Available to book
Sharon Gai
Artificial Intelligence
Marketing
China
Accelerate AI adoption with Sharon Gai, keynote speaker and former Alibaba executive. Sharon works with organizations navigating digital transformation to build AI-enabled strategies, drive revenue growth, and future-proof their workforce, with clients including UBS, Deloitte, Walmart, and LVMH.
Retail
Digital Expert
Futurist
Entrepreneur
Executive
Business Consulting
Professional Development
Women in Business
Female CEO
Author
TEDx
AAPI Heritage
Inspirational Female
Sharon Gai is an AI strategist and keynote speaker who helps organizations become agile disruptors in their industries, increasing revenue and retaining users in an era of rapid technological change.
As a former executive at Alibaba, Sharon advised brands and heads of state on digital strategy, programmatic marketing, and artificial intelligence. This experience now informs a body of speaking work built on what she has seen work at scale across some of the world's most sophisticated commercial ecosystems.
Sharon's client roster spans sectors and continents. She has worked with TEDx, Singularity University, UBS, Deloitte, Walmart, LVMH, Nestlé, Tetra Pak, and Twilio, among many others. Her commentary has appeared in Bloomberg, Reuters, ABC, CBC, TechCrunch, Wired, and The Next Web, and she is a recognized voice in retail and technology circles as a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Expert and LinkedIn Community Top Voice in 2024.
Sharon is the author of two books: How to Do More with Less, published by Wiley in 2026, and Ecommerce Reimagined: What We Can Learn from the Best of Retail in China. Her keynotes draw on a central idea she calls the shift from busy bee to beekeeper. Sharon's vision is that leaders must stop optimizing for speed and instead learn to design systems, direct digital labor, and focus human talent on judgment, taste, strategy, and trust. It is a framework built not around any single model or tool, but around a way of thinking that remains useful as the technology continues to evolve.
Book Sharon Gai when you need a keynote speaker who can make AI strategy feel urgent, accessible, and genuinely actionable, for CEO's, leadership teams, industry conferences, and organizations ready to move from conversation to transformation.
Topics, sessions and talks
For decades, organizations structured themselves around human labor — reporting lines, departments, and leadership models all optimized for people doing tasks faster. Sharon Gai argues that this logic no longer holds. She introduces a durable mental model for moving from task-based org charts to capability-based, AI-enabled structures. This CEO-level session enables leaders identify which roles to automate, augment, or elevate; redesign reporting lines when AI handles execution; and focus human talent on judgment, strategy, and trust.
Every new AI headline lands the same way: a quiet question of whether people still matter. Sharon Gai answers that question with a clear yes. Drawing on what she witnessed at Alibaba and across hundreds of organizations, she identifies the four human capabilities no model can replicate and shows how to deliberately strengthen each one. Audiences leave knowing which of their skills to lean into, how to move from bee work to beekeeper work, and why the irreplaceable skills are learnable, not just innate.
The rules of retail are being rewritten at speed. Sharon Gai draws on case studies from Alibaba and Pattern, Amazon's largest third-party seller, to show how AI and automation are reshaping every layer of the retail value chain, from personalization and customer experience through to supply chain and logistics. Retail leaders leave with actionable frameworks for cutting costs, streamlining omnichannel operations, and identifying the disruptive technologies most likely to define the next phase of commerce.
Sharon brings a unique blend of Eastern and Western expertise in AI, eCommerce, and digital transformation, offering invaluable insights that can propel your team or business forward. With her proven track record at Alibaba and recognition as a top keynote speaker, she can provide actionable strategies to leverage technology for your success. Booking Sharon means gaining access to a wealth of knowledge that can transform your approach to digital challenges and opportunities.
Testimonials
Featured Projects
often considered together
Arjun Vaidya
Entrepreneurship
Innovation
Creativity
Carrie Gracie
Gender Equality
Workplace Culture
Diversity and Inclusion
Diana Kander
Innovation
Sales
Entrepreneurship
frequently asked questions
Something we've not covered here?
Email sharon.gai@getapeptalk.com or call PepTalk on +44 20 3835 2929 (UK) or +1 737 888 5112 (US), and one of our speaker agents will contact you within hours to confirm Sharon's availability and fees. If you can, please include your budget upfront – it helps us fast-track your request. It’s also helpful to know the date, format (virtual or in-person), location, and a bit about your audience.
Sharon Gai structures her keynotes around a central framework she calls the shift from busy bee to beekeeper, positioning leaders as designers of AI-enabled systems rather than optimisers of human task speed. She draws on case studies from her time as an executive at Alibaba and from organisations such as Pattern to ground the framework in observable commercial outcomes.
Sharon Gai speaks on AI-enabled organisational design, human irreplaceability in the age of AI, and the transformation of the retail value chain through automation and AI. She is a former Alibaba executive and author of How to Do More with Less, published by Wiley in 2026, and Ecommerce Reimagined: What We Can Learn from the Best of Retail in China.
No. PepTalk adds no booking fee, so you pay the speaker's fee and nothing beyond it. The service, from shortlist through to contracts and event-day logistics, is included. For repeat or multi-event bookings, PepTalk can agree preferential rates with your procurement team.
Share your event date, audience, format, objectives and budget, and PepTalk sends a hand-picked shortlist within 24 hours. Each suggestion comes with a profile, a fee and a recommendation on the strongest fit. Once you choose, PepTalk handles contracts, travel and logistics through to event day.
The typical fee range is the speaker's standard in-person fee in their home market, shown in their local currency. It moves with format, location, date and session length: virtual sessions and shorter slots usually cost less, while international travel and peak dates cost more. Send your brief to PepTalk and the team will confirm the exact fee in your currency.
Not all of them, and it makes no difference to your booking. PepTalk's network of 15,000+ speakers covers talent the team works with directly alongside speakers represented by agents and agencies worldwide. PepTalk approaches the speaker, negotiates the fee and handles contracting either way.
Three to six months ahead is comfortable for most events, and 12 months is better for large conferences, peak-season dates or one specific in-demand speaker. Shorter timelines are workable, and PepTalk regularly fills last-minute and replacement bookings within days. Availability is the constraint, so get in touch as soon as you have a date.
Get the right person
Tell us what you’re working on and we’ll match you with the talent your audience won’t stop talking about.
