Amy Webb

Why organisations work with Amy Webb

• Webb’s foresight methodology is not scenario-planning by another name – it applies quantitative modelling to emerging signals, giving boards an evidential basis for long-horizon technology decisions that is defensible rather than intuitive.
• Her annual Tech Trends Report tracks more than 700 emerging technology and science trends and is downloaded more than one million times a year; few advisory practices produce intelligence infrastructure at comparable scale or breadth.
• The Big Nine named and defined the “G-MAFIA” framework – the six American and three Chinese corporations Webb argues hold structural control over AI’s trajectory. Audiences gain a durable analytical vocabulary for a problem most organisations are still describing in generic terms.
• Her advisory relationships with the White House, European Union, United Nations, and World Economic Forum are ongoing, not project-based – her understanding of how governments are approaching AI governance and technology risk is primary source, not aggregated.
• Her latest concept, “living intelligence” – the convergence of artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and advanced sensors into a single technology supercycle – gives senior leaders a framework for thinking beyond current AI strategy before the convergence forces reactive decisions.

Biography highlights

• Founder and CEO, Future Today Strategy Group; ranked #3 most influential management thinker globally by Thinkers50 (2025)
• Adjunct Professor of Strategic Foresight, NYU Stern School of Business; Visiting Fellow, Oxford University’s Saïd Business School; former Nieman Fellow, Harvard University
• Author of The Big Nine (2019) – longlisted for the Financial Times & McKinsey Business Book of the Year, winner of the 2020 Gold Axiom Medal – and The Signals Are Talking (2016), winner of the Thinkers50 RADAR Award and 2017 Gold Axiom Medal
• The Genesis Machine (2022, co-authored with Andrew Hessel) named by The New Yorker as one of the year’s best nonfiction works; books translated into 23 languages
• Life member, Council on Foreign Relations; founding member, WEF Strategic Foresight Advisory Board; member, WEF Global Risks Board; AI Governance Alliance partner
• Contributor to Harvard Business Review and MIT Sloan Management Review; TED Talk on algorithmic thinking viewed more than 8 million times, translated into 32 languages

Biography

The gap between sensing that a technology will reshape a sector and knowing when – and how – to act is where most long-range strategy breaks down. Amy Webb’s work is built around closing that gap. As founder and CEO of the Future Today Strategy Group, she pioneered a quantitative modelling approach to strategic foresight: one that applies the analytical rigour of economic forecasting to the identification of emerging technology signals, rather than relying on narrative scenarios or trend decks.

Her books have given organisations specific frameworks for understanding the structural dynamics of technology change. The Big Nine named the six American and three Chinese corporations – the “G-MAFIA” and BAT – that Webb argues hold disproportionate control over AI’s development, and traced the geopolitical and commercial consequences of that concentration. The Genesis Machine, co-authored with biotechnologist Andrew Hessel, examined the organisational and governance implications of synthetic biology before the technology entered mainstream strategy conversations. Both were recognised externally: The Big Nine was longlisted for the Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year; The Genesis Machine was named by The New Yorker as one of the year’s best nonfiction works.

Her access to the rooms where technology governance is being decided is direct and ongoing. As an advisor to the White House, European Union, and United Nations, and as a founding member of the World Economic Forum’s Strategic Foresight Advisory Board, Webb’s work informs global technology policy – not as periodic input but as sustained engagement. Her annual Tech Trends Report, tracking more than 700 emerging technology and science developments, is downloaded more than one million times a year.

Ranked third on Thinkers50’s 2025 list of the world’s most influential management thinkers, Webb teaches strategic foresight at NYU Stern’s MBA programme and holds a visiting fellowship at Oxford’s Saïd Business School. Her current framework, “living intelligence” – the convergence of artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and advanced sensors – maps the technology supercycle she argues is already underway. For organisations whose long-range strategy begins and ends with AI, it is a substantive challenge to the scope of their thinking.

Key speaking topics

• Quantitative strategic foresight
• Artificial intelligence and the global technology power landscape
• Living intelligence: AI, biotechnology, and advanced sensors
• Technology supercycles and long-horizon planning
• Geopolitics of emerging technology
• Futures methodology and organisational decision-making
• Synthetic biology and the next frontier of disruption

Ideal for

• C-suite and boards developing long-range technology and competitive strategy
• Chief Strategy Officers and innovation leads rethinking their approach to uncertainty and futures planning
• Government, regulatory, and policy audiences responsible for technology governance
• Risk, investment, and scenario-planning teams assessing the strategic implications of AI and converging technologies

Audience outcomes

• A clear analytical method for distinguishing which emerging technology signals warrant a strategic response – and which represent noise
• Understanding of the “living intelligence” framework and why the convergence of AI, biotechnology, and advanced sensors represents a broader challenge than current AI strategy typically accounts for
• A structural vocabulary for the global AI power landscape – particularly the dynamics between major US and Chinese technology actors – that simplifies a complex geopolitical issue for non-specialist leaders
• Familiarity with the Tech Trends methodology: how to scan, filter, and prioritise signals across a large and rapidly evolving technology landscape
• Practical frameworks for building a long-horizon foresight capability internally, rather than depending on periodic external consultancy