Progress starts when the familiar gets questioned.
Should this work be automated at all? What happens before someone searches? Why do brand and performance still sit apart?
These are the questions I bring to the stage. Drawn from building a business, working with marketers and learning what happens when theory meets the real world.
SIGNATURE TALKS / 01—03
A useful challenge for your next room.
Big ideas, grounded in the work. Choose the conversation your audience needs.
AI & BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION
Stop using AI.
Start diagnosing the work.
Before you accelerate a process, ask whether it should exist. A practical challenge to leaders chasing AI adoption without first understanding the work.
WHAT YOUR AUDIENCE TAKES AWAY
01Identify the work worth fixing before automating it.
02Assess the foundations your team needs for useful AI adoption.
03Measure business outcomes, rather than the number of tools deployed.
PROPOSED PACKAGINGProposed title. Based on “Introduction to Performance Branding”, delivered at Ahrefs Evolve, Singapore, 2024 — the full recording is above. Watch ↑
SELECTED STAGES AND CONVERSATIONS
Where the ideas have been tested.
Main stages, keynotes and community rooms across Asia Pacific.
2024 · 2025 · 2026
Ahrefs Evolve, Singapore
Invited back three years running. The 2024 edition sold out, with 500 attendees from 50+ countries.
October 2026
Hypergrowth Summit, Singapore
Keynote: “STOP USING AI.” A challenge to measure AI by business outcomes, not by how many people are using it.
May 2025
Digital Marketers Australia, Sydney
Keynote in the city where his career began.
October 2025
eCommerce Expo Asia × DMEXCO
Talk for ecommerce and retail marketers.
Aug 2026Marketers and AI · Chimera CollectiveSpeaker
2025Ahrefs Evolve MiniSpeaker
May 2025eTail AsiaSpeaker
Oct 2022HubSpot × LinkedInPanel moderator
OngoingAPAC MarketersHead of Community · host
CONVERSATIONSWith communication coach Vinh Giang.With Prof. Byron Sharp at How Brands Grow Live! for Executives.
Photos record meetings; they do not imply endorsement.
MORE ROOMS
Panel discussion at a TrafficGuard event.Hosting an APAC Marketers panel in Jakarta.From the floor, Ahrefs Evolve Singapore 2026.
WHAT STAYS WITH THE ROOM
“Before you speed up a process with AI, has anyone checked whether that process should exist at all? I sat with that for a while after the session ended.”
GL
Dr Gireesh Likhyani Fractional CMO · Hypergrowth Summit 2026 · Personal reaction, shared on LinkedIn
What people said and wrote
Personal reaction
“Robert Lai, CEO of Kaliber, gave one of my favorite talks.”
Casey BurridgeHead of Marketing, GravityKit · Ahrefs Evolve 2026Read the post ↗Personal reaction
“‘Stop Using AI. Start Diagnosing the Work.’ particularly caught my attention. It challenged me to rethink how we approach AI adoption.”
Quotes come from public LinkedIn posts and published event recaps. Linked where a public URL exists.
GOOGLE / NEW YORK
BUILT IN THE REAL WORLD
Sydney. New York. Singapore.
The questions on stage come from fifteen years inside the work: agency networks, Google, and building a business.
01 · Where it started
Sydney
Agency networks GroupM, PHD, iProspect and Publicis, as a channel lead in programmatic and search.
02 · Google, first tenure
New York
Joined Google in New York as an award-winning consultant to marketing agencies.
03 · Google, then Kaliber
Singapore
Second tenure at Google, then founded Kaliber in 2020. Head of Community at APAC Marketers, 2,000+ marketers across the region.
ALONG THE WAY
Top Consultant award, Google.Named a Platinum Award winner at Google, 2019.With the Google team in New York.Google Jakarta, during the Asia Pacific tenure.
15years in marketing
2×tenures at Google
280+agencies consulted at Google, across 3,000+ client accounts
US$500M+media managed across Asia Pacific
BRAND EXPERIENCE INCLUDES
Brands Robert has worked with across agency, Google and Kaliber roles. Not speaking bookings or endorsements.
