Paul Daugherty
Former Accenture CEO of Technology & CTIO | Founder, Accenture Ventures & AI Practice | Bestselling Author, Human + Machine
Babak Hodjat
CTO for AI at Cognizant | Architect of the Neuro AI Multi-Agent Platform | Co-Founder & Former CEO of Sentient Technologies | Father of Apple's Siri Technology
Speaker Babak Hodjat is Chief Technology Officer for AI at Cognizant, where he leads the AI Research Labs and the Neuro AI multi-agent platform. Co-founder and former CEO of Sentient Technologies, he is widely credited with the core technology behind Apple's Siri, holds more than thirty patents, and founded the world's first AI-driven hedge fund. He gives executives a clear-eyed view of where agentic AI is actually taking enterprises next.
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Babak Hodjat biography
AI speaker Babak Hodjat is Chief Technology Officer for AI at Cognizant, where he leads the company’s AI Research Labs and the development of its Neuro AI platform. With more than three decades inside the field and over thirty granted or pending patents, Hodjat sits at the intersection of frontier research and enterprise deployment, helping global companies turn advanced AI into measurable business outcomes.
Earlier in his career, Hodjat was co-founder, CEO, and Chief Scientist of Sentient Technologies, the team behind what was then the world’s largest distributed AI system, and the founder of Sentient Investment Management, the first AI-driven hedge fund. He is also widely credited with the core technology behind Apple’s Siri, which grew out of his work at Dejima Inc., where he served as CTO and helped pioneer agent-oriented interfaces for mobile and enterprise computing.
From distributed AI to multi-agent enterprise systems
At Cognizant, Hodjat directs research and development of Neuro AI, a multi-agent platform that lets organizations design networks of AI agents that collaborate to make decisions, run operations, and solve complex business problems at scale. His team has open-sourced the core framework, neuro-san, making advanced multi-agent orchestration available to a broader community of developers and researchers. More on his role and current work is available on his Cognizant leadership page.
Beyond Cognizant, Hodjat is a prolific researcher and thought leader, with peer-reviewed work spanning agent-oriented software, evolutionary computation, and large-scale AI. He is a frequent contributor at the World Economic Forum and ITU’s AI for Good, and he leads Cognizant’s AI for Good initiatives, exploring how advanced AI can be applied to challenges in health, sustainability, and public benefit.
As a speaker, Babak Hodjat gives executive audiences a clear-eyed view of where AI is actually heading: how multi-agent systems, agentic workflows, and decision intelligence will reshape products, operations, and competitive advantage, and how leaders should plan, govern, and invest accordingly.
Babak Hodjat Speaking Videos
Babak Hodjat - The Future of Artificial Intelligence
Babak Hodjat - It's A Good Time To Be In AI
Babak Hodjat Keynote Topics
What does it actually take to move from AI experiments to AI that runs parts of the business? Speaker Babak Hodjat draws on his work leading AI research at Cognizant and his earlier role building the world's first AI-driven hedge fund to show how enterprises can turn predictive and decision AI into measurable outcomes. He maps the real building blocks, data, models, decisioning, and governance, and shares examples of how leading companies are reshaping decision-making, customer experience, and operations with AI.
Multi-agent systems are emerging as the dominant architecture for enterprise AI: networks of specialized agents that communicate, negotiate, and act to solve complex business problems. Babak Hodjat, architect of Cognizant's Neuro AI platform and a long-time pioneer of agent-oriented systems, takes audiences inside how this new layer is being built, where it delivers value today, and what leaders need to put in place to deploy multi-agent AI responsibly and at scale.
Behind Babak Hodjat's role as a CTO sits a long career as a Silicon Valley founder, including the team that built the technology behind Apple's Siri and the company that pioneered the world's largest distributed AI system. In this session, he shares hard-earned lessons on how to choose problems worth solving, attract technical talent, raise capital, navigate acquisitions, and build companies that turn deep research into real products.
Speaker topics
FAQs on Booking Babak Hodjat
Why Babak Hodjat?
Babak Hodjat is one of the few AI leaders who has shaped the field from the lab to the boardroom. He is credited with the core agent-oriented technology behind Apple's Siri, co-founded and led Sentient Technologies and the first AI-driven hedge fund, and now serves as Chief Technology Officer for AI at Cognizant, where he leads research and builds the Neuro AI multi-agent platform. He combines decades of research credibility with hands-on enterprise experience, which is why executives book him for honest, technically grounded perspectives on where AI is actually going. Book Babak Hodjat through Aurum Speakers Bureau to bring that perspective to your next leadership event.
What does Babak Hodjat do at Cognizant?
Babak Hodjat is Chief Technology Officer for AI at Cognizant, where he leads AI Research Labs and the development of the company's Neuro AI platform. His team focuses on advancing the state of the art in multi-agent AI systems, agent orchestration, and decision intelligence, and on embedding those capabilities into Cognizant's offerings for global enterprise clients. He also leads the company's AI for Good initiatives, exploring how advanced AI can be applied to challenges in health, sustainability, and public benefit.
Did Babak Hodjat invent Siri?
Babak Hodjat is widely credited with the core technology behind Apple's Siri. Before Siri became an Apple product, Hodjat co-founded Dejima Inc. and served as its CTO, where he helped pioneer agent-oriented natural language interfaces for mobile and enterprise computing. That underlying technology became the foundation for what later evolved into Siri, and it shaped much of his ongoing work in conversational, agent-based, and multi-agent AI systems.
Which audiences benefit most from a Babak Hodjat keynote?
Babak Hodjat's keynotes are ideal for technology leadership audiences, AI strategy events, executive offsites, and industry conferences in financial services, healthcare, retail, and digital transformation. CIOs, CTOs, CDOs, and senior business leaders rely on him for an honest, technically credible view of where AI is heading and what to do about it. Contact Aurum Speakers Bureau to bring Babak Hodjat to your next AI strategy summit, technology offsite, or executive briefing.
How to book Babak Hodjat as a keynote speaker?
Aurum Speakers Bureau can help you book Babak Hodjat as a speaker for your next event, conference, or board meeting. Simply fill out our contact form to inquire about Babak Hodjat's availability for a speaking engagement. One of our booking agents will respond to your request immediately and contact the speaker to let them know you want to hire them. We will assist you with obtaining speaking fees, booking information, and confirming availability for Babak Hodjat or any other top keynote speaker or celebrity of your choice.
How much is Babak Hodjat speaking fee?
Babak Hodjat speaking fees are determined by several factors, including the event's date, whether it's a virtual or in-person event, the duration, format, preparation required for their speech, and more. The same applies to the cost to hire any other top expert speakers and celebrities. The Speaker Fee Range listed on our website is simply a guideline and is subject to change without notice. If you would like to hire Babak Hodjat to deliver a keynote speech for your event, please fill out the contact form or email us at info@aurumbureau.com with as much detail as possible. One of our experienced agents will get in touch with you and let you know exactly how much it will cost to book Babak Hodjat.
How can I contact Babak Hodjat?
We only work with Babak Hodjat on paid speaking engagements. Aurum Speakers Bureau can assist you in booking Babak Hodjat and will handle all negotiations, contracts, and logistics associated with having Babak Hodjat speak at your event. We will be your sole point of contact throughout the process. Get in touch with Aurum Speakers Bureau today, and we will reach out to any motivational speaker or celebrity you want to enquire about speaking at your event. If you wish to contact Babak Hodjat for any other reason, we will be unable to assist you as we are not authorized to provide personal contact information.
Can I book Babak Hodjat for a virtual keynote?
Yes, Babak Hodjat is available for virtual keynotes and webinars. To book Babak Hodjat for a virtual event, please complete the contact form or send us an email to inquire about the special fees for virtual engagements.
