How It Works
The process.
Every engagement is different. Here's what to expect.
Before
Understanding your context
We start with a 30-minute call to understand your audience, the strategic questions on the table, and what you want the room thinking about after.
Azeem then develops a tailored angle for your event. This may draw on one of his core themes — AI economics, exponential cost curves, energy transitions — but it will be shaped by your industry, your audience, and the specific decisions your leadership team is weighing.
Who Azeem Works With
Decision-makers deploying capital or setting strategy in the age of AI
Investors & Allocators
Azeem helps public markets investors, PE partners, and sovereign wealth teams build conviction on AI's impact on returns, valuations, and sector dynamics.
Best format: Fireside chat or investor briefing (20–1,000 attendees)
Boards & C-Suites
For boards and CEO leadership teams grappling with the AI question — how fast to move, where to invest, what to stop doing. Azeem's sweet spot is the intimate 8–30 person working session.
Best format: Half-day board workshop or CEO leadership session
Industry Leaders
Large enterprises navigating AI adoption — from workforce transformation to product strategy. Azeem grounds the hype in economics, helping leadership teams make confident decisions.
Best format: Keynote or leadership offsite (100–600 attendees)
Knowledge Platforms
Premier conferences, executive education programmes, and media platforms where audiences expect rigour, not just inspiration. Azeem brings the analytical depth of an investor with the storytelling of a broadcaster.
Best format: Mainstage keynote or moderated fireside
Signature Topics
Every session is tailored. These are starting points.
The conversations your investors, partners, and board members are already having.
The AI Investment Thesis: Stampede or Bubble?
A rigorous look at AI valuations, capital flows, and the economics of foundation models. Where is real value being created — and where are investors paying for hype? Built for audiences who allocate capital and need signal, not noise.
Best for: investor conferences, equity research events, LP meetings
Capital Deployment in the Exponential Age
Technology cost curves are collapsing exponentially — in compute, energy, biology, and manufacturing. What does this mean for portfolio construction, sector allocation, and the next decade of returns? The framework from Exponential, applied to investment strategy.
Best for: PE partner days, asset manager offsites, sovereign wealth briefings
The $100 Trillion Productivity Question
AI promises transformative productivity gains — but the economic evidence is complex. This session separates the macro reality from the vendor pitch, helping leaders understand where productivity gains will materialise, how fast, and what it means for their business.
Best for: CEO leadership meetings, board strategy sessions, industry conferences
The AI Economics Briefing (for Boards)
A structured working session designed for boards and senior leadership teams. Covers the AI landscape your organisation faces, the competitive dynamics reshaping your sector, and the strategic choices that can't wait. Interactive, confidential, tailored to your industry.
Best for: board workshops (8–30 people), CEO-sponsored strategy days
Custom: Your Industry's AI Inflection Point
Every sector has its own AI timeline. Azeem works with your team in advance to build a session around the specific opportunities, risks, and competitive dynamics your industry faces. Recent custom sessions have covered financial services, defence, healthcare, and energy.
Best for: any audience that needs depth over generality
The Session
Formats available
Format
Duration
Description
Keynote
45 min
A focused, high-impact session for large audiences. Provocative thesis, supporting evidence, strategic implications. Includes audience Q&A.
Deep Dive
90 min
Extended exploration of a single theme with interactive discussion and real-time analysis. Ideal for leadership off-sites.
Workshop
Half-day
Hands-on session for leadership teams working through strategic implications. Combines presentation, group exercises, and facilitated discussion.
Fireside Chat
30–60 min
Moderated conversation format. Works exceptionally well with a senior executive co-host at intimate executive gatherings.
Multi-Session
Custom
A programme of engagements over weeks or months, building cumulative insight within your organisation.
Recent Engagements
How it works in practice
Private Equity · Partner Day
A leading global private equity firm invited Azeem to their annual partner review day — 100 partners, one afternoon dedicated to AI's impact on portfolio value creation. The session became a working framework their deal teams now use to evaluate AI exposure across sectors.
Sovereign Wealth · Portfolio Briefing
A Middle Eastern sovereign wealth fund assembled 20 portfolio managers for an intimate briefing on exponential technology trends reshaping their investment universe. The conversation moved from macro AI dynamics to specific sector allocation decisions within the first hour.
Investment Bank · Investor Conference
One of the world's largest investment banks booked Azeem as the headline speaker for their annual technology investor conference. In a fireside format with the bank's head of equity research, he helped hundreds of public markets investors build a sharper thesis on AI winners and losers.
In action
After
The engagement doesn't end on stage
After the session: your team receives a concise briefing note — the core frameworks, the sector-specific data points, and three questions to stress-test your current strategy against. Designed to be discussed in your next executive meeting, not filed.
For workshop and multi-session formats, Azeem provides a written synthesis of the strategic themes and questions that emerged — a document your leadership team can use as a foundation for next steps.
The Evidence
Select clients across sectors
Finance & Asset Management
Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, UBS, Baillie Gifford, Nomura, Pictet, Royal London, SEB, Hayfin, CVC, Khosla Ventures
Technology
Google, Microsoft, Meta, Spotify, Salesforce, Oracle, Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone, Sky, Unity
Advisory & Consulting
McKinsey, Accenture, Deloitte, BCG, EY, PwC, Cap Gemini, Hogan Lovells, TCS
Enterprise
BMW, Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, Renault, IKEA, LEGO, MTR
Academia & Executive Education
Harvard Business School, Stanford, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, London Business School
An honest question
Is this the right fit?
Azeem is ideal when you need
An expert who speaks the language of investors, not just technologists
A fireside chat partner who can hold the room with Vinod Khosla or your CIO
A board-level AI briefing that's rigorous, confidential, and tailored
An opening keynote that gives your investors or clients genuine conviction
Economic analysis of AI, not product demos or technical deep-dives
Probably not the best fit for
Policy conferences or regulatory panel discussions
Generic 'future of AI' panels with five speakers and seven minutes each
Technical AI/ML audiences looking for architecture or implementation detail
Events primarily seeking a government or public-sector perspective
For Event Organisers
Champion Kit
A 3-page briefing document to help you make the case internally. Includes key outcomes, audience impact data, and preparation process.
Check your email — the Champion Kit is on its way.
Sound like a fit?
Azeem typically accepts ~25 engagements per year. Early conversations are encouraged.
Begin a Conversation