Automation and Robotics

Why organisations work with Ayanna Howard Her lab produced the first peer-reviewed algorithms quantifying how robot mistakes erode human trust – including in emergency scenarios where people followed automated systems away from clearly marked exits. That finding reframes the AI governance question from “is our system accurate?” to “are our people dangerously deferring to it?” Her book Sex, Race, and Robots (2021) makes a specific, falsifiable argument: AI bias originates with the designer, not the data. That argument changes where leadership teams assign accountability – and what they need to do before deployment, not after. She holds board seats at Autodesk and Motorola Solutions while running one of the largest engineering schools in the US. She understands AI decisions from lab to boardroom, and she speaks to both with equal authority. Zyrobotics, the company she founded from her Georgia Tech research, has commercialised AI for children with motor and cognitive challenges – she has direct product experience of translating research into regulated, real-world applications. As the 2021–2022 ACM Athena Lecturer and a Fellow of IEEE, AAAI, AAAS, and the National Academy of Inventors, her credentials carry weight in technical due diligence conversations as well as executive ones. Biography highlights Dean of the College of Engineering, The Ohio State University – first woman in the role; manages a $360M annual budget, 12 departments, and 11,900+ students Senior Robotics Researcher and Deputy Manager, Office of the Chief Scientist, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory – contributed to Mars rover and arctic robotics programmes Named 2021–2022 ACM Athena Lecturer for fundamental contributions to accessible human-robotic systems and AI Author of Sex, Race, and Robots: How to Be Human in the Age of AI (Audible Studios/Brilliance Audio, 2021) Fellow of IEEE, AAAI, AAAS, and National Academy of Inventors; elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Independent director, Autodesk Inc. and Motorola Solutions Inc. boards Founder, Zyrobotics – Georgia Tech spin-off developing AI-powered educational and therapy products for children with special needs Named to Forbes America’s Top 50 Women in Tech and Business Insider’s 23 Most Powerful Women Engineers; featured in TIME, Vanity Fair, CNN, and NPR Biography When an AI system makes a flawed decision, most organisations blame the data. Ayanna Howard’s research makes a harder argument: bias in AI is a design failure, and it traces directly to who builds the system. Her audiobook Sex, Race, and Robots (2021) put that argument to a public audience. Her more than 250 peer-reviewed publications put it to the scientific record. Her experimental work sharpens the stakes. Howard’s Human-Automation Systems Lab produced the first algorithms to quantify how robot mistakes erode human trust – including in emergency scenarios, where research subjects followed an automated guide away from clearly marked exits. The implication is direct: humans are overtrusting AI systems in ways that matter for consequential decisions in healthcare, hiring, and security. Her authority on these questions reaches across three distinct domains. She spent twelve years at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory – as Senior Robotics Researcher and Deputy Manager in the Office of the Chief Scientist – developing autonomous systems for Mars and arctic terrain. She then led one of the US’s most productive human-robotics labs at Georgia Tech. She now serves as Dean of Engineering at The Ohio State University – its first female dean – overseeing twelve departments, a $360M budget, and more than 11,900 students. Howard also holds board seats at Autodesk and Motorola Solutions, and founded Zyrobotics, which translates her research into AI-powered educational and therapy products for children with special needs. She is a Fellow of IEEE, AAAI, AAAS, and the National Academy of Inventors, and the 2021–2022 ACM Athena Lecturer. For boards and leadership teams asking serious questions about AI governance, she offers peer-reviewed research, institutional scale, and direct commercial accountability – in the same person. Key speaking topics AI bias and responsible system design Human overtrust in automated systems Human-robot interaction and trust Assistive and healthcare robotics AI governance and ethics AI in business: risk and opportunity Engineering leadership and workforce diversity in STEM Ideal for Corporate boards and C-suite leaders with AI governance responsibility Chief Technology Officers and Chief Digital Officers overseeing AI deployment R&D and innovation leadership in technology, healthcare, and manufacturing organisations Engineering and technology leadership development programmes Audience outcomes A specific reframe of AI accountability: bias is a design responsibility, not a data problem – with implications for who in the organisation owns it Evidence-based understanding of how humans overtrust automated systems, and what that means for governance and deployment decisions Practical criteria for evaluating AI systems before they are placed in consequential roles Clearer understanding of where workforce diversity in technical teams changes AI outcomes – and how to make the case internally A more confident, evidence-grounded position for boards and leadership teams facing AI adoption decisions

Why organisations work with Steve Wozniak He is the only living engineer who designed both the Apple I and Apple II from scratch – making him the sole speaker who can give an unmediated, first-hand account of the technical and creative decisions that launched the personal computer industry, not a retelling of someone else’s story. His account of innovation is engineering-first, not strategy-first: the Apple II preceded the business plan, not the other way round. That distinction gives organisations a direct counterpoint to the assumption that great products are the output of structured innovation programmes. The National Medal of Technology (1985) and the Heinz Award for Technology, The Economy and Employment (2000) – awarded specifically for “single-handedly designing the first personal computer” – are among the most rigorously assessed technology honours in the United States, and are publicly verifiable by any due-diligence process. His three decades of direct involvement in technology education – from adopting a school district to co-founding Woz U in 2017 – extend his argument about curiosity-driven invention into how organisations build and develop technical talent, not just how they manage innovation strategy. His signature format is a moderated conversation, not a fixed keynote: organisations set the agenda, and Wozniak engages directly with the specific challenges the audience brings. The result is different from – and harder to replicate than – a pre-packaged talk. Biography highlights Sole engineer on the Apple I (1976) and Apple II (1977); listed as sole inventor on four Apple patents National Medal of Technology, 1985 – awarded by President Ronald Reagan, jointly with Steve Jobs, for the development and introduction of the personal computer ACM Grace Murray Hopper Award, 1979; Heinz Award for Technology, The Economy and Employment, 2000; National Inventors Hall of Fame inductee, 2000 Computer History Museum Fellow, 1998 Author of iWoz: From Computer Geek to Cult Icon (W.W. Norton, 2006) – a New York Times bestselling autobiography BS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of California, Berkeley; co-founded Woz U in 2017, a postsecondary software engineering and technology training platform Founding sponsor of the Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose and The Tech Interactive, Silicon Valley’s technology museum Biography The Apple II was built by one engineer, on his own time, because the problem interested him. Steve Wozniak had no brief, no product committee, and no market research – just an engineering puzzle he found compelling. That creative condition is what produced the personal computer industry, and it is what Wozniak has spent decades trying to explain and, through his education work, replicate. That engineering-first perspective sets his account apart from those who discuss innovation as a strategic discipline. The Apple II preceded the business, not the other way round. Its colour graphics, integrated keyboard, and floppy disk drive were engineering decisions, not market-research conclusions. The product that launched a global industry was a technical artefact made by a person who loved making things. That distinction matters to any organisation asking why its own innovation efforts consistently underperform. The recognition that followed has been rigorous and specific. Wozniak received the National Medal of Technology in 1985 – jointly with Steve Jobs, for the development and introduction of the personal computer – the highest honour for technological achievement awarded by the United States government. The ACM Grace Murray Hopper Award recognised his contributions in 1979. In 2000, the Heinz Award for Technology, The Economy and Employment cited him explicitly for designing the first personal computer and redirecting his work toward education. He holds four Apple patents and is a Fellow of the Computer History Museum. His commitment to education has been sustained and direct. He adopted the Los Gatos School District, co-founded Woz U in 2017 to expand access to software engineering training, and has taught computer literacy in classrooms. His autobiography, iWoz: From Computer Geek to Cult Icon (W.W. Norton, 2006), was a New York Times bestseller. His BS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley was completed years after Apple had already become a global company – a fact that says something about what he values and why. Key speaking topics Engineering-led innovation and market creation The founding of Apple Computer Entrepreneurial thinking inside large organisations The origins of the personal computer industry Robotics, AI, and automation Technology education and technical talent development Creative freedom and engineering culture Ideal for CEOs and board-level audiences examining why large-organisation innovation consistently underperforms relative to investment CTOs, Chief Innovation Officers, and engineering leadership teams seeking a primary-source perspective on invention rather than innovation methodology Corporate innovation programmes and R&D functions looking to ground strategy in engineering-first thinking Technology and digital transformation conferences requiring a speaker whose credibility is structural, not positional Audience outcomes A first-hand account of the technical decisions and working conditions that produced the Apple I and Apple II – the machines that defined personal computing A clearer understanding of why genuine invention tends to emerge from curiosity and freedom rather than process and planning cycles Practical perspective on what organisations can do – and stop doing – to allow engineering talent and technical curiosity to produce commercially significant results Insight into the relationship between education, hands-on technical skill, and the kind of innovation that creates new industries rather than improves existing ones Exposure to a model of entrepreneurship that began with engineering before it had a business – and what that sequence reveals about how lasting technology companies are actually built

Why organisations work with Raffaello D’Andrea He has built two commercially-deployed autonomous systems from the ground up – Kiva Systems, now the architecture powering over a million Amazon Robotics units across 300+ facilities, and Verity, whose autonomous indoor drones operate at nearly 200 sites worldwide. Most technology speakers have observed others build at scale; D’Andrea has done it twice. His account of the gap between academic research and industrial deployment is not speculative. He moved from Cornell professor to co-founder to chief technical advisor to ETH faculty, and back to founder again – carrying hands-on engineering responsibility at every stage. That trajectory gives organisations a rare, inside view of what makes autonomous systems fail or succeed in practice. The Kiva story – a $775M acquisition that became the operational backbone of the world’s largest e-commerce company – is a fully documented, publicly available case study in redesigning an entire industry’s logistics model around autonomous systems. D’Andrea can speak to that case from the inside, as the architect of the core system. His ongoing research at ETH Zurich, through platforms like CyberRunner, Cubli and the Flying Machine Arena, sits at the frontier of autonomous learning and control. Audiences hear what is actually being solved in research today, not what is being forecast by analysts. Elected to the National Academy of Engineering, inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for the Kiva system, and recognised by the Logistics Hall of Fame – D’Andrea holds formal peer recognition across engineering, invention and industry simultaneously, a combination that is rare among technology speakers. Biography highlights Professor of Dynamic Systems and Control, ETH Zurich; founder of ETH’s Institute for Dynamic Systems and Control Co-founder of Kiva Systems, acquired by Amazon in 2012 and now operating as Amazon Robotics, the autonomous fulfilment system at the core of Amazon’s global warehouse operations Founder and CEO of Verity, autonomous indoor drone company deployed at nearly 200 sites worldwide, with clients including IKEA, Maersk and UPS Elected member, National Academy of Engineering (2020); National Inventors Hall of Fame inductee (2022); Logistics Hall of Fame inductee (2024) IEEE Fellow; IEEE Robotics and Automation Award (2016); Engelberger Robotics Award (2015); Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (2001); named on more than 40 US patents TED Global 2013 and TED 2016 speaker; TED and research videos with tens of millions of views New media artworks held in the permanent collections of the National Gallery of Canada and France’s FRAC Centre; exhibited at the Venice Biennale Biography The systems running inside Amazon’s warehouses today – more than a million autonomous robots across over 300 facilities – trace their core architecture directly to Raffaello D’Andrea. As co-founder of Kiva Systems, D’Andrea designed the navigation logic, fleet coordination algorithms and adaptive control systems that made warehouse automation economically viable at commercial scale for the first time. When Amazon acquired Kiva in 2012, it rebranded the company as Amazon Robotics and made it the operational foundation of its global fulfilment network. That work was built on a research track record with real competitive stakes. Before Kiva, D’Andrea was at Cornell University, where he led the Robot Soccer Team to four consecutive RoboCup world championships – using autonomous multi-agent competition as a proving ground for the kinds of coordination and real-time decision-making that large-scale robotics deployments require. The move from academic research to commercial deployment, and back to academic research, is the defining pattern of his career. At ETH Zurich, where he founded the Institute for Dynamic Systems and Control, D’Andrea leads research through hands-on experimental platforms – CyberRunner, Cubli, the Flying Machine Arena, the Distributed Flight Array – that probe the real limits of autonomous learning, not its theoretical promise. In 2014, he co-founded Verity, whose autonomous indoor drone systems now operate at nearly 200 sites worldwide, automating inventory tracking and operational data collection for clients including IKEA, Maersk and UPS. The company raised a $43M Series B in 2023 with Qualcomm Ventures among the investors. Elected to the National Academy of Engineering and inducted into both the National Inventors Hall of Fame and the Logistics Hall of Fame, D’Andrea holds formal peer recognition across engineering, invention and industry – a combination that reflects a career built on closing the distance between what autonomous systems can do in a laboratory and what they can sustain across an industrial operation. Key speaking topics Autonomous systems design and commercial-scale deployment AI, machine learning and physical intelligence Warehouse automation and supply chain operations Deep-tech entrepreneurship and venture building Autonomous flight and drone systems The gap between robotics research and real-world application The future of human-machine collaboration in physical operations Ideal for COOs, heads of supply chain and logistics leaders evaluating or scaling autonomous operations CTOs and technology leadership teams making investment decisions in robotics and AI deployment Boards and executive committees setting autonomous systems strategy Innovation and transformation leadership forums focused on operational technology Audience outcomes A practitioner’s framework for distinguishing autonomous systems that create genuine operational value from those that stall between proof of concept and deployment Concrete understanding of the systems design conditions that make robotics reliable and economically viable at industrial scale An insider account of how Kiva Systems redesigned warehouse operations – and what that process reveals about the real requirements of large-scale autonomous deployment A more accurate picture of where AI and robotics are heading, grounded in what is already working at commercial scale rather than in market speculation Sharper criteria for evaluating autonomous technology partnerships, vendor claims and investment priorities

Why organisations work with Guy Hoffman He runs one of the leading labs in the world on human-robot and human-AI collaboration, so the content is drawn from active research, not recycled commentary. His design training at Parsons sits on top of an MIT computer science doctorate, which is why his work on non-anthropomorphic robots and nonverbal machine communication reads as rigorous rather than aesthetic. His TEDxJaffa talk “Robots with Soul” passed three million views and remains one of the most-watched public explanations of why machines feel awkward to work with, and how to fix it. He has shipped work that reached wide audiences: the AUR robotic desk lamp won the IEEE Robot Design Competition, and his collaboration on the Digital Water Pavilion was named a TIME Best Invention of the Year. He speaks to leadership audiences about AI without the two failure modes buyers dread: pure hype on one side, and pure academic detachment on the other. Biography highlights Associate Professor and Mills Family Faculty Fellow, Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Cornell University. Heads the Human-Robot Collaboration and Companionship (HRC2) group at Cornell. PhD, MIT Media Lab (human-robot interaction); MSc Computer Science, Tel Aviv University; animation studies, Parsons School of Design. Best Paper awards at HRI and robotics conferences across 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2013, 2015, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021. Co-author of “Social Robot Morphology: Cultural Histories of Robot Design” in Cultural Robotics (Springer, 2023). Work covered by CNN, BBC, The New York Times, PBS, NBC, IEEE Spectrum and Semafor. Biography The hard problem in applied AI is not the model. It is the hand-off. The moment a machine has to time its action to a human’s, read context, share a task, or back off when the person wants to lead, most systems fail in ways that erode trust faster than any single output error. Guy Hoffman has spent two decades building the science of that moment. At Cornell, Hoffman leads the Human-Robot Collaboration and Companionship group as Associate Professor and Mills Family Faculty Fellow in the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. The lab’s work sits across mechanical engineering, computer science and information science, which is why it produces research on timing, nonverbal communication and the design of machines that do not pretend to be human. His doctorate is from the MIT Media Lab; he also trained in animation at Parsons, and that combination shapes the questions he asks. The public version of that thinking is his TEDxJaffa talk “Robots with Soul,” watched more than three million times and still one of the clearest explanations of why so many AI products feel wrong to use. The academic version is a body of work that has been recognised with Best Paper awards at HRI and robotics conferences across a decade and more, and a 2023 Springer chapter, “Social Robot Morphology,” that traces how cultural assumptions get baked into machine design. For senior audiences, the through-line is practical. Companies are now deploying AI into workflows that were built for humans. Hoffman’s research shows what breaks at that boundary, why it breaks, and what good looks like when a machine is designed to collaborate rather than merely perform. That is a more specific brief than the usual AI keynote, and it lands with operators who have already moved past the demo. Key speaking topics Human-AI collaboration and the design of productive machine partners Human-robot interaction in workplaces and homes Nonverbal communication between people and intelligent systems Non-anthropomorphic robot and AI design Timing, trust and hand-offs in human-machine teams Cultural assumptions embedded in AI and robot design The future of robots in care, service and creative work Ideal for Chief technology and chief AI officers leading enterprise AI deployment Heads of R and D, innovation and product in technology-intensive sectors Boards and executive teams setting strategy for automation and AI-enabled services Health, manufacturing and service leaders introducing robotic or AI systems into human workflows Audience outcomes A clearer map of where AI and robotic systems tend to fail at the human boundary, and why those failures are predictable A working vocabulary for discussing trust, timing and hand-offs in AI-enabled operations Specific design principles from two decades of human-robot interaction research, translated for non-technical leaders A view of where near-term robotics is heading in workplaces, homes and care settings, grounded in current lab work Sharper questions to bring back to internal AI and automation roadmaps

Why organisations work with Dominik Boesl Operating credibility from two of the most consequential robotics manufacturers in Europe: KUKA, where he co-managed the market launch of the LBR iiwa, the first industrially certified collaborative robot, and Festo, where he ran a robotics division spanning five international R&D centres. A governance perspective rooted in formal institutional work, not commentary: VP roles in the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, Global Chair of the IEEE TechEthics Initiative, and founder of the Robotics & AI Governance Foundation. A named intellectual contribution. The “4 Robotic Revolutions” model, co-developed with Bernd Liepert and presented at IEEE IROS, gives audiences a working frame for where robotics sits today and what comes next. Policy-level reach into the UN system through the UN DESA expert group on AI and robotics for the Sustainable Development Goals, useful for boards weighing the regulatory direction of travel. Research that informs strategy rather than describing it: he leads the Robotics 2050+ Global Delphi Study, a long-range scenario programme supported by IEEE. Biography highlights Professor of Digital Sciences, Automation & Leadership, HDBW Munich; Adjunct Professor, TUM Institute for LifeLong Learning Founder, Robotics & AI Governance Foundation; founder and CEO, Innomancer Thinktank Former VP and Head of Robotics, Festo AG; former Principal Corporate Innovation Manager and VP Consumer Driven Robotics, KUKA AG Past VP for Industrial Activities, IEEE Robotics and Automation Society; past Global Chair, IEEE TechEthics Initiative Member of the UN DESA expert group on AI and robotics for the Sustainable Development Goals Co-author of the “4 Robotic Revolutions” framework (IEEE IROS 2016) and lead of the Robotics 2050+ Delphi Study Biography The collaborative robotics market did not exist as a commercial category until a small group of teams, including the one Boesl worked in at KUKA, navigated the LBR iiwa through the safety standards that made human-machine co-working legally and operationally viable. That kind of work, sitting at the join between engineering, regulation, and commercial deployment, is what informs the way he now advises boards. After KUKA he ran the robotics division at Festo, overseeing five international R&D centres and the development of the Festo BionicCobot, the first pneumatic collaborative robot. The combination of two senior operating roles at two of the most credible robotics businesses in Europe is unusual on its own. It becomes more so when paired with chair-level institutional work: VP for Industrial Activities at the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, and Global Chair of the IEEE TechEthics Initiative for five years. His academic and policy work extends the same agenda. As Professor of Digital Sciences at HDBW Munich and an adjunct at the TUM Institute for LifeLong Learning, he leads the Robotics 2050+ Global Delphi Study, a long-range scenario programme on the future of robotics and AI. Through the Robotics & AI Governance Foundation and a seat on the UN DESA expert group, he contributes to how governments and standards bodies think about autonomous systems and the Sustainable Development Goals. What this means for buyers is straightforward. When a board asks where the line should sit between human and machine decision-making, or how to make AI deployment defensible to a regulator, Boesl is one of the few voices in Europe who can answer from the engineering side, the standards side, and the policy side at once. Key speaking topics Robotics and human-machine collaboration AI governance and technology ethics Industry 4.0 and operational deployment of automation Strategic foresight and long-range scenario planning Responsible innovation in regulated industries The future of work in robotic and AI-enabled organisations Ideal for Boards and executive committees setting AI and automation strategy in industrial, manufacturing, and engineering-led organisations Chief technology, chief digital, and chief AI officers responsible for moving from pilots to deployment Heads of innovation, R&D leadership, and corporate strategy teams in industrial groups and Mittelstand manufacturers Policy, public affairs, and ESG leaders tracking the regulatory direction of AI and robotics Audience outcomes A clearer map of where robotics and AI sit today against the “4 Robotic Revolutions” frame, and what the next phase actually demands of an operating business A working vocabulary for AI governance that a board can use with regulators, auditors, and internal risk functions Specific reference points from KUKA and Festo on what it takes to deploy collaborative robotics inside an industrial operation A perspective on long-range scenarios drawn from the Robotics 2050+ Delphi research, rather than commentary A sharper sense of where the human-machine boundary should sit for the organisation’s own workforce design

Why organisations work with David Hanson He built Sophia. Few speakers on AI can point to a single, globally recognised artefact of their work that has been granted citizenship by a nation state and appointed the UN Development Programme’s first Innovation Champion. His perspective combines sculpture, materials science and AI in a way almost no other robotics founder can credibly claim. RISD-trained, Disney Imagineering-trained, PhD from UT Dallas, peer-reviewed in IEEE and SPIE. He has built and run a robotics company through the commercial reality of hardware, not just the AI software conversation. That grounds his view of where human-facing AI actually works and where it does not. The 2005 AAAI first-place prize for open AI system interaction, Tech Titans Innovator of the Year, and Sophia’s 2018 Edison Award give the innovation claim a named, credible track record rather than a marketing line. He is one of the small group of AI voices who can hold a serious conversation about ethics, emotional design and commercial deployment in the same session. That is what executive audiences increasingly want from the topic. Biography highlights Founder and CEO of Hanson Robotics, Hong Kong Creator of Sophia, the first robot granted honorary citizenship (Saudi Arabia, 2017) and UN Development Programme’s first Innovation Champion Sophia awarded a 2018 Edison Award in robotics Co-recipient of the 2005 AAAI first-place prize for open interaction of an AI system PhD, Interactive Arts and Technology, University of Texas at Dallas; BFA, Rhode Island School of Design Co-author, “The Coming Robot Revolution” (Springer, 2009); author, “Humanizing Robots” Former Walt Disney Imagineer; earlier design and robotics roles at Universal Studios and MTV Featured in the New York Times, WIRED, Scientific American, Popular Science, BBC and CNN Biography Sophia was activated in February 2016 and made her first public appearance weeks later at SXSW. Within eighteen months she had honorary Saudi Arabian citizenship and a UN title, and David Hanson’s company, Hanson Robotics, had become the reference point for what a human-facing robot could look like. The artefact was the argument. The background behind that artefact is unusual. Hanson trained at the Rhode Island School of Design in film, animation and video, then spent years as a sculptor and material researcher inside Disney Imagineering before taking a PhD in Interactive Arts and Technology at the University of Texas at Dallas. The skin materials, the expression mechanisms and the facial architecture on his robots come from that rare combination of arts practice and engineering. The research record sits alongside it. Papers in IEEE, SPIE, IROS, AAAI and AI Magazine. A Springer-published co-authored book, “The Coming Robot Revolution”. A 2005 AAAI first-place prize for open AI system interaction. NASA and NSF awards. Tech Titans Innovator of the Year. His own company, founded in 2013 and scaled out of Hong Kong, building robots now deployed in research, therapy and education. For executive audiences, the value is a founder who can speak with authority about where human-facing AI is heading, how ethical and emotional design choices get made inside a real robotics programme, and what changes for industries from healthcare to customer experience when the machine has a face. Sophia is the headline. The argument behind her is why leadership teams book him. Key speaking topics Humanoid robotics and social AI Human-robot coexistence in work and everyday life AI ethics and responsible development The design and engineering behind Sophia Science fiction, storytelling and the shaping of real-world robotics The future of AI in healthcare, education and customer-facing industries Ideal for Executive teams and boards setting strategy for AI-mediated customer, patient or citizen interaction Innovation, R&D and technology leadership in healthcare, education, hospitality and customer experience Corporate conferences, industry summits and innovation festivals seeking a founder-level voice on human-facing AI Audiences exploring AI ethics, emotional design and the societal consequences of humanoid machines Audience outcomes A grounded view of where humanoid AI is today, told by the person who built the most visible example of it A clear read on the commercial sectors most likely to be reshaped by social robotics over the next decade The ethical questions serious robotics programmes are actually wrestling with, not the media version of them A sense of how arts, materials science and engineering combine to produce AI that people trust and engage with Direct exposure to Sophia when the format permits, and an informed discussion of what that interaction implies for their own organisation

Why organisations work with Sir Christopher Pissarides The Diamond-Mortensen-Pissarides model – the standard tool used by central banks and governments to analyse unemployment and wage formation – means his analysis carries a precision and institutional grounding that macroeconomic commentary cannot match. His Pissarides Review into the Future of Work and Wellbeing, a Nuffield Foundation-funded programme conducted with Imperial College London and Warwick Business School, converts macroeconomic research into concrete, evidence-based frameworks for managing workforce disruption from automation. Forty years of advisory work for the World Bank, European Commission, OECD, and Bank of England means audiences receive analysis that has already shaped the policy environment they operate in – not analysis that describes it from the outside. His position as co-developer of the most cited model in labour economics, and former chair of a national economy council during a financial crisis, enables board-level conversations that translate structural theory directly into strategic workforce decisions. His analysis of AI and automation extends the search-frictions framework behind his Nobel Prize – it is not speculative commentary, but a rigorous continuation of four decades of original research applied to a new generation of technological disruption. Biography highlights Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences 2010, jointly with Peter Diamond and Dale Mortensen, for “analysis of markets with search frictions” Regius Professor of Economics, London School of Economics – faculty member since 1976; former Head of the Economics Department Co-developer of the Diamond-Mortensen-Pissarides (DMP) model – the standard global tool for analysing unemployment, wage formation, and labour market policy Author of Equilibrium Unemployment Theory (MIT Press) – the standard reference in labour economics Co-Founder and Co-Chair, Institute for the Future of Work (2018); led the Pissarides Review into the Future of Work and Wellbeing, a £1.8m Nuffield Foundation-funded programme with Imperial College London and Warwick Business School Knighted 2013 for services to economics; IZA Prize in Labor Economics 2005; Fellow of the British Academy, Econometric Society, and American Economic Association; adviser to the World Bank, European Commission, OECD, and Bank of England Biography The Diamond-Mortensen-Pissarides model is the standard analytical framework for understanding unemployment. Sir Christopher Pissarides co-built it at the London School of Economics, where he has been on the faculty since 1976. He received the 2010 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for the work, jointly with Peter Diamond and Dale Mortensen. The model’s core claim is that labour markets are governed by frictions. Workers and vacancies do not find each other efficiently. Search costs, information gaps, and institutional design create persistent mismatches that no increase in job openings can resolve on its own. This structural view of unemployment is the one that central banks, the World Bank, and the European Commission reach for when they need precision rather than commentary. Pissarides co-founded the Institute for the Future of Work in 2018 and led the Pissarides Review into the Future of Work and Wellbeing, a Nuffield Foundation-funded programme conducted with Imperial College London and Warwick Business School. The Review applies his frictions framework to automation and AI, producing evidence on how technological disruption creates new mismatches and what organisations and governments must do to manage them. His advisory record spans the World Bank, the European Commission, the OECD, and the Bank of England. He chaired the National Economy Council of the Republic of Cyprus during its financial crisis. He is a Fellow of the British Academy, the Econometric Society, and the American Economic Association. For boards and leadership teams working through structural workforce questions, his analysis carries a weight that secondary interpretation of the same data cannot replicate. Key speaking topics Labour market economics and unemployment theory Search frictions and job matching Automation, AI, and the future of work Workforce disruption and structural economic change Employment policy and institutional design Economic growth and structural transformation Worker wellbeing and productivity Ideal for Boards and C-suite leadership navigating long-term workforce and employment strategy Policymakers, finance ministries, and government economic advisers Chief Human Resources Officers and HR leadership teams grappling with automation and structural workforce change Economic and business conferences addressing labour markets, growth, or the workforce consequences of technology Audience outcomes A structural model for why labour markets underperform that goes beyond cyclical explanations Analytical tools for assessing how automation and AI will affect workforce composition in specific sectors or regions A framework for distinguishing cyclical workforce disruption from structural change that requires institutional response Policy context for decisions on hiring, reskilling, and workforce investment Clarity on how technological change distributes economic gains and losses – and what factors determine which outcome prevails

Why organisations work with Carl Frey The 2013 paper Frey co-authored with Michael Osborne – estimating 47% of US jobs at risk from automation – is one of the most cited works in social science of the past two decades, with its methodology adopted by Obama’s Council of Economic Advisors, the World Bank, and the Bank of England. No comparable speaker in this space brings this level of intellectual provenance to the conversation. His concept of the “technology trap” gives boards a precisely named mechanism for diagnosing their own institutional response to AI: the pattern by which efforts to resist short-term disruption deny organisations the long-term gains that technology makes possible. How Progress Ends (Princeton, 2025) addresses the question now at the top of most board agendas – why do some organisations and nations sustain the capacity to benefit from new technology while others stagnate – and gives senior leaders a durable, historically grounded answer rather than a forecast. His analysis is built on 1,000 years of economic history, not current trend extrapolation. That means the framework he offers survives the next wave of AI announcements rather than becoming obsolete with each new model release. Advisory roles with the G20, OECD, European Commission, and OECD Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence mean he brings regulatory and policy intelligence that most academic speakers lack – organisations understand not just the technology but the governance environment forming around it. Biography highlights Dieter Schwarz Associate Professor of AI & Work, Oxford Internet Institute; Fellow of Mansfield College; Director, Future of Work Programme, Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford Co-author of “The Future of Employment” (2013, with Michael Osborne) – one of the most cited social science papers of the past two decades; 20,000+ citations on Google Scholar; methodology adopted by Obama’s Council of Economic Advisors, the World Bank, and the Bank of England Author of The Technology Trap (Princeton University Press, 2019) – Financial Times Best Books of the Year; winner of the Richard A. Lester Prize for Outstanding Book in Industrial Relations and Labour Economics (Princeton University) Author of How Progress Ends (Princeton University Press, 2025) – shortlisted for the FT/Schroders Business Book of the Year Award; finalist for the Lionel Gelber Prize Advisor to the G20, OECD, European Commission, and United Nations; former member of the OECD Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence and the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on the New Economic Agenda Ranked in the top 0.5% of economists worldwide by IDEAS/RePEC; contributor to the Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, Scientific American, and The Economist (By Invitation) Biography The paper that put 47% of US jobs at risk of automation – co-authored at Oxford by Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael Osborne in 2013 – reshaped the global policy debate and became one of the most cited works in social science that decade. Obama’s Council of Economic Advisors used its methodology. So did the World Bank and the Bank of England. The Economist later described Frey as an “accidental doom-monger”: his own reading of the evidence was considerably more nuanced than the headlines. That nuance became the subject of his first book. The Technology Trap (Princeton, 2019) – Financial Times Best Book of the Year and winner of Princeton’s Richard A. Lester Prize – argued that the real risk of automation is not that work disappears, but that organisations and governments mismanage the transition. Drawing on the Industrial Revolution and the Computer Revolution, Frey named the failure mode precisely: resistance to short-term disruption, he showed, tends to deny access to the long-term gains. His 2025 book How Progress Ends – shortlisted for the FT/Schroders Business Book of the Year Award – extends the framework to the question now central to board strategy: why do some organisations and nations sustain the capacity to benefit from new technology while others stagnate? Frey’s answer, built from 1,000 years of economic history spanning Song China to the present, identifies the balance between decentralised innovation and the institutional capacity to scale as the deciding factor. As Dieter Schwarz Associate Professor of AI & Work at Oxford’s Internet Institute and Director of the Future of Work Programme at the Oxford Martin School, Frey advises the G20, OECD, European Commission, and United Nations. His analysis appears in the Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, and Scientific American. IDEAS/RePEC ranks him in the top 0.5% of economists worldwide. Key speaking topics Automation, AI, and labour market transformation The technology trap: historical lessons for the age of AI Why progress stalls – and what organisations and nations can do about it Workforce strategy in an era of technological disruption AI, inequality, and the distribution of economic gains Industrial policy and the geopolitics of technological leadership The economics of innovation: decentralisation, scaling, and competitive advantage Ideal for Boards and C-suite leadership teams navigating AI investment decisions and long-term workforce strategy CHROs and transformation leads developing evidence-based frameworks for workforce planning under conditions of technological disruption Policy and public affairs functions in sectors facing direct automation exposure – financial services, professional services, manufacturing Strategy and scenario planning teams in organisations with significant AI or digital transformation programmes Audience outcomes A historically grounded framework for distinguishing automation that displaces workers from technology that expands what workers can do – and why the difference matters for investment decisions A working understanding of the “technology trap” mechanism: how to identify institutional resistance before it becomes strategically costly Concrete criteria for evaluating workforce and AI investment decisions against historical patterns of disruption, transition, and recovery Insight into the macro-economic and geopolitical conditions shaping AI adoption – including what the US-China competition for technological leadership means for business strategy Sharper language and stronger evidence for board-level conversations about AI, workforce, and long-term competitive positioning

Why organisations work with Andrés Oppenheimer His sector-by-sector analysis of automation’s job impact – developed through the same investigative methodology that produced a Pulitzer Prize – gives leadership teams a specific, evidence-built picture of workforce risk rather than a generalist technology forecast. “The Oppenheimer Report” column runs twice weekly across 60+ newspapers in the US and Latin America, meaning his read on political and economic shifts is drawn from live, primary reporting – not filtered retrospective analysis. He can address geopolitical risk and AI-driven workforce disruption in a single conversation, from a single credible position – organisations operating across the Americas do not need separate voices to cover both agendas. His television programme “Oppenheimer Presenta” on CNN en Español gives him direct, ongoing access to heads of state, finance ministers, and regional business leaders – a source network that shapes the quality and specificity of his intelligence. Nine books across four decades of reporting on Latin American competitiveness means his arguments carry empirical ballast: when he makes a forecast, he can point to the precedents it rests on. Biography highlights Latin America editor and syndicated foreign affairs columnist, The Miami Herald; “The Oppenheimer Report” appears twice weekly in 60+ US and international newspapers Anchor, “Oppenheimer Presenta,” CNN en Español – broadcast across 19+ countries in the US, Latin America and the Caribbean Co-winner, 1987 Pulitzer Prize, as part of the Miami Herald team that broke the Iran-Contra scandal Author of nine books, including The Robots Are Coming! (Vintage/Random House, 2019) and Innovate or Die! (2014), translated into Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese Awards include: Ortega y Gasset Award (El País, 1993), Maria Moors Cabot Award (Columbia University, 1998), King of Spain Award (2001), Overseas Press Club Award (2002) Master’s degree in Journalism, Columbia University; freelance contributor to The New York Times, The Washington Post, BBC, and CBS’ 60 Minutes Biography The Americas produce a particular kind of strategic risk – one where political instability, trade volatility, and currency pressure arrive together and faster than most organisations expect. Andrés Oppenheimer has spent four decades reporting from inside that complexity, as Latin America editor and syndicated foreign affairs columnist for The Miami Herald, with “The Oppenheimer Report” appearing twice weekly in more than 60 newspapers across the US and internationally. His investigative credentials are substantive. He was part of the Miami Herald team awarded the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for uncovering the Iran-Contra affair – a grounding in primary-source journalism that has shaped every argument he has made since. His awards from El País (Ortega y Gasset, 1993), Columbia University (Maria Moors Cabot, 1998), and the Spanish news agency EFE (King of Spain Award, 2001) confirm a standing in the Spanish-speaking world that extends well beyond the conference circuit. His book The Robots Are Coming! (Vintage/Random House, 2019) applied that same investigative rigour to the future-of-work debate. Oppenheimer interviewed Oxford economists, Silicon Valley engineers, and sector specialists across Japan, South Korea, Israel, and Europe to build a profession-by-profession account of what automation is actually doing to legal work, banking, medicine, and manufacturing – and what the evidence says about whether new industries will replace what is being lost. The earlier Innovate or Die! (2014) set out his argument that innovation capacity is the defining variable in national competitiveness in the knowledge economy. As anchor of “Oppenheimer Presenta” on CNN en Español, he interviews heads of state, policymakers, and business leaders across a region that remains both strategically critical and consistently misread by organisations operating from outside it. That combination – live political intelligence, investigative depth, and a published analytical framework on automation and competitiveness – is what distinguishes his contribution in a board conversation on international risk. Key speaking topics Geopolitics and political risk across the Americas AI, automation, and the future of work Latin American economic trends and competitiveness Innovation strategy in the knowledge economy The impact of automation on professional sectors Global economic forecasting and scenario analysis Ideal for C-suite and board-level leaders in organisations with commercial exposure or operations across Latin America and the Americas Risk, strategy, and policy leads navigating geopolitical uncertainty in international markets Senior leadership teams examining the intersection of AI-driven workforce disruption and macroeconomic risk Global business conferences and economic forums seeking analytical depth on hemispheric political and technological change Audience outcomes A clearer framework for understanding how geopolitical risk and automation interact as compounding – not separate – forces on competitive strategy Sector-specific insight into which professional roles and industries face the earliest automation pressure, grounded in published research rather than prediction A more accurate and current picture of Latin American political and economic dynamics, drawn from active reporting rather than retrospective analysis A working understanding of why innovation capacity determines national and organisational competitiveness in the knowledge economy Confidence to brief boards and senior colleagues on the forces reshaping international markets – with the evidence and context to withstand scrutiny

Why organisations work with Richard van Hooijdonk He maps the intersection of multiple converging technologies – AI, robotics, quantum computing, biotech, autonomous systems – in a single strategic framework. Most technology speakers go deep on one domain; van Hooijdonk shows how these forces compound, which is where the strategic risk and opportunity actually sits. His material comes from an active research operation. Trendforce.one (Futurezone.ai) runs a permanent international research team, meaning his content reflects current technological trajectories rather than the publication date of a book or the half-life of a conference circuit. He speaks credibly across both commercial and institutional mandates. Clients range from Interpol, the European Commission, and NATO to Google, Deloitte, and Heineken – giving him a grounded view of how the same technology behaves under different regulatory, security, and commercial conditions. His RFID chip implants – used in daily life to open doors and operate his vehicle – are a verifiable, concrete expression of a research philosophy built on direct experience rather than observation. It is unusual, and it is documented. His Dutch-language bestseller De wereld van morgen and his multi-year recognition as the most sought-after futurist in the Netherlands demonstrate a sustained public credibility that extends well beyond the conference stage. Biography highlights Founder and CEO of Trendforce.one / Futurezone.ai, a future intelligence agency with a permanent international research team tracking emerging and disruptive technologies Author of De wereld van morgen (The World of Tomorrow), a Dutch bestseller published by Bertram + De Leeuw Uitgevers (2017); author of 2,000+ articles and 60+ books, e-books, and whitepapers Delivered presentations to more than 600,000 attendees across 30+ countries since 2014 Clients include Google, Microsoft, IBM, Gartner, Interpol, NATO, the European Commission, PwC, Deloitte, Heineken, Unilever, and Nike Guest lecturer at Nyenrode University and Erasmus University Regular television contributor on RTL (RTL Late Night, RTL Boulevard, RTLZ) and former host of Mindshift on BNR Nieuwsradio Voted most sought-after trendwatcher and futurist in the Netherlands for multiple consecutive years from 2015 Biography Technology leaders have been warning organisations about AI and automation for years. What has changed is the simultaneity: AI, robotics, quantum computing, and biotech are not a sequence of challenges to address in turn – they are arriving together, and their combined effect on business models is harder to read than any single technology in isolation. Richard van Hooijdonk has built his practice around exactly this problem. His research base is institutional rather than individual. As founder and CEO of Trendforce.one – now operating as Futurezone.ai – he leads a permanent international research team that tracks emerging technologies across sectors, geographies, and regulatory environments. Where many futurists work from published sources and their own networks, van Hooijdonk’s content is generated from ongoing intelligence work. The material he brings to a board conversation reflects the current state of the field. His client base spans both sides of the public-private boundary. Organisations including Interpol, NATO, the European Commission, and Dutch Customs sit alongside Google, Deloitte, Heineken, and Samsung in his client history. That cross-sector exposure matters: the same autonomous system or generative AI application functions differently under a security mandate than under a commercial growth brief, and van Hooijdonk can articulate both. His public platform extends his research reach beyond the executive audience. De wereld van morgen (The World of Tomorrow), a Dutch-language bestseller, brought his frameworks to a wider readership. Regular appearances on RTL television and BNR Nieuwsradio – where he hosted the Mindshift programme – and guest lectureships at Nyenrode University and Erasmus University have established him as a sustained public voice on technological change, not simply a conference circuit presence. Key speaking topics Artificial intelligence and generative AI Robotics and autonomous systems Quantum computing and frontier technologies Technology-driven sector transformation The organisation of the future Cybercrime, security, and technology-enabled risk The future of work and human-machine collaboration Ideal for Boards and executive leadership teams making technology investment decisions with long strategic horizons Chief Digital Officers, Chief Technology Officers, and Chief Innovation Officers Strategy and innovation functions within large enterprises navigating multi-technology disruption Public sector, government, and law enforcement organisations managing the security and governance implications of emerging technology Audience outcomes A framework for assessing multiple converging technologies simultaneously, rather than evaluating each in isolation Sector-specific perspective on how AI, robotics, and adjacent technologies will alter competitive dynamics in their industry Practical orientation on where to begin with AI adoption – which processes are immediately affected, and how to sequence the transition Awareness of the security and governance risks created by emerging technologies, including AI-enabled crime and deepfakes Strategic clarity on the leadership behaviours and organisational structures required to adapt continuously, not reactively