Written by Rahim Hirji, author of SuperSkills (Kogan Page, 2026), founder of The SuperSkills Intelligence Company. The research is published openly with every source graded. Found an error? Tell me and it is corrected on the page.
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Available across Asia-PacificIn January 2026 a government wrote the apprenticeship problem into a national AI framework. That government was Singapore, and it is the closest thing to official corroboration this argument has found anywhere in the world. English-language keynotes across Asia-Pacific.
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A feel for the room before you put me in front of yours.
Rahim Hirji is the author of SuperSkills: The Seven Human Skills for the Age of AI, published by Kogan Page in 2026, and the founder of The SuperSkills Intelligence Company. He is based in London and speaks worldwide, in English.
His work has run through Asia for years. He founded EtonX, the online learning venture of Eton College, starting the business in China and partnering with schools in Shanghai and across the country, and he built EtonX operations in India, in Mumbai and in Delhi. He led Quizlet's international expansion across sixty countries. He has presented across Asia, including in Singapore, Hong Kong, China and India, and his book has been covered by The Straits Times. The argument rests on research across more than 200 organisations in 30 countries since 2019, published openly and in full at the research estate, where every source is graded and the open questions stay visible.
IMDA's Model AI Governance Framework for Agentic AI, version 1.0 of 22 January 2026, states that as agents take over entry level tasks, which typically serve as the training ground for new staff, this could lead to loss of basic operational knowledge for the users, and that organisations should identify the core capabilities of each job and provide sufficient training and work exposure so that users retain foundational skills.
That is a national regulator describing the mechanism this keynote is built on. It goes further than most frameworks on oversight too: it names automation bias directly, and it requires that the effectiveness of the oversight itself be audited, which is a step almost nobody takes.
The sharper finding is the twenty months before it. Singapore's Model AI Governance Framework for Generative AI of 30 May 2024 contains zero occurrences of human oversight, over-reliance, automation bias or deskilling. The same issuing body then built a pillar around oversight and added deskilling to it. That shift is documented, dated and quotable, and it is better evidence of how fast this became visible to policymakers than any comparison between countries. The full account is at AI and work in Asia.
Singapore's Ministry of Manpower reported 28.5 per cent of firms adopting AI, with only 6.2 per cent reporting AI-related reductions in headcount or hiring against 18.9 per cent reporting redesign of job functions. Japan's JILPT surveyed 22,000 employees and found 12.9 per cent reporting any AI use by their employer. The Korea Development Institute scored 38.8 per cent of Korean jobs as technically automatable and measured actual firm adoption at 2.7 per cent.
Hong Kong is the sharpest contrast in the region. Its statistical office measures augmented and virtual reality adoption at 1.5 per cent of firms and does not ask about AI at all. Any Hong Kong AI adoption figure in circulation came from a private survey with a self-selected sample.
None of those numbers measures the thing that matters. Adoption counts use. It does not count whether anybody could still do the work unaided, which is the test at dependency.
India is not a primary market for this keynote and it is not treated as one here. It is where a good deal of the underlying work was done. Rahim built EtonX operations in India, in Mumbai and in Delhi, and has partnered with a number of Indian companies. Those two cities are where a session in India would most likely sit, delivered in English.
On the evidence, honesty is the more useful contribution. No verified Indian official statistic on AI adoption or AI-related employment has been checked at source for this research, so none is quoted anywhere on this site. That is a gap rather than a finding, and it will be closed rather than filled with numbers that circulate without provenance.
What can be said is structural. India's exposure runs through IT services and business process work, which is the sector where France measured the sharpest fall in employment of under-thirties and where Korea's effects concentrated on the young and the educated. If the pattern found in three countries holds, India is among the most exposed labour markets in the world to precisely the mechanism described here, and among the least measured.
Boards, executive committees, corporate and association conferences and leadership offsites across Asia-Pacific. Delivery is in English only. Rahim travels from London, and where travel is not practical the same session is delivered online. He can travel to the region or deliver virtually across all time zones.
Three keynotes, all versions of one argument. Drift vs Design is the signature talk for boards and executive teams. We Are Superheroes covers the seven human skills that grow more valuable as the tools spread. WTH, What the Human is a live judgement test for boards, run in the room, December to March only. Full descriptions are at keynotes.
He is the wrong choice for a tools demonstration, a vendor showcase or a technical AI briefing, and for any brief that needs an optimistic message with the difficult part removed. If that is the brief, the guide to choosing an AI keynote speaker names four other kinds of speaker and when to pick each.
Rahim Hirji is available across Asia and Asia-Pacific. He is the author of SuperSkills (Kogan Page, 2026), covered by The Straits Times, he founded EtonX starting the business in China, and he built EtonX operations in Mumbai and Delhi. He has presented in Singapore, Hong Kong, China and India. He speaks in English on AI, work and human judgement, in person and online.
Government sources read at the issuing body's own page. Singapore's IMDA agentic AI framework of 22 January 2026 states that as agents take over entry level tasks, which typically serve as the training ground for new staff, this could lead to loss of basic operational knowledge. Singapore's Ministry of Manpower measured adoption at 28.5 per cent of firms. Japan's JILPT surveyed 22,000 employees and found 12.9 per cent reporting employer AI use. The Korea Development Institute measured actual firm adoption at 2.7 per cent against 38.8 per cent of jobs scored as technically automatable.
Yes, in English, most likely in Mumbai or Delhi, where he built EtonX operations and has partnered with a number of Indian companies. India is shown as coverage rather than as a primary market. No Indian official AI statistic is quoted anywhere on this site because none has been verified at source, which is stated openly rather than filled with unsourced numbers.
No. All keynotes are delivered in English only. Pages exist in Japanese, Korean and simplified Chinese because the reader reads them, not because the keynote is delivered in them, and each page says so in the first screen.
Three to six months ahead for an in-person date in Asia. Shorter is often possible for a virtual session, and sometimes in person where the diary is free and the talk already exists in the form you need. Ask earlier rather than later. There is one of him, he carries advisory clients and other commitments alongside the speaking, so not every date can be taken.
Fees are not published, and not withheld to create a negotiation. What they depend on is whether the talk already exists in the form you want or has to be built for your audience, and how much preparation the brief implies. Tell us the room, the date, the audience and what you need them to do differently, and you will get a number quickly. Schools, universities and charities are quoted differently. On travel there is one rule: outside London you book it and you pay it, because your rates are better than his and nobody is out of pocket waiting on a reimbursement. Flights are quoted from London Heathrow and the cabin follows the length of the flight: coach under five hours, economy plus from five, business from eight. Arrival is the night before, always, with normally two nights' accommodation overseas. A London booking carries no travel, accommodation or expenses at all.
When the decision has already been made and the session exists to announce it. When the audience has no authority over their own work, because the talk asks them to decide which repetitions are worth keeping. When the slot runs under twenty-five minutes, because the turn needs setting up. And when the session follows a vendor pitch, since order matters more than programmes usually assume. Where the conditions are wrong we will say so, and sometimes that means reshaping the session. Occasionally it means recommending somebody else.
Written by Rahim Hirji, author of SuperSkills (Kogan Page, 2026), founder of The SuperSkills Intelligence Company. The research is published openly with every source graded. Found an error? Tell me and it is corrected on the page.
Tell me the room, the date and the shift you need. A reply within 24 hours, and a straight answer on fit even when the answer is somebody else.
Also available in Europe, the Gulf and the UK. Browse every topic, audience and region. AIの基調講演者ガイド（日本語）. AI 기조연설자 가이드（한국어）.
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