Torsten J. Koerting on stage with a microphone, speaking to an audience

Keynote Speaker · AI Strategist · Visiting Professor

Disrupt, don't digitise.

I show your audience what AI can already do today — and why most companies are still thinking too small about it. No hype, no fear. Just: „I'll start with that tomorrow."

I don't talk about AI systems. I build them. Usually live, while I'm standing on your stage.

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people every Wednesday at the KI-Café — the largest weekly live AI format in German-speaking Europe

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members in the KI-Business Lounge

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35

years of international experience — New York, Singapore, India, Australia, UK

Visiting professorship at the China Europe International Business School

Trusted in practice

These are the stages and the houses I have worked in.

adesso Bayer BayernLB BE CANCOM CEIBS CGI Deutsche Bahn Denkpharma DER Touristik DivisionOne ID KAO Mainz 05 msg Potenzialentwickler pronova BKK Segmüller Subito

Why now

Your audience is somewhere between fed up and overwhelmed.

The gap between „AI matters" and „I don't know where to start" has grown over the past two years, not narrowed. Your delegates have read the headlines, tried a few tools, and then quietly closed the tab.

The reason is rarely technology. Almost everyone talks about tools. Hardly anyone talks about the business model. That is why most AI initiatives end up making an existing process faster — instead of asking which step could disappear altogether.

What your audience gets instead: an honest reading of where the technology actually stands. Use cases that work on stage rather than on a slide. And the difference between digitising and disrupting, shown with an example from their own industry. No fear-mongering, no hype.

The usual talk

Shows tools. The audience nods, writes down three product names, and changes nothing on Monday.

The usual fear

„Will AI replace me?" That question is in the room whether it gets asked or not. It deserves an answer with substance and humour.

Where the leverage is

Where steps of work disappear entirely and things become possible that simply were not before. That is where my talk begins.

The keynotes

Three talks. One standard.

Each of these has been delivered, not merely designed. Pick the one that fits your audience — we tune the detail in the briefing call.

01

While we talk, the AI builds.

Your audience tells me their biggest time sink. I start the AI on stage, keep speaking for 45 minutes — and by the applause, an application is running that did not exist when I began.

In Hamburg it was a platform matching project managers by skill and availability. Built from a shout-out in the room, during the talk, with a live AI connection by the end and a written rationale for why this person rather than another. This is not a parlour trick: it is the proof that the distance between an idea and working software has all but vanished. People who have seen it once argue differently about budgets and timelines afterwards.

  • The live build, from shout-out to running software
  • Why mistakes now cost less than insurance against them
  • The four kinds of AI inside a company
  • Where the bottleneck moves once output goes up
  • The digital twin: building the new house next to the old one
  • What humans contribute when the machine is faster
Executive teams · technical audiences 45 – 60 min Delivered: msg, Hamburg, June 2026

02

The advantage is already here.

The talk for owner-led business: from „this doesn't concern me" to „I'll start with that tomorrow." Five phases, live practice instead of a slide graveyard.

I make exponential change tangible without burying anyone in numbers, and I separate hype from substance honestly. Then come use cases from an ordinary working day: pricing a quote, answering a complaint properly, capturing the knowledge of people about to retire, analysing data in minutes rather than weeks. Live, on stage. And at the end, the three questions every owner should be asking — so your delegates order the first drink of the evening with an appetite for Monday.

  • Where the technology actually stands right now
  • Taking the fear apart, with substance and humour
  • Live practice: AI you can reach out and touch
  • Examples from your industry, researched before the event
  • AI in an industrial setting: process, quality, control
  • Lighting the spark: three questions for Monday morning
Association congresses · owner-led industry 40 – 45 min ZVO Surface Technology Days, Karlsruhe, September 2026

03

Twenty-six times around the world.

Thirty ordinary steps take you across the street. Thirty exponential steps take you around the planet twenty-six times. Why our brains cannot hold that — and what it does to your five-year plan.

Computing power doubles roughly every eighteen months. What AI can do doubles every three to four. We, however, think in straight lines and in plans. That gap is exactly where the feeling of falling behind comes from. I show where your organisation sits on that curve, which of the four kinds of AI you are already using without noticing, and what your company would look like if it were founded today with AI as the default assumption. What is left at the end is not fear but a decision: what to build backwards from, and what to build first.

  • Making exponential change felt, not just asserted
  • Where you sit on the curve, honestly placed
  • The four kinds of AI: embedded, bought-in, enterprise, disruptive
  • Why linear master plans expire before they are printed
  • HI + AI + HI: the human at the start and at the end
  • Building AI-native backwards instead of optimising forwards
Boards · strategy · transformation units 40 – 45 min German Speakers Association, Winter Conference 2026

Beyond the stage

The talk can be a beginning.

It doesn't have to be. But if you want more than forty minutes of inspiration, these are the ways — separately or as a package.

40 – 45 min

Keynote

Opening, main stage or evening event. Includes a briefing call and industry research beforehand.

+ 90 min

Keynote plus hands-on workshop the next day

The AI compass: your delegates sort the use cases for their own business into „not relevant", „worth watching" and „this needs attention now". Everyone leaves with one concrete action. Not a strategy paper — one sentence and one step.

3 – 4 hrs

Fireside chat for the leadership team

Smaller room, more depth, less comfortable questions. For boards and executive teams who want to be sorted out rather than entertained.

1.5 days

AI strategy workshop with live prototyping

You end up with an AI target picture, prioritised fields of action, assessed use cases, a 90-day roadmap — and two or three prototypes that actually run.

on request

Hosting and panels

Conference hosting, panels on AI and transformation, on-stage interviews. Also alongside a keynote of my own on the same day.

About me

I don't talk about AI systems. I build them.

Torsten J. Koerting speaking with a microphone

For twenty-five years I ran transformation programmes inside international corporations before founding the Koerting Institute. New York, Singapore, India, Australia, the United Kingdom. I know the distance between what a strategy deck promises and what actually happens on Monday morning. As a turnaround lead I brought programmes worth over a billion euros back on course.

Today I build AI systems rather than talk about them. Every week, live, in front of several hundred people. The KI-Café — Wednesdays at 08:30, started with 38 participants, now regularly over 400 — is the largest weekly live AI format in German-speaking Europe. None of it is pre-recorded.

My argument is an uncomfortable one. Most companies are digitising with AI: they make existing processes faster and less error-prone. That is not wrong, but it is thinking too small. The real leverage sits where steps of work disappear entirely — and where things become possible that were not possible before.

I hold an Executive MBA from CEIBS and a visiting professorship there, I am a certified AI Trainer, AI Design Sprint Facilitator and PMP, I teach MBA classes and I have written several books. Off stage you will find me under a paraglider or on an ultra trail in the mountains — which probably explains why I dislike leaving people standing on flat ground.

Executive MBA · CEIBS Visiting Professor CEIBS PMP Certified AI Trainer AI Design Sprint Facilitator Workshop Master Facilitator FORTH Innovation Facilitator Business Model Generation

Books

Written, not announced.

Book cover: Mit jedem Prompt ein WOW!

Mit jedem Prompt ein WOW!

The guide for founders and owner-managers who want to genuinely use AI rather than just understand it. Ten documented cases with prompts, prompt structure, custom GPTs, an AI business canvas. In German.

250 pages hardback · free, €9.95 postage

View the book
Book cover: TurnAround Black Edition

TurnAround Black Edition

When projects turn upside down and conventional project management fails. A five-phase system back on course: recognise, analyse, stabilise, transform, sustain. In German.

408 pages · over 40 contributors · €95 plus VAT

View the book
Out in Q4 2026 Preview cover: Chefsache KI-Strategie, Springer Gabler

Chefsache KI-Strategie

The playbook for AI transformation: strategy, tactics, execution. Published in the Chefsache series by Springer Gabler.

Springer Gabler · Q4 2026

In preparation

Reach and consistency

Every single week for over three years.

„Der KI-Unternehmer" has passed 540 episodes. Add the KI-Café every Wednesday at 08:30, a newsletter to more than 8,000 subscribers and a community of over 4,400 members. None of it is bought and none of it is pre-recorded — which is why what I bring on stage is current rather than a story from last year. The podcast is in German.

Apple Podcasts Spotify All episodes

Latest episodes

Episode 543 Manuelle Schritte automatisieren: TJs Prinzip für KI-Applikationen Episode 542 Agenten vs. Apps: Warum Wegwerf-Software die Zukunft ist Episode 541 KI-Disruption: Wo du in deinen Kernprozessen wirklich ansetzen solltest Episode 540 Deine eigene KI-Plattform: So lieferst du in Minuten statt Monaten Episode 539 KI-Souveränität: Wenn dein Spitzenmodell über Nacht abgeschaltet wird

References

What clients say afterwards.

Torsten Koerting's inspiring and engaging talk for our sales and marketing team was the highlight of our event — one we will remember fondly for a long time.

Bernd Meyer-Roscher · Head of Sales, BASF SE

A personality who can move mountains, with both rigour and empathy.

Roland Steenbeck · BayernLB

It is quite impossible not to be swept along by Torsten. He electrifies and moves any team.

Dirk Schött · Siemens AG

Torsten has energy enough for three people. What he shifts with that attitude is remarkable.

Niklas Spitczok von Brisinski · adesso AG

Further references and contacts for a conversation are available on request. Quotes translated from the German originals.

Press kit

Everything your programme needs.

So you don't have to ask. Biographies in three lengths to copy, an introduction to read out, press photos and a technical rider.

Very short · approx. 25 words

Torsten J. Koerting is an AI strategist, bestselling author and co-founder of the Koerting Institute. He runs the largest weekly live AI format in German-speaking Europe and builds AI systems rather than merely talking about them.

Programme · approx. 90 words

Torsten J. Koerting is an entrepreneur, AI strategist and keynote speaker. With the Koerting Institute in Bad Homburg he and Birgit Koerting run one of the leading addresses for AI transformation in German-speaking Europe. More than 35 years of international business experience — New York, Singapore, India, Australia — meet an uncompromising focus on execution. He holds a visiting professorship at CEIBS, teaches MBA classes, has written several books, and runs the largest weekly live AI format in the region. His subject: not AI as a tool, but AI as the foundation of the business model.

Introduction · to read out

Our next guest spent twenty-five years running transformation programmes inside international corporations — in New York, Singapore, India and Australia. Today he runs the largest weekly live AI format in German-speaking Europe: every Wednesday morning, several hundred participants, for over two years. He has written several books, he teaches MBA classes — and he does not talk about AI systems, he builds them. Usually live, in front of an audience. Some of you will not like what he has to say this morning. Please join me in welcoming Torsten J. Koerting.

Press photos, high resolution ZIP · credit line included Technical rider one page · printable · in German Logo and spelling of the name ZIP · Torsten J. Koerting, with oe LinkedIn for announcements and links

For organisers

The questions that usually arrive by email.

01How much lead time do you need?

Three to nine months is typical. Shorter notice works if the date is free — do ask, even at four weeks. For the industry research and the briefing call I need at least two weeks before the event.

02What does a keynote cost?

The fee depends on format, scope and depth of preparation, and is quoted on request. Travel and accommodation are billed separately. If you combine a keynote with a workshop or hosting, I will quote a package — usually less than the sum of the parts.

03How does preparation work?

First a briefing call of 30 to 45 minutes: who is in the room, what came before, which examples land, and what must not come up. Then I research your industry so the examples come from your world rather than mine. If your programme runs several streams, I align my part with them.

04What technology do you need?

A projector or LED wall with HDMI, a wireless microphone — headset preferred, because I need my hands — and stable internet. The internet is not a convenience: during the live build the AI works while I speak. Details are in the technical rider above.

05May we record the talk?

For your delegates' internal use, gladly. For publication or streaming let us discuss it beforehand, because live demos occasionally have client data or credentials on screen.

06Do you speak in English?

Yes. I spent two decades in international programmes and teach international MBA classes. German and English both work, as does an English handout with a German talk.

07Does this work online?

Yes, and not as a fallback. I have hosted a hybrid live format with several hundred participants every week for over three years. Online works differently for me, not worse.

08What do you need from us?

The date and time slot, the audience, the number of delegates, the surrounding programme and someone to brief me. The more concretely you describe what occupies your audience, the better the talk fits.

09Do you sell from the stage?

No. No pitch, no QR code on the closing slide, no programme advertising. Your delegates paid for content, not for my sales funnel. Anyone who wants more afterwards knows where to find me.

10And if you have to cancel?

In over twenty years it has not happened. If it ever did, my team or I would tell you immediately and I would find a replacement of comparable standing from my network — rather than leave you with a hole in the programme.

Enquiry

Tell me about your stage.

I usually reply the same day. If it is urgent, call.

office@koerting-institute.com +49 172 372 3759

Koerting Institute · Mondorfer Weg 1d · 61352 Bad Homburg · Germany

The more concrete, the better I can judge whether I am the right fit.

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