Summit speakers include (l to r) Or Shani, Alberto Jimenez and Pearse A. Keane, MD.
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NEW YORK—The first three speakers for Vision Monday’s upcoming Global Leadership Summit have been set, each of them experts in different areas of artificial intelligence. “A-Eye - Artificial Intelligence: Supercharging Knowledge and Decision Making” is the program title of the 11th Annual day-long conference to be held at The Times Center here on March 29.

“In this rapidly emerging field, in which new ideas and applications are being invented every day and knowledge is expanding exponentially, AI is already upon us, as businesses of all types ramp up their investment in this arena,” said Marge Axelrad, SVP/editorial director, Vision Monday. VM Global Leadership Summit attendees will learn about the fundamentals of AI, including machine learning, robotics, natural language, predictive analytics and deep learning. Experts from across the AI spectrum will provide insights to the senior level optical retailers and vision care executives in the Summit audience.

Explaining some of the newest ideas in AI and how it relates to clinical understanding of vision care will be Pearse A. Keane, MD, FRCOphth, is a consultant ophthalmologist at Moorfields Eye Hospital London and an NIHR Clinician Scientist, based at the Institute of Ophthalmology, University College London (UCL). Dr. Keane specializes in applied ophthalmic research, with a particular interest in retinal imaging and new technologies. In 2016, he initiated a formal collaboration between Moorfields Eye Hospital and Google DeepMind, with the aim of applying machine learning to automated diagnosis of optical coherence tomography (OCT) images.

Prior to joining Moorfields in 2010 he trained at the Doheny Eye Institute in Los Angeles. He is originally from Ireland and received his medical degree from University College Dublin (UCD). In January 2015, he was awarded a prestigious "Clinician Scientist” award from the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) in the United Kingdom (UK), the first ophthalmologist in the UK to receive such an award. His remit from this award is to explore the potential of new medical technologies and innovation in ophthalmology, ranging from advanced imaging to artificial intelligence to virtual and augmented realities.

Reviewing perspectives about how AI is being used by businesses in the arena of commerce and mobile payments will be Alberto Jimenez, IBM Watson Commerce. A frequent speaker and author, Jimenez is responsible for IBM’s global product strategy and the execution of order management and payments.

Over the years, Jimenez’s articles and quotes have been published in major publications including the Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, TechCrunch, Re/Code, Reuters, Yahoo Finance, CIO Magazine, USA Today, Business Insider and PYMNTS.com. Jimenez is a frequent speaker at large international conferences including Money2020 in the US and Europe, Mobile World Congress, Sibos, Cartes, ETA’s Transact15, and Payments Innovation World in Sydney, just to mention a few. He has been an active thought leader in academia and has presented at a number of institutions including: The Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, The School International and Public Affairs at Columbia University and Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Sharing solutions and ideas about AI in the realm of marketing and advertising will be Or Shani, CEO and founder, Adgorithms. Adgorithms is the creator of Albert, the world’s first and only self-driven marketing and advertising platform, used by such top brands as Harley-Davidson, EVISU, Made.com and others.

Adgorithms went public in 2015, raising $42 million on the London Stock Exchange. In 2016, Adgorithms ranked #98 on Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500—a list of the country’s fastest-growing companies—with an annual growth rate of 992 percent. Shani is chairman and founder of the AI Marketing Association. He’s also a member of the Forbes Technology Council and the Young Presidents Organization (YPO).

Vision Monday’s Global Leadership Summit is one of the most anticipated events in the eyewear and optical industry, and a major networking session for senior level executives. Registration at the early bird price is available through midnight ET, Sunday, Jan. 15 for the day-long conference which will take place March 29, 2017 at the Times Center in New York.

Additional speakers for “A-Eye - Artificial Intelligence: Supercharging Knowledge and Decision Making,” will be announced soon. The 2017 VM Summit Premier Sponsors are Essilor and VSP Global; Signature Sponsors are Alcon and Luxottica; Supporting Sponsors are CareCredit and The Vision Council.

Vision Monday’s Global Leadership Summit has featured many leaders, founders, inventors and disruptors. Exclusive content from past Summits are delivered throughout the year on www.visionmondaysummit.com a special section of the Vision Monday website, highlighting speakers, sessions, video highlights and past program reports.