Amir Husain is a serial entrepreneur, inventor, technologist, and author based in Austin, Texas. He has been named Austin’s Top Technology Entrepreneur of the Year, listed as an Onalytica Top 100 Artificial Intelligence Influencer, and received the Austin Under 40 Technology and Science Award, among several other accolades recognizing his work in artificial intelligence. Amir serves on the Board of Advisors for The University of Texas at Austin Department of Computer Science and on the NATO Maritime Unmanned Systems Innovation Advisory Board, and is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

In 2013, Amir incorporated SparkCognition, an artificial intelligence company, where he has served as the Founder and CEO since its inception. SparkCognition has scaled rapidly, gaining a client roster that now features dozens of the largest companies in the world. Since its founding, SparkCognition has received widespread recognition, including being ninth on the Wall Street Journal’s Top Tech Companies to Watch in 2018, listed on the 2017 CNBC Disruptor 50, being named the fastest-growing company in Central Texas by Austin Business Journal in 2017, and ranking on the CB Insights AI 100 list in 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020.

In November 2018, Amir became founding CEO of SkyGrid, a Boeing and SparkCognition joint venture that is building the aerial operating system to power the next century of aviation. In 2020, Amir joined the inaugural Board of SparkCognition Government Systems (SGS), the world’s first full-spectrum AI company devoted entirely to government and national defense, chaired by former Deputy Secretary of Defense, Robert O. Work. Amir has been awarded over 30 patents and has several pending applications. His work has been featured in world-leading outlets such as Foreign Policy, Fox Business News, and Proceedings from the U.S. Naval Institute. He is the author of the best-selling book “The Sentient Machine: The Coming Age of Artificial Intelligence” and a co-author of the compilation “Hyperwar: Conflict and Competition in the AI Century.”