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Marlon Avery

Speaking

The AI voice that changes the room.

“I don’t talk about AI from a distance. I build it, deploy it, and then teach everything I learned so your audience can do the same.”

Book Marlon Speaking & Press Kit

Why audiences remember him

Keynotes from the builder, not the commentator.

Most AI speakers describe the future. Marlon builds it — voice agents in hospitals, agentic systems in a global bank, workshops in five-city library tours — and brings the receipts to your stage. Audiences leave with capability, not just inspiration.

  • Marlon Avery delivering an AI career-path lecture
  • Marlon Avery holding a microphone on a panel stage
  • Conference audience collaborating during a session

Signature keynotes

Talks that move rooms.

Every talk is tailored to your audience, industry, and moment — these are the starting points.

Signature 30–45 min

Voice AI in Production

What it actually takes to ship a voice agent that works in the real world — covering architecture decisions, failure modes, and the gap between demos and production. This talk goes beyond the hype to show what's technically required and organizationally challenging when deploying voice AI at scale.

Ideal for: Founders · Product Leaders · AI Engineers · CTOs

What your audience gets →

Learning objectives

  • Understand the full architecture of a production voice agent: STT, LLM reasoning, grounding, and TTS
  • Recognize the failure modes that separate demos from deployed systems
  • Learn the organizational patterns that make voice AI stick

Takeaways

  • A reference architecture for voice agents in regulated industries
  • A checklist of production failure modes and mitigations
  • A realistic build-vs-buy decision framework
Signature 30–45 min

AI Without Fear: Building a Culture of Curiosity

After training 10,000+ professionals across 100+ workshops, the single biggest predictor of AI adoption isn't technical readiness — it's psychological safety. This keynote gives leaders a framework for moving teams from fear to capability, with practical tools they can deploy the next day.

Ideal for: HR Leaders · L&D Professionals · CEOs · Team Managers

What your audience gets →

Learning objectives

  • Diagnose where AI resistance in a team is actually anxiety in disguise
  • Apply a framework for moving teams from fear to confident experimentation
  • Build a culture where curiosity about AI is rewarded, not punished

Takeaways

  • A team-readiness framework leaders can run the next day
  • Language and rituals that reduce AI anxiety across an organization
  • A 90-day adoption roadmap template
Signature 45–60 min

The Applied AI Executive: Leading in the Age of Intelligent Systems

For senior leaders navigating the AI transition: what separates organizations that thrive from those that stall isn't the technology — it's leadership clarity. This session gives executives a practical roadmap for AI strategy, adoption, and governance that moves beyond the buzzwords.

Ideal for: C-Suite · Board Members · VPs and Directors · Senior Leaders

What your audience gets →

Learning objectives

  • Separate durable AI strategy from quarterly hype cycles
  • Understand where AI creates measurable enterprise value today
  • Design governance that enables adoption instead of blocking it

Takeaways

  • An executive AI roadmap spanning strategy, adoption, and governance
  • A shared vocabulary for AI decisions across the leadership team
  • Criteria for sequencing AI investments by risk and return

More topics

25–40 min

Equity by Design: Building AI That Works for Everyone

AI systems reflect the priorities of the people who build them. This keynote challenges audiences to consider who benefits and who gets left behind — and gives them a practical framework for building AI that is both high-performing and genuinely equitable.

Ideal for: Executive Teams · Product Leaders · Policy Makers · DEI Leaders

What your audience gets →

Learning objectives

  • See how design decisions encode who AI systems serve
  • Evaluate AI products through an access-and-equity lens
  • Leave with a framework for building high-performing, equitable AI

Takeaways

  • An equity-by-design review framework for AI products
  • Case studies from scholarship and pipeline programs that widened access
  • Practical questions to ask before an AI system ships
30–45 min

Building with Claude: Agentic AI in the Enterprise

A technical-forward talk on agentic AI systems — what they are, how they work, and where they create the most value in enterprise environments. Covers real examples from production deployments, with lessons on trust, oversight, and keeping humans in the loop.

Ideal for: AI Engineers · Technical Leaders · Product Managers

What your audience gets →

Learning objectives

  • Understand agent design patterns: planner, executor, critic
  • Identify where agentic systems create enterprise value versus overhead
  • Design oversight and escalation patterns that keep humans in control

Takeaways

  • Production-tested agent architecture patterns
  • A trust-and-oversight checklist for agentic deployments
  • Cost and latency tuning strategies for always-on workflows
20–30 min

The Build → Learn → Teach Flywheel

The philosophy behind everything Marlon does: you don't just build AI systems — you extract the lessons and then multiply impact by teaching them. This keynote shows how this flywheel drives innovation at the individual, team, and organizational level.

Ideal for: All audiences · Educators · Leaders · Practitioners

What your audience gets →

Learning objectives

  • Understand why building is the fastest path to real AI understanding
  • Learn how teaching compounds individual lessons into organizational capability
  • Apply the flywheel to your own team's learning culture

Takeaways

  • The Build → Learn → Teach → Inspire operating model
  • A template for turning project retrospectives into teachable playbooks
  • Ways to create 'Aha!' moments that change how teams see AI

Recently delivered

A sample from 75+ engagements — the full archive lives on the events page.

  • Earn Your Leisure

    Automating Operations w/ AI · Atlanta, GA

    keynote

  • Tech Tuesday

    What’s the Hype? Hot Takes on AI · Miami, FL

    panel

  • Thrive Conference

    Beyond the Algorithm: AI's Impact on the Black Community · Fort Lauderdale, FL

    panel

  • NBMBAA® 46th Annual Conference and Exposition

    Generative AI & the Future of Work · Washington D.C.

    panel

  • Sports, Tech, and Venture Summit

    The Intersection of AI and Athletics · Tulsa, OK

    panel

  • Google AI Library Project — Five-City Tour

    A five-city AI training tour bringing generative AI education to underserved communities through public libraries, in partnership with Google and Dream Machine Innovation Labs. · Multiple Cities

    keynote

Audience outcomes

What your audience walks away with.

A New Mental Model

  • Shift from fear of AI to curiosity-driven exploration
  • Understand where AI creates real value vs. hype
  • See their own work through an AI-augmented lens

Practical Tools

  • Frameworks they can apply to their specific context
  • Prompting techniques that work in real workflows
  • A personal AI adoption roadmap to start Monday

Organizational Momentum

  • Shared vocabulary for AI discussions across teams
  • Clarity on where to start and what to prioritize
  • Confidence to experiment without breaking things

Your industry

AI, translated for your sector.

Select an industry to see the talks, workshops, and shipped work most relevant to your audience.

Planning your program?

Copy-ready bios, downloadable photos, talk topics, and the podcast — all in one place.

Open the Speaking & Press Kit →

Check availability

Bring Marlon to your stage.

Speaking inquiry

Every inquiry gets a personal reply — usually within 2–3 business days.

Opens your email client with a pre-filled message to hi@marlonavery.com.