Karthik Krishnamurthy is the Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Ascendion, and the driving force behind Ascendion’s AAVA agentic AI platform, widely recognised for accelerating software delivery and measurable business value. Karthik speaks with clarity, warmth, and authority, combining real examples with simple, actionable guidance.
Karthik began as an engineer, earning a BE from Sri Venkateswara College of Engineering, then an MBA from Indian Institute of Management Lucknow, where he honed the commercial judgement that underpins his technology leadership. He joined Cognizant early in his career and learned how to build global teams, advise major clients, and connect data, analytics and software engineering to growth and resilience, experience that still shapes his talks.
In 2022 he founded Ascendion, where he serves as Founder & Chief Executive Officer and board member, and he is a member of the Wall Street Journal CEO Council, the Forbes Technology Council, and the Economic Club of New York. A concrete example of his impact is making Ascendion’s AAVA available on major cloud marketplaces, helping enterprises adopt agentic AI with governance and speed, a practical step that turns vision into production outcomes.
Audiences hire Karthik because he makes complex ideas simple, he connects board priorities to engineering execution and he shows teams how to ship better software with AI while managing risk. He speaks on the agentic era of AI and technology velocity through economic uncertainty. His talks explore business transformation through intelligent engineering, empathetic change leadership, and the future of technology talent. These topics matter as organisations move from ‘doing digital’ to ‘being digital.’ Expect crisp case stories, clear mental models, and tools your teams can use the next day. Whether you lead a bank modernising core platforms or a retailer reimagining customer journeys, Karthik gives you a blueprint for outcomes, and leaves leaders confident about where to invest, how to measure progress and how to build an AI ready workforce.
Karthik Krishnamurthy ‘s official speaker topics are listed below:
- The Agentic Era: How Humans and AI Build Together
- Navigating Economic Volatility with Technology Velocity
- Business Transformation in the Age of Intelligent Engineering
- Embracing Change: Leading with Optimism in the Age of Disruption
- The Future of Technology Talent and the AI-Driven Economy
- 2025 - Led availability of AAVA/AVA+ on AWS Marketplace
- 2024 - Named to the Wall Street Journal CEO Council
- 2022 - Founded and became CEO of Ascendion
- 2020 - Appointed Group CEO of Collabera Holdings
- 2020 - Joined the Forbes Technology Council
- 2017 - Became SVP & Global Head of Markets at Cognizant Digital Business
- 2001 - Became Senior Vice President & Global Business Head of Analytics & Information Management at Cognizant
- 2001 - Earned MBA at Indian Institute of Management Lucknow
- 1998 - Earned BE at Sri Venkateswara College of Engineering
How to hire Karthik Krishnamurthy
Contact the Champions Speakers Agency to provisionally enquire about hiring Karthik Krishnamurthy 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.
** We do NOT accept requests for autographs, signed merchandise, fan mail, birthday messages or any other non-commercial contact with the speakers or acts. Each speaker on the website may not have necessarily worked with Champions in the past but are known to perform such engagements within the industry.
