Keynotes on AI that do not stop at buzzwords: as an AI speaker I talk about how companies really introduce AI, what the EU AI Act actually requires and why control is the key to speed. In English or German, in Frankfurt, Berlin, Dubai or wherever you need me.
I stand on stage as a founder, not as a consultant trying to sell something. My examples come from our own projects with banks, insurers and public authorities and from rebuilding my own company. That makes the talks concrete: numbers, mistakes, decisions, not the future in ten years but what decision-makers have to do in the next twelve months.
Stages and formats
- SIFAMO AI Summit, Burj Khalifa, Dubai (February 2025): our own summit with representatives of Nvidia, Microsoft and Goldman Sachs in the audience, covered by Gulf News. The next edition is being planned for 2027.
- Frankfurt Business Forum (2025): keynote on AI, cognitive transformation and data integrity.
- Corporate and association events: keynotes for boards, leadership days, customer events and internal AI days.
- Interviews and panels: including The Technology Express at the AI Summit in Dubai, plus my own YouTube channel with regular takes on current AI topics.
Topics I offer as an AI speaker
- AI out of control? Why AI governance is the new DevOps. What the incidents at OpenAI and Anthropic show and what a governance layer looks like in practice.
- The EU AI Act in the daily life of a bank. From credit decision to audit: bias, human in the loop, BaFin, DORA, MaRisk, without spreadsheets.
- From digital to cognitive transformation. How already digital systems become intelligent and what that means for processes, teams and decisions.
- Training AI without personal data. Pseudonymisation, red, grey and green zones, transparency in the first sentence.
- From developer to entrepreneur. Founding, first contracts, 1.3 million euros of annual costs and why I reinvested everything for seven years. For founder and SME formats.
What organisers can expect
Every keynote is tailored to the audience: an insurance board, IT leaders in the Mittelstand or students get different examples and different depth. Typically 30 to 60 minutes, followed by discussion or Q&A. On request I combine the keynote with a half-day workshop in which we check the participants’ use cases directly against the EU AI Act and data protection law. Language English or German.
Why a founder as speaker
Because I bear the consequences of what I say. When I say that you should make AI controllable first and scale second, it is because we implement exactly that for clients and are liable for it. When I say that there are no senior AI experts yet, I include myself. That honesty lands on stage because audiences rarely hear it from consultants.
Impressions from my appearances
- Gulf News x SIFAMO AI Summit: Cognitive Transformation
- AI Summit 2025: A Vision for the Future
- SIFAMO AI SUMMIT 2025 — Dubai
- AI, Cognitive Transformation & Data Integrity: Key Takeaways from My Keynote at the Frankfurt Business Forum
- How Skilldex Helped Us Fix Hiring, Stop Wasting Time, and Finally Match the Right People
- From Data Lag to Real-Time — Why Event-Driven Architectures Are Critical for Scalable AI
About Umair Zaffar
I started as a freelance software developer in 2017 with a first project at an insurer in Hanover. In 2019 my co-founder Ayman Kalaie and I founded sifamo GmbH, self-financed and without loans. Today around 30 consultants, architects and developers work from Berlin and Frankfurt am Main; above the GmbH sits SFM Holding with SIFAMO Events, the organiser of the SIFAMO AI Summit. Since 2023 our focus has been AI in regulated industries. On my YouTube channel and in this blog I share what we learn along the way: unfiltered, with numbers and without consultant jargon. Most posts are in German; the English articles from 2024 and 2025 are listed below.
Frequently asked questions
How do I book Umair Zaffar as an AI speaker?
With date, location, audience and preferred topic via the contact page or by e-mail at contact@sifamo.com. I usually reply within two working days with a proposal.
Which topics suit which audience?
AI governance and the EU AI Act for boards and supervisory bodies, cognitive transformation and concrete use cases for business units, the path from developer to entrepreneur for founders and SMEs. Mixed formats are common.
Does Umair Zaffar also speak in English?
Yes. The SIFAMO AI Summit in Dubai and the interviews there were in English; keynotes in Germany are usually in German.
Looking for an AI speaker who speaks from practice and sends your audience home with concrete decisions? Reach me via the contact page, by e-mail at contact@sifamo.com or directly on LinkedIn.