Vito Di Bari
Most leadership teams cannot tell which emerging technologies will reshape their business and which are noise. They commission AI pilots and IoT proofs of concept without a coherent picture of how the pieces fit together five years out. Every one of those decisions needs a long-range view, and most organisations do not have one.
Vito Di Bari is an Italian futurist and innovation designer who shows executive teams what AI and emerging technologies will do to their industry, and which bets to place now, drawing on his work as Innovation Designer for Milan’s Expo 2015 candidacy.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with Vito Di Bari
- As Innovation Designer for Milan’s Expo 2015 candidacy, he turned a futures vision into 25 designed solutions for the city. The manifesto he wrote for the bid is credited with reviving Neo-Futurism as a movement in art and architecture.
- He argues from named frameworks. The Paradox of Digital Transformation explains why capable managers keep missing expectations during technology change. The Paradox of Automation explains why job losses to automation are followed by larger job creation.
- UNESCO appointed him Executive Director of its International Multimedia Institute in Paris. Politecnico di Milano and Bocconi gave him contract chairs in innovation design and cross-media communication.
- He rebuilds the keynote by sector. Dedicated versions of “A Day in the Future” exist for automotive, retail, healthcare, and cybersecurity, so a brief in those sectors starts from developed material.
- He has taken this material to TEDx audiences in the UK, Morocco, Brazil, and China, and presents in English, Italian, and Spanish.
Biography highlights
- Innovation Designer for Milan’s Expo 2015 candidacy, with 25 designed solutions for the city
- Former Executive Director, UNESCO International Multimedia Institute (IMI), Paris
- Former contract professor of Design and Management of Innovation, Politecnico di Milano; and of Cross Media Communication, Bocconi University
- Author of “Welcome to the AI Transformation” (Palo Alto Books, 2024), and of more than ten earlier books on innovation
- Author of “The Neofuturistic City Manifesto” (2007), credited with reviving Neo-Futurism
- TEDx speaker in the UK, Morocco, Brazil, and China, including “The Big Bang of Data” at TEDxFIAP São Paulo
Biography
In 2007, Milan’s candidature to the Bureau International des Expositions included a manifesto for what the city could become. Vito Di Bari wrote it. As Innovation Designer for the bid, he produced 25 designed solutions for a city where digital and physical architecture work together. The document behind them, “The Neofuturistic City Manifesto”, is credited with reviving Neo-Futurism as a movement in art and architecture.
He held contract chairs at Politecnico di Milano in design and management of innovation, and at Bocconi in cross-media communication. He was Executive Director of UNESCO’s International Multimedia Institute in Paris. Next Media Lab, the international research laboratory he founded, and Di Bari & Associates, his Miami Beach design studio, put the same thinking into urban installations. The ideas reach the stage having been built somewhere first.
The ideas have names. The Paradox of Digital Transformation holds that digital innovation advances exponentially while organisational adoption advances logarithmically. The gap widens, and managers cannot meet expectations no matter how capable they are. The Paradox of Automation sets out why automation eliminates jobs and then creates more than it eliminated. Both sit in “Welcome to the AI Transformation”, published by Palo Alto Books in 2024, alongside AI readiness guides for six industries.
The keynote work runs on the same material. “A Day in the Future” walks an audience through one ordinary day remade by AI, shown on a cinema screen with live commentary. Dedicated versions exist for automotive, retail, and healthcare, plus a cybersecurity edition published through his newsletter. Every attendee leaves with a copy of the book.
Key speaking topics
- Artificial intelligence and generative AI in business
- AI transformation by industry: automotive, retail, healthcare, and cybersecurity
- Automation and the future of employment
- Innovation strategy and design
- Internet of Things and emerging technologies
- Neo-Futurism, urbanism, and the design of the future
- Long-range scenario thinking for leadership teams
Ideal for
- Boards and executive committees stress-testing an AI strategy before they commit capital
- CEOs, CIOs, and chief innovation officers setting multi-year technology roadmaps
- Sector conferences in automotive, retail, healthcare, and cybersecurity commissioning a futures keynote
- Company conventions marking a merger or a major product launch, where the agenda needs a forward-looking centrepiece
Audience outcomes
- A picture of how AI changes the specific jobs and margins inside the audience’s own sector
- The shifts Di Bari expects in that sector over the next three to five years, named individually
- Two frameworks to argue with: the Paradox of Digital Transformation and the Paradox of Automation
- Expo 2015 Milan as a worked example of a futures vision turned into 25 designed solutions
- A copy of “Welcome to the AI Transformation”, which carries AI readiness guides for six industries
Talks
Moves an audience back and forth between the present and a near future remade by AI, shown on a cinema screen with live commentary, stopping along the way for forecasting specific to the industry in the room. Dedicated versions exist for automotive, retail, healthcare, and cybersecurity.
Key takeaways:
- What the audience’s own working day looks like once AI is fully inside it
- The shifts arriving in their sector over the next three to five years
- Which capabilities to start building before those shifts land
A tailored keynote on where AI is already changing how industries operate, using AR projections, custom video, and a closing screening of “A Day in the Future” with live commentary and symphonic music.
Key takeaways:
- How AI changes the way the audience’s own industry works, and on what timeline
- The sequence for moving from a first AI pilot to scaled deployment
- What has to change in data, processes, and hiring for a company to become AI-friendly