Keynotes and featured talks on AI empowerment and what it requires of business leaders

Organisations have spent heavily on AI, and their people use it every day. Yet few leaders can say what it has changed, what is going into it, or who answers when it goes wrong. Meanwhile, research by PwC found that a fifth of organisations capture nearly three quarters of AI's economic value.

This talk changes what leaders think it takes to succeed with AI. It shows why the usual mix of platforms, policies, training and mandates can leave an organisation where it started and what the organisations getting real value do differently. Fahed builds each point on the room’s own answers, given live as the talk unfolds.

Leaders leave able to see the AI Empowerment Gap in their own organisation, knowing what it costs them and clear that closing it is theirs to lead.

This talk draws on Chapters 1 to 3 of AI Empowerment for Business Leaders.

AI makes work faster and more fluent, and that speed and fluency are exactly what let mistakes slip past capable people. Global brands, established agencies and national newspapers have already paid for it in retractions, lost clients and lost jobs.

This talk works through real, reported cases of AI going wrong. It sets out the risks that surround everyday use of AI and what it takes to stay alert while using it.

Leaders leave knowing where their own teams are exposed and what to put in place.

This talk draws on "Make It Safe", Chapter 5 of AI Empowerment for Business Leaders.

Organisations have given their people AI assistants, yet on work specific to the business those assistants often produce generic or unsuitable answers. People spend so long re-explaining, steering and fixing that the time they hoped to save disappears. Eventually, some of the most experienced go back to doing the work themselves.

This talk explains why capable AI can still produce work that misses the mark and why a newer model or specialist tool may leave the same problem unresolved. It then shows what teams do differently when they get AI to understand their world and work to their standards.

Leaders leave knowing how to turn general AI assistance that costs time into specialist help their experts rely on.

This talk draws on "Make It Yours", Chapter 6 of AI Empowerment for Business Leaders.

Leaders want to find worthwhile uses for AI, but often don’t know where to look. Their people know the business but aren’t AI experts. Outside AI specialists understand the technology but don’t know the business well enough to recognise its opportunities. How do leaders bring those two kinds of knowledge together to find where AI could help?

This talk shows how to find worthwhile AI opportunities by drawing on the people who know the work. It explains the support they need to contribute, how to assess what they uncover and how to bring it together into a set of priorities.

Leaders leave knowing how to find worthwhile AI use cases in their own organisation and decide which to explore first.

This talk draws on "Size the Value", Chapter 9 of AI Empowerment for Business Leaders.

In most organisations, recurring work still runs as if every step needs a person. Experts spend their days drafting, formatting and checking, quality varies with whoever does the job, and the method leaves with people when they go. Meanwhile, clients judge every provider against the fastest and most consistent one they have used.

This talk shows how organisations have AI carry recurring expert work, so people spend less time repeating tasks and can take on more without letting quality slip. It shows how traditional subject matter experts shape how AI carries out the work, while keeping the judgement in their hands.

Leaders leave seeing how their recurring work could run on their best methods, whoever does it, with room to take on more.

This talk draws on "Build", Chapters 10 of AI Empowerment for Business Leaders.

In most companies, managers now use AI in their own work. But leading a team brings a bigger question: how do you help everyone you manage harness its power? A manager can save time on their own tasks while the team still struggles to get useful work from AI. Helping that team move forward calls for more than improving your own use.

This talk takes managers through twelve shifts in how they think about AI, the shifts that turn scattered personal use into something the whole company can build on. The room works through each shift together, in live exercises and discussion, so the conclusions are shared ones. It is ideal for managers, especially in companies preparing a more focused effort to drive AI empowerment across the business.

Managers leave excited about what their company could do with AI and clear about their own part in it.

This talk draws on "Set Up the Helm", Chapter 7 of AI Empowerment for Business Leaders.