Adrian Joseph
Most large organisations have spent heavily on AI and data without seeing the commercial return promised in the business case. Boards want a clearer answer on where AI actually earns its keep, how to govern it as regulators circle, and how to build the internal capability to use it at scale. The gap is rarely the technology. It is the operating model, the talent and the willingness of senior leaders to make specific bets.
Adrian Joseph OBE is a former Chief Data and AI Officer at BT Group and a non-executive director across regulated industries, who helps boards turn AI and data investment into commercial outcomes and defensible governance.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with Adrian Joseph
- He has run an AI and data function of roughly 1,600 people inside a FTSE 100 company, so his advice to boards reflects what it takes to deliver at that scale, not what a strategy deck suggests.
- He sits on the boards of Direct Line, Allwyn and Great Ormond Street Hospital, giving him a current view of how AI lands in insurance, gaming and healthcare rather than a single-sector perspective.
- As an Expert Member of the UK AI Council he contributed to the National AI Strategy, so he reads regulation and policy as someone who has been inside the room, not as an outside observer.
- He holds an OBE for services to equality and diversity in business and was named the UK’s most influential minority ethnic technology leader by the Financial Times and Inclusive Boards, which sharpens his credibility on the workforce side of AI transformation.
- His career path through Google, EY and BT gives audiences a rare triangulation: the hyperscaler view of what the technology can do, the consulting view of how to sell change internally, and the operator view of what actually breaks.
Biography highlights
- Former Chief Data and AI Officer, BT Group, leading approximately 1,600 data and AI professionals.
- Former Senior Partner and Head of UK Data and Analytics for Financial Services at EY.
- Over ten years in senior leadership roles at Google across cloud, digital and data science.
- Non-Executive Director at Direct Line Insurance Group, Allwyn UK and Great Ormond Street Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.
- Expert Member of the UK Government’s AI Council and former Non-Executive Director at the Home Office.
- OBE for services to equality and diversity in business; named the UK’s most influential BAME technology leader by the Financial Times and Inclusive Boards.
Biography
Running an AI and data function of 1,600 people inside BT Group taught Adrian Joseph OBE what most board conversations about AI miss. The commercial case is not won in the model. It is won in the operating model, the talent pipeline and the patience of the leadership team to let value compound. That operator’s view is what he brings into the room.
Before BT, he spent over a decade at Google in senior cloud, digital and data science roles, then led the UK Data and Analytics practice for Financial Services at EY as a Senior Partner. The path gives him three lenses on the same problem. Hyperscalers built the infrastructure. Consultancies sold the transformation story. Incumbents have to actually run the thing in production under regulatory scrutiny.
He currently holds non-executive director roles at Direct Line Insurance Group, Allwyn UK, the National Lottery operator, and Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust, and sits on the Technology Advisory Board at NatWest Group. As an Expert Member of the UK Government’s AI Council he contributed to the National AI Strategy, and served as a Non-Executive Director at the Home Office from 2015 to 2020.
He was awarded an OBE in the 2019 New Year’s Honours for services to equality and diversity in business, and the Financial Times and Inclusive Boards named him the UK’s most influential Black, Asian and ethnic minority technology leader. That recognition is not decoration on the CV. It sharpens his argument that the AI advantage large organisations seek is inseparable from who they let build and govern the systems.
Key speaking topics
- Enterprise AI strategy and commercial return
- Responsible AI and governance
- Data and AI operating models at scale
- Digital and cloud transformation in regulated industries
- AI policy and the National AI Strategy
- Diversity and inclusion in technology leadership
- Board-level oversight of AI risk
Ideal for
- CEOs, CFOs and boards under pressure to show commercial return from AI and data spend
- Chief Data Officers, CIOs and CTOs building or restructuring AI and data functions
- Financial services, insurance, healthcare and public sector leaders navigating AI in regulated environments
- CHROs and transformation leads addressing the talent and inclusion dimension of AI adoption
Audience outcomes
- A sharper line between AI activity that produces commercial return and AI activity that produces slides
- A realistic view of what an AI and data operating model looks like at enterprise scale, from someone who ran one
- Current reading of UK AI policy and regulation from inside the AI Council and National AI Strategy work
- Practical signals for boards on where to probe AI risk, governance and delivery maturity
- Language for connecting AI capability to workforce, talent and inclusion strategy
Talks
A direct look at how large organisations generate commercial return from AI investment while keeping deployment defensible.
Key takeaways:
- Where the real value pools sit in AI-enabled business transformation
- How to distinguish investments that compound from investments that flatter the roadmap
- The governance posture that protects returns rather than slowing delivery
An honest framing of automation, augmentation and new role creation for leaders planning workforce strategy.
Key takeaways:
- Which work AI actually displaces and which work it reshapes
- What the next generation of hybrid human-AI roles looks like inside large employers
- How leaders should be talking to their workforce now to reduce avoidable disruption
An argument for using AI deliberately to reduce inequality in access, opportunity and outcomes.
Key takeaways:
- Where AI is already widening gaps and where it can close them
- What responsible deployment looks like in public services and regulated sectors
- How leaders set the cultural and governance conditions for equitable AI
Videos
Fees
| EUR | GBP | USD | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home Country | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| Asia Pacific | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| Europe | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| Middle East & Africa | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| South America | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| 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 | Under €12000 | Under £10,000 | Under $15000 |