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Sharon Gai    

E-commerce Expert; Artificial Intelligence in Business; Former Director of Global Key Accounts at the Alibaba Group

Sharon Gai is an international female keynote speaker for retailers, brands, and organizations. She uses her unique background in the East and West to work with leaders worldwide who are figuring out how to become disruptors in their industries. Gai is a culture-fluid expert in e-commerce, digital transformation, and AI.

She was born in northeastern China during a time when girls were told they are best if they are “serene and quiet." Immigrating to Canada at a young age, she was presented with a new language, culture, and way of viewing the world. Perhaps because of these geographical changes in her life, she became culture-fluid and cultivated a culturally intelligent way of looking at the world.

Today, she helps organizations see how leading companies use AI and innovative business models to disrupt their industry and exceed their competitors. In her tenure at Alibaba, she advised brands and heads of state in crafting their digital strategy with programmatic marketing and AI.

She has been the keynote speaker at TEDx, Singularity University, UBS, Deloitte, Nestle, Ecomworld, and Etail. She is a RETHINK Retail’s Top Retail Expert and a LinkedIn Top Voice in Public Speaking 2023. She has appeared on Bloomberg, Reuters, ABC, CBC, CCTV, Techcrunch, Retail Asia, Wired, and The Next Web. She is also the author of the book "Ecommerce Reimagined: What We Can Learn in Retail and Ecommerce from China."

Gai has an Honors Bachelor’s degree in International Development from McGill and a Masters in Knowledge Management from Columbia University.

Speech Topics


E-commerce Reimagined: How Leading E-commerce Companies Use AI To Win E-commerce and Retail

AI is revolutionizing personalization and customer experience through tailored product recommendations and improved customer service. Chinese e-commerce companies, earlier adopters of this AI technology, are ahead of the game. Temu has obtained half of Amazon’s user base within a year of launching. Now, TikTok Shop is transforming shopping via live streaming. How can Amazon sellers take advantage of this disruption? Learn from Sharon’s decade-long experience working within the Chinese e-commerce system, where she’ll divulge three strategies that can boost sales for Amazon sellers in today’s highly competitive e-commerce climate.

Session takeaways:

  • A deep understanding of the innovations coming out of Chinese technology companies and the impact they are having on the global market
  • How to leverage live streaming as a low-cost and effective way to reach a new customer segment
  • How to use community-based selling to grow a community of brand advocates
  • How to work with companies such as accelerators to expand to international markets

How To Do More With Less Using Generative AI

With two ongoing wars, the collapse of big companies, and inflation, the economy today is going through a turbulent time. How do you survive? How can you have a turnaround? Companies no longer have the luxury in spending money on low return projects. In this keynote, Sharon will teach businesses how to do more with less. She'll dive deep into the transformative effects of AI on business and explore the tremendous opportunities and challenges it presents. You'll discover how businesses of all sizes can leverage AI to gain a competitive edge, streamline processes, automate tasks, and make data-driven decisions that drive growth and profitability. Those who listen to this keynote will come out ahead.

Session takeaways:

  • Learn about practical and impactful use cases of AI in various industries and business functions.
  • Gain insights into how AI is being used to streamline processes, optimize operations, and drive revenue growth.
  • Discover the key challenges of AI adoption in business and how to overcome them, such as data quality, privacy concerns, and organizational change management
  • Learn about the skills and competencies needed to succeed in the age of AI, and how to cultivate them in yourself and your team.

The Red Pill or Blue Pill: Navigating the Dichotomy in AI

AI is no longer a futuristic concept reserved for science fiction movies. It's already here and rapidly changing how businesses operate, compete, and grow. From machine learning to natural language processing, AI is revolutionizing how we work, transforming the fabric of industries across the globe. In this keynote, we'll dive deep into the transformative effects of AI on business and explore the tremendous opportunities and challenges it presents. We will discover how businesses of all sizes can leverage AI to gain a competitive edge, streamline processes, automate tasks, and make data-driven decisions that drive growth and profitability. We will also unravel the intricate web of anxiety, social isolation, and job displacement that may arise from these technological advancements. You will leave this keynote with a new mindset, with insights and perspectives that will enable you to navigate the complex landscape of AI, make informed decisions, and position your organization for success in the future. Now the question is, will you take the red pill or the blue pill?

In this keynote, you will learn:

  • How companies like OpenAI, Microsoft, and Nvidia can shape our lives in the next decade
  • Understand the difference between hype and reality when it comes to AI and its potential for business.
  • AI’s impact on local communities and how to use it to develop local economies
  • Learn about the skills and competencies needed to succeed in the age of AI, and how to cultivate them in yourself and your team
  • Examine the potential negative consequences of AI on mental health, including increased anxiety, social isolation, and job displacement
  • A new mindset to adopt to navigate new technologies that impact our economy

Culture Fluid, the New Way to Thrive in an Ever-Changing World

The world is shifting at speeds that are now faster than ever. From ChatGPT displacing thousands of jobs to cashless societies and digital currencies, we live in what Sharon calls a VUCA (Volatility, Uncertain, Complicated, Ambiguous) time. This is when businesses must adapt to a newer way of thinking. Sharon provides a fresh take as someone who has worked in the top companies of the US and China. She has led teams from Gen X to Gen Z, across various diverse backgrounds and types of companies. Apart from being a DEI speaker where she coined the term “Culture Fluid”, she uses the same agile methodology in a business setting, starting projects that have beat competitors and disrupted industries. Culture Fluid shows how businesses can be agile to fit the changing tides for a VUCA time ahead. Sharon Gai uses first-hand experience and actionable insights to present a compelling vision of the future world and leaves the audience with tools and an approach to develop a strategy to succeed in the shifting landscape of the 21st century tech-driven and digital economy.

  • The key macro-trends that is disrupting our world today
  • An overview of what your industry will look like in the near and distant future
  • Five key strategies today’s most successful players are adopting to prepare for tomorrow
  • How to evolve into a more agile and disruptive competitor
  • Tools and a process for developing concrete ideas for a strategy and approaches that could disrupt the industry

The Rise of the Intelligent Enterprise: How AI is Revolutionizing Business Operations

AI is no longer a futuristic concept reserved for science fiction movies. It's already here, and it's rapidly changing the way businesses operate, compete, and grow. From machine learning to natural language processing, AI is revolutionizing the way we work, transforming the very fabric of industries across the globe. In this keynote, we'll dive deep into the transformative effects of AI on business and explore the tremendous opportunities and challenges it presents. You'll discover how businesses of all sizes can leverage AI to gain a competitive edge, streamline processes, automate tasks, and make data-driven decisions that drive growth and profitability. We'll also examine the potential risks associated with AI deployment, including ethical considerations and cybersecurity threats. You'll leave this keynote with insights and perspectives that will enable you to navigate the complex landscape of AI, make informed decisions, and position your organization for success in the future.

Session takeaways:

  • Understand the difference between hype and reality when it comes to AI and its potential for business.
  • Learn about practical and impactful use cases of AI in various industries and business functions.
  • Gain insights into how AI is being used to streamline processes, optimize operations, and drive revenue growth.
  • Discover the key challenges of AI adoption in business and how to overcome them, such as data quality, privacy concerns, and organizational change management
  • Understand the importance of a data-driven culture and how AI can help drive it.
  • Learn about the skills and competencies needed to succeed in the age of AI, and how to cultivate them in yourself and your team.

How to Build Resilience in Chaos

In Nassim Nicholas Taleb's book, Antifragile, he spoke of three mythological creatures. The Roman myth of Damocles describes a fragile situation: a single horse hair suspends a sword over Damocles' head - shocks will have catastrophic results. The legend of the Phoenix describes a mythical bird that rises from the ashes after its destruction. The phoenix is robust because it returns to its original state after a shock. Finally, the myth of the Hydra describes a multi-headed serpent with a special power: each time a head is cut off, two grow back in its place. The Hydra is antifragile because shocks make it stronger.

Resilience is the ability to withstand, recover, and bounce back in the midst of stress, chaos, and ever-changing situations. Being resilient is especially important in today's VUCA world. (VUCA stands for Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity), where everyone is worn down, uncertain about the future, reactive, and short tempered. The good news is that resiliency is a skill that can be learned and improved with practice. In fact, to be an effective leader today, this is an essential skill for career success. This workshop is filled with specific, practical frameworks and tools to boost your mental toughness when facing fast-paced, difficult, ever-changing, and ambiguous situations.

Session takeaways:

  • Be equipped with tools used to cope with ongoing stress so it doesn't affect your personal life or health.
  • Keeping yourself and your team motivated for the long road of change initiatives and shifting priorities.
  • Instead of fearing change, learning how to embrace change.
  • Remaining poised under pressure: how to instantly calm yourself and others from frustration or anger.

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How to Optimize Globally Distributed Teams

We love the days where we wear PJs as work outfits. We also miss the days of the bustling office. How is the new persisted way of work affecting our workforce, productivity and our relationship with our coworkers? In the future, more jobs will be outsourced to either cities with cheaper labor or sometimes to other countries. Companies will need to learn to function with more distributed teams. Before, there were happy hours and in person team bonding activities to keep up employee engagement. In the WFH and hybrid age, how can remote teams still feel connected with their colleagues? How can satellite offices in other time zones stay connected and sustain motivation? In this workshop, Sharon showcases knowledge management frameworks from organizational behavior that answer how best to manage WFH and hybrid environments as leaders, managers and employees.

This workshop will teach HR practitioners, company owners and employees:

  • How to stay connected in an increasing WFH or hybrid environment.
  • How to create the same sense of “togetherness” as an in-person team as leaders and managers.
  • Knowledge management frameworks for distributed teams – what is the best communication mechanism, text, email, call, in person and for what situations.
  • Learn how to communicate effectively in hybrid work, decode digital signals that build or erode trust and how to unlock value from hybrid teams.

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