Rahaf Harfoush
The tools organisations deploy to drive performance still assume creativity can be engineered like output. AI strategies are being built on cultural foundations that predate the internet, and the behavioural, historical, and biological forces shaping how people actually work have not changed. When those forces are ignored, transformation programmes inherit the dysfunctions they were designed to solve.
Digital anthropologist and New York Times bestselling author Rahaf Harfoush helps leaders understand what AI and digital culture are actually doing to human behaviour; a question she pursues through governance roles at the UN, research fellowships at Oxford and Cambridge, and a body of work recognised by the 2025 Thinkers50 ranking.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with Rahaf Harfoush
- Her Hustle & Float argument, that the tension between productivity culture and creative performance is rooted in centuries of cultural and historical assumptions about work and identity, gives organisations a structural frame for redesigning knowledge work, not another wellbeing programme.
- As a member of the UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Advisory Body on Artificial Intelligence and a participant in President Macron’s “Enlightenment in the Digital Age” commission, she brings policy-level authority to board conversations on AI governance that most commercially-focused digital speakers cannot.
- Her digital anthropology work maps how digital culture reshapes human cognition, decision-making, and organisational norms from the inside, going beyond trend reporting to explain the behavioural mechanics of why digital transformation programmes succeed or fail.
- The Decoded Company thesis; that organisations should apply the same analytical rigour to understanding their talent as they apply to understanding their customers, gives CHROs and people strategy teams a precise, data-grounded argument for workforce intelligence.
- Her 2025 Thinkers50 ranking, 2021 Thinkers50 Innovation Award shortlist, and research affiliations at Oxford and Cambridge provide an unusually broad institutional range for a speaker who addresses both commercial leadership and public policy audiences in the same conversation.
Biography highlights
- Executive Director, Red Thread Institute of Digital Culture; former Associate Director, Technology Pioneer Programme, World Economic Forum, Geneva
- Member, UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Advisory Body on Artificial Intelligence; member, France’s National Digital Council; served on President Macron’s “Enlightenment in the Digital Age” commission on AI and democracy
- Visiting Policy Fellow, Oxford Internet Institute; Research Affiliate, Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy, University of Cambridge
- Author of Hustle & Float (2019); co-author of The Decoded Company (New York Times and USA Today bestseller; 2015 Gold Axiom Award for Best Business Technology Book)
- Named to the Thinkers50 2025 ranking; shortlisted for the Thinkers50 Innovation Award (2021); writing featured in Harvard Business Review, Wired, Financial Times, and Fast Company
- Faculty at Sciences Po’s School of Management and Innovation, Paris, teaching “Innovation and Emerging Business Models”
Biography
The acceleration of AI has created a specific organisational problem. Most assumptions about human creativity and performance were formed before the digital era, and they have not changed. The gap between what technology can do and what organisations actually achieve is usually rooted there.
Rahaf Harfoush approaches this as a digital anthropologist, tracking what digital culture does to human cognition, decision-making, and creative capacity inside institutions. Her book Hustle & Float makes the argument precisely: productivity culture and creative performance are structurally incompatible, a tension rooted in centuries of cultural and historical assumptions about work and identity. No productivity tool addresses a problem that is fundamentally cultural and historical in origin.
She also works on these questions at the policy level. As a member of the UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Advisory Body on Artificial Intelligence and a participant in President Macron’s “Enlightenment in the Digital Age” commission on AI’s impact on democracy, she has engaged AI governance where institutional assumptions become policy. She holds fellowships at the Oxford Internet Institute and Cambridge’s Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy, and teaches innovation at Sciences Po’s School of Management in Paris. She is named to the Thinkers50 2025 ranking.
The Decoded Company, co-authored and published to the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists, made a related argument: organisations that apply rigorous analytics to understand their customers but rely on intuition to manage their people are misallocating some of their most powerful resources. At the intersection of AI and talent strategy, that observation has only grown more consequential.
Key speaking topics
- Digital culture and organisational behaviour
- Artificial intelligence governance and ethics
- The future of creative and knowledge work
- Human-centred AI strategy
- Innovation and emerging business models
- Leadership in technological disruption
- Data intelligence and talent strategy
Ideal for
- C-suite and executive leadership teams navigating AI adoption and digital transformation strategy
- CHROs and people strategy leaders addressing creative performance, talent retention, and the future of knowledge work
- Government, regulatory, and public policy forums on AI governance and digital policy
- Strategy, innovation, and foresight functions in technology-intensive and creative-economy organisations
Audience outcomes
- A structural framework for understanding why digital transformation programmes underperform, beyond tool selection or change management methodology
- Clarity on the cultural and historical forces that shape creative and knowledge work, and what this means for organisational design
- Practical context for AI governance decisions, grounded in research and policy experience at the UN and national government level
- A more analytically rigorous approach to talent strategy, drawing on the argument that the data intelligence applied to customers should be applied with equal rigour to people
- Greater awareness of how digital culture reshapes human behaviour and organisational norms, at a level that equips leaders to respond strategically rather than reactively
Talks
A framework for how leadership must evolve in response to technological acceleration, introducing a hybrid model that integrates strategic adaptability with specialist depth.
Key takeaways:
- A practical leadership model that balances broad contextual intelligence with deep domain expertise
- Strategies for navigating AI-driven change, multigenerational teams, and shifting stakeholder expectations
- Approaches to building resilience and confident decision-making in conditions of sustained complexity
A structured approach to transforming information overload into applied knowledge, building the critical thinking and intellectual agility that AI-generated content can erode.
Key takeaways:
- A framework for shifting from passive consumption to active, intentional knowledge mastery
- Practical systems for improving critical thinking, decision-making, and creative problem-solving
- Strategies for integrating AI tools while preserving independent expertise and professional judgement
An examination of how digital behaviours affect the nervous system, emotional regulation, and overall wellbeing, and how organisations can design healthier relationships with technology at scale.
Key takeaways:
- Insight into the physiological effects of notifications, social media, and constant connectivity on performance and decision-making
- Practical tools to reduce digital exhaustion and prevent burnout at the organisational level
- Strategies for psychological safety and nervous system regulation in digital work environments
An analysis of the structural pressures facing creative and knowledge workers, and what organisations must change to sustain both innovation and long-term performance.
Key takeaways:
- The cultural and historical forces behind the productivity-creativity tension, and why wellbeing interventions alone cannot resolve it
- Insight into the challenges of recruiting and retaining highly skilled creative talent in a hyper-connected economy
- A practical framework for designing work cultures that support sustained creativity alongside performance
A forward-looking examination of the societal and human implications of AI and automation, framed through governance experience at the UN and national policy level.
Key takeaways:
- The ethical and governance questions AI raises – and how organisations and policymakers are responding
- How algorithms are reshaping institutions, decision-making, and long-standing social systems
- A clearer frame for the evolving relationship between human capability and machine intelligence
Videos
Testimonials
Books
Fees
| EUR | GBP | USD | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home Country | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| Asia Pacific | €40000 to €90000 | £35,001 - £75,000 | $50000 - $100000 |
| Europe | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| Middle East & Africa | €40000 to €90000 | £35,001 - £75,000 | $50000 - $100000 |
| South America | €40000 to €90000 | £35,001 - £75,000 | $50000 - $100000 |
| United Kingdom | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| US East Coast | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| US West Coast | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| Virtual | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |