My background
I serve as Executive Vice President and Chief Scientist at Salesforce Research. In 2026, I was appointed to the United Nations Independent International Scientific Panel on AI and am committed to responsible AI governance globally. Previously I was a tenured Associate Professor at Stanford, the inaugural Mindtree Faculty Scholar, and Director of the SAIL-Toyota Center for AI Research. I hold a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology and was a Beckman Institute Fellow at UIUC.
My expertise
My research has addressed the theoretical foundations and applications of AI, including machine learning, computer vision, generative AI, agentic AI, and robotics. In 2024, I was named to Time magazine's list of the 100 Most Influential People in AI. I have published over 350 articles in top-tier journals, and served as Program Chair for CVPR 2020. I'm the recipient of multiple Best Paper Awards, an NSF Career Award, and the James R. Croes Medal. At Salesforce, my global research team’s focus is continually advancing AI research and system development across the technological shifts that will impact the enterprise in the next 6-18 months.
When I'm not working
Before my research career took center stage, I was a video game designer, co-developing adventure games with my father that were published internationally across the U.S., France, Russia, and Italy.
Expertise areas
Education
Ph.D., Electrical Engineering, California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
Author's Picks
-
-
Salesforce+ Future of Enterprise AI
Discover how Enterprise General Intelligence is set to transform business operations and customer engagement, with insights from Salesforce’s chief futurist and chief scientist.
-
What Is Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)?
What’s the meaning of AGI (artificial general intelligence)? Imagine the cognitive capabilities of a human combined with speed, memory, reliability, and scalability of high-performance computing.
External Contributions
-
Salesforce unveils simulation environment for training AI agents
-
The New AI Trust Architecture: 5 Requirements for Agent-to-Agent Communication
-
Simulating lousy conversations: Q&A with Silvio Savarese, Chief Scientist & Head of AI Research at Salesforce - Stack Overflow
-
From Ivory Tower to Corporate Labs: The Real Challenges of AI Development
Silvio's latest articles
The Rise of Large Action Models Heralds the Next Wave of Autonomous AI
How AI Agents Will Revolutionize the AI Enterprise
INDICT: Towards Better Code Generation by Both Security and Helpfulness
First-Of-Its-Kind LLM Benchmark Ranks Generative AI Against Real-World Business Tasks


