If you missed my day 2, you can view it here.

Today marked the official start of Oracle AI World 2025, featuring a packed agenda of keynotes and sessions. I headed to the Venetian early, grabbed breakfast, and made my way to Hall A for the opening keynote.

On the way to the opening keynote, I bumped into Osama and Ahmed and grabbed a quick selfie. I also ran into Jeremy, the American Sign Language interpreter who’s been a fixture at Oracle AI World since his debut at Oracle CloudWorld in 2022. It’s become a tradition to catch up with him each year. It’s fantastic to see Oracle continuing to invest in accessibility, ensuring that the event remains inclusive for the deaf community.

Keynote: Oracle AI: Powering Your Business

I managed to get a great seat right at the front with Osama, and we waited in anticipation for the keynote to begin, the energy in the room was already building.

Mike Sicilia, Oracle’s newly appointed CEO (formerly President of Oracle Industries), made his entrance to the stage, marking his first major appearance in this role at Oracle AI World 2025.

Mike declared that we are living through a once-in-a-generation moment where AI is changing everything, from how organisations operate to how they serve customers and empower employees.

He emphasised that Oracle is embedding AI across every layer of its technology stack, from data platforms to cloud infrastructure and applications. This isn’t just about adding features, it’s about transforming business models and accelerating productivity at scale.

Key highlights from his talk included:

• “It all starts with data” Oracle’s AI capabilities are deeply rooted in its data-first approach, enabling smarter decisions and faster outcomes
• Powered by OCI, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure delivers the speed, security, and scale needed to support enterprise-grade AI
• Built into Fusion, AI is integrated into Oracle Fusion Applications, helping support teams cut resolution times in half and enabling real-time issue resolution without the need for ticket logging
• 80% of Oracle staff report that AI is saving them time, making every interaction more personal and efficient
• The keynote also introduced the AI Agent Marketplace, allowing customers to deploy AI agents directly within Fusion apps to streamline workflows and boost productivity

Mike’s message was clear: AI isn’t just a tool, it’s a revolution, and Oracle is leading the charge by making it an integral part of everyday enterprise operations.

Mike then welcomed Calvin Butler, President and CEO of Exelon, to the stage, a key voice in the energy sector and a long-standing Oracle customer.

Calvin shared a compelling vision for how the energy sector is evolving through AI and digital transformation. He emphasised that Exelon is focused on showing up for customers today and over the next decade, with a commitment to efficiency, reliability, and innovation.

Partnering with Oracle on finance and supply chain operations, Exelon is aligning energy and technology to deliver mission-critical services across the national grid, where downtime is not an option.

Calvin highlighted that the next five years will bring more transformation than the last ten, driven by AI’s ability to enable predictive analytics, real-time customer engagement, and preventative maintenance. These capabilities are already being tested through pilots with regulators, ensuring that every investment is backed by a measurable business case.

He reinforced that AI is not about replacing people, but augmenting human expertise, helping teams make faster, smarter decisions. Oracle’s seamless integration across its stack allows Exelon to deliver value-driven propositions with speed, scale, and security.

Mike next welcomed Ravi Simhambhatla, EVP, Chief Digital and Innovation Officer at Avis Budget Group, to the stage.

Ravi shared how the company is embracing AI to transform operations across three core pillars:

• Customer Experience
• Vehicle Management
• People

He emphasised that in a highly commoditised industry like car rental, velocity is the competitive advantage and Oracle’s AI stack is helping Avis move faster, smarter, and more efficiently.

Avis was among the first to go live with Oracle Database 23ai, having reached end-of-support on their previous version. Rather than patching legacy systems, they made a bold leap to the latest release, unlocking powerful AI capabilities. Ravi highlighted the shift from traditional SQL to natural language models, allowing teams to query data conversationally and intuitively.

“Data is the new oil,” Ravi said, “and AI is the enabler.”

Instead of manually slicing and dicing dashboards, teams now ask questions directly to Oracle’s AI-powered analytics engine, driving growth and modernisation across the business.

Avis has made significant investments in both Oracle Database 23ai and Oracle Fusion. AI agents are now embedded in procurement and supply chain workflows, streamlining operations and reducing costs. For example, field engineers no longer need to search for part numbers or compare prices, they simply ask for what they need, and AI handles the rest. This gets vehicles back on the road faster, improves service speed, and boosts efficiency.

Ravi stressed the importance of measuring the impact of AI. If a task that used to take five hours can now be completed in two minutes, that’s a tangible business benefit, and one that can be quantified.

He also reinforced that AI is not about replacing people, but augmenting human capability. Technology is confirming what humans may already know, making them more effective and confident in their decisions.

He closed with a celebration of the brilliant teams at Avis and Oracle, working together in a strong partnership and leaning into AI to deliver real-world transformation.

Mike then introduced Ty Breland, Chief Human Resources Officer and EVP of Global Operations Services at Marriott International, to share how one of the world’s largest hospitality brands is leveraging AI to transform workforce experience and operational excellence.

Ty shared how the world’s largest hospitality brand is leveraging AI to enhance experiences for guests, associates, and property owners.

He explained the scale of operations, 800,000 associates, 9,000 hotels in 142 countries. Marriott’s ecosystem includes guests, staff, and owners, as most properties are owner-operated. Ty emphasised that AI is being used to deliver personalised authentication experiences at speed, while helping owners drive efficiency and reduce costs.

Marriott began its transformation in 2023, moving away from manual processes toward unified systems that allow staff to focus on hospitality rather than system navigation. The goal is to enrich roles with technology, removing pain points and enabling associates to do less with more impact.

Ty stressed that staff know best how processes work, so Marriott actively asks them how AI can help. The approach is collaborative, ensuring technology enhances rather than replaces human interaction.

In the Bonvoy programme, Marriott uses AI to provide white-glove service by surfacing guest information in real time for associates handling calls. This enables personalised conversations, making guests feel valued.

“AI is an investment in our associates,” Ty said. “It’s about enhancing human interaction, not replacing it.”

Key Themes he highlighted:

• AI as an enabler, not a replacement
• Predictive insights to improve guest experience
• Efficiency for owners through cost reduction
• Empowering associates to deliver exceptional hospitality

Mike then welcomed Paulo Perez, CEO and Co-founder of Biofy Technologies, to share how this innovative biotech company is using AI to accelerate breakthroughs in sustainable energy and life sciences.

What Paulo and the Biofy Technologies team are doing is nothing short of inspiring, a bold, visionary effort that could have a profound impact on humanity. Their work demonstrates how AI can be harnessed not just for business efficiency, but for solving global challenges in sustainability and health.

Paulo shared an extraordinary vision for how AI can tackle some of humanity’s biggest challenges, from combating superbugs to slowing cell ageing.

Biofy is using AI for Environmental and Health Solutions to develop solutions that help the environment and save lives. They use Oracle’s vector search for faster diagnosis, when faced with a bacterial infection, Biofy takes a sample, converts it into vectors, and uses vector search to assess resistance to medicines. Traditional process takes 5 days, with AI vector search it’s 4 hours! This breakthrough enables the creation of medication for infections with lower resistance, reducing mortality by 50%. Impact in Brazil, resistance rates dropped from 70% to 30%, saving approximately 2,000 lives in Brazil this year alone. Combating superbugs, Biofy is using AI to test antibiotics against super bacteria, aiming to develop new antibiotics.

Paulo’s dream: “In five years, no super bacteria will be resistant to any antibiotics.”

Future vision, Biofy is researching how to stop cell ageing, with the potential to eliminate cancer, a bold step towards redefining human health. Oracle and Biofy are working together to make these breakthroughs possible, proving that AI built-in (not bolted on) can transform industries and save lives.

The audience responded with a big round of applause, recognising the magnitude of this mission. It was a truly inspiring use case of AI, one that left me in awe.

You can view my day 3 part 2 here.

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Thanks

Zed DBA (Zahid Anwar)