Jay Jaboneta speaking with a microphone during a leadership session for Global Payments in Tagaytay, 2026

Jay Jaboneta · AI Keynote Speaker · Founder & Organizational AI Fluency Architect, Kenzo AI

Technology creates possibilities. People turn them into progress.

I help leaders and organizations move from scattered AI use to practical, responsible, repeatable capability — and help people make the change stick. My keynotes connect AI, leadership and human behavior, grounded in the work behind Kenzo AI, Yellow Boat of Hope and two decades of building through change.

Book Jay for your event → Explore Organizational AI Fluency →
Find the right talk for your room ↓

HOPE in Action · Global Payments · Tagaytay, September 2026

Three rooms. Three days. One idea.

28 Sept · Tagaytay

Global Payments

40 leaders · AI keynote in the morning, HOPE in Action in the afternoon

29 Sept · Makati

CGI · PGDC Leadership Connect

100 leaders · AI Fluency for Leaders

30 Sept · Online

Tatak SE · SE Spotlight

Social enterprises across the Visayas and Mindanao · From Diskarte to Systems

50+Keynotes, workshops & talks a year
4TEDx stages across 3 countries
1,000+Teachers trained through Kenzo AI
10+Schools onboarded into Kenzo AI programs
200+Communities reached through Yellow Boat of Hope

The point of view

AI is the tool. Capability is the outcome.

The newest model is rarely the hardest part. The hard part is getting people, workflows, guardrails, leadership and measurement to move together. That is the work behind Organizational AI Fluency.

My talks connect that systems view with two decades of lived experience in technology, education and social impact. They do not end with a tool demo. They end with what a room of real people will do differently on Monday.

  • AI fluencyTurn scattered individual use into practical, responsible, repeatable organizational capability.
  • LeadershipHelp people learn, decide and adapt while technology, roles and expectations keep changing.
  • Education1,000+ teachers trained and 10+ schools onboarded — AI fluency built for Filipino classrooms.
  • Social impactOne Facebook post in 2010 became the Yellow Boat of Hope Foundation and 200+ communities reached.
Jay Jaboneta on stage delivering a keynote in front of a Keynote Speaker Spotlight screen at PGDC Leadership Connect 2026
Keynote · PGDC Leadership Connect 2026 · Makati

The human system behind the architecture

Organizational AI Fluency, built with HOPE.

The architecture gives the rigor. HOPE — born from the Yellow Boat story and the book Start with HOPE — is the human discipline that helps leaders carry the change from individual practice into organizational capability.

HHarness potential.AI is the harness; your people are the power.
OOpen your wallet.Fluency is a budget line, not a free trial.
PPerspire.Iterate until it's repeatable.
EEmpower others.Teach it forward until the capability survives without you.

Hope isn't a strategy. HOPE is a discipline. Start with HOPE →

Find the right talk

Who's in your room?

Start with the audience, not the topic. Every session is rebuilt for the room — these are the strongest starting points, backed by rooms where the ideas have already been tested.

Flagship keynote · 45–90 min · or a full-day summit

Organizational AI Fluency: From AI-Literate to AI-Ready

Most leaders already use AI. Far fewer lead a team that uses it the same way, inside clear rules, with a named person accountable for what ships. This keynote lives in that gap — and pairs with HOPE in Action, an afternoon of team games that makes the human side stick.

  • A live hands-up read on where the room really stands
  • The leader's job in the six-layer Organizational AI Fluency Architecture
  • An honest answer to “Is this going to replace me?”
  • A written commitment before the session ends
See the full keynote and formats →
A ballroom of CGI leaders raising their hands during Jay Jaboneta's keynote at PGDC Leadership Connect 2026
Proven in the room

CGI · 100 leaders, PGDC Leadership Connect 2026. Global Payments · 40 leaders, a full day in Tagaytay.

Lines people take home

A good keynote leaves a sentence behind.

Most people here are already AI-literate. That is not the same as AI-ready.

The opening of the CGI keynote. Two questions, hands up — and the hands that came down were the gap.

AI & leadership

Hope isn't a strategy. HOPE is a discipline.

Harness potential. Open your wallet. Perspire. Empower others. The human system that carries any change.

Leadership & teams

The future of social enterprise is not AI replacing bayanihan. It is bayanihan with better tools.

From the Tatak SE Spotlight for social enterprises across the Visayas and Mindanao.

Social impact

Recent rooms · 2026

Jay Jaboneta on stage at PGDC Leadership Connect 2026 beside the Keynote Speaker Spotlight screen
CGI · MakatiPGDC Leadership Connect 2026
Global Payments leaders holding copies of Start with HOPE with Jay Jaboneta in Tagaytay
Global Payments · Tagaytay40 leaders, one book
Global Payments leaders pulling strings together to stack cups during HOPE in Action
HOPE in ActionCups Up
Jay Jaboneta delivering the Human + AI keynote at the ASEAN Innovation Summit 2026 in Davao City
ASEAN Innovation SummitDavao City
Social enterprise leaders on Zoom during the Tatak SE Spotlight with Jay Jaboneta
Tatak SE · OnlineFrom Diskarte to Systems
Jay Jaboneta at the HI-Eisai HONE Summit, Fairmont Makati
HI-Eisai HONE Summit50 oncologists

From 100 leaders in a Makati ballroom to social enterprises joining from across the Visayas and Mindanao — the room changes. The standard stays: practical ideas, human judgment and a next move people can actually use.

All speaking details →

Where it started

One post. Thousands of boats.

In 2010, I learned that nearly 200 children in the mangrove village of Layag-Layag, Zamboanga City, had to swim half a mile across open water just to get to school. I shared their story on Facebook. That single post changed everything.

Strangers became donors. One boat became thousands. What started as the Zamboanga Fund for Little Kids is now the Yellow Boat of Hope Foundation — school boats, classrooms, bridges, dormitories and livelihood programs for island communities where talent is universal but opportunity is not.

“We often hear of kids that skip school to go swimming — but here we've got kids swimming so that they can go to school.”— Jay Jaboneta, CNN interview

It's the reason every talk I give, about AI or anything else, comes back to the same question: who gets left on the other side of the water?

Featured in

CNNYellow boats bring hope and education in the Philippines Al JazeeraFoundation covered for its national impact on education access HuffPostFeatured contributor and profiled social innovator WikipediaProfiled — including TEDxMontpellier 2012, the only Asian speaker invited
4 TEDx stages. 3 countries. Montpellier · Kinnaird College, Lahore · British School Manila · Youth@MGCNLCA Watch the TEDx talks →

How I can help

Building things that matter.

I work with leaders and organizations to turn promising ideas into repeatable capability — especially where AI, leadership, innovation, ecosystem building and storytelling meet. Every keynote is backed by this work.

Kenzo AI · Founder & Organizational AI Fluency Architect

Organizational AI Fluency Architecture

Through Kenzo AI, I help organizations move from AI experimentation to capability through diagnostics, training, workflow redesign, responsible-use guardrails, adoption systems, leadership and measurement. Six things that must work together:

PeopleWorkResponsible useAdoptionLeadershipMeasurement

The name is personal: Kenzo AI is named after my son.

Explore the architecture → kenzo-ai.com → Kenzo AI for Good →

Ecosystem building

Ecosystem Building & Innovation Labs

Designing and launching innovation labs or hubs, incubation programs, and founder communities that nurture ideas from concept to lasting impact.

20 years of ecosystem building →

Storytelling

Storytelling & Digital Presence

Turning complex ideas into clear, compelling narratives across digital channels — built on years of new media experience from the ground up.

Story, stage, and digital portfolio →

CEO & Director · Sannex Ventures

Singapore–Davao Corridor

A Singapore-incorporated bilateral business development firm and five-specialist consortium bridging Singapore investors with Davao City's emerging economy.

sannex.ventures →

Books

Ideas that outlast the stage.

AI Fluent book cover by Jay Jaboneta
Forthcoming 2026 AI Fluent What every Filipino educator and business owner needs to know before it's too late. Learn more →
Start with HOPE book cover by Jay Jaboneta
Available now · PH & worldwide Start with HOPE The HOPE framework behind Jay Jaboneta's venture-building work across social impact, education, AI, and ecosystem-building. startwithhopebook.com →
Philosophy in a Dream book cover by Jay Jaboneta
Available on Amazon Philosophy in a Dream A seven-day dream journey through the Garden of Sophia. philosophyinadream.com →
The Substrate science fiction novel book cover by Jay Jaboneta
Coming soon The Substrate A science fiction novel of science, mystery and the human condition.
HOPE: A Map for Humanity book cover by Jay Jaboneta
In development HOPE: A Map for Humanity An exploration of hope, systems and the human story.

Recognition

Honours.

  • 7 Modern Day Pinoy HeroesYahoo! Southeast Asia
  • Power30Under30 HonoreeApex Society, New York
  • Bayaning Pilipino Regional AwardeeGawad Geny Lopez Jr.
  • Apple Leadership Academy Ambassador2026
  • Lifetime Achievement AwardDamers & Clarions of Cotabato
  • Pillar of Hope AwardEton International School
  • TEDxMontpellier 2012Only Asian speaker invited
  • TEDxKinnairdCollege 2013Only Filipino invited in Pakistan
  • TEDxBritishSchoolManila 2016 · TEDxYouth@MGCNLCA 2018Manila

The path so far

Twenty years of first moves.

  1. Founder & Organizational AI Fluency Architect, Kenzo AIPhilippines & Southeast Asia
  2. CEO & Director, Sannex VenturesSingapore & Davao City
  3. Web3 Developer Advocate, AngelHackHackathons, mentorship and developer communities across Southeast Asia
  4. Co-founder, Yellow Boat of Hope FoundationFire Starter & Chief Storyteller
  5. Consultant on Social Innovation, De La SalleHIFI at College of Saint Benilde; NEXUS Innovation Labs at De La Salle Lipa
  6. First Director for New Media, Office of the PresidentBuilt President Aquino III's official digital presence at PCOO
  7. Procter & Gamble · ANZ · Metrobank Card Corp.Sales, business development and portfolio management
  8. Ateneo de Davao UniversityBS Commerce, Management Accounting, minor in Philosophy

Let's build something together

Two ways to start.

AI keynote speaker

Book Jay to speak

Keynotes, full-day summits and workshops in the Philippines, Singapore and internationally. Tell me who's in the room and what you want them to do differently afterwards — I'll build the session around them. Ideally 4–6 weeks ahead for local events, 8–12 for international.

Send a speaking inquiry → Topics & formats

Organizational AI Fluency Architect

Build AI fluency across your organization

For leaders who want more than one good session: a diagnostic, workshops, workflow redesign, guardrails, champions and measurement — through Kenzo AI. Vendor-neutral, built on the tools you already have.

Start a conversation → kenzo-ai.com

Or connect on LinkedIn and Facebook.