Outstanding AI in Business Influencers to Follow in 2027
The business side of AI influence: the executives, analysts and builders whose work decides how AI actually lands in companies — 2027 edition of a classic Engatica list.
McKinsey's 2025 survey of nearly 2,000 organisations found that 88% now use AI in at least one business function — but only 39% could point to any impact on enterprise earnings, and just 7% have scaled it across the company. The space between those numbers is where this list lives: the executives, analysts and builders whose work turns AI spending into AI results, and whose judgement other leaders borrow when their own programmes stall.
The agent wave makes that gap more urgent: 23% of organisations are already scaling AI agents in at least one function, and a further 39% are experimenting with them (McKinsey, 2025). Nearly two-thirds have not begun scaling AI at all — the constraint is organisational, not technical, and it is the constraint the people below spend their careers removing.
| Name | Known as | Follow for |
|---|---|---|
| Anand Srinivasa Rao | Distinguished Service Professor of Applied Data Science & AI, CMU Heinz College (former PwC Global AI Leader) | Enterprise AI strategy and responsible deployment |
| Andrew Ng | Founder, DeepLearning.AI | AI strategy for executives |
| Bernard Marr | Author and futurist | Applied AI in business, in plain English |
| Thomas Davenport | Professor, Babson College | AI in business processes — co-author of Agentic Artificial Intelligence (2025) |
| Erik Brynjolfsson | Stanford Digital Economy Lab | Economics of AI adoption |
| Cassie Kozyrkov | CEO, Kozyr | Decision intelligence for leaders |
| Allie Miller | CEO, Open Machine | Enterprise AI programmes |
| Ronald van Loon | CEO, Intelligent World | Data and AI leadership |
| Pascal Bornet | Author, Intelligent Automation | Agentic AI in operations — author of Agentic Artificial Intelligence (2025) and The Human-Agent Orchestrator (2026) — see his profile |
| Mark Minevich | Investor and author | AI strategy and digital future |
| Kate Bradley Chernis | Co-founder, Lately; now building BacklineEQ | AI in marketing — her company's coverage helped make the original list famous |
| Chip Huyen | Author, AI Engineering | Building LLM products that survive production |
| Sarah Guo | Founder, Conviction | AI market maps and investing |
| Elad Gil | Investor and author | How AI markets actually form |
| Azeem Azhar | Exponential View | AI economics and policy |
| Ethan Mollick | Professor, Wharton | AI at work, with receipts |
| Fei-Fei Li | Stanford HAI; co-founder & CEO, World Labs | Human-centred AI leadership |
| Timnit Gebru | DAIR Institute | The accountability side of business AI |
| Clara Shih | VP, Business AI, Meta | Business AI at platform scale — previously CEO of Salesforce AI, where she led the Agentforce launch; HubSpot board member |
| Bindu Reddy | CEO & Co-founder, Abacus.AI | Enterprise AI agents shipped in public — Agent Swarms, and an engineering org run on agents |
| Matt Turck | General Partner, FirstMark | The MAD Landscape, the reference map of the AI vendor market, and The MAD Podcast |
How this list is maintained
Reviewed quarterly; people are added when their work changes what companies do, and removed when it stops doing so. For the research-heavy counterpart, see the AI influencers list; for agents specifically, the Power List.
Frequently asked questions
What makes someone an 'outstanding' AI in business influencer?
Impact on what companies actually do. This list covers executives, analysts and builders whose work turns AI spending into measurable results — McKinsey's 2025 survey found 88% of organisations use AI somewhere, but only 39% report any enterprise-level earnings impact. The people here are the ones other leaders borrow judgement from when their own programmes stall.
How many people are on the list, and who is new in 2027?
There are 21 entries in the 2027 edition. Three joined this year: Clara Shih, Meta's VP of Business AI and previously CEO of Salesforce AI; Bindu Reddy, CEO of Abacus.AI, who ships enterprise agent products in public; and Matt Turck of FirstMark, creator of the MAD Landscape, the reference map of the AI vendor market.
How is this list maintained?
It is reviewed quarterly. People are added when their work changes what companies do, and removed when it stops doing so — roles are re-checked against current sources each cycle, which is why Kate Bradley Chernis now appears as co-founder of Lately and builder of BacklineEQ rather than simply 'CEO, Lately'. Suggestions are welcome via our nominations page.
How is this different from Engatica's AI influencers list?
That list is research-heavy: lab leaders, framework authors and the people setting the technical agenda. This one is the business counterpart — operators, investors and analysts concerned with deployment, budgets and organisational change. Some names, like Fei-Fei Li and Erik Brynjolfsson, appear on both, because their work shapes both the research and the boardroom. See the AI influencers list for the research side.
Sources
- AI Champions with Kate Bradley Chernis of BacklineEQ — Advertising Champions, 2026
- Anand Srinivasa Rao — faculty profile — Heinz College, Carnegie Mellon University, 2026
- Thomas Davenport webinar listing — Harvard Business Review, 2026
- Thomas H. Davenport — Wikipedia, 2026
- Pascal Bornet — speaker profile — Chartwell Speakers, 2026
- Interview with Ronald van Loon, Intelligent World — World Future Awards, 2026
- IOWN Forum release quoting Ronald van Loon — Business Wire, 2026
- SEALSQ appoints Mark Minevich to advisory board — MarketWire News, 2025
- Ethan Mollick press/profile page (Co-Existence) — Clio, 2026
- Ethan Mollick profile — Wharton Magazine, 2026
- HubSpot announces Clara Shih joins board of directors — Business Wire, 2025
- Salesforce AI CEO joins Meta: Clara Shih's move after leading Agentforce — Salesforce Ben, 2024
- Abacus.AI launches Agent Swarms V2 — The Agent Times, 2026
- The AI visionary building the future of autonomous intelligence (Bindu Reddy) — GeekWire, 2026
- The MAD Podcast: How AI Gets Built — with Matt Turck — Apple Podcasts, 2026
- AI at work but not at scale (State of AI 2025) — McKinsey & Company, 2025
- AI Value Gap 2025: 88% use AI, only 6% profit — Innobu, 2026
- McKinsey State of AI 2025: agents, innovation, and transformation — Libertify, 2026
- Cassie Kozyrkov — CEO of Kozyr — BusinessABC, 2026
- Cisco invests in World Labs — Cisco Newsroom, 2025