Cassie Kozyrkov is a distinguished leader in artificial intelligence, specifically renowned for founding the field of Decision Intelligence and becoming the first Chief Decision Scientist for Google, where she spearheaded the transformation of Google into an AI-first company. Having also been the Technical Director of AI and Data for Google, Cassie is now a leading AI luminary who is on a mission to democratise AI and guide business leaders on harnessing the transformative power of machine learning. Thanks to her deep technical knowledge and legendary influence, Cassie is now an extremely sought-after keynote speaker who has already been sought to influence audiences on all seven continents in over 40 countries.
Beginning with undergraduate studies at Nelson Mandela University, aged 15, Cassie has several degrees, including a PhD in Neuroeconomics from Duke University and a PhD in Mathematical Statistics from North Carolina State University. Her studies have informed her in areas such as psychology, neuroscience and mathematical statistics with a focus on machine learning. In 2008, Cassie worked as the PM at the Center for Cognitive & Social Neuroscience at the University of Chicago, where she coordinated lab research projects. This education has not only formed the basis of Cassie’s incredible career but has also allowed her to make complex concepts accessible to all, including at esteemed conferences for the likes of the World Economic Forum and the United Nations. Cassie’s impact on Google’s culture is quoted to be “legendary”, a distinguished tenure that began as a Statistician advising 200+ teams at Google on their analytics processes and training over 20,000 people in data-driven decision making. Cassie is also renowned for being the youngest ever member of the Office of the CTO, working as the Chief Data Scientist, guiding people on how to harness machine learning.
Cementing her authority as a thought leader, Cassie has been featured on the front cover of Forbes AI and has had over 200 articles published in the likes of WIRED, Fast Company and the Harvard Business Review. Below are some of her most popular press articles:
- Harvard Business Review - To Recognise Risks Earlier, Invest in Analytics & The First Thing Great Decision Makers Do
- Forbes - Automated Inspiration
- Quartz - The Career-Making Question That Will Help You Make Better Decisions
- Entrepreneur - How to Make Better Decisions Fast, from a Former Google Exec
- Success - Data Scientist Cassie Kozyrkov Reveals How to Make Smart Decisions
- Fast Company - Why Google Defined a New Discipline to Help Humans Make Decisions
- WIRED - Google's Got a Chief Decision Scientist. Here's What She Does
Cassie’s almost 10-year tenure at Google culminated as the Chief Decision Scientist, making history as the first thought leader to serve this new role. Combining data science with behavioural science, Cassie had a substantial impact on over 500 Google initiatives and has since advised top C-Suite leaders at Vodafone, Gucci, Lenovo, Home Depot, NASA, HSBC and GSK. Having also been recognised as the Few-Glasson Distinguished Alumna by Duke University, Cassie inspires broad leadership in an era of technological change, such as in her work as a Guest Lecturer at Harvard Business School. Cassie has also been recognised as the #1 Writer in AI on Medium for 7 consecutive years and has also secured status as a LinkedIn Top Voice for 5 consecutive years.
With a following of over 1 million on social media, including almost 700k on LinkedIn and 178k on Medium, Cassie Kozyrkov is one of the most sought-after keynote speakers in artificial intelligence and decision intelligence, having already spoken at Web Summit and SXSW. Cassie is the epitome of theatre-trained charisma, technical knowledge and executive experience, making her your perfect AI keynote speaker. A catalyst for responsible AI adoption, Cassie motivates organisations to rethink their AI strategies whilst staying ahead of industry disruptions. Currently serving on the Innovation Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Cassie focuses on the impact of AI on financial markets and global policy, adding yet another industry of expertise to her already impressive roster. Google's former Chief Decision Scientist isn't just a captivating speaker; she is a catalyst for the future of AI. When you engage with Cassie, you're connecting with the visionary leader who led Google's AI-first transformation.
Social Media
Books
Strategic Analytics: The Insights You Need from Harvard Business Review
97 Things About Ethics Everyone in Data Science Should Know: Collective Wisdom from the Experts
Reviews
Cassie Kozyrkov received a 5 star rating across 15 events in 2025
Agent Recommendation
"Cassie Kozyrkov is a world-renowned AI leader and the founder of Decision Intelligence. As Google’s first Chief Decision Scientist, she transformed how the company—and many others—use data to drive innovation. With her rare blend of deep technical expertise and theatre-trained charisma, Cassie makes complex ideas accessible, engaging, and actionable. Having inspired audiences in over 40 countries, she delivers keynotes that redefine how organisations think about technology, leadership, and human potential."
Cassie Kozyrkov's official speaking topics are listed below:
The Future is AI-First: Are You Ready to Lead?:
Leading a business through the AI revolution demands vision and bold action. Cassie Kozyrkov, the architect of Google's AI-first transformation, challenges leaders to rethink what it means to lead in the AI era. She shares innovative strategies for embedding AI into the fabric of your company, transforming not just how you work but what you can achieve. Attendees will walk away with a clear roadmap to becoming leaders in AI-driven innovation, equipped to outpace the competition and thrive in a rapidly changing technological landscape.
Audience Takeaways:
- Understand the principles of an AI-first organisation
- Learn strategies to embed AI into your company's culture
- Transform your leadership approach for the AI era
- Gain insights to outpace competitors through AI-driven innovation
- Prepare your organisation for sustained success in the AI future
AI Won't Steal Your Job, But It Will Steal Your Excuses:
Contrary to popular fears, AI won’t be the doom of humanity—but once AI starts handling repetitive tasks, you’ll have to face something even scarier: the chance to do truly impactful work. This session challenges you to drop the excuses, step up your game, and seize the creative freedom AI offers by taking drudgery off your plate. The best defence against job automation isn’t hiding from AI—it’s taking charge of it. Find out how embracing and leading AI initiatives can secure your role, build your influence, and allow you to thrive in the rapidly evolving future of work.
Audience Takeaways:
- Understand how AI can enhance rather than threaten your career
- Overcome resistance to change and embrace technological advancements
- Learn strategies to leverage AI for personal and organisational growth
- Discover how to focus on meaningful, impactful work by automating the mundane
- Become a proactive leader in the AI-driven future of work
Why Businesses Fail at AI Adoption: From Buzzwords to Business Strategy:
Artificial intelligence is no longer science fiction, yet many businesses fail to harness its potential at scale. In this insightful talk, Cassie Kozyrkov strips away the jargon to explore what's easy, what's hard, and how to spot genuine opportunities to improve your business with AI. She delves into why organisations struggle, uncovers the two biggest threats in the field, and discusses what this means for the future of work. Discover the secrets to successful AI innovation and learn how to avoid common pitfalls, unlocking AI's true potential for your organisation. Get ready to turn today’s hype into tomorrow’s growth.
Audience Takeaways:
- Identify common reasons businesses fail with AI initiatives
- Understand practical challenges and opportunities in AI adoption
- Learn strategies to successfully integrate AI into your business
- Recognise and mitigate the biggest threats in AI implementation
- Prepare your organisation for the future of work with AI
Mind The Gap: Digital Trust Habits For The AI Era:
As AI advances rapidly, a trust gap emerges between its capabilities and our understanding. In this compelling keynote, Cassie Kozyrkov explores how you can navigate this gap. By sharing the story of one of history's most ironic hoaxes, she illustrates why even the savviest among us can be misled and how to prevent it. Drawing from historical and modern examples, she reveals how understanding AI's strengths and limitations empowers you to navigate tomorrow’s world. You will gain actionable strategies to build tech fluency, foster scepticism, and ensure AI empowers rather than misleads, building new digital trust habits to guide you confidently into the future.
Audience Takeaways:
- Understand the implications of the AI trust gap
- Learn how to foster tech fluency and critical scepticism
- Gain strategies to innovate responsibly with AI
- Build trust within your organisation and with stakeholders
- Navigate rapid technological evolution confidently and ethically
How to Upgrade Your Decision-Making... Instantly:
Your life outcomes boil down to two things: luck and the quality of your decisions, making decision-making crucial. Yet society often neglects it as a skill to develop. In this empowering talk, Cassie Kozyrkov reveals how outcome bias and confirmation bias prevent us from learning the right lessons and making better choices. She demonstrates how tolerating these biases institutionalises complacency and hinders progress. The good news? You can overcome them instantly by asking the most powerful question: "What would it take to change your mind?" Walk away with practical strategies to eliminate excuses, confront your biases, and elevate your decision-making immediately.
Audience Takeaways:
- Recognise and overcome outcome bias and confirmation bias
- Transform decision-making into a powerful, honed skill
- Learn practical techniques to improve decisions instantly
- Foster a culture of better decision-making without excuses
- Empower yourself and your team to make smarter choices
Winning with AI: Embrace Change and Leapfrog the Competition:
Entering the AI arena can be daunting, but with the right strategy, it can propel your organisation ahead of the competition. In this keynote, Cassie Kozyrkov reveals how to build a winning AI approach by identifying key opportunities, scaling solutions, and fostering a culture that embraces change. Learn to assess your organisation's readiness, prioritise high-impact projects, and overcome technical and cultural challenges that derail initiatives. Through practical insights and actionable steps, you'll be empowered to lead your team confidently through AI transformations—leveraging AI to innovate, optimise operations, and gain a competitive edge in a rapidly evolving market.
Audience Takeaways:
- Build a strategic approach to AI integration
- Assess and enhance your organisation's AI readiness
- Prioritise and scale high-impact AI projects effectively
- Overcome common technical and cultural challenges
- Leverage AI to innovate and outperform competitors.
The Cognitive Advantage: Why Great Leaders Will Thrive in the AI Era:
As AI becomes more powerful, the real competitive advantage isn't in the technology—it's in the human mind. Cassie Kozyrkov, who spearheaded Google's AI-first transformation, inspires you to embrace the one thing AI can't replace: human judgment. In this engaging keynote, she challenges leaders to rethink their role in a world where AI delivers perfect answers in seconds. Cassie equips you with mental agility and decision-making frameworks needed to stay ahead, focusing on how to harness AI's potential without falling into the trap of thoughtless automation. Get ready to think faster and lead smarter.
Audience Takeaways:
- Recognise the unique value of human judgment in the AI era
- Develop mental agility and critical thinking skills
- Learn decision-making frameworks to complement AI insights
- Avoid the pitfalls of over-reliance on automation
- Lead confidently and intelligently alongside AI advancements.
Ethics and AI Bias: How One-Track Thinking Could Derail Our Future:
AI and data science are shaping the future of technology and society, yet these fields struggle with a lack of diversity that threatens to limit their potential and fairness. In this compelling talk, Cassie Kozyrkov explores how our choice of language influences culture in data professions and why many tackle AI bias the wrong way. She examines the risks of homogeneous teams in AI development, arguing that diversity isn't just a "nice to have"—it's essential for building AI that serves everyone. Discover why you should be both worried and excited about humanity's AI future and learn how you can help ensure it’s bright for all.
Audience Takeaways:
- Understand the critical role diversity plays in AI development
- Recognise how language shapes inclusivity in tech cultures
- Learn why diverse perspectives are key to addressing AI bias
- Gain actionable steps to promote diversity within AI teams
- Realise how to contribute to an equitable and fair AI future.
Decision Intelligence Unleashed - Optimise Decisions at Scale:
In a world overflowing with data, decision-making becomes increasingly complex. Cassie Kozyrkov, the pioneer behind the field of Decision Intelligence, reveals how businesses can transform overwhelming information into strategic action. Decision Intelligence bridges the gap between data and effective decisions, turning insights into clear action plans at any scale. Cassie provides practical guidance on leveraging technology, processes, and people to optimise decisions, transform data into impact, and foster a data-driven culture. Elevate your organisation's decision-making capabilities and unleash untapped business potential.
Audience Takeaways:
- Implement Decision Intelligence to enhance decision-making
- Turn vast data into actionable strategies
- Optimise decisions across all levels of your organisation
- Foster a data-driven culture for sustained success.
Official Feedback from In-Person & Virtual Events
Feedback from In-Person Events:
"We were thrilled to have Cassie Kozyrkov as our keynote speaker at the Applied AI Nordics conference. Her ability to blend humour, charm, and deep insights into the world of AI not only captivated the audience but also sparked meaningful conversations about our collective future during the breaks. Her talk was definitely the highlight of the conference based on audience feedback." - Dan, CEO & Founder, Todai
"Thank you for your keynote at CoreLogic’s Intrconnect. Our clients absolutely loved it." - John, Chief Innovation Officer, CoreLogic
“Recently, Cassie Kozykrov spoke to the CFO Leadership Council with a captivating discussion on Generative AI, engaging over 200 finance chiefs. Right now, there's no denying that this topic is at the epicentre of challenges and opportunities CFOs and their teams face, and Cassie's delivery was eye-opening. What struck us wasn't just her undeniable prowess as a top-tier data scientist. It was her knack for distilling complex, often intimidating AI concepts into practical, digestible insights tailored for a financial audience that doesn't live in the tech weeds. Her eloquence in demystifying AI and framing it as a game-changer for competitive edge was a revelation. Seeking a speaker who can not only navigate but also illuminate the AI labyrinth for your team, turning what feels like science fiction into a business strategy? Look no further. Cassie is your person. Her session isn't just a presentation; it's a lightbulb moment waiting to happen.” - Jack, Founder & President, CFO Leadership Council
“Loved the presentation today at Franklin Templeton and so grateful to have you here. All our folks were inspired. I had about 100 more questions! Sincere thanks for being here.“ - Barry, VP, Franklin Templeton Investments
“Cassie was very professional and great to work with on all details of her presentation. I appreciated how promptly we heard responses and feedback on travel and presentation details, and she truly is an expert in all things AI! Loved her personality and kindness. She's great to work with!” - Tiffany, Senior Event Marketing Manager, Accelerate24
"It was great discussing with Cassie yesterday on Lenovo’s view on AI foundation models at our Tech World fireside." - Dr Yong, Senior VP & Corporation CTO, Lenovo Group
"We were very appreciative to have the pleasure of Cassie Kozykrov as our Day 2 keynote speaker at Callan’s annual National Conference held in San Francisco. Leading up to the event, her team was very professional and well-organised. They sent her material in advance and made sure we were set with all we needed in preparation for
the event. On stage, Cassie had a great delivery and was very engaging with our audience. She took a very complex topic and made it understandable to all in attendance with her great visuals and examples. She is extraordinarily intelligent, and it was very interesting to hear her explain the use of AI in a non-threatening and intriguing manner. She left the audience with key nuggets to digest and take back with them. We had nothing but positive feedback from her presentation. I had researched many different options, and Cassie was by far the best choice of what we had reviewed. I am very pleased to have had her on stage at our event and wish her the best in her success in the future! I would strongly recommend her as a speaker on AI at any event.” - Barb, Callan Institute Director
"It was an honour and a remarkable opportunity for me to host yesterday our Tetra Pak learning session with Cassie Kozyrkov, an inspiring role model for Decision Science professionals! We had an excellent scoring of the session. 4.7/5. Big thanks to Cassie Kozyrkov for her invaluable insights." - Alberto, Global Head of Decision Science, TetraPak Learning Conference
“It was truly a remarkable experience having Cassie Kozyrkov as a speaker at our AI Day of Learning for East Hanover associates at Novartis US. Cassie’s insightful discussion, Decision Intelligence: Better Decisions at Scale, left us inspired and invigorated about the endless possibilities ahead. Her passion for data sciences was palpable and contagious, igniting curiosity within our teams and fostering a deeper sense of enthusiasm for the potential of AI in healthcare. We are very appreciative of Cassie’s contribution, which enriched our understanding and further motivated us to embrace the transformative power of AI. Thank you, Cassie, for your impactful presence and helping to illuminate our AI journey as a force for good as we reimagine medicine for our customers and the patients we serve.” - Sterlena, Executive Director, Novartis US Innovation Lab
- 2025 - Starred on the PepsiCo & TIME podcast series Future Back Drinking
- 2024 - Inducted into Duke The Graduate School's Few-Glasson Honor Society
- 2023 - Chief Executive Officer of Kozyr
- 2023 - Innovation Advisory Council Member of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York
- 2018 - Chief Decision Scientist of Google
- 2017 - Chief Data Scientist in the Office of the CTO at Google
- 2017 - Technical Director of AI & Data at Google
- 2014 - Statistician for Google
- 2013 - Statistics Lecturer at North Carolina State University
- 2012 - Mathematical Statistics PhD Student at North Carolina State University
- 2010 - Neuroeconomics PhD Candidate at Duke University
- 2008 - Project Manager at the Center for Cognitive & Social Neuroscience at the University of Chicago
- 2008 - Research Assistant of Prof. John List at the Center for Cognitive & Social Neuroscience at the University of Chicago
- 2004 - Data Science Consultant
How to hire Cassie Kozyrkov
Contact the Champions Speakers Agency to provisionally enquire about hiring Cassie Kozyrkov for your next event, today. To get in touch, simply call an official booking agent on 0207 1010 553 or email us at [email protected] for more information.
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