Dr. Manish Mehta

AI Enterprise Vision

Over 20 years experience guiding successful large-scale deployments of AI technologies including autonomous systems, robots, and virtual agents

Areas of expertise:

- Autonomous systems - Led technology strategy for commercial mower company
- Intelligent agents - Pioneered virtual agents transforming customer service at multinational
  corporations
- Robotics - Oversaw robot deployments in manufacturing facilities
- Voice assistants - Built AI-powered assistants for construction workers
- Healthcare robots - Advised Tech startup developing robotic companions to assist seniors with medication
- AI Strategy and Cultural transformation

I offer organizations:

- Identifying clear AI objectives aligned to business goals
- Assembling cross-functional teams combining AI, business, and domain expertise
- Guiding pragmatic AI implementations focused on improving efficiency, safety, and customer
   experience
- Advising on ethical, responsible AI adoption strategies
- Leveraging experience deploying AI solutions across industries from healthcare to manufacturing

Let's connect to make your organization's AI vision an operational reality!

Chief AI Strategist: Driving Pragmatic AI Implementations

Creator AI Studio

With over 20 years as an AI innovation pioneer, I create imaginative AI experiences by taking early stage technologies from concept to implementation.

My expertise includes:

a. Conversational AI - Created interactive museum exhibits and theme park characters
b. Robotics - Developed robotic assistants and experiences like Turtle Talk AI system
c. Intuitive Creation Tools - Enabled non-programmers to build AI behaviors through easy interfaces
d. Immersive Experience Design - Architected AI gaming blending conversation and immersion

I offer:

- Innovation Strategy: Guided projects from research to requirements to design like Pirates of the
  Caribbean ride reimagining
- Team Assembly: Brought together cross-functional talent to develop experiences like robot 
   companions for seniors
- User-Focused Development: Conducted ongoing testing and feedback with users during creation of 
   museum exhibits
- Entrepreneurial Leadership: Scaled innovations from prototype to full deployment such as the AI 
   gaming experience

My passion is pioneering experiences that fascinate and inspire audiences by leveraging AI and emerging tech.

If you seek a leader who thrives on the frontier turning early stage technologies into imaginative implementations, let's make the extraordinary happen together!

Chief AI Creator: Transforming Emerging Tech into Engaging AI Experiences

Stanley Black & Decker, Inc.

Employee Number 1 at the CTO office and Help Build the company’s first-ever CTO Office. Help Lead Innovation Ecosystem to $1.2B/yr revenue. 3 Years FastCo and AII “Most Innovative” Company

- Developing multi-year research, technology and commercialization strategies across emerging areas 
   like AI, IoT, Industry 4.0, robotics and autonomous systems.

- Building partnerships between business units (Security, Healthcare, Industrial, Consumer) and functions
   (Sales, Marketing, IT, R&D).

- Managing cross-functional teams of 50-150 people on strategic projects.

- Conducting M&A technical due diligence, competitive intelligence, quantitative and qualitative studies.

- Establishing an external ecosystem network with VC firms, startups, and commercial companies across 
  the Bay Area and beyond, leading to successful partnerships and investments with 15+ organizations
  including Plug n Play, Baidu Ventures, Sapphire Ventures, and more.
  
- Driving well-received technology strategy initiatives on AI, ML, IoT, and AI conversational tech for the
  CEO.

Technical Director of Innovation, Office of the CTO

AI+ Accelerator TechCode - US

AI+ accelerator at Techcode consists of startups that are focused on the application of artificial intelligence technologies: voice recognition, machine learning, natural language processing, computer vision and gesture control to all the different industry verticals, e.g. robotics, virtual reality/augmented reality, smart home, IoT, medical device and wearables.

Startup Mentor

Accenture Technology Labs

- Supported development of visionary "liquid workforce" transformation in 2012, enabling Accenture
   crowdsourcing initiative. Platform catalyzed 15K+ hours and mobilized 100K people.

- Liquid workforce became a smash hit theme of Accenture Vision 2016, igniting 14K+ social media 
   mentions, 230+ client downloads, 112M reach. Amplified by 638 influencers like IBM and futurist Gerd
   Leonhard.

- Led research, strategy, and UX design to build Accenture's crowdsourcing capability across business areas. 

- Defined go-to-market strategy. Reported progress to leadership.

- Led patented design of new crowdsourcing offering curating on-demand teams. Transformed CIO recruiting
   and teams.

- Guided pilots analyzing coordination challenges with internal and external crowd workers. Led prototype
  development.

- Advised crowdtesting vendor pilots (Applause, Passbrain). Guided analysis for product insights. Managed 
   tools for new crowdtesting capability. Led pilots at top clients.

- Shaped design and guided development of a platform to enrich unstructured data via paid/free crowd work  
   and automation. Led vendor pilots.

- Drove multiple patented ideas advancing intellectual property. Filed inventions.

- Forged partnerships with vendors, R&D, and academia.

- Spearheading innovation blitz for Industry X.0 across 5 labs, reimagining products with emerging tech like AI
  and robotics.

- Pioneering human-robot innovation teams to conceptualize, design, manufacture and service products. 

-  Created behavior design strategies to motivate user participation for Fortune 100 clients. Recognized by  
   client with top award.

The Human-Centered AI Innovator - Unlocking Human Needs through UX and AI

American Cancer Society

Providing advice, leadership and direction to American Cancer Society to further the Society’s progress by leveraging the skills and talents of volunteers to add value to and complete strategic initiatives and projects.  The role involves advising the society to increase its appeal and competitive advantage in the volunteer marketplace, save the Society time and money on project initiatives, and offer opportunities to further develop staff and volunteers.

The goal of the program is to redefine volunteer opportunities to include Skills-Based Volunteering (SBV) to increase the society's market relevance and competitive advantage. The SBV program supports both SBV and episodic volunteers and meets the outcomes of the Board accepted recommendation. The purpose of the Society’s Skills-Based Volunteer(SBV) Advisory Team is to provide advice, consultation, leadership and direction to the Society’s strategy on Skills-Based Volunteerism.  The team is charged with developing a long term, enterprise-wide rollout for Skills-Based Volunteers.

Strategic Advisor

Georgia Institute of Technology

- Pioneered trailblazing augmented reality app - deployed and delighted hundreds of diverse users including actors, virtual world members, and non-programmers.

- Architected award-winning UX design thrilling 150+ visitors with innovative augmented reality gaming experience at UCI Beall Center. Transported players into resolving virtual character conflicts.

- Spearheaded software architecture and pioneering Wizard UIs controlling one-of-a-kind experience. Conducted rigorous qualitative and quantitative evaluation.

- Pioneered first Web 2.0 app empowering non-programmers to create, modify and share game character AI behaviors. Developed advanced AI dynamically enhancing user-generated AI.

- Deployed live and piloted by hundreds of user groups: actors from School of Theatre at Illinois State University, non-programmers from virtual world Second Life and Non-Programmers.

- Led extensive user research and crafted detailed personas. Spearheaded iterative prototyping of breakthrough end-user authoring tool and AI approach.

- Rigorously and holistically evaluated pioneering experience through qualitative and quantitative UX research methods. Dove deep into extensive data gathering and analysis.

Next-Gen AI Experience Designer

Disney Research

Transforming Turtle Talk Character Experiences

- Pioneering innovative system enabling multiple operators to engage AI characters, slashing costs.
- Uncovering guest needs and motivations through insightful operator interviews and observations at Disney Land.
- Rigorously evaluating developed system through extensive usability studies with operators and guests.

Reimagining Pirates of the Caribbean Guest Experience

- Energizing Pirates experience through vigorous ideation and prototypes.
- Accelerating cutting-edge Pirates research, assembling university and industry teams.

Theme Park Experience Innovator - Infusing UX with AI

University of Southern Denmark

- Pioneered Museum Exhibit Advancing State-of-the-Art in Conversational AI - Enabled first-of-its-kind 
speech interaction between children and AI-controlled Hans Christian Andersen.

- Led insights-driven Wizard of Oz studies, observations, and interviews to deeply understand young participants. Crafted detailed user personas and storyboards bringing exhibit vision to life.

- Spearheaded iterative wireframing, mockups, and development of breathtaking final exhibit. Published top-tier peer-reviewed papers.

- Conducted rigorous qualitative and quantitative evaluation uncovering actionable insights to shape future roadmap. Translated findings into pioneering recommendations.

- Developed cutting-edge advances in speech recognition, NLU, dialog management, and gestural coordination—unlocking seamless speech-based interaction.

- Exhibit captivated audiences and received extensive press for pushing scientific and engineering boundaries. Addressed key challenges to inspire future innovation

Pioneer of First-of-its-Kind AI Experiences

Steria

Software programmar

Reimagined Disney Attractions with AI | Pioneered Conversational AI Museum Exhibits | Self-Driving Car Degree | Corporate AI & Robotics Deployment & Strategies | Speaking Human, AI & Business over two decades

I speak human, business & AI and build AI solutions that nail all 3; learned and practiced over 20 years at the school of hard-knocks pioneering first-of-its-kind AI experiences including:

- Next-gen AI powered system for Turtle Talk with Crush
- Reimagining Pirates of the Caribbean ride with AI based storytelling
- AI powered speaker for construction workers
- Cobots and mobile robots deployed at manufacturing plants
- Medication compliance robot companion at senior living facilities
- Conversational AI powered museum exhibit at Hans Christian Andersen Museum
- AI powered immersive conversation gaming experience at UCI Beall Center Musuem
- Self-driving car development at Udacity
- Autonomous mower technology strategy
- Conversational agents for customer service 
- AI strategy and cultural transformation at large multinationals
- AI powered technology enabling non-programmers to create, modify and share game character AI 
  behaviors


Industries Covered: Manufacturing, Security, Healthcare, Entertainment, Creator Economy

Technologies Covered: Self-Driving Cars, Robotics, Human-Centered AI, Conversational AI, Crowdsourcing, Industry4.0

Work presented at White House and featured in USA Today, MSNBC, Washington Post, Computer Technology, InformationWeek, Bloomberg, Venture Beat and Business Wire

Partnering with me, you gain:

•      A human-centered designer - translating user insights into exceptional experiences
•	A business strategist - providing diligence to steer initiatives, quantify ROI, and minimize risks
•	An AI/ML expert - architecting, deploying and optimizing systems from prototype to production
•	20+ years experience spearheading innovations from concept to commercialization
•	Investments analysis quantifying technical feasibility and commercial viability
•	A technology pioneer - adopting emerging capabilities like robotics and autonomy
•	Cross-functional leadership uniting diverse teams to deliver complex initiatives
•	Trend tracking identifying high-potential focus areas to capitalize on

I would enjoy grabbing a virtual coffee to explore how we can work together to bring AI innovations to life - the future is bright! Let's connect.

Louisiana State University

Disruptive approach to educating and implementing real-world Artificial Intelligence to students with Dr Roy Haggerty and Dr James Ghawaly. HNRS 3035: LLM Large Language Model (LLM) Development and Deployment for Real-World Applications

Adjunct Instructor Louisiana State University

Henry Hays Consulting

It all started with the image of a boarded-up Blockbuster video store. It was a timeless lesson that innovation never sleeps and it is on us to stay ahead of the curve. Seeing Netflix take down an industry giant catalyzed a passion in Henry Hays for exhorting others to innovate. 


Henry is the Founder and Managing Partner for Henry Hays Consulting, where he specializes in working with legacy businesses helping them transform by developing radically different business models. When he’s not consulting, he’s keynoting his talk on Disruptive Innovation. 


Prior, Henry was Senior Executive Vice President for MPower Health, a Dallas-based healthcare company focused on delivering innovative Value-Based care. He also served as National Sales Director for Avanir Pharmaceuticals and was a founding member of the original sales organization. Over the course of 20 years in biotech and pharma he has run sales teams that specialize in launching novel drugs. 


When he's not on stage or working with a client, Henry is probably spending time with his wife and 3 kids in Baton Rouge, LA. That or he's struggling to break 80 on a golf course with a view.....

Owner

Disrupt Ready

DisruptREADY guides CEOs through the myriad of strategic options, vendors, and capabilities required to adopt emerging technologies in the age of Web3 and beyond.

The company offers "AI in a Day" workshops, Model Customizations, Advanced Automation Engineering, Retraining and Maintenance Subscriptions and Fractional CIO services all centered around getting legacy businesses into AI implementations.

Co-Founder

Greater New Orleans BioScience Economic Development District

Board Member

MPOWERHealth

Led business development efforts to expand MPower Health's presence into 10 new states
Onboarded approximately 100 new physicians into value-based care arrangements
Spearheaded recruitment and partnership efforts with healthcare providers to transition from fee-for-service to value-based care
Analyzed market data and trends to identify expansion opportunities aligned with MPower's mission
Negotiated and secured agreements with health systems, independent physician groups, and other partners
Educated providers on the benefits of value-based care and MPower's model
Played a key role in positioning MPower as a leader in enabling the shift to value-based healthcare

Senior VP Business Development

Avanir Pharmaceuticals

Developed national sales strategies and oversaw execution at regional and district levels
Analyzed market trends and expanded presence in skilled nursing, assisted living, and other LTC settings
Coached, mentored and hired sales leaders to build high-performing teams
Partnered with marketing to develop messaging and campaigns tailored for LTC
Tracked metrics and reported on sales performance to executives

National Sales Director, LTC

Amylin Pharmaceuticals

Associate Director, Sales

Novo Nordisk A/S

Pharmaceutical Territory Manager

Parke-Davis

Territory Manager

The random drive down Seigen Lane in Baton Rouge, LA changed everything - a Blockbuster video store, boarded up. Not something you see everyday, and my intellectual curiosity now in overdrive. Really bad night manager? Rat infestation?? Nope - Netflix happened. What was once a cute little mailbox business had now kneecapped a global business that was valued at $5 billion in 2002...and shut down entirely in 2014. 

Emerging technologies matched with radically different business models = the Disruptive Innovation that keeps me up at night (mostly in a good way!). Matched with a sales and sales leadership background (thank you Pharma for the training), I developed a Keynote that walks companies through what's happened so far and, more importantly, what's to come. The good news? The little guys can still win as long as the end user is the Hero of the story!

Loves of my life - the Lord, my family, speaking, the LSU Tigers and birdies.

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Dr. Manish Mehta

Henry Hays

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