About Us

The Optimized AI Conference (OAI) is a practitioner-first, multi-track event dedicated to the real-world applications of artificial intelligence.

Originally founded in 2015 by Khalifeh Al Jadda, PhD— Director of Data Science at Google — as the Southern Data Science Conference,

the event was created to bridge the gap between cutting-edge research and practical industry impact.
Between 2021 and 2025, Mark Moyou, PhD contributed to expanding the conference’s reach and depth.

Today, under the leadership of Hamza Farooq — AI startup founder, researcher, and educator — and

Ayodhya Ouditt, behavioural designer and brand consultant,

OAI continues to evolve as a platform for forward-thinking dialogue and innovation in AI.