Neil Sahota
United Nations AI Advisor, IBM Master Inventor, CEO Of ACSI Labs AI & Technology Expert, Author
Neil Sahota (萨冠军) is an IBM Master Inventor, United Nations (UN) Advisor, Artificial Intelligence (AI) subject matter expert, Faculty at UC Irvine, and author of Own the A.I. Revolution. With 20+ years of business experience, he works with organizations to create next-generation products/solutions powered by emerging technology.
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Neil Sahota's 2025 biography
Meet Neil Sahota
Neil Sahota (萨冠军) is the CEO of ACSI Labs, United Nations (UN) AI Advisor, IBM Master Inventor, Professor at UC Irvine, and author of best-seller, Own the A.I. Revolution. With 20+ years of business experience, he works with organizations to create their core business strategy, enter new markets, and develop next-generation products/solutions powered by emerging technology. His work experience spans multiple industries including legal services, healthcare, life sciences, retail, travel and transportation, energy and utilities, automotive, telecommunications, media/communication, and government. Moreover, Neil is one of the few people selected for IBM’s Corporate Service Corps leadership program that pairs leaders with NGOs to perform community-driven economic development projects. For his assignment, Neil lived and worked in Ningbo, China where he partnered with Chinese corporate CEOs to create a leadership development program.
In addition, Neil partners with entrepreneurs to define their products, establish their target markets, and structure their companies. He is a member of several investor groups like the Tech Coast Angels, advises venture capital funds like Miramar and CerraCap, and helped create the UN’s Innovation Factory, a global program for social impact entrepreneurs. Neil also serves as a judge in various startup competitions and mentor in several incubator/accelerator programs.
Neil currently co-hosts AI for All podcast with Ryan Chacon where you’ll hear from AI companies, experts, researchers, academics, and industry leaders on the latest advancements in all things AI, machine learning, data science, and robotics.
He actively pursues social good and volunteers with nonprofits. Neil cofounded the UN’s AI for Good Initiative and is actively helping them build out their ecosystem of strategic partnerships. He is currently helping the Zero Abuse Project prevent child sexual abuse as well as Planet Home to engage youth culture in sustainability initiatives. Over the last twelve years, he has served as a Board Director to several non-profit organizations such as Inteleos and Computing for Humanity as well as corporate boards from around the world like Legalmation, Lingmo, and Shineville.
Neil Sahota's 2025 talks & topics
Disrupting the Box: TUCBO™ Is the Secret to Thinking Differently
To innovate, you must think differently. The problem, though, is everyone talks about thinking differently, but no one ever shows you how to do it. In this session, you will learn the tried-and-true TUCBO™ method to develop a disruptive idea. More importantly, you will also learn what it takes to transform the idea into a successful product or service.
AI Failure to Fortune: Why Your Organization is Struggling... And How to Fix It
Despite the buzz and investment surrounding AI, many organizations struggle to realize meaningful value from their initiatives. Why do some companies thrive with AI while others stagnate, failing to move beyond pilot projects and proof-of-concept exercises? In this session, we’ll uncover the critical missteps organizations make, which silently sabotage progress and drain resources.
Join us as we break down the common roadblocks, some which plague us even at ideation. More importantly, we’ll dive into actionable solutions that will put your organization on the path to AI success. You’ll gain insights into how to determine what you should do with AI and harness the right technologies to drive real impact.
This isn’t just another AI talk. It’s your opportunity to learn what it truly takes to transform AI hype into measurable business value. Whether you’re leading AI initiatives or supporting them, this presentation will provide the clarity, direction, and tactical actions needed to avoid costly mistakes and position your organization as a true AI leader.
Come prepared to challenge your assumptions, rethink your approach, and walk away with a blueprint for AI success.
AI or Fall Behind: Why You’re Failing to Unlock Value From AI
In today’s cutthroat market, AI is the edge that separates the disruptors from the disrupted. Yet, many companies stumble into the same traps, pouring resources into AI initiatives only to see little to no ROI. Sound familiar?
In AI or Fall Behind, I reveal the five critical pitfalls that sabotage AI success. You’ll discover why your competitors are thriving while your projects stall. However, I’ll show you the path to course correct, not only catch up but leapfrog past your competitors. This isn’t just a wake-up call. It’s your blueprint for meaningful AI transformation.
Plus, as a parting gift, I’ll give you a taste of the “secret sauce” to supercharge your company and ignite exponential growth. By the end, you won’t just be ready for AI. You’ll be leading the charge.
Leveraging AI for SMBs using the TUCBO™ Framework [Workshop] Overview
Everyone talks about thinking differently, but no one ever shows you how do it. TUCBO™ gives you the framework and the techniques, models, and tools to create viable SMB ventures with meaningful, value-add innovation with an executable, disruptive idea to leverage AI for your organization.
TUCBO™ stands for:
1 THINK DIFFERENT – Ideation
2) UNDERSTAND DIFFERENT – Develop
3) CREATE DIFFERENT – Enable
4) BE DIFFERENT – Actualization
5) OWN DIFFERENT – Sell (Normalize/Canonical)
Now, there are three types of people/organizations employing TUCBO™:
1. Innovators – the people who create new innovations/disruptions and build solutions for them (have the vision)
2. Facilitators – the people/organizations/ecosystems who provide the support and resources to improve ideas (vet/refine the vision)
3. Builders – the people/organizations who provide tools and expertise to implement the ideas (enable the vision)
THINK DIFFERENT
We think of innovation or disruptive thinking as an “aha moment”, but it is really a series of (hidden) dots connecting. For an SMB, this can be a challenge to discover the untapped value from leveraging AI for your business. That’s why we use special techniques to unlock meaningful ideas powered by AI, like:
1. Repurpose/Multipurpose
2. Challenge Assumptions
3. Cultivate a Different Perspective
UNDERSTAND DIFFERENT
When you come up with a good idea you must be open to tweaking because your idea is never perfectly thought out. Plus, with all the new capabilities AI brings forth, you want to make sure your idea is realistic and can be achieved by your SMB. Thus you need to vet your idea with people who are experts, whether it be an investor, data scientist, businessperson, etc. To do this, we have three techniques:
1. Observe/Listen differently
2. Apply constructive conflict
3. Find Synergy
Are You Killing Your Business? The Metaverse is Fueling Value Growth
Successful, on-going businesses maintain the eternal balance innovation and risk management. However, what if there was a way to fuel more innovation and disruption while also significantly reducing risk? This is the power of the Metaverse: creating a digital twin of any problem/opportunity and enabling creative thinking through experimentation and risk taking without any real-world impact to the business. Already, we have worked with the C-suite of over 50+ Global Fortune 1000 companies to create a replicable solution where business leaders found more innovative ideas delivering $1B+ in value to their organizations while also improving their creative thinking skills and accelerating their response time to crisis events. Through the convergence of the Metaverse, cognitive science, and AI, companies are unleashing exponential and accelerated growth. Are you ready to start your journey?
Building Resilience: Tackling Mental Health with the Metaverse
What if you could create a safe space (no real-world impacts) that perfectly mimics the triggers and subsequent scenarios around anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues? This is the power of the Metaverse: creating a digital twin of any event and enabling experimentation and risk taking. Working with therapists, psychologists, cognitive scientists, and enterprises, we have created a solution where people with mental health issues can engage their problems in a safe space and develop their coping skills. So, when the times comes, they confront a triggering event in the real-world, they already have the resilience to better manage the situation.
Hybrid Intelligence: Advancing Human Creativity Through AI & the Metaverse
Hybrid intelligence will drive the 4th Industrial Revolution. That is, human abilities that are augmented with machine capabilities will shape the future of work. This is not limited to just tasks and activities but also the squishy skills like communication, teamwork, empathy, and creativity. Already through the combination of cognitive science, AI, and the metaverse, we are advancing people’s capabilities with these squishy skills. Join this session to learn how you can tap into this convergence and advance your own organization through hybrid intelligence.
Future of Work: The Forgotten Side
The 4th Industrial Revolution has begun, and technology is accelerating the rate of change so fast that organizations struggle to keep up. As we look to the future of work, it is tough to maintain a sound talent management strategy. With so much emphasis on technical skills, organizations are overlooking the true importance of critical thinking, creativity, diversity, and interpersonal skills to sustain organizational success. So much of the future of work will require thought exercises, communicating great ideas through storytelling, and imagining a unique experience. This presentation will show why focusing on great technologists is not enough. To truly drive innovation, organizations will need to find people skilled in philosophy and the arts.
Life 3.0 Advancing Health with Hybrid Intelligence
As society advances health and medicine, it is not human versus machine. Rather, it is healthcare professional knowledge and experience augmented by artificial intelligence (AI.) This what we call hybrid intelligence, and it holds the power to accelerate all aspects of medicine. Tapping into hybrid intelligence requires embracing a new model and methodology. Already, top medical companies and innovation centers are tapping into this capability but have only scratched the service. In this presentation, learn how to leapfrog the competition and become a leader in the future of health.
The Ripple Effect: Why We All Need to Be Responsible AI Practitioners
As technologists, we often have a laser-like focus on achieving the specific outcomes we need to build. Unfortunately, we often miss the other uses, or misuses, of our technology. Given our ever-increasing speed of change, use of massive amounts of data, and entrusting of AI with decisions, answering the question of “just because we can, should we do it?” is no longer enough. With the great divide between things like Digital Twins and DeepFakes, we all need to become proficient in understanding the ripple effects of our tech and how we weave responsible AI into every facet of our work. Join this session to learn how you can tap into this framework and be a responsible AI practitioner.
Bias in AI, but what about AI taking out the bias in us?
All data is biased. As human trainers, we have implicit bias that we often teach our AI/ML systems. However, could AI also be the bias detector? Learn about the research we’ve been doing into this field, and how we’ve been able to apply it… even in something as controversial as the Johnny Depp and Amber Heard defamation case. Join this session to learn the answers on how AI will be our guardian against bias.