59 PM UTC-12
Supplementary Material and Code: July 10, 2025, 11:59 PM UTC-12
Notification of Phase 1 Rejections: September 8, 2025
Author Feedback Window: September 28-30, 2025
Final Acceptance/Rejection Notification: November 3, 2025

Quick Tips Recap:

Continue using OpenReview (no third-party links or PDFs).
Storytelling is key: craft a clear, compelling narrative around your results.
Double-check your submission for consistency, clarity, and no "hard bugs."
Markdown tools (like HackMD) remain highly recommended for collaborative writing.

Time to ramp up! If you're targeting AAAI 2026, your research ideas should already be shaping up. Let's start crafting those winning stories!

Good luck, everyone!

root

@cocktailfreedom said in Gearing Up for AAAI 2026: What You Need to Know to Win the Game:

Update: AAAI 2026 Deadline Confirmed & Earlier Than Expected!

As predicted, the submission deadline for AAAI 2026 has been officially announced, and it's significantly earlier! Mark your calendars:

Abstract Deadline: June 30, 2025, 11:59 PM UTC-12

Full Paper Deadline: July 7, 2025, 11:59 PM UTC-12

Supplementary Material and Code: July 10, 2025, 11:59 PM UTC-12

Notification of Phase 1 Rejections: September 8, 2025

Author Feedback Window: September 28-30, 2025

Final Acceptance/Rejection Notification: November 3, 2025

Quick Tips Recap:

Continue using OpenReview (no third-party links or PDFs).

Storytelling is key: craft a clear, compelling narrative around your results.

Double-check your submission for consistency, clarity, and no "hard bugs."

Markdown tools (like HackMD) remain highly recommended for collaborative writing.

Time to ramp up! If you're targeting AAAI 2026, your research ideas should already be shaping up. Let's start crafting those winning stories!

Good luck, everyone!

AAAI 26 has announced a extension of the submission ddl from June 30 to July 25! It is a big-step postpone!

root

The time table has just been updated again!

July 25, 2025
Abstracts due at 11:59 PM UTC-12

August 1, 2025
Full papers due at 11:59 PM UTC-12

August 4, 2025
Supplementary material and code due by 11:59 PM UTC-12

September 8, 2025
Notification of Phase 1 rejections

October 2-8, 2025
Author feedback window

November 3, 2025
Notification of final acceptance or rejection (Main Technical Track)

Joanne

Not again?!
Then, there is 70-Day Sprint to AAAI 2026!

ntk01-pku

If you're preparing a submission for AAAI 2026, check out this unified LaTeX template:

https://github.com/lizhemin15/AAAI-2026-Latex-Unified

It combines both the anonymous submission and camera-ready versions into a single .tex file with a simple one-line toggle:

\def\aaaianonymous{true}  % Toggle for anonymous/camera-ready

root

Test your paper's fate at AAAI on our review tool

https://review.cspaper.org/

root

According to some community news, the submission ID has exceeded 30k!

root

AAAI 2026 drops a bombshell policy update!

Yes, it’s true — Mandatory Mutual Reviewing is officially here. Starting this year, every single submitting author is required to bid on 50 papers. You read that right: 50.

Wrist pain incoming ‍

It’s no secret that submission numbers for top-tier AI conferences have exploded in recent years. Reviewer shortage is now a crisis. In response, the AAAI 2026 committee has launched what many are calling a bold (and desperate) move: drag everyone into the reviewer pool.

Word on the street is that many researchers are already grumbling. Some are even publicly calling for a boycott of the mandatory bid process on social media.

What does this mean in practice?
• Submit a paper? You’ll be bidding on 50 others.
• No exceptions. Everyone participates.
• Large research groups might be fine, but this is going to hit solo authors and small labs hard.

Let’s just hope this doesn’t turn into a collective all-nighter crisis when everyone is frantically bidding at the last minute…

RiskLimp

Some guide sent today to reviewers (PC member)

Dear XXXX,

As a member of the Program Committee, you play a critical role in the success of the AAAI-26 conference . Now that we’ve released Phase 1 paper assignments, we rely on reviewers like you to carefully read papers and provide an informed review of the strengths and weaknesses of the papers. Such reviews are then used to decide which papers will pass into Phase 2 of the review process.

Reviews for Phase 1 are due on Monday, September 1 (anywhere on earth). If you anticipate any problems meeting this deadline, please notify the SPC for this paper by creating an “official comment” and set “readers” to the SPC in OpenReview ASAP. You can find more detailed information about the entire review process in the Instructions For AAAI 2026 Reviewers.

The AAAI-26 paper matching process takes into account many inputs, including paper keywords, your OpenReview profile, your DBLP record, your paper bids, etc. In some cases, the papers you are matched with may not be a perfect fit for your expertise. Because AAAI-26 is a very large conference that encompasses many types of AI, please do your best. If you wish to pull in an additional colleague to help you review the paper, please check with your SPC first (see instructions above on how to create an official comment). If you do use a subreviewer, please remember that you are responsible for all content in the review, and you should still take part in the Phase 2 discussion (if the paper proceeds to Phase 2).

For those of you who have not reviewed for AAAI recently, or just want some additional reviewing tips, please check out the “Guidelines On Writing Helpful Reviews” (also included in the Instructions For AAAI 2026 Reviewers).

As we go through the paper review process, please ensure you are familiar with AAAI-26’s ethics policies listed in the Ethical Guidelines for AAAI-26 Reviewers.

If you have any concerns regarding ethics, such as authors or reviewers breaking anonymity, reviewers using LLMs, inappropriate pressure to change ratings, etc., you may report them to our ethics chairs through this Google Form.

Potential ethics violations will be investigated, now or in the future, by the AAAI-26 Ethics Chairs and/or the AAAI standing Ethics Committee. The chairs or committee will impose penalties, depending on the severity of the infraction. We must emphasize that there is no time limit on when ethics violations can be investigated and sanctions imposed.

Thank you again for all your work in making AAAI-26 a success!

(If you have any questions or suggestions, please continue to contact us via workflowchairs26@aaai.zendesk.com.)

Sincerely, The AAAI-26 Program Chairs

CSPaper: peer review sidekick