About Phil Wennker

What I do

After 22 years working with machine learning and AI systems across academia, startup world, and enterprises I started this practice to give organizations honest, vendor-neutral advice. I don't resell software and I don't chase trends. I help you decide where AI genuinely fits and then make it real.

How I'm different

• •One point of contact. You work with me directly, start to finish.
• •Outcome-focused. Every engagement is tied to a measurable business result.
• •Pragmatic. The simplest solution that works beats the most impressive one that doesn't.
• •Honest. If AI isn't the right answer, I'll tell you that too.

Background

From data analytics, to statistical learning, to deep learning, I lived and created the future we are now living in. My journey began with science fiction: after reading William Gibson's Neuromancer, I ditched a career as a neurosurgeon and started learning how machines can learn. With stations in the EU Horizon 2020 project, founding a startup, consulting the German government, writing books on AI, and teaching at universities, I "ended" up in Austin, Texas as a Principal Research Scientist in computational neuroscience.

I have seen quite some hypes, and how quickly they get a reality check. During my work I had the chance to collaborate with brilliant minds and learn from them. But no matter whether it was a research group, a startup, or a multinational enterprise, all struggle to distinguish between hype and reality, pipedream and realistic opportunity.

Past Events & Sessions Exerpt

• May 1, 2026 Judge for the Texas Venture Investment Challenge, McCombs School of Business, UT Austin, Austin, Texas
• Apr 1, 2026 Guest Speaker for Business and Computer Science Students, Evening Keynote, Hartwick College, Oneonta
• Nov 17, 2025 Guest Speaker TEC, Tulane University, New Orleans
• Oct 6, 2025 Four-day education event, multinational enterprise, Los Angeles
• May 13, 2025 SaaStock USA, Austin, Texas
• Oct 23, 2024 Google C2C: LLM Security, Google Austin, Texas
• Aug 28, 2023 Google Cloud Next, AI for faster and personalized product development, San Francisco
• Sep 18, 2020 TechCrunch Disrupt, San Francisco
• Apr 17, 2020 ODSC East, Boston

Publications

• Master Reference Work: Künstliche Intelligenz und Agentic AI

  Master Reference Work: Artificial Intelligence and Agentic AI

  2026, Springer Nature · https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-44690-1

• Use Duet AI to Write Queries in BigQuery

  O'Reilly Shortcuts

  2023, O'Reilly Media · View on O'Reilly →

• Künstliche Intelligenz in der Praxis

  Anwendung in Unternehmen und Branchen: KI wettbewerbs- und zukunftsorientiert einsetzen

  Artificial Intelligence in Practice

  Applications in Businesses and Industries: Using AI to Stay Competitive and Future-Ready

  2020, Springer Nature · View on Springer →