Zach Rattner speaking Zach Rattner speaking

AI keynote speaker

I am a working CTO with 31 granted patents, and I have shipped AI in production across 20+ countries. I speak from what I have actually built, so your teams leave with the parts that worked, the parts that did not, and a way to tell those apart before your budget finds out.

Inspire action.
Apply AI.
Deliver results.
Create lasting impact.

AI should make people more powerful, not replace them.

I still build this for a living, which means the framework I give you has been tested against real production systems rather than a slide. Your people leave able to apply it in physical industries, where AI has to work alongside trucks, claims, and customers rather than in a demo.

A male professional in a black blazer and t-shirt is presenting at a wooden podium, holding a presentation clicker and gesturing while addressing an audience.

Speaking programs

01
Why AI fails (and how to fix it)

Your company has AI projects running right now, and you probably cannot say which of them will pay for itself. I have shipped AI in production across 20+ countries and watched which initiatives return money and which quietly become someone's side project. In this keynote I show your teams how to tell those apart before the budget is spent, and how to move the survivors into daily operations.

Who it's for:

Companies with AI on the roadmap and no agreed way to judge it. Strongest fit for insurance, home services, logistics, financial services, and real estate, where the work is physical and the AI has to survive contact with it.

Key learning outcomes:

  • Leave knowing which three of your AI projects are worth funding
  • Judge an AI initiative before it has spent your budget
  • See how teams across 20+ countries moved AI from pilot to production
02
Thriving through change

Your people are watching you to find out whether AI is a threat or a tool, and they are reading your hesitation as an answer. I have led an engineering organization through exactly this, badly at first. In this keynote I give you the frameworks I use to make decisions while the ground is still moving, and to keep a team steady enough to act on them.

Who it's for:

Executives, managers, and team leads whose organizations are adopting AI faster than they can explain it. Built for the moment when your people need a decision and you do not yet have certainty.

Key learning outcomes:

  • Make the call before you have all the information, and defend it
  • Keep your team willing to try things that might not work
  • Judge a new AI tool without waiting for the market to decide
03
Automate the ordinary, elevate the extraordinary

Your best people are spending their week on work that a machine should be doing, and everyone in the room knows which work it is. I bring real examples from building Yembo, including the ones that did not go how I expected, and show your teams how to hand off the routine without handing off the judgment. AI should make your people more powerful, not smaller.

Who it's for:

All-hands and cross-functional audiences, especially operations, customer service, HR, and marketing. Right when you want the whole room to leave with something they can try on Monday rather than a strategy they have to wait for.

Key learning outcomes:

  • Name the five tasks in your week worth automating first
  • Start a pilot small enough that failing costs you nothing
  • Give your team a reason to reach for AI instead of bracing for it
04
Add a working session

AI Strategy Roundtable - One hour with your senior leaders, working on your actual opportunities rather than generic ones. I prioritize the list with you and leave the room aligned on what happens next.

AI Action Plan - Two hours in which your teams build a 30-day roadmap for their first pilots. Everyone leaves with a named owner, a number to hit, and a task for Monday.

AI Opportunity Audit - Four hours pulling apart the workflows you run today to find what is worth automating. You keep a written opportunity map with the savings and the payback math laid out.

Momentum Session - A virtual session 60 days on, because this is where most initiatives quietly stall. We go through what shipped, clear whatever is blocking the rest, and reset the next set of goals.

Featured engagements
and impact

How insurance carriers
can leverage AI

The Challenge

Analog claims processes are actively losing customers who now expect instant, digital-first service.

The Solution

Streamline the claims lifecycle by replacing subjective guesswork with objective, AI-verified visual data.

"Zach Rattner was fantastic to work with from start to finish. His presentation was very engaging and left the audience buzzing."

Sofie Abramowitz

Sofie Abramowitz, Key Media

A man with a beard is speaking into a microphone on an outdoor stage with IB FutureFest 2025 branding behind him.
A male speaker on stage actively gesturing with his hands during a tech presentation, with a large screen behind him displaying computer vision or AR technology identifying furniture in a room.

Turning AI anxiety into
your creative advantage

The Challenge

Designers, technologists, and product leaders are currently paralyzed by the rapid evolution of AI.

The Solution

This talk completely reframed the AI learning curve from a threat into a competitive advantage.

"You made me more hopeful and inspired me to be more playful and experimental with AI."

- Julie Sun, Softwire

Maximizing economic
return on AI

The Challenge

Businesses are pouring money into AI experiments without a clear line from adoption to profit.

The Solution

A practical keynote showing exactly where AI pays off, from high-ROI workflows to measurable savings.

"A great talk that we are still talking about!"

Southwest Movers Association

Zach delivering a presentation on a stage to an audience seated at round tables, with a large screen displaying the number 64,000,000,000.
A panel discussion on stage at the ENGAGE 24 UK & Ireland conference, featuring four seated panelists, one standing moderator, and an attentive audience in the foreground.

10 Reasons to be
optimistic about AI

The Challenge

Guiding executive leadership to confidently adopt practical AI use-cases despite uncertainty.

The Solution

Inspirational keynote breaking down complex AI shifts into approachable human-centered tactics.

"Zach was awesome - the highlight."

Attendee, AICPA & CIMA ENGAGE '24

Turning AI pilots into
daily operations

The Challenge

Global mobility leaders had AI tools in hand and still finished every day with the same backlog.

The Solution

A working session in Osaka that mapped AI onto the workflows their businesses actually run, closing with a 30-day rollout plan each attendee could start on Monday.

"Zach's insights were practical, engaging, and very well received by the attendees."

FIDI 39 Club

Zach presents beside a large screen displaying a slide titled Predictive Insights under the heading Areas Unlocked by AI, in an ornate conference room decorated with red Japanese lanterns.

Let me give your audience something they can use on Monday

Podcast Appearances

Boss It

Boss It

Mark Edwards
Breakthrough Innovation

Breakthrough Innovation

JL Heather
Business Bros

Business Bros

Hernan Siaas
Chat about AI

Chat about AI

Vicki Reyzelman
Financial Management

Financial Management

Steph Brown
Humanity Working

Humanity Working

Paul Slater
Innovate for Success

Innovate for Success

Daniele Di Veroli
Jetsoft Pro Coffee Chat

Jetsoft Pro Coffee Chat

Olga Frayt
Let's Talk Startups

Let's Talk Startups

Nargis Jafferali and Demos Demetriou
Managing Innovation

Managing Innovation

John Bessant
Match Relevant

Match Relevant

Jake Villareal
Online Business Startup Tips

Online Business Startup Tips

Thomas Clairmont
Remotely Possible

Remotely Possible

Adam Riggs
ScaleUp Radio

ScaleUp Radio

Kevin Brent
Secret Ops Podcast

Secret Ops Podcast

Ariana Cofone
Startup Huddle

Startup Huddle

Jozef Maruscak
The CTO Show

The CTO Show

Mehmet Gonullu
The First Customer

The First Customer

Jay Aigner
The SaaS Podcast

The SaaS Podcast

Omer Khan
The Shift Spotlight

The Shift Spotlight

Ken Paskins & Winter Baserva
The Slight Edge Advantage

The Slight Edge Advantage

Jeremy Torisk
The Tech Founder's Podcast

The Tech Founder's Podcast

Marcus Papin
Think Future

Think Future

Chris Kalaboukis

Frequently asked questions

Zach Rattner's speaking fees start at $10,000 USD plus travel. The final number depends on the event type, the location, and whether the booking includes a workshop or a follow-up session.
Zach Rattner speaks to executive teams, industry associations, and companies that want AI to produce results rather than pilots. His audiences come mostly from insurance, home services, logistics, financial services, and real estate, where the work is physical and the AI has to survive contact with it.
Yes. Zach Rattner builds the examples in each keynote around the industry and the specific problem the audience is stuck on, rather than delivering a generic version. Name the industry and the problem when you reach out and he will shape the talk around it.
Three to six months ahead gives the best chance at a specific date. Zach Rattner can sometimes take shorter turnarounds depending on where he is already traveling that week, so a close-in date is still worth asking about.
A keynote from Zach Rattner includes a slide deck prepared for that audience, a takeaway attendees keep such as a roadmap or a cheat sheet, and guidance after the event. Workshops also include the materials and templates a team needs to keep going once the session ends.
Zach Rattner holds 31 granted US patents spanning computer vision, consumer electronics, and telecommunications. Most apply AI to the physical world: measuring interior spaces, streamlining logistics, and making connected devices behave. One of them is a better hair dryer.
Zach Rattner is based in San Diego, California, and speaks across the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
Zach Rattner presents from the front of the stage rather than behind a lectern, because the connection with the audience is better without furniture in between. A podium is useful for holding a laptop but is not required.
Yes. Zach Rattner runs the presentation from his own MacBook Air in Keynote, which avoids the font and file compatibility problems that come with handing a deck to a venue. He brings his own HDMI dongle and presentation remote.
Zach Rattner presents in 4k where a venue supports it, with 1080p as the minimum. His slides include video, so the room needs audio as well.