Andreas Weigend
Former Chief Scientist, Amazon | Global Expert on Big Data, AI & the Social Data Revolution | Stanford & UC Berkeley Faculty | Author, Data for the People
Cassie Kozyrkov
Google's First Chief Decision Scientist | Founder, Decision Intelligence | CEO, Kozyr | Adviser to NASA, Gucci & Federal Reserve Bank of New York
Cassie Kozyrkov is the South African-born data scientist who founded the field of Decision Intelligence at Google, where she spent nearly a decade as the company's first Chief Decision Scientist, personally training over 20,000 employees in AI and data-driven decision-making. Now CEO of Kozyr and adviser to NASA, Gucci, Salesforce, and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, she brings rare clarity and irreverent humor to the AI conversation.
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Cassie Kozyrkov biography
Cassie Kozyrkov is the South African-born data scientist and statistician who founded the field of Decision Intelligence, served as Google’s first Chief Decision Scientist for nearly a decade, and has become one of the most distinctive and widely followed voices in the AI space. Born in South Africa, she began studying statistics at Nelson Mandela University at age 15, went on to earn degrees at the University of Chicago and North Carolina State University, and pursued doctoral studies at Duke University. She spent the early part of her career in technology consulting, data science, and academia before joining Google, where she rose from statistician to Chief Data Scientist in the Office of the CTO, and then became the company’s inaugural Chief Decision Scientist.
As an AI speaker, Kozyrkov spent nearly ten years at Google as Chief Decision Scientist, where she personally trained over 20,000 employees in AI and data-driven decision-making and helped over 500 projects implement Decision Intelligence best practices. She was a central architect of Google’s transformation into an AI-first organization. After leaving Google in September 2023, she founded Kozyr, an AI consulting and advisory firm through which she advises senior leaders at organizations including NASA, Gucci, Spotify, Meta, Salesforce, and GSK on integrating AI with sound decision-making frameworks. She also serves on the Innovation Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, advising on AI’s influence on financial markets and global policy.
Kozyrkov is a LinkedIn Top Voice for five consecutive years, the number one AI writer on Medium for seven years, and the author of over 200 published articles that have collectively reached millions of readers. She hosts educational content on YouTube and social media and is followed by over half a million technology professionals globally. In 2024 she was inducted into the Few-Glasson Honor Society at Duke University’s Graduate School. She is also known as a secret thespian who has pursued intensive acting training to sharpen her communication and stage presence.
Decision Intelligence: The Field She Founded
Decision Intelligence is the discipline Kozyrkov developed at Google to describe a systematic approach to turning information into better action. It sits at the intersection of data science, behavioral science, managerial science, and the social sciences, and addresses the problem that most organizations treat AI and data as technical questions when the real challenge is a decision-making challenge: knowing what question to ask, how to frame the problem, what counts as a good outcome, and how to build the systems that reliably produce better choices. Kozyrkov has spent her career arguing that AI projects fail not because of bad algorithms but because of bad decision architecture, and that the missing skill in most organizations is not more data but clearer thinking about what the data is for.
As a speaker, Cassie Kozyrkov delivers something rare: deep technical credibility combined with genuine wit, warmth, and an ability to make the most complex AI concepts feel not just accessible but actively fun. Her keynotes are known for dismantling jargon, clarifying confusion, and leaving audiences with a clearer and more actionable understanding of what AI actually means for their decisions and their organizations. Contact Aurum Speakers Bureau to book Cassie Kozyrkov for your next event.
Cassie Kozyrkov Speaking Videos
Cassie Kozyrkov - Whose job does AI automate?
Cassie Kozyrkov - What is Decision Science?
Cassie Kozyrkov Keynote Topics
Most AI initiatives fail not because of bad technology but because of bad decision architecture. In this keynote, Kozyrkov presents the Decision Intelligence framework she developed at Google and has since applied across 500-plus projects and at organizations from NASA to Gucci: how to frame problems correctly before reaching for an AI solution, how to distinguish between decisions that should be automated and those that require human judgment, and how to build the organizational structures that reliably produce better outcomes from data. The keynote that consistently receives the strongest audience feedback from senior leaders who have invested in AI and are frustrated by the gap between promise and result.
Kozyrkov spent nearly a decade at Google helping executives understand AI clearly enough to make good decisions about it, and she has continued that work with leaders at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Gucci, NASA, and Salesforce. In this keynote she does for a live audience what her writing has done for millions of readers: strips the jargon, identifies the genuine capabilities and genuine limitations of current AI systems, and gives senior leaders the mental model they need to evaluate AI claims, ask better questions of their technical teams, and make strategic decisions they can defend. The clearest and most authoritative AI orientation keynote available from a speaker who was building AI strategy at Google before most of the current conversation existed.
Leading in an AI-driven organization requires a different set of skills from leading in a data-limited one. Kozyrkov has observed this shift from the inside, having advised Google's leadership through its AI transformation and since worked with senior executives across industries on what the new playbook looks like. In this keynote she examines the specific leadership behaviors that distinguish organizations where AI compounds competitive advantage from those where it creates complexity without value: how to define what you actually want from AI before deploying it, how to build accountability structures for algorithmic decisions, how to develop the "new breed of leader" she describes as essential for the AI age — someone who understands that every AI tool is a product of decisions and every AI deployment is a decision about values.
Before AI, before data science, the fundamental challenge of leadership was the same as it is today: how to make better decisions consistently, under uncertainty, with incomplete information. Kozyrkov's background in statistics, behavioral science, and organizational design gives her an unusually rigorous view of the cognitive and structural factors that make human decision-making fail — and the specific practices that make it better. In this keynote she presents the principles of sound decision-making she has observed work across 500-plus organizational projects, from how to set up decisions before making them to how to evaluate outcomes in ways that actually improve future judgment. An intellectually rigorous and genuinely entertaining session that works for technical and non-technical audiences alike.
Speaker topics
FAQs on Booking Cassie Kozyrkov
Why Cassie Kozyrkov?
Booking Cassie Kozyrkov means bringing to your event the person who invented the framework that most serious AI organizations now use to close the gap between AI investment and AI results. She spent nearly a decade as Google's Chief Decision Scientist, trained over 20,000 people in AI and decision-making, and now advises NASA, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Gucci, and Salesforce. Her keynotes are genuinely different from most AI presentations: technically credible, jargon-free, and actively entertaining. She has been a LinkedIn Top Voice for five consecutive years and the top AI writer on Medium for seven. Contact Aurum Speakers Bureau to check availability and fees.
What is Decision Intelligence?
Decision Intelligence is a discipline founded by Cassie Kozyrkov that combines data science, AI, and behavioral science into a unified framework for turning information into better actions at scale. Unlike traditional approaches that treat data analysis or machine learning as ends in themselves, Decision Intelligence starts with the decision that needs to be made and works backward to determine the right data, tools, and processes required. Kozyrkov pioneered this approach at Google, where it became the foundation of the company's AI-first transformation, and has since expanded it through her advisory work at Kozyr and her widely followed writing and courses.
What was Cassie Kozyrkov's role at Google?
Cassie Kozyrkov served at Google for nearly a decade, beginning as a statistician in the Research and Machine Intelligence division before moving to the Office of the CTO as Chief Data Scientist. She was then appointed as Google's first Chief Decision Scientist, a company-wide role in which she advised senior leadership on AI strategy, decision-making processes, and building data-driven culture. During her tenure, she personally trained over 20,000 employees and contributed to more than 500 internal initiatives, making her one of the most influential figures in Google's shift to an AI-first organization.
What topics does AI speaker Cassie Kozyrkov cover?
Cassie Kozyrkov's keynotes span AI strategy and adoption, Decision Intelligence, the future of work, digital trust, data-driven leadership, and responsible AI implementation. She tailors her presentations for both executive audiences seeking strategic frameworks and broader teams looking to build AI fluency. Her talks are known for being both deeply substantive and highly entertaining, blending technical insight with humor and relatable analogies. To book AI speaker Cassie Kozyrkov for your next event, contact Aurum Speakers Bureau for topics, availability, and speaking fees.
How to book Cassie Kozyrkov as a keynote speaker?
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How much is Cassie Kozyrkov speaking fee?
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Can I book Cassie Kozyrkov for a virtual keynote?
Yes, Cassie Kozyrkov is available for virtual keynotes and webinars. To book Cassie Kozyrkov for a virtual event, please complete the contact form or send us an email to inquire about the special fees for virtual engagements.
