Co-founder/CEO of Siri (acquired by Apple) and Viv Labs (acquired by Samsung) and Riva Health.
North America
Dag Kittlaus was one of the co-founders of Siri, the world’s first virtual personal assistant. The startup was founded in 2007 at the Stanford Research Institute, with as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence. The Siri team, besides Dag, consisted of Adam Cheyner, the chief architect, and the web geniuses Tom Grilber and Norman Winarsky. In Norwegian, the term “Siri” means ‘beautiful victorious conqueror’.
Siri soon caught the attention of Steve Jobs and Apple, who acquired the startup. This move lead to the successful commercialization of the product. The acquisition of Siri also saw Dag join the Apple team as Director of iPhone Apps, where he was responsible for the running of Siri and the speech recognition teams.
An entrepreneur at heart, Dag Kittlaus went on from Siri to create Viv.Viv is a global brain that continues to expand the capabilities of artificial intelligence. Viv was later acquired by Samsung in 2016. The aim of this artificial intelligence is that Viv should be able to talk to anyone in the world about anything and everything.
Besides his experiences with Siri and Viv, Dag continues creating mobile internet products. He has held a number of different roles throughout his career. Amongst these are the VP of Consumer Internet Services at Telenor Mobile, the Scandinavian telecom giant, as well as at several consumer groups. Amongst these, he includes the role of GM of xProducts and GM of Motorola’s Interactive Media Group.
Dag was also the mastermind behind the launching of Screen3. This breakthrough in consumer mobile applications is used by millions of users and has been adopted by Telefonica, Cingular, and China Mobile.
Dag Kittlaus is a much sought-after speaker in the areas of AI, marketing, and entrepreneurship. He brings a wealth of experience to the table, taking into consideration his own level of success in these fields.
Speaking Topics
“He’s got lots of interesting stories to tell: I think very few entrepreneurs have sold multi-hundred-million-dollar companies to both Apple and Samsung; very few people have worked this closely with Steve Jobs on a project that was clearly more than personal to him; very few people have interacted with so many top people, including Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and many more. AI and next generation interfaces are both very hot topics that Dag knows a lot about, and he is one of the most visionary futurists that I know; I’m sure many companies will be interested to hear where he thinks the world is heading.”
“Dag and I have worked together first in his role at Motorola, then as an EIR at SRI, and finally as CEO of Siri. In all these roles, Dag was a great leader. He was a master in bringing to life our market concepts, with the most amazing clarity and impact. This is most obvious in his success with Siri, which brings to life the concept of the virtual personal assistant. He worked collaboratively with the team and the board, always with good nature and total engagement. I hope he will again someday come back to SRI to start another great venture.”