Oliver Leisse
Leadership teams are being asked to plan three to five years ahead while AI agents, automation and consumer behaviour shift faster than annual strategy cycles can absorb. The instinct is to wait for clarity. By the time clarity arrives, the operating model is already behind.
Oliver Leisse is a Hamburg-based futurologist and founder of SEE MORE who helps leadership teams convert weak signals in technology and consumer behaviour into concrete planning decisions.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with Oliver Leisse
- A live trend-research operation behind every keynote. SEE MORE runs ethnographic fieldwork across more than 50 global cities, so the material is observed evidence, not desk-research speculation.
- A specific point of view on the AI agent shift. His 2024 book “The Age of Agents” with Tim Cortinovis sets out what changes when software stops waiting for prompts and starts acting on goals.
- A named framework leadership teams can use after the room empties. The Four Metatrends (Commitment, Convenience, Creativity, Connection) and the Consumer Trend Circle give clients a reusable structure for trend triage.
- Two decades of strategy work for brands including Deutsche Bank, TUI, Henkel, Microsoft, Google, REWE and Deutsche Post. The frame of reference is commercial planning, not academic forecasting.
- Bilingual delivery in English and German for European audiences who want substance in either language.
Biography highlights
- Founder of SEE MORE, Future Research and Development, Hamburg (2008).
- Founder of EARSandEYES GmbH (1997), an early online market and trend research institute.
- Former strategy consultant at DDB, TBWA, BBDO and Springer & Jacoby.
- Author of “Be prepared” (Haufe Verlag, 2012; 2nd ed. 2014), “So geht Zukunft” (Edel, 2020), “The Age of Agents” (2024), and “Die Zukunft der Gastro” (Deutscher Fachverlag, 2024).
- Named clients include Deutsche Bank, TUI, Henkel, Microsoft, Google, Deutsche Post, REWE, Burda and AON.
- SEE MORE conducts qualitative ethnographic research across more than 50 global metropolitan markets.
Biography
Most futurist content arrives at boards as desk research dressed up in graphics. The signal-to-noise ratio is poor, and the planning horizon is rarely operational. SEE MORE was built to produce something different: ethnographic field observation across more than 50 global cities, fed back into commercial strategy work for organisations that need a defensible view of the next three to five years.
The institute’s founder spent the first part of his career as a strategy consultant inside DDB, TBWA, BBDO and Springer & Jacoby. In 1997 he set up EARSandEYES, one of the early online market and trend research firms. SEE MORE followed in 2008. Clients have included Deutsche Bank, TUI, Henkel, Microsoft, Google, Deutsche Post, REWE and Burda.
The current centre of gravity is AI agents and what they mean for operating models. The 2024 book “The Age of Agents”, co-written with Tim Cortinovis, argues that the shift from prompted assistants to goal-directed agents changes how work is structured, not just how it is automated. That argument runs through his current keynote material on automation, customer evolution and the future of work.
What separates this work from the broader futurist field is the discipline of the underlying method. The Four Metatrends framework (Commitment, Convenience, Creativity, Connection) and the Consumer Trend Circle give leadership teams a reusable structure for triaging weak signals. Both are anchored to observed behaviour in named markets, which is what makes them usable in a planning conversation.
Key speaking topics
- Artificial intelligence and AI agents
- Future of work and leadership
- Customer evolution and consumer behaviour
- Automation and the operating model
- Trend research and strategic foresight
- Generation Z and changing workforce expectations
- Retail and customer experience disruption
Ideal for
- Boards and executive committees setting three-to-five year strategy under AI and automation pressure
- CMOs and customer experience leads tracking consumer behaviour shifts across European and global markets
- HR and transformation leads redesigning work around AI-agent capability
- Innovation and strategy teams looking for a structured trend-triage method
Audience outcomes
- A clearer read on which AI and consumer-behaviour signals matter for the next planning cycle, and which can be deprioritised.
- A working understanding of the Four Metatrends framework and how to apply it to a specific business unit.
- A specific point of view on AI agents as an operating model question, not a tooling question.
- Named examples from observed consumer behaviour in global metropolitan markets, drawn from SEE MORE field research.