MEET OUR SPEAKERS

Kornelia Papp is an artificial intelligence lead in the financial sector (Zurich Insurance Group). She is the founder of the NLP Zurich meetup group, an AI-driven, technology focused knowledge sharing series (https://www.meetup.com/NLP-Zurich/).

She developed AI applications in the area of speech technology, machine translation, fraud detection, natural language generation, language learning, and financial analytics. She currently leads the AI and automation activities at Zurich Insurance Group.

Rutger de Ruiter is the Head of Product Engage at CM.com, a global leader in conversational commerce solutions. With a strong background in product management and innovation, Rutger is passionate about creating seamless customer engagement experiences through cutting-edge technology. At CM.com, he leads the development of the Engage platform, empowering businesses to connect with their customers via personalized and scalable communication channels. Rutger is dedicated to driving growth and delivering value by bridging the gap between technology and customer needs.

Moran is a Senior Machine Learning Manager at booking.com, researching and developing GenAI, NLP and CV models for the tourism domain.

Moran is a Ph.D candidate in information systems engineering at Ben Gurion University, researching NLP aspects in temporal graphs.

Previously worked as a Data Science Team Leader at Diagnostic Robotics, building ML solutions for the medical domain and NLP algorithms to extract clinical entities from medical visit summaries.

Martin Woodward is Director Global Legal and Global Responsible AI Officer at Randstad, where he leads the design and implementation of the company’s Responsible AI program while overseeing global tech, procurement, and IT contracting. A seasoned in-house attorney and AI law leader, Martin works at the intersection of law, technology, and digital innovation, advising on large-scale IT projects, data protection, and AI governance. He is admitted to the Dutch Bar, chairs the NGB digitisation working group, and is an active contributor to leading AI and IT law associations.

Leander leads Go-to-Market for ElevenLabs in EMEA, focusing on scaling ElevenLabs Agents. He works closely with leading enterprises to deploy AI voice agents across products and operations, helping them unlock scalable applications and measurable ROI. Based in Amsterdam, Leander combines a consultative approach with a proven track record in business development, building trust and long-term partnerships that drive transformative customer experiences.

Thomas Neumann is a visionary leader in leveraging new technologies to transform customer experiences, with a focus on digital channels that create the "wow" effect. As a driving force behind global chatbot and voice assistant solutions, he is passionate about innovations that enhance customer satisfaction and boost Net Promoter Scores (NPS).

With over 15 years of experience in the mobile industry, Thomas brings a unique blend of international expertise, diverse roles, and exceptional interpersonal skills to the table. His work bridges the transition from traditional app-based solutions to cutting-edge conversational interfaces, enabling businesses to navigate the evolving digital landscape and deliver impactful, customer-focused results.

Chris is a visionary in conversational AI, believing technology should adapt to us, not vice-versa. He champions chatbots and voicebots as tools to create a seamless, human-like interaction with technology.

As Solution Architect for Conversational A.I. at Rabobank, he leads all customer-facing Generative AI agents, demonstrating his practical approach to integrating AI into everyday life. His work, showcased with Microsoft and Genesys, exemplifies his success in building empathetic conversational solutions.

Chris's background includes leadership roles at Sogeti Global, involvement with DDMA Conversational A.I., and co-founding DCUG. With a strong technical foundation, he excels at bridging the gap between cutting-edge AI and business needs, making technology work for people.

Pragati Shaw is an AI Product Owner at the Würth Group specializing in AI and data-driven innovation, bridging technical development and business strategy to deliver high-impact AI products. She drives and scales AI solutions including product recommendations that personalize customer experiences, shop assortment recommendations that optimize inventory for local markets, and customized storage systems recommendations for customers with intelligent stock tracking and automated replenishment.

She previously led a cross-functional team at Digital Product School by UnternehmerTUM to develop an AI product for Würth, bringing an entrepreneurial, hands-on approach to enterprise-scale challenges.

Alexander Schmitt has over 15 years of experience in Voice Assistants, Voice AI research, and product development. He began his career at the University of Ulm, joining Germany’s first spoken dialog system research lab in 2007, where he pursued a PhD on AI-driven Speech Dialog Systems in collaboration with New York-based SpeechCycle Inc.

In 2012, Alex joined Mercedes-Benz, contributing to research, advanced engineering, and product development for next-generation in-car voice assistants and emotion AI. A prolific author, Alex has published over 60 international papers in voice assistant-related fields. He currently leads the development of the next-gen #HeyMercedes Voice Assistant, working with a talented team of software developers, data scientists, and product owners to push the boundaries of conversational AI.

Jan Zubíček serves as AI Product Manager at ČSOB, Czech Republic's leading bankinsurance group and part of KBC Group, where he bridges technical capabilities with business objectives to shape and execute strategic AI initiatives. With over 20 years of experience spanning IT, data, and AI domains, he played a key role in bringing Kate to life - ČSOB's groundbreaking conversational AI assistant that has handled over 10 million customer interactions and set new industry standards for personalized banking services. His current focus is on leading the convergence of business, AI, and IT to bring the next generation of intelligent automation to banking - moving beyond conversational interfaces toward AI that acts on behalf of customers and employees across complex workflows. His expertise combines deep technical knowledge with strategic business insight, gained from working with both startups and enterprise organizations throughout his career.

Alex is the co-founder and CEO at Giskard, a startup dedicated to secure AI agents through exhaustive testing. Previous experience includes big data & analytics consulting at Capgemini, and lead data scientist at Dataiku where he worked the development of the NLP and time-series stack.

At Giskard, he's leading a team developing an AI testing platform that advances Responsible AI, enhancing business performance while respecting the rights of citizens.

Saskia is one of the driving forces behind our AI innovations as Lead AI Specialist at CM.com. With extensive experience in AI and personalization, she helps retail and e-commerce businesses transform their customer interactions. Imagine being able to scale your processes intelligently while maintaining a personal touch - that’s exactly what Saskia makes possible with the latest Agentic AI solution, HALO. Known for her passion and expertise, Saskia shares how AI Agents can boost (E)-commerce.

Norman Nielsen is VP Organic Growth at idealo, where he leads the company’s organic growth strategy across international markets. Previously, he spent nearly seven years at Omio, most recently as VP Growth, building and scaling a global team of 20 marketing and tech experts. With two decades of experience, he is a recognized expert in organic growth, AI-driven automation, and international expansion.

"Denis Turkov is a technology advisor and ex-Spryker Chief Architect with 15+ years in e-commerce and 9 years leading platform architecture.

He has helped 30+ commerce teams, including ALDI, Siemens Healthineers, Hornbach, and Pistor, launching across 16 countries and scale systems to 300M–3B EUR GMV, with peak throughput reaching 50,000 orders per minute.

Denis specializes in building AI-ready commerce foundations by combining product and data architecture, agentic selling UX, and support automation, helping D2C manufacturing and retail brands improve conversion on complex products, increase AOV, and reduce support load. "

Peter M. Buch is the founder of Findable, an AI-SEO platform making brands discoverable in ChatGPT and other AI search engines. A serial entrepreneur and Forbes 30 Under 30 alum, he explores how agentic AI is reshaping marketing and customer growth.

Yoav Barel is an Israeli-American technology entrepreneur, Founder and CEO of Chatbot Summit, and a Partner at Sunrize Research, with over 15 years of experience in Conversational AI and customer experience innovation. He began his career at Sun Microsystems, Oracle, and later LivePerson, where he led AI-driven customer engagement solutions.

As the driving force behind Chatbot Summit, Yoav delivers the event’s flagship State of the Bots keynote and curates its agenda, making it the leading global platform for AI innovation. A passionate advocate for Conversational and Agentic AI, as well as a quantum enthusiast, Yoav advises startups and corporations, helping them leverage AI to foster innovation and create lasting impact.
As the driving force behind Chatbot Summit, Yoav delivers the event’s flagship State of the Bots keynote and meticulously curates its agenda, establishing it as the premier global platform for AI innovation. In addition to his leadership roles, Yoav advises startups and provides strategic research services to corporations and investors, helping them harness AI to drive meaningful innovation and create lasting impact.