Compare Open and Frontier Models

Hosted by Aki Wijesundara, PhD and Manu Jayawardana

Mon, Jan 11, 2027

2:00 PM UTC (30 minutes)

Virtual (Zoom)

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Agentic AI Engineering Bootcamp and Certificate: Early Bird Discounted
Dr. Aki Wijesundara and Manu Jayawardana
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What you'll learn

Benchmark an open model on your real task

Test against your own data instead of trusting a general leaderboard.

Split a workload across model tiers

Route each part of the job to the cheapest model that handles it well.

Plan a model swap without a rewrite

Structure prompts and calls so changing model is a config change.

Why this topic matters

Open weight models got good enough to handle real parts of a production workload,often at a fraction of the cost. The question is which parts, and the answer should comefrom benchmarking your own task rather than from leaderboards or preference. Mostteams are leaving obvious savings on the table.

You'll learn from

Aki Wijesundara, PhD

AI Advisor | Educator | Google AI Accelerator Alum

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.

Manu Jayawardana

AI Founder | CCEO at TAI Labs | Co-Founder of Snapdrum

Manu Jayawardana is a serial entrepreneur with multiple AI startup successes.

He is also the Co-Founder of Snapdrum, an AI consultancy helping companies integrate and automate their businesses using AI. Through Snapdrum, Manu has worked with top startups and enterprises across the U.S., Europe, and Asia, advising on automation, product development, and AI strategy.

Currently, Manu is the Co-Founder & CEO of Krybe, an AI voice agent startup in London transforming how businesses automate customer interactions. His experience spans fundraising, scaling products, and leading teams to deliver production-grade AI solutions adopted globally.

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