Zoe Kleinman
Executive teams now have to talk publicly about AI in front of regulators, customers and their own workforces, and the conversations are getting harder. The technology is moving faster than the governance around it, and the room is full of people who have heard too many vendor pitches. What is needed is someone who can ask the questions a sceptical audience would ask, draw a straight answer out of a technical guest, and make the stakes legible to non-specialists in the room.
Zoe Kleinman is the BBC’s first Technology Editor and one of the UK’s most trusted interviewers on artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and digital regulation, hosting and chairing high-stakes conversations for senior business audiences.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with Zoe Kleinman
- She is the BBC’s first Technology Editor, which gives any panel or main-stage conversation an immediate authority signal that a corporate moderator cannot match.
- She has interviewed Tim Cook, Sir Demis Hassabis, Brad Smith and Jensen Huang on the record, and is comfortable holding senior technologists to a specific answer rather than letting a talking point pass.
- She translates AI, cybersecurity and digital regulation for boardrooms and general audiences without flattening the technical substance, which is the skill most in-house tech leaders ask for and rarely find.
- She has chaired flagship sessions for the Open Data Institute, the Royal Institution and Fintech Connect, and hosted The National AI Awards, so she arrives knowing the room.
- Her reporting has fed UK parliamentary inquiries and her March 2025 House of Lords evidence on AI governance gives her current standing on the regulatory questions buyers are now being asked by their own boards.
Biography highlights
- BBC Technology Editor since September 2021, the first person appointed to the role.
- Over 20 years at the BBC, including senior technology reporter from 2009 to 2021.
- Reports across BBC News television, BBC World News, BBC Radio 4’s Today programme and BBC World Service.
- On-the-record interviews with Tim Cook, Sir Demis Hassabis, Brad Smith, Jensen Huang and Dave Baszucki.
- Interviewed Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at the 2023 UK Global AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park.
- Gave evidence to the House of Lords on AI governance and data privacy in March 2025.
- Investigative reporting on children’s in-game spending triggered a UK parliamentary committee inquiry.
- Hosted The National AI Awards and chaired sessions for the Open Data Institute, Royal Institution and Fintech Connect.
Biography
The hard part of a senior AI conversation is no longer finding an expert. It is finding someone who can sit between the expert and the audience, ask the question the room wants asked, and refuse to let a polished non-answer count as an answer. That is the editorial craft Kleinman has been building at the BBC for two decades.
She joined the BBC in 2003 and moved through web production, features editing and senior technology reporting before being appointed the corporation’s first Technology Editor in September 2021. Her reporting now runs across BBC News television, BBC World News, Radio 4’s Today programme and BBC World Service technology and business strands, with a specific brief on artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, digital regulation and diversity in technology.
The interview list is the part senior buyers usually recognise. Tim Cook at Apple, Sir Demis Hassabis at Google DeepMind, Brad Smith at Microsoft, Jensen Huang at Nvidia, Dave Baszucki at Roblox, and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at the 2023 UK Global AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park. Her investigation into children’s in-game spending prompted a UK parliamentary committee inquiry, and in March 2025 she gave evidence to the House of Lords on AI governance and data privacy.
What that record gives a corporate stage is something specific. She arrives understanding the technical detail, she knows what the regulators are about to ask, and she has spent enough time across the table from senior technologists to keep the conversation honest. For an organisation putting its leadership in front of clients or its own workforce to talk about AI, that is the moderator profile that does the work.
Key speaking topics
- Artificial intelligence and generative AI
- AI governance, ethics and regulation
- Cybersecurity and digital risk
- Big Tech, platforms and competition
- Digital transformation and emerging technology
- Diversity in technology
- Innovation and disruption
- Moderation, hosting and panel chairing
Ideal for
- AI, technology and innovation summits requiring a credible main-stage host or interviewer
- CIO, CISO, CTO and digital transformation leadership events
- Boards and executive committees commissioning a closed-door briefing on AI and digital regulation
- Awards ceremonies, flagship dinners and member events seeking a recognisable BBC face with subject authority
Audience outcomes
- A clearer picture of where AI regulation and governance are moving in the UK, EU and US, and what that means for corporate decisions in the next 12 to 24 months.
- A sharper sense of which AI vendor and platform claims hold up under scrutiny and which do not.
- Direct exposure to how the world’s most senior technology leaders are talking, and not talking, about risk.
- A working vocabulary for non-technical executives to discuss AI, cybersecurity and digital regulation with confidence in front of clients, staff and regulators.