Arun Kumar — AI Leadership Speaker & Trainer

Speaking & Training

Leadership in the age of AI

For leaders who need to make sense of AI for their teams — not just their roadmap.

Driving AI adoption

Closing the distance between "we bought the tool" and "we changed how we work."

Digital transformation that sticks

A practitioner's eye for what actually ships versus what stays a slide.

Practical problem-solving with AI

Working frameworks teams can use the next morning. No hype.

Product management for AI-powered products

Building products — and teams — that use AI well, not just claim to.

Every session is tailored to where your team or organisation is at.

About

Arun Kumar speaking on stage at an Axiata Foundation event — On stage — Axiata Foundation, Kuala Lumpur

An engineer's rigor. A founder's instincts. A storyteller's ability to translate technology for the people who have to live with it.

Arun has spent 15+ years moving between oil & gas engineering, startups, learning & development, community building and digital product (MEng & MPhil, University of Nottingham Malaysia). One pattern keeps repeating: the organisations that win aren't the ones with the most sophisticated technology — they're the ones that get their people to actually use it.

He co-founded Waymaker, a peer-to-peer support platform that has facilitated help to hundreds of Malaysian families since 2020, and now runs Dapor, a marketplace for home-based food entrepreneurs — where he uses AI daily to prototype and ship new features. The same workflows he trains other teams on, applied to his own product, in real time.

What they say

“Arun was one of the trainers for an offsite I attended last year, and the topic was product mindset and problem solving with LLMs. What I really enjoyed about Arun’s approach was he contextualized the topic for the audience, who were primarily ‘non-tech.’ He used storytelling, and it was very practical and engaging. We were able to relate it to our day-to-day work. This helped me understand how important it is to define the problem space before recommending solutions. During the hands-on LLM hackathon session, he also kept us in check whenever we were ‘too enthusiastic’ about solutioning.”
Yannick Noah, Senior Manager, Talent Acquisition & Tech People Partner at Grab

“Arun brought an unparalleled level of energy and realism to the experience of ULDP. His engagement with the ULDP participants was truly memorable. He masterfully stepped into the persona of a strict, demanding, and tough CEO in the Business Operation Simulation. He challenged the participants to think on their feet, manage high-pressure scenarios, and defend their strategic decisions. This immersive approach did not just teach business operations, it forced the participants to experience real-world grit required at executive level. Arun’s dedication to creating a high-impact, experiential learning environment is highly commendable.”
Sharaf Guna, Former Programme Director – Education Pillar, Axiata Foundation

Selected engagements

2026Yayasan PenerajuSpeaker
2025GrabTraining
2025Monash Business SchoolTraining
2024AxiataTraining
2024RHB BankTraining
2023Sime DarbyTraining
2023TNBTraining
2019BFM — Raise Your GameGuest, multiple episodes
2018TEDx UCSISpeaker

A sample from engagements across 2018–2025, including FUSECON, Alliance Bank and the KITA HR Conference.