Vishal Sikka

Vishal Sikka, PhD ’97 (Computer Science), is widely considered one of the world’s leading experts in AI and Machine Learning, with a distinguished academic and professional career in the field of AI. 

Dr. Sikka is the founder and CEO of Vianai Systems, an AI platform and applications company based in Palo Alto, California. Previously, Dr. Sikka was the CEO and Managing Director of Infosys, where, as the first non-founder CEO, he led the company through a generational shift in a time of significant change in the services industry.  

Prior to Infosys, Dr. Sikka served as a member of the executive board of SAP SE, where he led products and technology. He is credited with creating SAP’s breakthrough in-memory data platform SAP HANA, the fastest growing product in SAP’s history, with articulating the principles of “timeless software,” and was instrumental in bringing a culture of innovation and intellectual renewal across the entire company. 

Dr. Sikka earned his PhD in AI from Stanford University. The late professor John McCarthy, known as the father of AI, was the head of his qualifying committee. Dr. Sikka’s thesis on integrating “specialist” AI techniques into general purpose reasoning, addressed a foundational problem in AI that remains a weakness.

Dr. Sikka serves on Oracle’s Board of Directors, the supervisory board of the BMW Group, the GlaxoSmithKline Board of Directors, and the advisory council of the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI.