About Me
A Global Technology Strategist for Data Streaming, AI, and Enterprise Innovation
Kai Waehner
Technology Strategist for Data Streaming, AI, and Enterprise Innovation
For over 20 years, I’ve worked with Fortune 500 and Global 2000 companies on the decisions that matter most: where to bet on data infrastructure, how to evaluate AI architectures before committing, and how to cut through the noise in a market that never stops generating it. Even though I work for a dedicated vendor (Kestra), my opinion is built independently, which means my only agenda is the right answer for your situation.
My work spans across all industries, from financial services, manufacturing, telecom, retail, to the public sector, and just as many conversations, from strategic sessions with CIOs to deep architecture reviews with engineering teams. That range isn’t accidental. The decisions I care about most live at the intersection of business intent and technical reality, and you need fluency in both to make them well.
I’m known for my independent technology landscapes covering data integration, process intelligence, and trusted agentic AI. These are assessments built without vendor sponsorship and without the usual conflicts of interest. I write regularly at kai-waehner.de, covering industry use cases, architectural best practices, and what’s actually worth your attention as an enterprise architect, CTO, CDO, or data engineer.
I’ve spoken at over 100 events worldwide, from AWS re:Invent and O’Reilly Software Architecture to CIO and CTO executive summits, and I’m available for advisory engagements, workshops, and keynotes across Europe, North America, the Middle East, Asia, and Australia.
If you’re making a consequential architecture call and want a second opinion with no strings attached, that’s exactly what I do. If you want to get your real-life use case of your technology seen in the world of my readers, we can collaborate on this as well.
"Thought Leadership with Data Streaming, AI/ML (including GenAI) and Cloud Technologies"
My current work focuses on data streaming around the open source projects Apache Kafka and Apache Flink to build mission-critical, enabling the development of mission-critical, scalable real-time infrastructures for tech giants, modern internet startups, and traditional enterprises such as banks and telecommunications companies. This is seamlessly integrated with other cutting-edge technology trends, including cloud computing and AI/ML (with a strong emphasis on generative AI), to deliver innovative, future-proof solutions.
Join the community
Stay up to date with my latest blog posts by subscribing to my newsletter, and follow me on LinkedIn or X, formerly Twitter, to stay connected.
On my blog, I regularly share insights about new technologies, articles, and conference talks. From time to time, I also publish code on GitHub, including implementations such as “Real-Time Machine Learning with Kafka and TensorFlow.”
I feel honored to be a MVB (Most Valuable Blogger) at the JAVALOBBY of DZone.
Many of these articles are also published at the online publishing platform Medium, too
PUBLIC SPEAKING
I am a regular speaker at international conferences such as Devoxx, Kafka Summit, Current, AWS ReInvent and various CIO/CTO events.
CUSTOMER EVENTS
A few impressions from our customer events where we bring together IT Executives, software developers, architects, data engineers, business teams, and partners. The following pictures are from data streaming community events at BMW Group, Daimler Truck and Michelin.
