Kai Gondlach
AI investment is running ahead of any defensible view of what the workforce, the operating model, or the regulatory environment will actually look like in five years. Most boards are committing capital to technology decisions without a method for thinking systematically about the futures those decisions produce. Foresight is treated as a creative exercise, not a discipline.
Kai Gondlach is a Futures Studies researcher and founder of the Leipzig institute PROFORE who helps boards and executive teams stress-test long-range strategy under AI, climate, and workforce uncertainty.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with Kai Gondlach
- Brings academic foresight methodology (Master of Arts in Future Studies, Freie Universitat Berlin) into rooms that usually receive trend talks. The difference shows in how scenarios are constructed, not just how they are presented.
- Co-editor of Arbeitswelt und KI 2030, the Springer Gabler reference volume that pulled together 78 contributors on AI and the world of work. Few keynote speakers on AI sit on a publication of comparable academic weight in the German-speaking market.
- Built the scientific methodology behind a major commercial trend-research institute (2b AHEAD) before founding PROFORE. Boards get a foresight practitioner, not a generalist commentator.
- Works in both German and English, with sustained client traction in regulated sectors, insurance, mobility, energy, public administration, where foresight needs to survive contact with risk and compliance teams.
Biography highlights
- Master of Arts in Future Studies, Freie Universitat Berlin; bachelor degrees in Sociology and Political/Administrative Sciences from Universitat Potsdam.
- Founder and Managing Director, PROFORE Gesellschaft fur Zukunft mbH, Leipzig.
- Co-editor of Arbeitswelt und KI 2030 (Springer Gabler), with Inka Knappertsbusch.
- Author and editor of further volumes including KI Jetzt! and Regenerative Zukunfte und kunstliche Intelligenz.
- Former Senior Research Fellow at 2b AHEAD ThinkTank, where he established the institute’s scientific foresight methodology.
- Member of the World Futures Studies Federation; founding member of the German Master of Future Science alumni network.
Biography
Strategic foresight is the discipline most often demanded and least often supplied at board level. Companies ask for a view of the next decade and receive a trend list. Kai Gondlach trained in the academic version of the discipline at Freie Universitat Berlin, where he completed the Master of Arts in Future Studies, before bringing that methodology into commercial practice.
His four years as Senior Research Fellow at 2b AHEAD ThinkTank in Leipzig were spent translating academic foresight into work that industrial clients could act on. He built the scientific basis for the institute’s trend studies, then left in 2019 to found PROFORE, his own Leipzig-based foresight institute. The shift was deliberate. Clients increasingly wanted long-range scenarios that held up under board scrutiny, not headline trends.
His publishing record sits on Springer Gabler. Arbeitswelt und KI 2030, co-edited with Inka Knappertsbusch, gathered 78 contributors across research and industry on how AI reshapes the structure of work; a second edition followed in 2024. KI Jetzt! and the Regenerative Zukunfte und kunstliche Intelligenz volumes extend the same method into operational AI and into the ecological and social dimensions of the technology.
Gondlach is a member of the World Futures Studies Federation and a founding member of the German Master of Future Science alumni network. Boards in insurance, mobility, energy, and public administration use him when the question is not whether AI matters, but how to plan capital, talent, and operating model around a future that resists single-point forecasting.
Key speaking topics
- Strategic foresight and scenario planning
- Artificial intelligence in the world of work
- Future of work and workforce transformation
- Industry 5.0 and regenerative futures
- Mobility, energy and sustainability to 2050
- Long-range megatrends for boards and executives
Ideal for
- Boards and executive committees setting long-range AI and workforce strategy
- CHROs and transformation leads redesigning the workforce around AI capability
- CSOs and corporate strategy teams in regulated sectors (insurance, mobility, energy, public administration)
- Innovation and R&D leadership briefing senior stakeholders on long-horizon scenarios
Audience outcomes
- A working method for thinking about long-range futures, not a memorable trend list
- Sharper distinction between trends, scenarios, and forecasts in their own strategy conversations
- A defensible language for talking about AI with boards that resists hype on either side
- Concrete reference points from German-speaking industry on how AI is restructuring the world of work
Videos
Testimonials
Books
Fees
| EUR | GBP | USD | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home Country | Under €12000 | Under £10,000 | Under $15000 |
| 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 |