What Asian evidence does the keynote use?

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.

Does he speak in Japanese, Korean or Mandarin?

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.

How far in advance should we book Rahim Hirji for an event in Asia?

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.

What does it cost to bring Rahim Hirji to Asia?

Most conference keynotes come in around £10,000. What moves it: the time I commit, travel, how full the diary is that month, and how far the talk is built for your room. What moves the number is set out at what an AI keynote speaker costs. Tell us the room, the date, the audience and what you need them to do differently, and you will get a number within 24 hours. 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 is Rahim Hirji not the right speaker for an event?

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.

AI keynote speaker in Singapore, Hong Kong and Asia

Watch the showreel · 2 minutes

A feel for the room before you put me in front of yours.

Who he is, and his history in the region

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 he has been featured in The Straits Times in earlier pieces. The argument rests on research across more than 200 organisations in 30 countries since 2019, published openly and in full at the research, where every source is graded and the open questions stay visible.

Rahim Hirji speaking with a microphone in front of a projected slide showing the SuperSkills Ladder — The SuperSkills Ladder, mid-session

Singapore named the problem, in the terms of this keynote

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 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.

What the region measures, and what it does not

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

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.

Where and how he speaks in Asia

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 versus 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 pitch 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.

The three keynotes, and which fits this room

Keynotes run 30 to 90 minutes, in person or virtual. A 30-minute main-stage version of each talk is available for conferences, and the full talk runs 45 to 60 minutes. The sector examples change for the room; the argument does not. All three, with the showreel, are at keynotes, and the programme copy is at the speaker pack.

Drift versus Design

Drift versus Design: why most organisations hand their judgement to AI without deciding to, and how to design your way through instead.

Most organisations are adopting AI by drift: a thousand reasonable decisions that add up to judgement nobody chose to give away. Rahim Hirji, author of SuperSkills, shows leaders which mode they are running, where AI sharpens judgement and where it weakens it, and hands them the controls.

We Are Superheroes

We Are Superheroes: AI is the suit. The human decides.

AI makes everyone faster, stronger and more capable. It does not decide; people do. Through a family story across five generations and three continents, Rahim Hirji hands the audience the seven human skills that grow more valuable as the tools spread. They arrive thinking AI is the story and leave knowing they are.

WTH (What the Human)

WTH (What the Human): a live test of a board's own judgement.

Business is being rewired as AI arrives, and human judgement is leaving with it. In three acts, Rahim Hirji shows a board what AI is changing in how organisations run, then ends with a live test of the board's own judgement, in the room and in real time. Nobody forgets the result.

City pages in this region

Sydney The voluntary standard that says it creates no duties
Singapore Where the deskilling argument became government policy.
Hong Kong No AI strategy, and a statistical office that does not measure AI.
Tokyo The country described as behind, measured properly.
Seoul Where the gap between possible and actual was measured.
Shanghai Where EtonX started.
Mumbai and Delhi On request, in English. See the India section above.

This argument is also published for readers in: 日本語 한국어 简体中文. Every one of those pages states, in that language, that the keynote itself is delivered in English.

Written by Rahim Hirji, AI keynote speaker and 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.

Not every brief is a talk. A board that needs to settle which decisions a machine may make wants a board briefing, a review or a standing advisor, and the five formats are set out side by side with what each one is for.

Box of Amazing

Rahim’s free weekly letter on AI and human capability

No enquiry today, or not yet the right time? The weekly letter is the low-commitment version of the same argument. Weekly essays on AI, capability and the future of work. Read by 25,000 people, every week since 2017. Free, and one click to stop.

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AI keynote speaker in Asia and Asia-Pacific.