Sri Satish Ambati

CEO and Co-Founder of H2O.ai

Sri Ambati is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of H2O.ai. A product visionary known for building world-class teams, Sri founded H2O.ai in 2012 with the mission to democratize AI—making it accessible to anyone, anywhere. His leadership has fostered a global movement, uniting top data scientists, physicists, academics, and technologists at over 20,000 organizations worldwide.

Sri regularly collaborates with global business leaders to launch AI initiatives that address major business, societal, and environmental challenges. One such effort was o2forindia.org, which he led during the Delta wave of COVID-19, helping deliver oxygen concentrators to over 200 public health institutions in rural and Tier 2 Indian cities—saving thousands of lives. His commitment to “AI for Good” shapes H2O.ai’s mission and business strategy, promoting the ethical and impactful use of AI.

A recognized thought leader, Sri has spoken at major conferences like Ai4, Money20/20, and Red Hat Summit, and is a frequent guest speaker at universities. His work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, IDG, and the World Economic Forum, and he has been recognized as a Datanami Person to Watch.

Before founding H2O.ai, Sri co-founded Platfora (acquired by Workday) and held engineering leadership roles at DataStax and Azul Systems. He pursued sabbaticals in Theoretical Neuroscience at Stanford and UC Berkeley, and holds a master’s degree in Mathematics and Computer Science from the University of Memphis.