Toby Walsh is a strong advocate for limits to ensure AI is used to improve our lives, having spoken at the UN, and to heads of state, parliamentary bodies, company boards, and many others on this topic. A Fellow of the Australia Academy of Science, Toby has also been named on the international 'Who's Who in AI' list of influencers, and written five books on AI for a general audience, the most recent being 'The Shortest History of AI: six ideas are all you need to know'.

Professor Balaraman Ravindran is one of India’s foremost minds in artificial intelligence and machine learning. At IIT Madras, he is currently Head of the Wadhwani School of Data Science and AI, which is at the forefront of several leading research centres and labs: the Robert Bosch Centre for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (RBCDSAI), the Centre for Responsible AI (CeRAI), the Centre for Integrative Biology and Systems medicinE (IBSE) and AI4Bharat.

Prof. Ravindran has more than three decades of experience working in reinforcement learning, and his research interest spans responsible AI and deep RL. He chaired the committee that drafted the India AI Governance Guidelines, a framework to promote safe, innovative, and responsible AI adoption by balancing innovation with risk mitigation. He was a member of the committee that drafted RBI's FREE-AI report to guide AI adoption in the financial sector.

The Chair of the Safe & Trusted AI Working Group to the India AI Impact Summit 2026, Prof. Ravindran was recently appointed to the Independent International Scientific Panel on AI by the UN General Assembly. Following a highly competitive global process that received over 2,600 applications, Prof. Ravindran is among 40 experts worldwide appointed to the Independent International Scientific Panel on AI. This panel will provide independent scientific assessments on AI's opportunities, risk and impacts.

Professor Tambe and his team have developed innovative AI and multi-agent reasoning systems that have been successfully deployed to deliver real-world impact in public health, public safety, and wildlife conservation. He is the recipient of the AAAI Award for Artificial Intelligence for the Benefit of Humanity, the AAAI Feigenbaum Prize, the IJCAI John McCarthy Award, the AAAI Robert S. Engelmore Memorial Lecture Award, and the AAMAS ACM/SIGAI Autonomous Agents Research Award. He is a fellow of AAAI and ACM. His contributions in Operations Research and public safety have also been recognized with the INFORMS Wagner Prize for excellence in Operations Research practice, Military Operations Research Society Rist Prize, the Columbus Fellowship Foundation Homeland security award, and commendations and certificates of appreciation from the US Coast Guard, the Federal Air Marshals Service, and airport police at the city of Los Angeles.

Distinguished Professor Madhu Bhaskaran is a multi-award winning electronics engineer and innovator. She is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering. She co-leads the Functional Materials and Microsystems Research Group at RMIT University which she established in 2010.

She is the Director of the Discovery to Device Medtech Prototyping Facility at RMIT University. Her work on electronic skin and wearable sensors has been patented, and her group now works collaboratively with multiple industry and design partners to commercialise the technology for healthcare and aged care.

She is a passionate advocate for equity and diversity and she proudly co-leads Women in STEMM Australia.

Damith Herath explores the intersection of human-robot interaction and the arts, working to advance secure robotics frameworks through public science communication and collaborative industry partnerships. He is a Professor of Robotics and Art at the University of Canberra and founding director of the Collaborative Robotics Lab, a transdisciplinary research group for human-centred robotics. Damith also founded Robological, Australia's first collaborative robotics startup and winner of the Most Innovative Young Tech Company award at Tech23. Over the past two decades, he has focused on building a community around the robotic art subdiscipline within robotics, helping to establish its ongoing presence by serving in program chair roles at international conferences, including IEEE ICRA. Deeply committed to interdisciplinary education, he develops foundational curricula and serves as the lead editor for key texts bridging these fields, including Foundations of Robotics and the highly influential Robots and Art – Exploring an Unlikely Symbiosis.

Alysha Maria Lobo is a venture investor in robotics, hardware, and physical AI, with a focus on manufacturing and industrial ecosystems across China and India. She brings roughly a decade of operating experience from Microsoft, Universal Robots, and Rapyuta Robotics, and is largely self-taught in robotics and engineering despite an academic background in English Literature. A Third Culture Kid with functional Mandarin, she has spent extensive time on the ground in China's manufacturing hubs — Shenzhen, Suzhou, Shanghai, Chongqing — and in humanoid robotics labs across the region. She writes TechnicalySpeaking, a newsletter on robotics, physical AI, manufacturing, and geopolitics with 1,000+ subscribers, and angel invests in early-stage robotics and hardware startups, with relationships spanning China, India, and the US.

Aruna Pattam is Head of AI Platforms at Zurich Insurance, leading the adoption of GenAI and Agentic AI solutions across Australia and New Zealand. With over 25 years of experience in data, analytics, and emerging technologies, she has held senior leadership roles at two of Australia's big four banks and global consulting firms. Aruna specialises in building enterprise AI platforms, driving innovation, and developing scalable frameworks that deliver measurable business value. She is a recognised thought leader on AI, Agentic AI and its applications in financial services and insurance. Passionate about ethical and responsible AI, Aruna focuses on shaping strategies that balance innovation with trust, ensuring technology enhances both business outcomes and human experiences. As a woman leader in AI, Aruna is passionate about advancing diversity in AI and creating pathways for more women in the field.

Ankit Bose leads the AI vertical at Nasscom with a clear conviction that 'AI must scale with trust, not hype'. He works at the intersection of policy, innovation, startups, research, and enterprise adoption, thereby helping organisations move from pilots to production-grade AI that businesses can run and engineers can implement. His mission is to turn India’s diversity and scale into a global advantage, shaping the 'Safe, Trusted, and Scalable AI' and unlocking a $500B opportunity through execution.

As head of Nasscom AI, Ankit architects ecosystem programs like the Nasscom GenAI Foundry to connect deep-tech startups with enterprise demand, leads the Nasscom Responsible AI practices around safety and accountability, and guides CXOs through adoption frameworks and maturity benchmarks.

With experience spanning across multiple domains like engineering, consulting, strategy, and operations across the America, Europe, MEA, and APAC, he translates code-level realities into boardroom decisions and back into action.

A 'techno-futurist' at heart, he believes technology’s real success is measured by meaningful impact.