Aki Wijesundara is an AI leader with a PhD in Machine Learning and extensive experience mentoring startups at Google’s AI Accelerator. With a career spanning both research and applied AI, Aki has taught 5,000+ students worldwide how to design and deploy production-ready AI systems.

He has worked across cutting-edge areas of applied AI, from LangChain and RAG pipelines to observability and large-scale deployment. As a researcher and educator, Aki bridges the gap between theory and practice, making complex systems approachable and actionable for engineers, founders, and product leaders.

Aki is also a frequent speaker and advisor to organizations adopting AI, helping them transition from experimentation to production at scale.

Career highlights

• Ex–Google AI Accelerator researcher focused on responsible AI and applied ML.
• PhD in AI & Cognitive Systems with published research across top universities.
• Former researcher with teams affiliated with MIT, University of Oxford, & King’s College London.
• Co-founder of Snapdrum — delivered AI systems for finance, education, and healthcare.
• Built and deployed AI product pipelines used by PMs, startups, and enterprise teams.
• Instructor for multiple AI builder programs, helping 500+ professionals ship AI features fast.