Adam Cheyer
AI product decisions in most organisations are being made by people who have never built one. The distance between a compelling AI demo and a system that works at the scale of hundreds of millions of users is not theoretical – it is architectural, organisational, and deeply operational. Without that firsthand knowledge, organisations routinely commit to AI strategies that are commercially credible on paper and structurally flawed in execution.
Adam Cheyer – the computer scientist who co-founded Siri and led the DARPA-funded research programme that preceded it – helps organisations understand the decisions that separate AI products built to scale from those built to fail, drawing on four AI ventures acquired by Apple, Samsung, Airbnb, and Cognizant.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with Adam Cheyer
- He built the original Siri – not from a single insight but through more than a decade of AI research at SRI International – and then rebuilt the paradigm at Samsung and Airbnb. That depth of iteration, across platforms and at scale, is not replicated elsewhere on the speaking circuit.
- Four of his five ventures were acquired specifically for their AI technology, by Apple, Samsung, Airbnb, and Cognizant. The acquisitions validate not just the product but the engineering and commercial judgements behind it.
- After each acquisition, he stayed and led AI integration inside the acquiring organisation. Most founders don’t stay for that part – which is where AI strategies most commonly fail.
- He was ranked #2 on Voicebot.ai‘s Top Visionaries in Voice 2019 – behind Jeff Bezos and ahead of Sundar Pichai – while actively deploying conversational AI inside Samsung’s global platform.
- His foundation at SRI International as Chief Architect of CALO/PAL – the US government’s largest AI project, funded by DARPA – means his commercial instincts are grounded in the actual science of how intelligent systems work.
Biography highlights
- Co-founder of Siri, Inc.; Director of Engineering, iPhone/iOS group, Apple – led AI and server-side development for Siri across more than 500 million devices
- Co-founder and VP R&D, Viv Labs, acquired by Samsung in 2016; Viv became the technical foundation for Samsung’s Bixby
- Chief Architect, CALO/PAL project, SRI International – the US government’s largest-funded AI research programme, funded by DARPA
- Co-founder and CEO, GamePlanner.AI, acquired by Airbnb (late 2023, est. ~$200M); VP AI Experience, Airbnb
- Founding member, Change.org; co-founder, Sentient Technologies (acquired by Cognizant)
- 60+ peer-reviewed publications; 50+ patents across AI, machine learning, distributed computing, and conversational systems
- Ranked #2, Voicebot.ai Top Visionaries in Voice 2019; 2024 Brandeis Alumni Achievement Award; TechCrunch Crunchies Award for Best Technology Achievement
- Scientific Advisory Board member, Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence (AI2)
Biography
Building an AI product that works in a controlled environment and scaling it to hundreds of millions of users are different engineering problems. Most organisations now committing to AI strategies have very few people in the room who have done the second – and fewer still who have done it multiple times, across different platforms, inside multiple large organisations.
Adam Cheyer spent more than a decade at SRI International as Chief Architect of CALO/PAL – the US government’s largest AI research programme, funded by DARPA – before co-founding Siri, Inc. in 2007 with Dag Kittlaus and Tom Gruber. When Apple acquired the company in 2010, he stayed as Director of Engineering in the iPhone/iOS group, leading the AI and server-side development that put Siri on more than 500 million devices.
He has repeated this cycle three more times. Viv Labs, which he co-founded and led as VP R&D, was acquired by Samsung in 2016 and became the technical foundation for Bixby. Sentient Technologies – an early large-scale distributed machine learning platform – was acquired by Cognizant. GamePlanner.AI was acquired by Airbnb in late 2023, where Cheyer served as VP AI Experience, applying generative AI to transform how users engage with the platform.
He holds more than 50 patents and has authored more than 60 peer-reviewed publications in AI, machine learning, and conversational systems. He serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence and received the 2024 Brandeis Alumni Achievement Award for contributions to technology entrepreneurship.
Key speaking topics
- Conversational AI and intelligent personal assistants
- Generative AI and enterprise application
- AI product development and commercial scaling
- Technology entrepreneurship and venture building
- Human-computer interaction and intelligent interfaces
- Large-scale and distributed machine learning
- AI integration in consumer and enterprise platforms
Ideal for
- Chief Technology Officers and product leadership teams navigating AI product strategy
- Innovation and R&D functions evaluating AI investment decisions
- Executive and board audiences assessing AI-enabled product development or acquisition
- C-suite leaders who need a practitioner’s account of where AI integration succeeds and where it fails
Audience outcomes
- A practitioner’s account of how conversational and generative AI systems are designed, built, and scaled – distinct from analyst or vendor perspectives
- Understanding of the architectural and organisational decisions that determine whether AI products deliver at scale
- Direct insight into how Apple, Samsung, and Airbnb have each integrated acquired AI technology into their core platforms
- Lessons from founding, scaling, and exiting AI ventures across four separate acquisition cycles
- A grounded, evidence-based framework for assessing which AI capabilities are commercially transformational and which remain overstated
Talks
An exploration of how conversational AI, generative systems, and autonomous agents are reshaping business models, operations, and customer interaction.
Key takeaways:
- How conversational AI and voice interfaces are changing what technology can deliver across industries and devices
- The pace and direction of AI development and what organisations need to understand to plan ahead
- Practical perspectives on preparing for continued AI-driven transformation without being misled by the hype
A candid account of what it takes to move an idea from concept to viable venture, drawn from five startups, four of which were acquired.
Key takeaways:
- How to assess when a concept is ready to become a formal company – and when it is not
- How to choose working environments, define goals, and structure teams to drive sustained execution
- How to define success in terms that are concrete and measurable, not aspirational
The inside account of Siri’s development – from early prototype at SRI International through to Apple acquisition and global deployment.
Key takeaways:
- How a Siri-like system was first built in 1993, fifteen years before market conditions made it viable to launch
- The role of timing and technological readiness in moving a research idea to a consumer product
- What changed – technically and organisationally – between initial acquisition and deployment at scale
An examination of how AI agents are integrating across devices, industries, and everyday workflows – and what comes next.
Key takeaways:
- The expanding role of AI agents across financial services, healthcare, marketing, smart infrastructure, and consumer platforms
- Why next-generation open AI platforms differ fundamentally from today’s closed-domain assistants
- How organisations should position themselves as AI agents become ambient across business and consumer environments
Videos
Testimonials
Fees
| EUR | GBP | USD | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home Country | €40000 to €90000 | £35,001 - £75,000 | $50000 - $100000 |
| Asia Pacific | €90000 plus | £75,000 plus | $100000 plus |
| Europe | €90000 plus | £75,000 plus | $100000 plus |
| Middle East & Africa | €90000 plus | £75,000 plus | $100000 plus |
| South America | €90000 plus | £75,000 plus | $100000 plus |
| United Kingdom | €90000 plus | £75,000 plus | $100000 plus |
| US East Coast | €40000 to €90000 | £35,001 - £75,000 | $50000 - $100000 |
| US West Coast | €40000 to €90000 | £35,001 - £75,000 | $50000 - $100000 |
| Virtual | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |