Kate O'Neill
Innovation Speaker, Founder and CEO of KO Insights, The Tech Humanist
SPEAKER FEE RANGE: $18,000–$23,000 [FEE NOTE]
TRAVELS FROM: New York
RELATED TOPICS: Entrepreneur, Innovation & Creativity, Leadership Management, Tech Futurist, Women in Business
Kate O’Neill is widely known as “the Tech Humanist.” She is founder of KO Insights, a strategic advisory firm committed to improving human experience at scale, even — and especially — in data-driven, algorithmically optimized, and AI-led interactions. Kate regularly keynotes industry events, advocating for humanity’s role in an increasingly tech-driven future. Her world-leading clients have included Google, Adobe, IBM, Yale University, the city of Amsterdam, and the United Nations. Kate’s prior roles include creating the first content management role at Netflix as one of the company’s first 100 employees; developing Toshiba America’s first intranet; leading cutting-edge experience optimization for Magazines.com; and founding [meta]marketer, a first-of-its-kind digital strategy, analytics, and experience optimization agency. Author of 5 books including her latest, A Future So Bright, Kate’s insights and expertise have been featured in WIRED, CMO.com, USA Today, and many other outlets.
Kate O’Neill is widely known as “the Tech Humanist.” She is founder of KO Insights, a strategic advisory firm committed to improving human experience at scale, even — and especially — in data-driven, algorithmically optimized, and AI-led interactions. Kate regularly keynotes industry events, advocating for humanity’s role in an increasingly tech-driven future. Her world-leading clients have included Google, Adobe, IBM, Yale University, the city of Amsterdam, and the United Nations.
Kate’s prior roles include creating the first content management role at Netflix as one of the company’s first 100 employees; developing Toshiba America’s first intranet; leading cutting-edge experience optimization for Magazines.com; and founding [meta]marketer, a first-of-its-kind digital strategy, analytics, and experience optimization agency.
Author of 5 books including her latest, A Future So Bright, Kate’s insights and expertise have been featured in WIRED, CMO.com, USA Today, and many other outlets. She has been featured and quoted in a wide variety of national and international media, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, WIRED, NPR, Marketplace, NBC News, and BBC World News. In 2020 she was named to the Thinkers50 Radar, a global ranking of top management thinkers.
Kate’s prior roles include creating the first content management role at Netflix as one of the company’s first 100 employees; developing Toshiba America’s first intranet; leading cutting-edge experience optimization for Magazines.com; and founding [meta]marketer, a first-of-its-kind digital strategy, analytics, and experience optimization agency.
Author of 5 books including her latest, A Future So Bright, Kate’s insights and expertise have been featured in WIRED, CMO.com, USA Today, and many other outlets. She has been featured and quoted in a wide variety of national and international media, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, WIRED, NPR, Marketplace, NBC News, and BBC World News. In 2020 she was named to the Thinkers50 Radar, a global ranking of top management thinkers.
- Tech Humanist: How Business Can Succeed By Making Technology Better for Humanity
IDEAL FOR: corporate leaders, technology leaders, business audiences
- considers data analytics, connected devices and the Internet of Things, wearable technology, geo-tagged and geo-targeted social media, surveillance, sensors and beacons, and so on
- provokes thinking beyond the customer context to a holistic human experience that blends online and offline interactions
- advocates building lifetime value through relevant and respectful use of data
- advocates strategic purpose as an aligning tool for the organization in modeling data and deploying technology for digital transformation
- explores the relationship between meaning, intention, data tracking, and human experience
- offers practical insights on how businesses can harness data and technology to create innovative experiences that form the basis of more meaningful and profitable relationships with customers - The Design of Meaning for the Future of Humanity
IDEAL FOR: web/interactive designers, developers, strategists, practitioners
- considers interactive experiences increasingly becoming automated, algorithmically optimized, and driven by artificial intelligence
- asks how we ensure that we don’t accidentally create absurd, out-of-proportion, or even harmful interactions
- proposes that the experiences we create for humans are as meaningful as possible
- advocates that we do what we can to make our work matter, because our every design decision has a chance of reaching massive scale
- examines how to bring meaning to even the smallest design decisions, to every interaction and every system, and ultimately, through this focus, how to bring more meaning to our work - A Tech Humanist Look at the Future of Work
From AI-enabled recruitment systems to virtual presence robots, even the workplace of the present can seem a little strange. But what do emerging and exponential technologies mean for the future of human jobs? It no longer sounds alarmist to say that at least some parts of our jobs are probably going to be replaced by automation or by cognitive computing. Depending on which forecast you consult, as many as half of all job categories risk displacement, if not complete replacement, by machines in the years to come. There will certainly be impacts on the economy, on production, on efficiencies of scale, and on innovation. But beyond the economic impacts, how will this shift our human understanding of meaningful work, of accomplishment, of achievement? And how can companies prepare for workplaces that increasingly blend human and machine contributions? This thought-provoking and ultimately inspiring talk from Kate O’Neill, author of Tech Humanist, offers clarity, encouragement, and a thoughtful approach for business leaders to adapt to the big changes ahead while grounding the discussion in the timeless fundamentals of humanity.educational / informative technical / specific Human Resources - Better Technology for the Future of Humanity and Why We ALL Need to Build It
IDEAL FOR: technology events wanting to emphasize diversity and inclusion; diversity and inclusion events wanting to emphasize technology
- considers that emerging technologies and the technologies of the future are increasingly immersive, and the data about us that shapes our everyday experiences, both online and offline, will increasingly affect our surroundings, our opportunities, and our well-being in seamless, holistic ways
- advocates for women, People of Color, and others who have historically had less input into the direction of technology to be able to lead the way forward
- argues for building the best futures for the most people
- offers encouragement, clarity, and practical steps for a more diverse and inclusive group of humans to influence the future of human experiences - Humanity At Scale: Data, Emerging Tech, and the Future of Meaningful Human Experience
IDEAL FOR: corporate audiences, industry conferences
- considers the emphasis in business on artificial intelligence, automation of various kinds, and digital transformation
- proposes that the future of human experiences – and even the future of humanity itself – can feel uncertain
- explores the relationship between meaning, intention, data tracking, and human experience
- presents the case for why the future of humanity is in creating more meaningful, dimensional, and integrated experiences
- offers practical insights on how businesses can harness data and technology to create innovative experiences that form the basis of more meaningful and profitable relationships with customers
- demonstrates how emerging technologies like chatbots, wearables, IoT devices, and more can be included in this kind of human-centric strategy - Human-Centric Digital Transformation: Purpose, Alignment, Meaningful Experiences
IDEAL FOR: corporate leaders, technology leaders, civic leaders, cultural leaders, business audiences
- intended to help companies, organizations, cities, museums, and entities of all kinds solve strategic problems arising from integrating data and emerging technology into their business model, operations, and experience strategy
- encourages aligning the data model and technology deployment in these areas around human experiences meaningfully, respectfully, and profitably
- makes the case that business can’t ignore the need for digitization, and humanity can’t ignore the need for purpose and meaning
- provides a framework to align the entire organization, offer efficiencies, clarify priorities, uncover inconsistencies that hold back growth, simplify decision-making, and put resources where they matter most - Pixels and Place: Connected Experiences and Integrated Human Experience Design
IDEAL FOR: IoT conferences, corporate events, integrated design events
- considers that there is no “online” and “offline” anymore
- argues that whether you’re offering a product for purchase, a travel destination, a healthcare service, an education, or just about anything else, what you’re really offering is an experience – and your customers increasingly expect these experiences to be integrated, contextually relevant, and meaningful
- describes an approach to serving people relevant digital interactions while meeting them in the context of their physical surroundings – for more memorable, more meaningful, and more integrated digital and physical experiences
- applies that approach to the needs of your audience
- content may focus more on brands as placemakers or on digital user experience, exploring digital placemaking and strategy: the meaning of place, and how digital “place” creates context for behavior, reactions, and experience and what marketers and designers can do to harness that
- covers real-world, current examples from a variety of industries and review action-ready ideas for implementing integrated experiences - Automation, Integration, AI, and the Future of Meaningful Human Experience
IDEAL FOR: industry conferences, corporate events, forward-thinking technology events
- considers that every day our physical surroundings and our digital interactions converge more and more, through data analytics, connected devices and the Internet of Things, wearable technology, geo-tagged and geo-targeted social media, surveillance, sensors and beacons, and so on
- posits that our human experiences create a targeted feedback loop, defining our opportunities, our relationships, our knowledge, and, ultimately, our selves
- advocates thinking beyond the customer context to a holistic human experience that blends online and offline interactions, and building lifetime value through relevant and respectful use of data
- explores the relationship between meaning, intention, data tracking, and human experience
- offers practical insights on how businesses can harness data and technology to create innovative experiences that form the basis of more meaningful and profitable relationships with customers - Meaningful Growth
IDEAL FOR: corporate leaders, cultural leaders, organizational leaders
- considers that not all growth is meaningful
- advocates creating relationships with customers based on an understanding of their motivations and what compels them
- offers a framework for growth that adds value
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