Artificial Intelligence
Keynote Speaker

AI Insight for
leadership teams

The scope of our future is bigger than you think.

The future of AI is all about the AI Megatrends.These are the far-reaching, transformative, and disruptive AI concepts that turn industries upside down, resulting in the arrival of new competitors, massive changes in consumer behavior, the arrival of new products and services, and other major industry changes.

Do you see the trend here?What's the point? Your industry is in the midst of a massive transformation driven by accelerating AI - and you probably have no idea about the change that is coming.
That's why you need strategic clarity on AI - leadership insight that matters.

Executive Level
AI Leadership Insight

You Need to align fast-moving
AI trends to your strategic goals

“I help CEOs, senior executives, and association leaders align their strategic objectives to the rapid acceleration of AI within a fast-paced keynote or leadership meeting presentation. It's based on customized research specific to your industry and organization, and aligned to your unique perspective. It’s insight that matters, is relevant, and actionable!" - Futurist Jim Carroll

you need strategic clarity
on the AI trends that matter

• Contact Jim

• Leadership Events on AI

CEO / CxO / Senior Management Leadership Events

Jim Carroll is "the Futurist that CEOs trust." Over a 30-year career, he has been booked regularly by CEOs and senior executives of major organizations worldwide, to provide an opening or closing keynote or leadership talk on highly customized topics.None other than NASA has booked him - twice - for a talk on 'the future of space.' If NASA finds value in his customized insight, so will you!Other clients include the World Bank, Zurich Insurance, Nikon, the BBC, Disney, Pfizer, Chrysler, Volvo, and hundreds more.He is known worldwide for his strategic thinking - and when it comes to AI, you don't need the tech - you need the strategic insight.You don't need hype. You need strategic reality.That's Futurist Jim Carroll.

• AI Megatrends Video

• Download the Brochure

• Download the Brochure

Keynote:
Artificial Intelligence For Leadership Teams

Your leadership team requires a good foundational understanding of the promise and perils of AI and insight into the opportunities and challenges.That’s why strategic clarity on the impact of AI is necessary. Jim Carroll will provide your leadership team with a highly customized keynote presentation or interactive discussion that will provide you with deep insight into the impact of AI on your company and your industry.Your team will come away with a better understanding of the trends that matter, the strategies that count, and the innovative actions that will take you forward.You don't need hype or hysteria - you don't need utopian visions. You also can't let your internal engine of skepticism defer your action.. When it comes to AI, you need to have a compelling sense of urgency, but you might have an astonishing mindset of complacency.Jim shares his insight with small intimate groups of 15-20 (Boards, senior leadership teams) to large-scale corporate leadership meetings of several hundred people. He adapts his style to the audience - from highly interactive small group discussions to keynote presentations.Futurist Jim Carroll will provide you with the strategic clarity on AI that you require.

• Strategic Insight

Strategic Insight

Addressing Your AI Questions

Everyone is talking about Chat-GPT, Stable Diffusion, and other fast-moving AI technologies.AI is moving faster than fast! There’s a lot going on, but what you really need to be thinking about are a wide variety of strategic, leadership-oriented questions:

In other words – it’s not AI that matters, it’s your strategic thinking around its emergence.It’s always been bubbling around us, and yet now, is suddenly real.

Artificial Intelligence: The Acceleration of Risk and Legal Complexity & What To Do About It - wsb

• Read article

AI Megatrends — Beyond ChatGPT and Towards the Artificial Intelligence Megatrends Rocking Industries - nsb

• Read article

WHAT DO ORGANISATIONS NEED TO THINK ABOUT REGARDING AI? - lsb

• Read article

The Acceleration of Artificial Intelligence: A New Look at Our Disruptive Future - aae

• Read article

Industry Implications

In many industries, AI technologies have long had a profound impact, and are already showing a lot of strategic potential.You need to dig beneath the surface in order to get concise insight into what is happening, both with the promise and the peril, the opportunities and the challenges within YOUR industry. That can be very difficult to do in such a fast-moving world - but entirely necessary.Here are just a few examples.

• AI in healthcare

• AI in Agriculture

• AI in energy

• AI in insurance

• AI in education

• AI in construction

Futurist Jim. Carroll has been covering the AI Megatrends over on his main Website for some time. For an in-depth analysis of these issues - by industry - take a detour to that site!

• AI Megatrends on JimCarroll.com

On Jim's Mind

Most organizations are going to need a Senior Vice-President of Artificial Intelligence Risk Management within a year.

The position, reporting to the Board of Directors, will be responsible for:

All of this is going to be necessary sooner than you think.

• Keynote Topic

ai keynote and leadership meeting topic considerations

How AI Will Redefine Your Industry, Profession, Company, and Career – And What You Need To Do About It!

There are several ways to understand the impact of AI on your company, industry, association, or profession. As the saying goes – it’s pretty certain you won’t find your job being replaced by AI, but it might be replaced by someone using AI!That's why strategic clarity on the impact of AI is necessary, and Jim Carroll can provide you with a highly customized keynote presentation that will examine several issues.Top of mind is the impact of 'Generative AI technologies' - the fast-moving trends involving ChatGPT and other generative technologies involving voice, video, and more; the impact of productivity, workflow, and other software-based opportunities built on top of these trends; and other new tools, products and search engine technologies. All of these trends will come to change the nature of the way we search, learn, interact, and think. It’s a new era of human-knowledge augmentation that is coming about through the emergence of personalized knowledge butlers; an acceleration in just-in-time knowledge through on-demand knowledge robots; the arrival of the always-available knowledge servant.Another way to achieve strategic clarity is to go further and consider the "AI Megatrends" - the far-reaching, transformative, and disruptive AI concepts involving such things as predictive diagnostics, autonomous technologies, and machine vision, the hyper-connectivity of intelligent devices, the integration of AI into robotics and virtualized digital twin technologies, workforce, and process augmentation technologies, real-time risk monitoring, product reinvention, and transformation through embedded AI, and so much more!The end result of both these major developments is sweeping change in every industry such as: changing the way we diagnose and treat medical conditions; how we assess and underwrite insurance risk using sophisticated AI risk management tools; how we manage our march to precision-farming using AI-driven autonomous technologies; how we are using AI throughout retail and manufacturing for deep supply chain analysis and inventory management.

• Jim's AI Megatrends on his main web site

What Jim Provides You in his keynote

Customized Insight
Actionable Strategies
Strategic Clarity

With so much happening so fast, you need to cut through the hype, filter the noise, and get a clear and up-to-the-moment strategic overview of what is happening in real-time with the many different aspects of AI, and its impact on your future.What does this mean to you and what do you need to do? Jim will provide you with actionable strategies on how to stay ahead in the AI knowledge race; insight into some of the most powerful tools emerging in this new AI knowledge universe; actionable strategies to continually enhance your just-in-time knowledge skills through AI; and how you can align your skills, attitude and personal motivation factory to align with this new era of high-velocity change.The key goal is ensuring that you can gain insight as to how your career, profession, industry, company, or association will change both as a result of fast-moving generative AI technologies, as well as the sweeping impact of these AI Megatrends.Jim will deliver to you a highly customized keynote, which is prepared specifically for your company, industry, or association based on up-to-the-minute research. Jim will help you understand:

• About Jim Carroll

Futurist Jim Carroll

Trends & Innovation Expert
Author & Keynote Speaker

Jim is the world’s leading global futurist, keynote speaker, business trends, and transformation expert, recognized worldwide for his compelling motivational style, delivered in information-rich, highly customized, heavily researched presentations.In his 30-year career as a speaker, Jim has shared his insight with over 2 million people worldwide, providing guidance to many of the world’s largest organizations, with over 1,500 keynotes and leadership presentations and sessions.Jim’s clients include NASA, Disney, the World Bank, Mercedes Benz, the PGA, Blackrock, Zurich Insurance, the Wall Street Journal, Pfizer, Microsoft, Cisco, and over 1,500 more.He shares his highly customized, industry-specific insight with CEOs, senior executives, government leaders, and leadership teams on the real trends that matter, and the innovation pathways to align with new disruptive realities

Artificial Intelligence: The Acceleration of Risk and Legal Complexity & What To Do About It

The Washington Speakers Bureau is the world’s largest talent agency specializing in corporate speaking events. For more than 40 years, WSB has helped connect event hosts with the best keynote speakers in the world, representing individuals like George W. Bush, Alex Rodriguez, Terry Bradshaw, and Tony Blair.WSB has been booking Jim into corporate and association events for 20+ years. They just published Jim's post about the fast-emerging challenges in the world of AI from a legal and risk perspective.You need to be on top of these issues - NOW.You can read it here.

• Learn More

Learn More!

Visit Jim Carroll's web site

Futurist Jim Carroll blogs, writes and shares video via his main web site at jimcarroll.comYou can learn more about his AI topic and expertise - and other leadership oriented topics - at that site.

• Visit Jim's Main Site

• Read Jim's posts about AI

• Fees & Booking Jim

Industry Implications

Healthcare, Pharma and Medical Science

AI is already having a profound impact on every aspect of medical science, healthcare and pharma.

• Return to Main Page

• Read Jim's posts about AI

Industry Implications

insurance and actuarial sciences

AI is already having a profound impact on every aspect of the insurance industry, as well as risk assessment and analysis with the actuarial sciences.

• Return to Main Page

• Read Jim's posts about AI

Industry Implications

education and knowledge industries

AI is already having a profound impact on every aspect of the education industry. We were already moving to a world of 'just-in-time knowledge,' and this will even further accelerate that trend, among many others.

• Return to Main Page

• Read Jim's posts about AI

Industry Implications

energy, utility and related infrastructure industries

AI is already having a profound impact on every aspect of the energy, utility and related infrastructure industries.

• Return to Main Page

• Read Jim's posts about AI

Industry Implications

construction industry

AI is already having a profound impact on every aspect of the construction industry, having to do with methodologies, digital twin technologies and more.

• Return to Main Page

• Read Jim's posts about AI

Industry Implications

agricultural science and farming industries

AI is already having a profound impact on every aspect of the agricultural science and farming industries, particularly as we see an ongoing maturity of precision farming concepts.

• Return to Main Page

• Read Jim's posts about AI

Artificial Intelligence: The Acceleration of Risk and Legal Complexity & What To Do About It

Custom article for the Washington Speakers Bureau, 26 April, 2023Global futurist, Jim Carroll, shares insights into the acceleration of risk and legal complexity due to artificial intelligence, and what organizations can do to mitigate their risk.

What are we going to do the first time someone wants to have an AI chatbot offer evidence in a court trial?Is the evidence reliable? Will it be trustworthy, or might it include some invalid or plainly incorrect misinformation? Will lawyers on both the plaintiff and defendant side be prepared to deal with these thorny, complex new legal issues? This is not a mythical issue – indeed, we will probably see this challenge arrive before we know it.What are association executives going to do as ChatGPT and other technologies begin to chip away at the knowledge base within their profession? What will they do to deal with the absolute explosion of new knowledge that is already emerging – and how will they prepare their members for that? What do they need to do with professional education so that careers don’t disappear – but evolve at the speed of AI? Not only that – do they have a concise view of the new opportunities and challenges all this fast moving AI technology is presenting to their industry?What will corporate risk managers and legal staff do to deal with an absolute flood of new legal risk issues, involving complex new legal issues that did not previously exist? How will they manage fast emerging trademark, copyright, intellectual property and other new issues? What will they do as artificially-generated ‘misinformation-at-scale’ floods their world posing complex new defamation, libel and other challenges?What will regulators and politicians do as AI comes to challenge the very foundation of so many existing laws and regulations, at the same time that it poses vast new economic, geopolitical and societal challenges and opportunities? How do we move forward an already slow moving government process to deal with blazing fast AI technologies?These are not theoretical questions – these are new realities that we have to begin thinking about right now, at this very moment – because the future of AI is happening faster than we think.Most of us already know that – the last few months have been a whirlwind with new AI technologies.The big question is – what do we do about it?

The Unique Legal and Risk Challenge of Technology

I’ve had some unique experiences with questions like this.Over 20 years ago, I was very heavily involved as an expert witness in a Canadian federal court case that involved among other things, intellectual property, trademark, Internet broadcasting, the origins of the Internet, and most importantly, the evidentiary value of the Internet in the courtroom. (This was one of 5 cases I was involved with; two others involved my insight as an expert witness to two successful Leaves to Appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.)Held in Canadian Federal Court – Trial Division, the case between ITV TECHNOLOGIES, INC. and the plaintiff WIC TELEVISION LTD. consumed pretty much one year of my life, in addition to the keynotes I was involved in at the time.I was there, because up to that time, I had already written 34 books about the Internet and technology trends throughout the 90s, which launched me into my global futurist role. My role was to provide detailed insight into the origins of the Internet, and the complex issues it was providing in this very complex legal case.I was there to testify about issues of trademark, copyright, the origin of domain names, Internet broadcasting, and generally, how the Internet works.But a key part of my testimony was unique for the time, and had to do with whether the Internet could be used in the courtroom as actual evidence – specifically to the question of “the evidentiary value of the Internet in court.” In essence, the issue was whether the information on a webpage was accurate or false, and whether it could be relied upon in the same way, and meet the standards of other evidence. This was a unique moment in the world of law, and still remains somewhat unresolved to this day.(As an aside, I actually had 3 days of testimony in addition to all the affidavits I prepared. And I will say this – I have absolutely no issues getting up in front of 10,000 people on the massive stage in Las Vegas with a keynote about the future, but I am willing to admit that being in a court room, testifying, in front of a judge, three lawyers, and two spectators is one of the most difficult things I’ve ever had to do! I doubt that I will ever want to do it again!)The issues that I covered on the stand and in the affidavit that I provided gave me a very early glimpse into the very complex issues that emerge into a new world — what happens when fast moving technology runs up against a slow legal process. It provided me insight into the fact that by and large, even twenty years ago, society, corporations, associations, and government seemed to be ill prepared to deal with the speed with which new challenges were emerging.Keep in mind this all happened 21 years ago. Now, in the context of the emergence of ChatGPT and other technologies, we must consider that if we were ill-prepared then, we are even more challenged today.Looking back, the testimony I offered with respect to the issues at hand now seem very quaint in light of the massive, emerging legal issues surrounding artificial intelligence It’s pretty evident that at some point in time soon, someone will attempt to introduce an artificial intelligence chabot, or information generated from an AI, as evidence.How will courts react?This is but one of the massively complex legal issues that are unfolding in a world that seems ill prepared to cope with the speed of this new technology is coming at us.And that’s what we need to focus on.

The Emergence of New, Unknown Risk

Last fall, I spoke in Switzerland at the global risk management conference for Zurich Insurance. I was there, as a futurist, to provide insight into the new emerging risks that corporate organizations and associations should be thinking about. The room was full of corporate risk managers.In addition to a long list of emerging technological, societal and other risks, I also offered two key observations:“EVERY NEW TECHNOLOGY IS ULTIMATELY USED FOR A NEFARIOUS TERRIBLE PURPOSE, ACCELERATING SOCIETAL RISK“AND“NEW TECHNOLOGIES WILL NOW ALWAYS EMERGE FASTER THAN THE ABILITY OF ORGANIZATIONS TO MANAGE THE RISK IT REPRESENTS!”My key point for this room full of corporate risk managers was that we are now in a situation in which new unknown risks are now emerging with new technologies and complex issues at such a speed that we don’t even yet know what they are – and don’t have any idea as to how to manage them.In effect, it’s not just the identified risks that are coming that we need to worry about – it’s the new unknown risks. Not just that, but it’s the speed at which these new unknown risks are coming at us.It was barely one month later that ChatGPT appeared on the scene, and our world of legal issues and risk management forever changed. And it is at this very moment that government leaders, business executives, association executives, and just about everyone else has started to think about these risks, and what to do about them.There are no easy answers – and precious little time to sort it out.

The Acceleration of All Things Legal

All of us need to understand the depth of these new issues and what they present in terms of new challenges and opportunities, peril and risk.And to start out, we should appreciate that these AI risks and legal issues have already been with us for a time. What better way to assess that than to ask an AI itself – Microsoft’s Bing, which is based on ChatGPT4.Question:“Provide me a concise summary, with details, of the various new legal and risk issues that have emerged with AI technology prior to the arrival of ChatGPT, and what organizations have had to do to try to deal with these issues.”Bing ChatGPT:“AI technology has raised various legal and risk issues that have challenged the existing laws and regulations. Some of these issues are:Algorithmic transparency: AI systems often operate as black boxes, making it difficult to understand how they reach certain decisions or outcomes. This can affect the rights and interests of individuals and organizations who are subject to AI decisions, such as in credit scoring, hiring, or medical diagnosis. Algorithmic transparency requires AI systems to be explainable, interpretable, and accountable for their actions and results.Cybersecurity vulnerabilities: AI systems can be susceptible to cyberattacks, such as data breaches, hacking, or manipulation. This can compromise the security, privacy, and integrity of the data and systems involved, and potentially cause harm to individuals or organizations. Cybersecurity vulnerabilities require AI systems to be robust, resilient, and secure against malicious threats.Unfairness, bias, and discrimination: AI systems can reflect or amplify the biases and prejudices of their developers, users, or data sources. This can result in unfair or discriminatory outcomes for certain groups or individuals, such as in facial recognition, criminal justice, or social media. Unfairness, bias, and discrimination require AI systems to be fair, inclusive, and respectful of human dignity and diversity.Lack of contestability: AI systems can make decisions or recommendations that affect the rights and interests of individuals or organizations, such as in insurance claims, tax audits, or health care. However, there may not be adequate mechanisms or processes to challenge or appeal such decisions or recommendations, especially if they are based on complex or opaque algorithms. Lack of contestability requires AI systems to be subject to human oversight and intervention, and to provide effective remedies for grievances.Legal personhood issues: AI systems can act autonomously and independently of human control or supervision. This can raise questions about the legal status and responsibility of AI systems and their creators or users. For example, who owns the intellectual property rights of an AI-generated work? Who is liable for the damages caused by an AI-driven car? Who is accountable for the ethical implications of an AI-enabled weapon?3. Legal personhood issues require clear and consistent definitions and frameworks for the legal rights and obligations of AI systems and their stakeholders.“Woah. That’s some complex stuff! And at this point I asked Bing to stop because it kept on going with a long list!Proceeding further, I asked where this goes next. After all, what’s a good futurist these days without a good futurist-AI friend?Question:“Now, with the arrival of ChatGPT and LLM (Large language models) what new risks are introduced?”BingChatGPT4 responded:“Large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT and LLM are AI systems that can generate natural language texts based on large amounts of data. They have many applications and benefits, but they also introduce new risks that need to be addressed. Some of these risks are:Biases and ethical concerns: LLMs can reinforce biases present in their training data. This could lead to ethical issues such as discriminatory or misleading content that tarnish a business’ reputation or harm individuals or groups. Biases and ethical concerns require LLMs to be trained and evaluated on diverse and representative data, and to be aligned with human values and norms.Information hazards: LLMs can leak private or sensitive information from their training data or generate plausible but false information that could harm individuals or organizations. Information hazards require LLMs to be designed and deployed with data protection and security measures, and to be transparent and accountable for their sources and outputs.Misinformation harms: LLMs can produce poor, false, or misleading information that could affect the quality and reliability of knowledge and information. This could have negative consequences for individuals or organizations who rely on LLMs for decision making, especially in sensitive domains such as health, education, or finance125. Misinformation harms require LLMs to be accurate, consistent, and verifiable, and to provide sources and evidence for their claims.Malicious uses: LLMs can be used by actors who try to cause harm or exploit others by generating deceptive, manipulative, or harmful content. This could include spam, phishing, propaganda, fake reviews, impersonation, or cyberbullying. Malicious uses require LLMs to be regulated and monitored for potential abuse, and to provide mechanisms for detection and prevention of harmful content.“Double yikes! This is complex stuff. Are we ready? I had to stop Bing’s AI because it kept on going!

Accelerating Issues

All of this is now happening in which we were already dealing with a massive explosion in the base of legal knowledge and risk management issues. I’ve spoken at the partners conferences of many major legal firms, as well as a variety of risk and safety oriented conferences. In all of these events, I’ve stressed several things when it comes to the future of risk, including legal risk:

All of this is now happening in which we were already dealing with a massive explosion in the base of legal knowledge and risk management issues. I’ve spoken at the partners conferences of many major legal firms, as well as a variety of risk and safety oriented conferences. In all of these events, I’ve stressed several things when it comes to the future of risk, including legal risk:

How do you mitigate against risk when you don’t know what that risk might be? How do you guard against legal issues that don’t even yet exist? How do you guard intellectual property for products you don’t even yet know you will invent? That’s the challenging reality of our new world of risk today.Want some fun? At one of these events, I put up a list of 40 new areas of legal risk management that did not exist 10 years ago. Protecting shared 3D printing models of your new products that could be easily counterfeited. Drone technology and surveillance law. Genetic counselling laws, LGBTQ issues, fantasy sports league management, organic certification, and laws involving cannabis use in the workplace and place of business.Now add AI law into the mix.

Moving Forward? Government, Associations, Corporations and Professions

So what do we need to do about all this?Obviously, we need to figure it out – and that involves getting on top of the trends, understanding it and assessing what it means. Knowledge and insight is paramount.And that needs to be done with a reality that it’s moving faster than fastAs I write this blog post, things are moving incredibly fast. We are already seeing all kinds of new legal actions within the creative, trademark copyright, and other industries. Federal government agencies are rapidly trying to come to grips with what we do with what is happening Laws and regulations that, even when adapted to the reality of a global conductivity, the Internet, not yet seems structured to deal with the new complex challenges of our artificial intelligence ageLegislators need to get on side, and this seems to be a challenge, given the polarized nature of global politics. I was extremely encouraged, and I listened to “The Daily” podcast from the New York Times, where they interviewed one US senator, a 73-year-old man, who has taken the time to take a couple of artificial intelligence courses on his way to an AI degree. He is doing so that he could understand the nature of what is happening, and the legislative action that might be required. That’s a good sign, because the very same newspaper recently ran an article that acknowledged that Congress was ill-equipped to deal with the speed at which events are unfolding.Association executives, CEOs and CxOs, corporate risk, and legal managers need to understand and constantly assess and reassess the nature of the risk that AI is now presenting in their industry, and the new risk issues they will be directly challenged with. They need to think about their skills and knowledge issues that are arriving in this complex, new world, and what they need to do to deal with that. They must assess the potential disruptive impact of AI, and the strategic pathways forward.The best way to start is to do a very detailed industry and company specific overview of the impact of this new fast world. This should be done by keeping in mind that this is not just about ChatGPT, but so much more. I’ve been busy preparing for my clients and industry-by-industry assessment of a vast number of issues that AI presents – both in terms of what has happened already, as well as with what is yet to come. This needs to be done on a continuous basis, because things are evolving so fast.Similarly, association executives and leaders need to ensure that, with AI being the hottest topic on the speaking circuit in 2023, they aren’t just focused on ChatGPT but also all the other elements of AI. ChatGPT is getting all the attention, and will have profound implications , but there is so much more that has already been happening, and so much more yet to come. They need to ensure that their members, and in the industry they professionally represent, have good detailed insight as to where they should go, how this will impact them, and what they need to do about it. I suspect this will be a Main Stage and leadership meeting topic for many years to come.In my 30 years as a futurist I have never seen a technology and trend explode at the speed with which AI is unfolding. I am excited for the opportunity it presents, and yet at the same time, I am terrified by what it represents, particularly for organizations and associations, ill prepared to manage what comes nextOver in Switzerland in the Fall I closed my keynote with two comments.First:Companies that do not yet exist will build products that are not yet conceived, based on ideas that have yet been generated, using materials not yet invented, with manufacturing methods that have not yet been conceived. Are you ready for the new world of disruption?”And then:So what do we need to do about all this?Obviously, we need to figure it out – and that involves getting on top of the trends, understanding it and assessing what it means. Knowledge and insight is paramount.And that needs to be done with a reality that it’s moving faster than fastAs I write this blog post, things are moving incredibly fast. We are already seeing all kinds of new legal actions within the creative, trademark copyright, and other industries. Federal government agencies are rapidly trying to come to grips with what we do with what is happening Laws and regulations that, even when adapted to the reality of a global conductivity, the Internet, not yet seems structured to deal with the new complex challenges of our artificial intelligence ageLegislators need to get on side, and this seems to be a challenge, given the polarized nature of global politics. I was extremely encouraged, and I listened to “The Daily” podcast from the New York Times, where they interviewed one US senator, a 73-year-old man, who has taken the time to take a couple of artificial intelligence courses on his way to an AI degree. He is doing so that he could understand the nature of what is happening, and the legislative action that might be required. That’s a good sign, because the very same newspaper recently ran an article that acknowledged that Congress was ill-equipped to deal with the speed at which events are unfolding.Association executives, CEOs and CxOs, corporate risk, and legal managers need to understand and constantly assess and reassess the nature of the risk that AI is now presenting in their industry, and the new risk issues they will be directly challenged with. They need to think about their skills and knowledge issues that are arriving in this complex, new world, and what they need to do to deal with that. They must assess the potential disruptive impact of AI, and the strategic pathways forward.The best way to start is to do a very detailed industry and company specific overview of the impact of this new fast world. This should be done by keeping in mind that this is not just about ChatGPT, but so much more. I’ve been busy preparing for my clients and industry-by-industry assessment of a vast number of issues that AI presents – both in terms of what has happened already, as well as with what is yet to come. This needs to be done on a continuous basis, because things are evolving so fast.Similarly, association executives and leaders need to ensure that, with AI being the hottest topic on the speaking circuit in 2023, they aren’t just focused on ChatGPT but also all the other elements of AI. ChatGPT is getting all the attention, and will have profound implications , but there is so much more that has already been happening, and so much more yet to come. They need to ensure that their members, and in the industry they professionally represent, have good detailed insight as to where they should go, how this will impact them, and what they need to do about it. I suspect this will be a Main Stage and leadership meeting topic for many years to come.In my 30 years as a futurist I have never seen a technology and trend explode at the speed with which AI is unfolding. I am excited for the opportunity it presents, and yet at the same time, I am terrified by what it represents, particularly for organizations and associations, ill prepared to manage what comes nextOver in Switzerland in the Fall I closed my keynote with two comments.First:Companies that do not yet exist will build products that are not yet conceived, based on ideas that have yet been generated, using materials not yet invented, with manufacturing methods that have not yet been conceived. Are you ready for the new world of disruption?”And then:“Risks that don’t yet exist will come from products, inventions and ideas that are not yet conceived, based on imaginative concepts not yet imagined…. Are you ready for the new world of risk?”Welcome to your future!“Risks that don’t yet exist will come from products, inventions and ideas that are not yet conceived, based on imaginative concepts not yet imagined…. Are you ready for the new world of risk?”So what do we need to do about all this?Obviously, we need to figure it out – and that involves getting on top of the trends, understanding it and assessing what it means. Knowledge and insight is paramount.And that needs to be done with a reality that it’s moving faster than fastAs I write this blog post, things are moving incredibly fast. We are already seeing all kinds of new legal actions within the creative, trademark copyright, and other industries. Federal government agencies are rapidly trying to come to grips with what we do with what is happening Laws and regulations that, even when adapted to the reality of a global conductivity, the Internet, not yet seems structured to deal with the new complex challenges of our artificial intelligence ageLegislators need to get on side, and this seems to be a challenge, given the polarized nature of global politics. I was extremely encouraged, and I listened to “The Daily” podcast from the New York Times, where they interviewed one US senator, a 73-year-old man, who has taken the time to take a couple of artificial intelligence courses on his way to an AI degree. He is doing so that he could understand the nature of what is happening, and the legislative action that might be required. That’s a good sign, because the very same newspaper recently ran an article that acknowledged that Congress was ill-equipped to deal with the speed at which events are unfolding.Association executives, CEOs and CxOs, corporate risk, and legal managers need to understand and constantly assess and reassess the nature of the risk that AI is now presenting in their industry, and the new risk issues they will be directly challenged with. They need to think about their skills and knowledge issues that are arriving in this complex, new world, and what they need to do to deal with that. They must assess the potential disruptive impact of AI, and the strategic pathways forward.The best way to start is to do a very detailed industry and company specific overview of the impact of this new fast world. This should be done by keeping in mind that this is not just about ChatGPT, but so much more. I’ve been busy preparing for my clients and industry-by-industry assessment of a vast number of issues that AI presents – both in terms of what has happened already, as well as with what is yet to come. This needs to be done on a continuous basis, because things are evolving so fast.Similarly, association executives and leaders need to ensure that, with AI being the hottest topic on the speaking circuit in 2023, they aren’t just focused on ChatGPT but also all the other elements of AI. ChatGPT is getting all the attention, and will have profound implications , but there is so much more that has already been happening, and so much more yet to come. They need to ensure that their members, and in the industry they professionally represent, have good detailed insight as to where they should go, how this will impact them, and what they need to do about it. I suspect this will be a Main Stage and leadership meeting topic for many years to come.In my 30 years as a futurist I have never seen a technology and trend explode at the speed with which AI is unfolding. I am excited for the opportunity it presents, and yet at the same time, I am terrified by what it represents, particularly for organizations and associations, ill prepared to manage what comes nextOver in Switzerland in the Fall I closed my keynote with two comments.First:So what do we need to do about all this?Obviously, we need to figure it out – and that involves getting on top of the trends, understanding it and assessing what it means. Knowledge and insight is paramount.And that needs to be done with a reality that it’s moving faster than fastAs I write this blog post, things are moving incredibly fast. We are already seeing all kinds of new legal actions within the creative, trademark copyright, and other industries. Federal government agencies are rapidly trying to come to grips with what we do with what is happening Laws and regulations that, even when adapted to the reality of a global conductivity, the Internet, not yet seems structured to deal with the new complex challenges of our artificial intelligence ageLegislators need to get on side, and this seems to be a challenge, given the polarized nature of global politics. I was extremely encouraged, and I listened to “The Daily” podcast from the New York Times, where they interviewed one US senator, a 73-year-old man, who has taken the time to take a couple of artificial intelligence courses on his way to an AI degree. He is doing so that he could understand the nature of what is happening, and the legislative action that might be required. That’s a good sign, because the very same newspaper recently ran an article that acknowledged that Congress was ill-equipped to deal with the speed at which events are unfolding.Association executives, CEOs and CxOs, corporate risk, and legal managers need to understand and constantly assess and reassess the nature of the risk that AI is now presenting in their industry, and the new risk issues they will be directly challenged with. They need to think about their skills and knowledge issues that are arriving in this complex, new world, and what they need to do to deal with that. They must assess the potential disruptive impact of AI, and the strategic pathways forward.The best way to start is to do a very detailed industry and company specific overview of the impact of this new fast world. This should be done by keeping in mind that this is not just about ChatGPT, but so much more. I’ve been busy preparing for my clients and industry-by-industry assessment of a vast number of issues that AI presents – both in terms of what has happened already, as well as with what is yet to come. This needs to be done on a continuous basis, because things are evolving so fast.Similarly, association executives and leaders need to ensure that, with AI being the hottest topic on the speaking circuit in 2023, they aren’t just focused on ChatGPT but also all the other elements of AI. ChatGPT is getting all the attention, and will have profound implications , but there is so much more that has already been happening, and so much more yet to come. They need to ensure that their members, and in the industry they professionally represent, have good detailed insight as to where they should go, how this will impact them, and what they need to do about it. I suspect this will be a Main Stage and leadership meeting topic for many years to come.In my 30 years as a futurist I have never seen a technology and trend explode at the speed with which AI is unfolding. I am excited for the opportunity it presents, and yet at the same time, I am terrified by what it represents, particularly for organizations and associations, ill prepared to manage what comes nextOver in Switzerland in the Fall I closed my keynote with two comments.First:Companies that do not yet exist will build products that are not yet conceived, based on ideas that have yet been generated, using materials not yet invented, with manufacturing methods that have not yet been conceived. Are you ready for the new world of disruption?”And then:“Risks that don’t yet exist will come from products, inventions and ideas that are not yet conceived, based on imaginative concepts not yet imagined…. Are you ready for the new world of risk?”

• Back to site

AI Megatrends — Beyond ChatGPT and Towards The Artificial Intelligence Megatrends Rocking Industries

Article prepared for the National Speakers Bureau, nsb.com, May 2023

When Jim Carroll shared with us the work he was doing on Megatrends in AI and how he is able to customize to industries who will be increasing investments in the technology and digital transformation, we welcomed his contribution here on our website to explain the Megatrends Opportunity further. We hope you find inspiration in this article!
–Theresa Beenken, CEO, www.nsb.com

2023. It’s the year of ChatGPT. All ChatGPT, all the time!You know what I mean – it’s everywhere! It’s in the news, it’s on social media, its in the newsletters you receive – even your kids and grandkids and parents are talking about it.And here’s the thing – it is massively significant and will change the world faster than you might think. A few years ago, one of my books, The Future Belongs to Those Who Are Fast, outlined in clear terms why one of the most important things anyone should do today is to align with the new world of speed.Maybe I should do a second edition, titled “The Future Belongs to Those Who Live in Hyperspeed.” But I digress.But here’s something you need to know – ChatGPT, while a massive disruptor, is also but a small part of something even bigger.WAY bigger.Here are some points to ponder.

I have similar numbers for virtually every other industry.Do you see the trend here?What’s the point? As a corporate or association executive, you will soon be dealing not just with the impact of ChatGPT – but with the massive, disruptive, transformative industry and skills change that goes far beyond what you are seeing right now.You might get a sense that you will need to scramble to deal with these massive, disruptive challenges. And that’s why I’ve been writing my AI Megatrends series. I’ve been covering for my clients the big, massive impact of AI in every industry, with statistics, trends, insight, and detailed research. The numbers presented above indicate a big change. You need to make sure you understand what that change is.At this very moment, you need to move your mind beyond ChatGPT to think even bigger. There is so much more going on. Go back and look at the numbers above. Now think about what this represents, and what it means to your corporate team or association and profession members. Your industry is being transformed by AI; your education skill set is being massively impacted; your structure is changing. Let me give you but a few examples.

None of these megatrends has anything to do with ChatGPT.They have everything to do with the AI Megatrends.No doubt, ChatGPT, and large-language models are tremendously exciting – there is so much going on, and they will have a PROFOUND impact on everything we do going forward. And no doubt, you’ve got plenty of speakers who might be able to talk about that aspect of AI.But I’m willing to bet you aren’t thinking about the AI Megatrends – the things are found behind the staggering numbers above.I am.You need to think beyond ChatGPT. You need to understand how AI is redefining your industry, profession, company, and career – and what you need to do about it!With that in mind, you need to know that the acceleration of AI is not just about the technology; it’s not just about ChatGPT; it’s the transformative and disruptive concepts involving such things as predictive diagnostics, autonomous technologies, and machine vision, the hyper-connectivity of intelligent devices, the integration of AI into robotics and virtualized digital twin technologies, workforce and process augmentation technologies, virtual knowledge assistants, real-time risk monitoring, product reinvention, and transformation through embedded AI, and so much more!These are the types of AI Megatrends that you need to understand in order to comprehend how your industry, profession, association, and job and career will change. It’s vast, sweeping, transformative megatrends that will continue at a faster pace as we enter the ‘era of acceleration.’What you need RIGHT NOW is highly relevant AI Megatrends guidance from a realistic, strategic business perspective.Because this is big, and getting bigger.

• Back to site

WHAT DO ORGANISATIONS NEED TO THINK ABOUT REGARDING AI?

London Speakers Bureau, June 2023, by Futurist Jim Carroll

In 1993 the World Wide Web burst onto the scene with ferocious intensity.

Within a matter of a decade, new billion-dollar industries emerged, knowledge accelerated, skills and professions forever changed, new competitors caused havoc in every single industry, and the entire issue of public relations and communications was subjected to dramatic new challenges as a result of the arrival of sophisticated misinformation tools. The fact is, entire industries and professions were disrupted – and associations and corporations were subjected to these and other massive changes at a staggering speedAt the time, most CEOs and association executives were ill-prepared for the dramatic emergence of a new technology that would forever reshape their industries and the professions they represented. At the time, I built up a pretty significant presence at corporate and association meetings putting into perspective the strategic and disruptive impact of the Web and other new technologies and trends – and spent the next three decades doing so.Now we face a similar inflection point with artificial intelligence, but the speed of the disruptive change today is even faster – and it is critical that association executives and CEOs understand not just the technology behind the trend, but the massive disruptive impact that is unfolding.And if there is one thing I have heard from my clients so far, it is that everyone is absolutely overwhelmed both by the speed of the sudden new AI trends, as well as the impact that these trends represent.With that in mind, it’s a good time to consider just a few of the different angles from which you need to be thinking about this new era of ‘all AI, all the time!’

First, It’s The Strategy That Matters

“The essence of leadership is finding the strategy within the hype!”That’s the first comment I offer up to executives trying to make sense of a world of AI that can seem absolutely overwhelming at times.AI ChatGPT
No doubt you have spent some time working with ChatGPT, have taken a look at Microsoft’s new AI-enabled Bing search engine, and might even have generated a few images with MidJourney or Stable Diffusion. These are the fast-moving new technologies that are quickly taking every association, corporate, government agency, profession, and industry into new and unknown territory. The risk implications seem profound, the knowledge impact pretty intense, and the challenges and opportunities vast.You can’t help but read or watch the news, consider upcoming annual conferences or events, or have a leadership meeting, and not have a discussion around AI. But so far, much of this coverage has focused – often with breathtaking phrases – the big implications of all these exciting new technologies.But just as in 1993 and beyond, you don’t need to understand the technology behind a trend to determine your future course of action – you need to understand the strategic implications of the trend. And with that in mind, it’s important not to fall into the trap of FOMO – the ‘fear of missing out’ – and falling into the pit of chasing what the technology industry has long called ‘the latest shiny new toys.’No doubt new tools like ChatGPT are taking us into a wild and new future, but I’ve long suggested that caution is warranted – because we’d best make sure we understand the strategic implications rather than the technology.And that’s my first bit of advice – focus on the strategy, not the technology.No doubt, you’ve got members of your association or organization who are very excited about what new tools like ChatGPT might represent to your future. And yet, we need to ask ourselves – is there a real opportunity here with AI, or is it just this year’s hottest new shiny toy? Here’s one thing I know – the history of leadership is one of having to carefully balance the enthusiasm of their team for chasing hot new trends (such as ChatGPT) with the reality of the need for a real strategic purpose.Never has this situation become more real than it is today with AI.

Separating Silicon Valley Disruption from Industry Disruption

Second, I think it is helpful to consider that it can be helpful to separate the BIG changes occurring with technology companies with these new AI trends from the changes occurring in your industry, organisation, or profession. One is not necessarily moving at the same speed as the other!Don’t get me wrong – we are at a transformative moment with the sudden acceleration of AI.But the first thing is to realize that in the short term, dramatic change is happening with technology companies – but not necessarily with mainstream industries.I always like to break down any trend into the short-term acceleration of Silicon Valley, technology acceleration – and second, the longer-term disruptive impact on other industries.AI Sillicon ValeyWe are seeing massive upheaval with any company or association that is within the tech sector. The next few years will see a seismic battle for dominance between search giants like Google, Microsoft, and Apple; we will also see the birth of new billion-dollar companies, launched from the genesis of a brilliant idea that is being considered at this very moment; we will witness the obliteration of many existing software and service business models.After all, right now, there are people in the iconic garage hatching an idea that will make them the next generation’s billionaire superheroes.And then there is the rest of us. All of us will be impacted by ChatGPT, Stable Diffusion, and Mid-journey, and all the other technology that is in the press these days are massively disruptive – the future of the way we search and interact with information is set to change in massive ways. The search engines we access, the tool at our disposal, and the very nature of the way we work day to day will change. We need to make sure our staff and our members are able to cope with a new era of knowledge upheaval, and this is going to be a complex voyage that we will need to manage.But we also need to realise that the issues we are faced with are even bigger than that. And that involves the ‘AI Megatrends.‘

The AI Megatrends and Industry / Profession Disruption

That brings me to the third issue – I think it is important to understand that even before ChatGPT burst onto the scene, there was already a lot of AI-based disruption within every single industry for quite some time. I’ve spent years describing various advances of AI in various keynotes in many industries, and have long referred to these as the AI Megatrends.As a result, you need to look beyond ChatGPT, image and video generation, and the other hot new technologies – and take some time to understand what is already underway. That will help to bring you strategic clarity on what you need to be doing with AI,AI Health illustrationConsider how AI is being used in health care. We already have doctors detecting and diagnosing irregular heart rhythms known as atrial fibrillation, potentially years before they might otherwise have been detected, interpreting signals that are so subtle that humans might not be able to detect them. We are using specialised cameras to examine eyes, combined with AI to detect diabetic retinopathy, which is a leading cause of blindness. We are developing specialised optical technologies that can read physiological data and detect – visually, without body contact – vital signs such as body temperature, pulse, blood pressure, fatigue, and even drug and alcohol use in seconds. We are identifying fake and counterfeit drugs through the examination of chemicals and other markers with AI analysis. We are using AI to improve the accuracy of polyp detection in colonoscopy screening. Then there is what we can call “sophisticated molecular surveillance“—for example, turning cell phones into what some experts call “smell phones” capable of spotting particular medical conditions. Emergency rooms? We’re using AI to help identify and treat patients most at risk in ERs and ICUs: it’s become a sort of early warning system to alert staff to significant but subtle changes in patients that might not be otherwise noticed. We can even use AI to select organs for donor transplant with a greater potential for success of the outcome.Spin over to agriculture. The idea of precision agriculture has been a part of the industry for close to 30-40 years as a concept; slowly moving at first, it has finally picked up significant speed in the last decade. AI is now moving precision agriculture forward even faster as it allows us to, for example, analyse data from sensors and drones to create precise maps of crops, allowing farmers to optimize irrigation, fertiliser, and pesticide use.We can fly a drone over a crop and gather very discrete information at a very detailed level – AI can then be used to analyse these images of crops and detect signs of disease or pests, allowing farmers to take action before the problem spreads. And livestock monitoring – for lack of a better phrase, we are in the era of ‘Fitbits for cows,’ using AI-powered sensors that can monitor livestock for health and welfare, allowing farmers to identify and address potential problems before they become serious.

How about insurance with AI?

The industry was already being rapidly disrupted by the use of AI for sophisticated data analytics. The entire concept of AI-based predictive analytics is shifting the industry away from actuarial-based historical assessment of insurance risk to a world of real-time coverage. Policy niches, micro-insurance, and just-in-time insurance are driving an increasing number of new revenue models. Fast-paced trends involving self-driving cars, the sharing economy, personal drones, swarm-bots, smart dust, and augmented reality will either mitigate, accelerate or challenge the very notion of risk assessment and underwriting – and AI plays a role in all of this.Similar trends are already underway and will continue to accelerate in every single industry, from banking to manufacturing, construction to retail.And as you read this, keep in mind that while these are massive disruptive trends, it will clearly take some time for the infrastructure, support models, change management, and implementation opportunities some time to evolve. It takes strategic clarity.Clearly, every single industry, profession, association, and organisation is being significantly impacted by this disruptive change happening within the world of accelerating AI. ChatGPT and LLM technologies have thrown a new spanner into the works, making faster trends that were already well underway. As an executive, you must carefully, clearly, and deliberately approach this disruptive era with a clear strategic goal in mind.In other words, how do you chase the strategy, not the technology?

Accelerating Risk Issues

Last but not least – and you already know this – the current fast-moving generative AI technologies are presenting all of us with vast new risk issues. I think we need to keep in mind that today – and particularly with these new AI tools – technology has inherently become a risk-manufacturing tool.What keeps me up at night? When it comes to AI, it fits into my mindset that new technology is evolving so fast that we as a society no longer understand how to manage it and minimise the new risk that it presents. That’s what you need to think about today as a CEO or Association executive. All of these new tools are obviously going to blur the difference between reality and fake to such a degree that we will barely be able to comprehend it.I’m more concerned about the manner by which it can be used to alter reality, and what is going on right now with these systems, DALL-E, and other text-to-image generators. It’s just exploded in the last three months, it sort of bubbled along there for years and years and years, and all of a sudden it’s… so massively real. What we can do with it is staggering, but what we can do with it from a risk perspective to generate fake headlines or generate video of politicians saying something that they never said, that’s coming at us extremely quickly.So I worry less about the role of artificial intelligence – you can do magical things, so for example, diagnosis of a disease, AI can do a better diagnosis of 909 different types of eye disease than an ophthalmologist… I’m less concerned about what it provides and more concerned about how it might be used or misused, and I don’t think we as a society are ready at all to deal with that reality.I think what this means is that as a CEO or association executive, you need to develop a new framework for risk. And you need to do it sooner than you think.Welcome to our new future. It’s fast, complex, and moving at speed.

Futurist Jim Carroll helps CEOs, senior executives, and association leaders align their strategic objectives to the rapid acceleration of AI. It’s based on customised research specific to your industry and organisation, and aligned to your unique perspective. It’s insight that matters, is relevant, and actionable! None other than NASA has booked him – twice – for a talk on ‘the future of space.Other clients include the World Bank, Zurich Insurance, Nikon, the BBC, Disney, Pfizer, Chrysler, Volvo, and hundreds more. He is known worldwide for his strategic thinking – and when it comes to AI, you don’t need the tech – you need the strategic insight. You don’t need hype. You need strategic reality. That’s Futurist Jim Carroll.

• Back to site