Rama Akkiraju is a multi-award-winning AI leader and Vice President of AI for IT at NVIDIA, with over two decades of experience at IBM. As a former IBM Fellow and CTO for IBM Watson AI Operations, she led a team of over 600 engineers to develop AI/ML-driven IT systems. She has delivered numerous cloud-based AI services and scaled technologies like Natural Language Understanding and Automated Speech Recognition across multiple languages and industries. With over 100 technical papers, 75+ patents, and leadership in AI services like Personality Insights and Sentiment Analysis, she has received numerous accolades, including Forbes’ “Top 20 Women in AI Research” and Fortune’s “A-Team for AI.” Rama holds an MBA with a gold medal from New York University and an MS in Computer Science from Utah State University. She is a prolific speaker and has been featured in major publications such as Forbes, Fortune, and TechCrunch.