David Lee

AI Innovation & TED Speaker

David Lee co-leads the AI Center of Excellence at Cox Communications. Cox is the largest privately-held telecommunications company in America.  They provide broadband internet, mobile communications, managed cloud services, and institutional fiber to 8 million customers.

In his role, he leads a small team of hands-on practioners that design and develop solutions that use generative AI and advanced machine learning methods.  The team is using these emerging solutions to address customer needs, analyze large pools of data, and super-charge people with AI-assisting tools.

Before forming the AI CoE, David led the new business incubation team inside Cox. Prior to coming to Cox, he was the head of Innovation and Venture for UPS and the head of Innovation Programs at SunTrust Bank (now Truist).  His early career work at Bank of America spanned strategy and technology in Wealth Management, Capital Markets, and Card Products.

His TED talk, Why Jobs of the Future Won’t Feel Like Work, has more than 2 million views and was one of the 15 most-watched TED talks of 2017. David is a frequent guest speaker on AI and innovation practices at Emory Goizueta Business School and the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

David earned an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and his BA in Economics from the University of Virginia.  He has two school-aged sons and lives in Atlanta.