Gerd  Leonhard‍‍‍

The future is already here – we just haven’t paid attention. Many‍‍‍ of us are far too busy coping with present challenges to explore the future in any real depth – and when we do, our hopes and fears often run away with us, resulting in utopias or dystopias that are not very helpful in terms of planning and decisions. Today’s leaders and their organizations need a dedicated, passionate long-term understanding of the future if they are to successfully navigate the exponential waves of change. For countless individuals and organizations around the globe that intelligence is called Gerd Leonhard.

A musician by origin, and a digital music entrepreneur in the 1990s, Gerd connects technology and humanity – algorithms and androrithms – for a 360-degree coverage of the multiple futures that present themselves at any one time. Delivering the ‘Realopia’ that one can work on immediately, Gerd Leonhard speaks, coaches, consults, and influences around the world. Turning futurism into a pragmatic science, Gerd and his team members from The Futures Agency represent additional minds for mastering the complex challenges that dictate evolution or extinction in the Digital Age. ‘Technology vs. Humanity’, his newest work, reminds every one of us what is at stake as we enter a world run by machines and algorithms.

Futurist‍‍‍

CEO of Trend Hunter‍‍‍

Futurist, Award-winning Author

Fee: $‍‍‍$

TECHNOLOGY AND HUMANITY‍‍‍

In this groundbreaking new talk based on his new book, Gerd addresses the “future shocks” that lie in wait for humanity as it tumbles into a world of Big Data / Tech / AI dominance. This impactful presentation at the intersection of technology and ethics will engage your audience way beyond their daily concerns, and challenge the very core of being human – our shared values, believes and desire for happiness. This talk is an always-evolving continuation of Gerd’s best-selling new book, and explores the coming clash of machine and mankind in detail – one that will make all other ‘industrial revolutions’ seem like kindergarten. This is a classic keynote engagement for public events, large audiences spanning all corporate divisions and borders, as well as for executive client conferences.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) FUTURES

Artificial intelligence (AI) has become a global buzzword, and investments in AI, machine/deep learning and many related fields are exploding. The excitement is clearly infectious yet many leading scientists and technologists have voiced grave concerns about controlling AI, or rather, AGI (artificial general intelligence), and an AI-arms-race between the U.S. and China seems almost inevitable. At the same time, the benefit of intelligent assistance (IA) and so-called narrow AI holds huge promise for all sectors of business and industry, such as in financial services and banking, healthcare and medical, logistics, smart cities and the Internet of Things, in general. In this talk, Gerd outlines his 7-year view of the opportunities and challenges of AI, with a particular focus on what the implications for our society and culture as well as for humanity overall might be. Technology is morally neutral until we apply it – and we apply it everywhere, now!

FROM DISRUPTION TO CONSTRUCTION: FUTURIZING YOUR BUSINESS

In this dynamic talk, Gerd delivers the immersion and the excitement that is often necessary to truly futurize your business or organisation, and to challenge and change established mindsets, toxic assumptions or satisfied attitudes. Understanding that the ‘digital default’ is becoming the new normal is often crucial to the process of constructing a new future. Angling for quick disruptions is no longer sufficient: everything and everyone is getting connected, everywhere and at all times; mobile devices have already become our external brains while bots and intelligent a‍‍‍ssistants are next – connected devices are now truly becoming the ‘the extension of man’. This coming hyper-networked society will not just change the very definition of ownership, property and control, but business models in general will become increasingly transient rather than permanent and predictable. How can you get ready for this kind of VUCA future, personally and professionally? How will you move beyond disruption towards constructing a truly sustainable future?