Andreas Welsch
Most enterprise AI programmes stall between pilot and operating advantage. Boards have approved the spend, vendors have shipped the tools, and the value is still trapped in slideware. The tension now is governance, accountability and workforce redesign at the speed agentic AI is moving, not whether to invest.
Andreas Welsch is an AI strategist who helps Fortune 500 leadership teams turn AI ambition into operating outcomes, drawing on two decades inside SAP and his book AI Leadership Handbook.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with Andreas Welsch
- Two decades inside SAP, including a vice president role connected to its Global AI Center of Excellence, give him a working knowledge of enterprise AI at the scale Fortune 500 boards actually operate.
- His AI Leadership Handbook is built on 60+ named interviews with AI leaders and offers a practitioner framework rather than commentary on the market.
- The 9 Steps to Successful AI Projects gives leadership teams a sequence to challenge stalled programmes against, covering ownership, strategy alignment, cross-functional delivery and governance.
- His What’s the BUZZ? podcast, running since 2021 with hundreds of AI executives, keeps his material grounded in what is currently working inside enterprises, not what was true 18 months ago.
- Named LinkedIn Top Voice, Thinkers360 Top 10 in AI, Generative AI and Agentic AI, and DataIQ Data & AI Leader of the Year Finalist 2025, which signals he is taken seriously by the audiences that book him.
Biography highlights
- Founder and Chief AI Strategist, Intelligence Briefing
- Former Vice President at SAP, with leadership roles connected to its Global AI Center of Excellence and Business AI go-to-market function
- Author of AI Leadership Handbook and The HUMAN Agentic AI Edge
- Host of What’s the BUZZ? AI in Business podcast since 2021
- Adjunct Professor at West Chester University of Pennsylvania; Editorial Board member, Journal of AI, Robotics, and Workplace Automation
- LinkedIn Top Voice; Thinkers360 Top 10 in AI, Generative AI and Agentic AI; DataIQ Data & AI Leader of the Year Finalist 2025; PEX Network Top 30 AI Leader 2025
Biography
Enterprise AI has moved past the question of whether to invest. The harder question now is why most programmes never leave pilot. Welsch’s work answers it from the operator’s seat. Over two decades at SAP, including a vice president role connected to its Global AI Center of Excellence, he watched Fortune 500 organisations buy capability and fail to convert it into operating advantage.
That experience is the substrate of the AI Leadership Handbook, his best-selling book drawn from 60+ interviews with AI leaders. The book sets out a practitioner sequence, The 9 Steps to Successful AI Projects, that leadership teams use to challenge stalled programmes against ownership, strategy alignment, cross-functional delivery and governance.
Through Intelligence Briefing, the advisory he founded after SAP, Welsch now works with senior teams on agentic AI specifically: where autonomous systems sit on the org chart, how accountability survives when decisions are delegated to machines, and what workforce design looks like when AI agents are colleagues rather than tools. His second book, The HUMAN Agentic AI Edge, makes that argument in book form.
His What’s the BUZZ? podcast, running since 2021, keeps the material fresh by putting him in regular conversation with named AI leaders inside Accenture, IBM, NVIDIA, PwC, SAP and Siemens. Thinkers360 ranks him in their top 10 globally on AI, Generative AI and Agentic AI; DataIQ named him a Data & AI Leader of the Year finalist in 2025.
Key speaking topics
- Enterprise AI strategy and operating advantage
- Agentic AI and autonomous systems in the enterprise
- AI governance and responsible adoption
- Generative AI for business outcomes
- Workforce design for the AI-ready organisation
- AI leadership and executive readiness
- Change management for AI programmes
Ideal for
- Boards, CEOs and executive committees commissioning enterprise-wide AI strategy
- CIOs, CTOs, CDOs and Chief AI Officers responsible for moving AI from pilot to operating model
- CHROs and people leaders redesigning roles around AI capability
- Industry conferences and leadership summits in technology, financial services, manufacturing and professional services
Audience outcomes
- A sharper read on why most enterprise AI programmes stall and what changes when they do not
- Familiarity with The 9 Steps to Successful AI Projects as a diagnostic for their own programme
- A working position on agentic AI: where it belongs in the operating model and where it does not
- Specific governance questions to take back to the board on accountability, data privacy and risk
- A view of what other Fortune 500 AI leaders are actually doing now, from Welsch’s podcast research
Talks
How leadership teams build advantage from agentic AI without losing accountability or trust.
Key takeaways:
- Where agentic systems sit in the operating model and what they replace
- The accountability questions a board needs answered before deployment
- Workforce design when AI agents work alongside humans
A practitioner sequence drawn from Welsch’s AI Leadership Handbook for moving AI programmes from pilot to outcome.
Key takeaways:
- The nine steps to align AI with business strategy and establish ownership
- Cross-functional patterns that work and the ones that consistently fail
- Where governance fits in the sequence and how to embed it early
Workforce, culture and capability design for organisations preparing for agentic AI.
Key takeaways:
- The dual-lens of productivity and sustained quality in AI-ready teams
- Skills and roles that compound value, and those that do not
- Practical signals that an organisation is ready to scale beyond pilots
A three-to-five year view of where enterprise AI is actually heading, set against historical technology cycles.
Key takeaways:
- What the current AI cycle has in common with prior enterprise technology waves, and what it does not
- Where leaders should be cautious, and where the real value is compounding
- How to brief a board on AI in plain language
Videos
Testimonials
Fees
| EUR | GBP | USD | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home Country | Under €12000 | Under £10,000 | Under $15000 |
| Asia Pacific | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| Europe | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| Middle East & Africa | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| South America | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| United Kingdom | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| US East Coast | Under €12000 | Under £10,000 | Under $15000 |
| US West Coast | Under €12000 | Under £10,000 | Under $15000 |
| Virtual | Under €12000 | Under £10,000 | Under $15000 |