Uma Rudd Chia

Uma Rudd Chia

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Uma Rudd Chia is a Singapore-based entrepreneur, AI strategist, award-winning creative leader, author and educator who helps leaders understand what AI is changing and what they can do about it now.

With more than two decades of experience across business, technology, branding and creativity, Uma brings a distinctive perspective to AI. She explores how emerging technologies are reshaping industries, customer behaviour, marketing, work and leadership, translating complex developments into practical insights for organisations.

Uma is the Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Orbitron Industries, Managing Partner of 8 Circle, and Co-Founder of Circle8 AI and Oh My Strawberry. Before becoming an entrepreneur, she held senior creative leadership roles at Ogilvy, Saatchi & Saatchi, JWT and Weber Shandwick, working with global brands across Asia.

Her work has been recognised at Cannes Lions, D&AD, The One Show, Spikes Asia and New York Festivals. She has spoken across more than 20 countries and is the author of The Spotted Zebra.

Provocative, highly visual and practical, Uma’s talks connect the dots between AI, business, brands and human creativity, helping audiences prepare for what is coming next.

The AI Crystal Ball
What the next 12 months of AI will mean for your business


 

Forget five-year predictions. In AI, five years might as well be fifty.

Uma looks at the signals emerging right now across technology, consumer behaviour, investment and industry to identify the shifts leaders should be preparing for over the next 6 to 24 months.

From agentic AI and autonomous commerce to AI-native businesses, robotics and the changing relationship between humans and machines, this keynote translates emerging technology into business decisions.

Audiences leave understanding:

  • The AI developments worth paying attention to versus the hype
  • How AI agents will change the way companies operate and sell
  • Where new business models are beginning to emerge
  • What different industries can learn from one another
  • The questions leadership teams should be asking now

 


 

Customised Keynotes and Workshops

Uma’s keynotes can be customised for specific industries, including hospitality and travel, marketing and advertising, retail, financial services, education, agritech and lifestyle.

Her keynotes can also be expanded into interactive leadership workshops, where participants explore what emerging trends mean for their organisation, identify opportunities and risks, and turn new ideas into practical next steps.

A typical workshop moves through four stages:

Provocation: Uma introduces the technological and behavioural shifts likely to affect the organisation.

What Does This Mean for Us? Participants explore the implications, opportunities and risks for their teams and business.

Imagine: Teams develop ideas for new products, services, customer experiences or business models enabled by AI.

Now / Next / Later: Ideas are prioritised according to what can be explored immediately, tested over the next 12 months or monitored for the future.

The objective isn’t simply to teach people about AI, but to help them decide what to do with it.

It is to get them thinking about what they are going to do with it.

Voices of the Community

Uma has an amazing ability to connect with the audience and I felt lucky to have her on stage for General Assembly’s events. Her presentations about topics such as creative design trends or women empowerment were powerful and to the point.

Gabriela Zahoranska
Marketing Manager at General Assembly
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Uma has a unique way of looking at things and engaging the crowd. You need to listen to how she weaves in stories that draw people to her.

Kenneth Kwan
Leadership & Motivational Speaker, Author of Small Steps to Big Changes
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