Dr. Ayesha khanna

• From Pilot to P&L: Operationalising AI at Enterprise Scale
  Most organizations are stuck running AI proofs-of-concept that never become profit centers. Khanna tackles the operationalization gap directly: how to decide which pilots deserve real investment, how to structure teams that ship AI into production, and how to measure ROI in language the CFO respects. Audiences leave with a kill-or-scale framework and a clear view of the three operationalization gates — data readiness, process integration, and organizational alignment.
• The Human Side of AI: Building Organisations Where People and AI Thrive Together
  The question isn't whether AI will change your workforce — it's whether your people will be ready. Khanna cuts through fear and hype to give leaders a practical blueprint for building AI-fluent teams: which roles to augment versus redesign, how to build reskilling that actually works, and how to manage the cultural resistance that derails most AI transformations.
• The AI-Ready Leader: Five Shifts for the Age of Agents
  AI is no longer a tool you use — it's a teammate you manage. Khanna lays out the five shifts leaders must make: from intuition-first to data-informed decisions, from control to orchestration, from annual planning to adaptive strategy, from talent hoarding to human + AI teaming, and from risk avoidance to responsible experimentation. Designed to give even non-technical leaders the confidence to lead AI transformation.
• Governing AI Before It Governs You
  AI regulation is accelerating globally. Boards that treat AI governance as a compliance checkbox will be blindsided; those that treat it as strategic advantage will outperform. Khanna provides a board-ready governance framework: how to structure oversight, what metrics to track, and how to prepare for the regulatory landscape of 2027 and beyond — without stifling innovation.

speaker Bio: 

Dr. Ayesha Khanna is a globally recognized AI expert, entrepreneur, and the Co-Founder and CEO of Addo, an artificial intelligence solutions firm headquartered in Singapore. With more than two decades in digital transformation, she advises Fortune 500 CEOs and governments worldwide on how to harness AI, data, and smart-city technologies for growth.

She is the founder of Amplify, a VC-funded media and education company that helps leaders turn AI from buzzwords into everyday advantage, and of 21C Girls, a Singapore charity that delivered free coding and AI classes to thousands of girls over more than a decade.

Khanna's board experience spans some of the world's most significant institutions. She serves on the boards of Johnson Controls (NYSE: JCI), NEOM Tonomus — where she helps shape the technology infrastructure of Saudi Arabia's flagship smart city, and where she served as Chairwoman of the Investment Committee and now chairs the Remuneration Committee — Mercy, one of the largest healthcare providers in the United States, and HTX, Singapore's homeland security technology agency. She previously served on the board of AVEVA (formerly FTSE100, before its acquisition by Schneider Electric) and on the Scientific Advisory Board of L'Oréal. She has also held seats on several Singapore government boards, including the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), and was a member of the World Economic Forum's Global Future Councils.

She holds a BA (honors) in Economics from Harvard University, an MS in Operations Research from Columbia University, and a PhD in Information Systems from the London School of Economics, focused on digital innovation in smart cities.

Recognized as a groundbreaking female entrepreneur in Southeast Asia by Forbes, Khanna has also been named one of Edelman's Top 50 AI Creators (2025), featured among Salesforce's 16 AI Influencers to Know (2024), and recognized by Reuters Events as one of the Trailblazing Women in Enterprise AI (2026). Her work has been profiled in The New York Times, TIME, Forbes, Harvard Business Review, and Foreign Policy, and she has spoken for organizations including FedEx, S&P Global, BMW, Publicis Groupe, and E.ON.

She is the co-author of Hybrid Reality: Thriving in the Emerging Human-Technology Civilization (2012) and author of Straight Through Processing (2008), and is currently writing Gamechanger, a book on business strategies for harnessing generative AI.

Summary: Dr. Khanna's Core Conviction

A recurring theme across Dr. Khanna's work is that AI adoption fails not for technical reasons, but for human and organizational ones. Her frameworks consistently return to a handful of governing principles:

• Operationalize, don't experiment. The value of AI is realized at the P&L, not in the pilot. Most organizations never cross that gap.
• Augment people, don't just automate them. The decisive question is which roles to redesign and which to amplify — and how to bring the workforce with you.
• Govern early. AI governance is a source of competitive advantage, not a compliance burden — and boards that wait will be blindsided.
• Stay the protagonist. In Khanna's words, "Humans need to govern AI to benefit ourselves and humanity. In this new world, you are the hero of this story, not AI."

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