Applied AI in Industry
Hi! I’m Serdar, Group VP of Artificial Intelligence in the AI Center of Excellence at Fidelity Investments and an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Brown University. Previously, I led the Advanced Constraint Technology R&D group at Oracle and worked at Adobe.
I specialize in driving enterprise-scale AI strategy and transformation through AI-native leadership. Leading cutting-edge research and delivering production-ready AI solutions with measurable business impact. Proven success in building and scaling global AI teams across technical and financial domains. Established strategic partnerships across industry and academia, including Amazon, CMU, Harvard, NVIDIA, and others. Recognized thought leader and frequent keynote speaker on Applied AI.
Explore more in:
- Open-Source AI at Scale: Establishing an Enterprise AI Strategy through Modular Frameworks
- Evolution of AI Paradigms: From Classical AI to Modern and Generative AI Winner of AAAI Educational AI Videos
- Year in Review articles for applied AI in industry
Alongside my industry role, I actively contribute to the AI research community as a co-chair, editor, and senior member for AAAI, IJCAI, ECAI, ICLR, NeurIPS, and similar research organizations. Teaching and learning from students are integral to my work.
📣 Let’s Connect
Whether you’re driving AI transformation in your organization, exploring research partnerships, or mentoring the next generation of scientists, let’s connect and collaborate!
Full Bio
@Fidelity
Leading applied AI groups with highly skilled scientists and architecting Enterprise AI platforms and products that power:
- Recommender systems for personalization
- Agentic workflows (voice & text)
- Content generation and marketing optimization
- Document intelligence
- Lead generation and call routing
- Co-pilot experiences
Advocate of Responsible AI, model governance, and cross-functional collaboration. Committed to open-source innovation, talent development, executive education, and strategic partnerships across industry, academia and public sector.
@Oracle
Led the Advanced Constraint Technology R&D team to deploy state-of-the-art optimization solutions for Oracle products facing industry-scale problems in Supply Chain & Logistics, Planning & Scheduling, Cloud Resource Management, and Product Configuration.
Our contributions at Oracle were recognized with an Entrepreneurship Award, received funding for CMU-Oracle joint research grant, and covered in the media by Business Insider as Oracle Rockstars.
@Adobe
Developed a context-free grammar-based evolutionary algorithm to generate automated test cases for the ActionScript virtual machine. This AI-based tester uncovered three critical software vulnerabilities, fixed before any global exploit.
@Brown
Earned a Ph.D. in AI from Brown working with Prof. Meinolf Sellmann. My doctorate thesis explored learning and reasoning systems. During my studies, I also had the chance to work at the Optimization Group in Sweden as a visiting researcher hosted by Prof. Pierre Flener.
My research work was awarded the IBM PhD Scholarship, and I was a recipient of the Paris Kanellakis Fellowship. Our group at Brown designed automated algorithm configurators that won several gold medals in the International SAT Solver Competitions.
I founded the Sport Czar@Brown and was the captain of ByteSoccer, the department’s soccer team with back-to-back intramural championships. I continue to serve the Brown community as an alumni interviewer for undergraduate university admissions.
@Sabanci
Graduated with a B.Sc. in CS from Sabanci with the generous support of the Sakip Sabanci Merit Scholarship. Studied abroad at Uppsala, Sweden as an Erasmus exchange student. Actively engaged as a member of CS Advisory Board and through Crossing Paths, a non-profit reducing inequality of opportunity in education.
@Soccer
Outside of work, I am an avid soccer fan; playing, watching, and coaching youth soccer. In a parallel universe, I’d be the Professor of Assists.