Curated by Futurist Anders Sörman-Nilsson, Thinque
The definitive 2026 guide to the best AI keynote speakers in Australia, curated by futurist and AI Keynote Speaker Anders Sörman-Nilsson. Twenty-two verified Australian AI experts — academics, founders, operators, governance leaders, and futurists — organised by specialty lane to help event planners, conference organisers, and corporate booking managers find the right voice for boards, summits, leadership offsites, and global stages.
I sat down for dinner at the Chicago Athletic Association with a friend and long-serving Head of Innovation at a major global pharma after finishing my AI Keynote at CommerceLive at Navy Pier in Chicago earlier this month. We’ve worked together for over sixteen years. Across that time I’ve spoken at his and his companies’ events, coached their internal thought leaders, and curated external experts for their stages. He didn’t ask for speaker recommendations this time. But he often has. And our conversation reminded me how often that question comes up across my client base.
After twenty years in the keynote business, my clients regularly want me and other speakers at the same event. Sometimes I’m already booked and they ask who I’d recommend instead. Sometimes a brief calls for a different lens than mine, and they want a name they can trust and who is independently endorsed. Three roles have grown alongside the keynote work itself: strategic advisor, coach to internal thought leaders, and curator of external voices. The third role is the one most relevant to event planners reading this guide. After two decades of doing it for clients privately, this is the first time I’ve put the working shortlist in public.
In the rare moments when I don’t know the right fit for a brief, I refer my clients to a trusted speakers bureau agent who does. The point is the client gets the right speaker, not that the recommendation has to come from me.
AI is the hottest topic in the keynote market right now, and for good reason. Its exponential impact stretches across the future of work, ethics, education, healthcare, relationships, governance, and the broader question of what it means to be human in a world where machines increasingly think, decide, and create alongside us. Event planners are being asked to find speakers who can address this responsibly and credibly across vastly different audiences. That’s why I’ve focused this first published guide on the top Australian AI experts I happily recommend to my clients.
The Australian AI keynote market has matured fast over the past five years. The speakers on this list have withstood the test of time. They’ve built bodies of work, refined their frameworks, weathered the hype cycles, and earned the kind of repeat invitations that only come from delivering substance on stage. The category is genuinely diverse, spanning academics, founders, operators, futurists, inventors, governance experts, and sector specialists. That breadth is real strength. The challenge isn’t shortage. It’s clarity. AI has become standard vocabulary across the speaking industry, which makes telling the speakers whose practice is genuinely shaped by AI from those for whom AI is one slide deep harder than it should be. The work of doing that telling falls squarely on the event planner.
That gap is the reason this guide exists.
What follows is the editorially curated list of twenty-two AI keynote speakers in Australia I most often recommend alongside myself when shaping client lineups. These are the speakers I’d put on a stage I’m not on, share a stage with, or send to a client when the brief calls for someone else. Many I’ve shared platforms with directly. Several are mutual advisors and friends in the speaking craft. Some I run into year after year at the same conference circuits across Australia, Asia, Europe, and the US. A few I’ve followed for a decade. These are also the presenters I myself enjoy listening to: the people who make me think, change my position on something, or remind me why this work matters. This isn’t a clinical ranking. It’s the honest shortlist a working AI keynote speaker actually keeps in his head.
A note on geography. The list is Australian-curated, but it is not Australian-confined. Many of these speakers (myself included) keynote internationally as often as they keynote at home. Brett King has spoken in over fifty countries. Mike Walsh travels over three hundred days a year. Ross Dawson has worked across more than thirty countries. Chris Riddell has lived and worked across the UK, the Middle East, China, and Australia. Toby Walsh holds research positions across Europe and an indefinite ban from Russia. These are not local voices. They are Australian voices on the global stage, and the strong international demand for their thinking is itself one of the more telling signals of credibility on this list.
Each speaker meets the seven criteria laid out below. Each profile links directly to the speaker’s own website or institutional bio so you can assess them on their own terms, see their current keynote topics, and reach them directly when that’s the right path. Each speaker covers a distinct lane, because the right voice for a healthcare board is not the right voice for a retail leadership offsite or an AI ethics committee at a major bank.
A note on transparency. I appear on this list. The only honest way to handle that is to declare it openly, apply the same criteria to my own entry as to everyone else’s, and let you judge whether the inclusion holds up. I’ve done that. You can decide.
The criteria, the methodology, and the speakers follow.
This list applies seven evidence-based criteria. Each is independently verifiable. Every speaker on the list meets all seven.
1. Verifiable AI expertise. Demonstrable track record speaking, publishing, building, or researching specifically in AI. AI must be a headlined keynote topic in the speaker’s current practice, not a peripheral theme buried among many. Many speakers on this list hold strong futurist credentials, and several began as futurists before AI became a headline topic. The criterion is that the AI lens is central to their current work, not incidental.
2. Tier-1 enterprise engagement. Documented keynote work with Fortune 500, ASX 200, or equivalent global enterprises, government bodies, or peak industry associations.
3. Published thought leadership. Books, peer-reviewed research, white papers, or substantive long-form publications on AI, technology, or futures. Blog posts and social commentary alone do not qualify.
4. Independent third-party recognition. Academic appointments, industry awards, advisory or board roles, government appointments, or tier-1 media features (national broadsheets, BBC, WSJ, Forbes, AFR, equivalent).
5. Original framework, IP, or research contribution. A named lens, model, methodology, or research output associated with the speaker’s work. This filters for original thinking versus repackaged consensus.
6. Active current speaking practice. Speaker keynotes actively, with an AI-headlined keynote delivered within the past twelve months. This filters out semi-retired voices and ensures the list reflects who is genuinely available for 2026 events.
7. Australian relevance. Australian-based, Australian-born, or substantive ongoing engagement with Australian audiences. The list is curated for Australian event planners commissioning speakers for Australian audiences.
This guide is editorially curated by Thinque, a Sydney-based futures think tank I founded in 2005. I verified each speaker against the seven criteria using publicly available sources, including institutional bios, published works, client rosters, and tier-1 media features. Every linked source is independently accessible. No speaker on this list paid to be included, and no speakers bureau commissioned, sponsored, or influenced the curation.
The author of this guide appears on the list. I’ve applied the same criteria to my own entry as to every other speaker. You can read my profile and judge for yourself whether the inclusion holds up.
Speakers appear grouped by specialty lane rather than ranked one to twenty-two. Within each lane, the order is alphabetical by surname. The rationale is straightforward: choosing an AI keynote speaker is best matched to event purpose rather than to any single ranking order. A CIO summit and a creative agency offsite need different voices, and neither is more or less valuable than the other. The lane-based structure helps you self-select the right speaker for the right event.
The full list at a glance. Each speaker appears in the lane that best matches their primary keynote positioning. Speakers within each lane are presented alphabetically by surname.
| Specialty Lane | Speakers |
|---|---|
| Academic & Research AI | Professor Toby Walsh |
| AI & The Future of Work | Dom Price |
| AI Ecosystem, Innovation & Policy | Mark Pesce, Sally-Ann Williams |
| AI Ethics & Governance | Professor Nicholas Davis, Dr Catriona Wallace |
| AI Founders & Operators | Amanda Johnstone, Liesl Yearsley |
| AI in Banking & Financial Services | Brett King |
| AI in Business Transformation & Leadership | Andy Lark, Steve Sammartino, Stephen Scheeler, Mike Walsh |
| AI in Government & Public Sector | The Hon. Victor Dominello |
| AI, STEM & Emerging Technology | Dr Catherine Ball, Dr Jordan Nguyen |
| AI-Native Founder & Visionary | David Hyman |
| Futures & Foresight Methodology | Ross Dawson, Morris Misel |
| Humanist AI & Digital Strategy | Chris Riddell, Anders Sörman-Nilsson |
| Maths, Science & AI Communication | Adam Spencer |
Lane: Academic & Research AI
Toby Walsh is one of the world’s leading AI researchers and Australia’s most internationally cited academic voice on artificial intelligence. He is Scientia Professor of Artificial Intelligence at UNSW Sydney, Chief Scientist at the UNSW AI Institute (UNSW.ai), an ARC Laureate Fellow, and Adjunct Professor at QUT. He has held research positions across the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, and Sweden, and has been profiled by the New York Times.
Walsh has written five books on AI for general audiences: It’s Alive! Artificial Intelligence from the Logic Piano to Killer Robots, 2062: The World That AI Made, Machines Behaving Badly: The Morality of AI, Faking It: Artificial Intelligence in a Human World, and The Shortest History of AI. His advocacy on the regulation of lethal autonomous weapons has taken him to the United Nations and parliamentary bodies around the world, and earned him a permanent ban from entering Russia.
Signature keynote topics
Notable clients and platforms: United Nations, Commonwealth Bank, AWS, the National Press Club of Australia, Sydney Writers’ Festival, Melbourne Writers Festival.
Authority signals: Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, the Association for Computing Machinery, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, and the European Coordinating Committee for AI. Humboldt Prize laureate. Celestino Eureka Prize for Promoting Understanding of Science. Named to the international “Who’s Who in AI.” Regular contributor to The Guardian, New Scientist, and the New York Times.
Best suited for: Universities, public lectures, policy forums, and government summits seeking the deepest academic and research authority on AI in the Australian market.
Verified links:
Primary: https://tobywalsh.ai
Secondary: https://cgi.cse.unsw.edu.au/~tw/
Lane: AI & The Future of Work
Dom Price is one of the most globally recognised voices on AI and the future of work in the Australian market. He spent twelve years as Atlassian’s Work Futurist and in-house “Team Doctor,” leading the company’s thinking on distributed teams, agility, leadership, and transformation, and personally running hundreds of team workshops with Atlassian’s global customer base. In early 2026 he joined boutique advisory firm Be Luminous as a Partner, where he advises organisations on the human capability gap in AI-led transformation. He is a TED speaker whose TEDx talk on Personal Moral Inventory has amassed over one million views.
Price was previously a Director at Deloitte and General Manager of Program Management for a global gaming company. He has worked across Europe, the United States, and Asia-Pacific, and has called Australia home for over fifteen years. He helped pioneer the Atlassian Team Playbook, an open-source library of team practices used by tens of thousands of teams globally. His keynote work focuses on the human, leadership, and cultural conditions that determine whether AI transformations succeed or stall.
Signature keynote topics
Notable clients and platforms: Atlassian, Be Luminous, Deloitte, the Atlassian Team Playbook user community.
Authority signals: TED speaker. TEDx Personal Moral Inventory talk with one million-plus views. Twelve years as Atlassian Work Futurist. Former Director at Deloitte. Sydney-based with international keynote practice across Europe, US, and Asia-Pacific. Sustained thought-leadership platform on the future of work.
Best suited for: People and culture leaders, HR transformation summits, CIO and CTO leadership briefings, and executive teams navigating the cultural and operational change required to make AI transformations stick.
Verified links:
Primary: https://domprice.me
Secondary: https://www.ted.com/speakers/dominic_price
Lane: AI Ecosystem, Innovation & Policy
Mark Pesce is one of the most original technologists working the Australian keynote circuit, and one of a very small group whose work helped define the architecture of the modern internet. He co-invented Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) in 1994, the first 3D standard for the Web and the technical foundation underpinning today’s metaverse. American-Australian and Sydney-based, he holds an Honorary Lecturer appointment at the University of Sydney’s Digital Cultures Program and founded postgraduate programs in emerging media at the University of Southern California and the Australian Film, Television and Radio School.
Pesce is the author of nine books, including Getting Started with ChatGPT and AI Chatbots (2023) and Augmented Reality: Unboxing Tech’s Next Big Thing. He served seven years as a judge on ABC’s The New Inventors, hosts the award-winning podcasts The Next Billion Seconds and This Week in Startups Australia, and writes a multi-award-winning column for The Register and a regular column for COSMOS Magazine. He won Best Columnist at the Australian IT Journalism Awards in 2018, 2019, and 2021.
Signature keynote topics
Notable clients and platforms: World Bank, G20, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Telstra, Australian Federal Government, ABC, University of Sydney.
Authority signals: Co-inventor of VRML. Honorary Lecturer at University of Sydney. Three-time Best Columnist at the Australian IT Journalism Awards (The Register). Best Science Podcast, 2018 Australian Podcasting Awards. Featured on Wikipedia. Author of nine published books on emerging technology spanning three decades.
Best suited for: Tech-literate audiences, innovation summits, R&D leadership, policy forums, and creative industry events seeking deep historical and technical context on AI, the metaverse, and the long arc of digital transformation.
Verified links:
Primary: https://markpesce.com
Secondary: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Pesce
Lane: AI Ecosystem, Innovation & Policy
Sally-Ann Williams is one of Australia’s most institutionally connected voices on the AI and deep tech innovation ecosystem. She is the Chair of the Board of Australia’s National Computational Infrastructure (NCI), a Director of the Australian Research Council, and a Board Director of Bank Australia, Education Services Australia, and AusOcean. She is a Member of Chief Executive Women and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (FTSE), and holds an honorary Doctorate from Griffith University and an honorary Doctor of Technology from UTS.
Williams spent six years as CEO of Cicada Innovations, Australia’s premier deep tech incubator, where she transformed the organisation into a national powerhouse. Under her leadership Cicada-supported ventures raised over $6.1 billion in capital and achieved more than $1.4 billion in exits. She launched the Jumar Bioincubator in Melbourne, the HealthTech Hub at Westmead, and the National Space Industry Hub. Before Cicada, she spent over twelve years at Google Australia leading STEM education, R&D collaborations, and entrepreneurship engagement. She chaired the Federal Government’s Pathway to Diversity in STEM Review, with all eleven of her recommendations adopted by Government.
Signature keynote topics
Notable clients and platforms: Australian Research Council, National Computational Infrastructure, Federal Department of Industry, Bank Australia, Cicada Innovations, Google Australia, Tech23, Startmate.
Authority signals: Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (FTSE). Chair of the Federal Pathway to Diversity in STEM Review with all eleven recommendations adopted. Two honorary doctorates. Board roles across federal research, banking, and not-for-profit. Member of Chief Executive Women.
Best suited for: Government and policy events, R&D summits, innovation and commercialisation conferences, and senior leadership audiences seeking institutional perspective on Australia’s AI and deep tech trajectory.
Verified links:
Primary: https://www.arc.gov.au/ms-sally-ann-williams-ftse
Secondary: https://nci.org.au/news-events/news/nci-welcomes-sally-ann-williams-chair-board
Lane: AI Ethics & Governance
Nicholas Davis is one of Australia’s most internationally credentialed voices on AI governance and emerging technology policy. He is Industry Professor of Emerging Technology at the University of Technology Sydney and Co-Director of UTS’s Human Technology Institute (HTI), which he co-founded with Professor Edward Santow and Professor Sally Cripps. From 2015 to 2019 he served as Head of Society and Innovation at the World Economic Forum in Geneva and as a member of the Forum’s Executive Committee, where he led the development of the Fourth Industrial Revolution agenda. He holds degrees from the University of Oxford and the University of Sydney.
Davis co-authored Shaping the Fourth Industrial Revolution with WEF Founder Professor Klaus Schwab, and co-authored HTI’s flagship 2023 report The State of AI Governance in Australia. He concurrently holds positions as Associate Fellow at the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School, Visiting Fellow at the ANU School of Cybernetics, Professor of Practice at ASU’s Thunderbird School of Global Practice, and Associate Fellow at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy. He sits on ASIC’s Consultative Panel and the AICD’s Technology Governance and Innovation Panel.
Signature keynote topics
Notable clients and platforms: KPMG Australia Audit Committee Institute, AICD, the World Economic Forum, ASIC, Atlassian, Minderoo Foundation, the Australian AI Safety Institute initiative.
Authority signals: Co-author with Klaus Schwab on the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Former WEF Executive Committee member. Industry Professor at UTS. Concurrent fellowships at Oxford, Geneva, ASU, and ANU. Regular contributor to The Conversation, Startup Daily, and major business media on AI policy and corporate governance.
Best suited for: Boards, regulators, government summits, and senior corporate audiences seeking deep AI governance authority, particularly on director duties and corporate responsibility for AI deployment.
Verified links:
Primary: https://profiles.uts.edu.au/Nicholas.Davis
Secondary: https://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/about-us/people/nicholas-davis
Lane: AI Ethics & Governance
Catriona Wallace is one of Australia's most established voices on responsible AI and one of the country's earliest AI entrepreneurs. She founded Flamingo AI in 2013, which became only the second woman-led business (CEO and Chair) to list on the Australian Securities Exchange and one of Australia's earliest AI companies. Following its exit in 2020, she founded Ethical AI Advisory (now part of the Gradient Institute) and the Responsible Metaverse Alliance, a global initiative addressing AI and metaverse safety, ethics, and governance. She holds a PhD in Organisational Behaviour from UNSW plus an Honorary PhD in Business.
Wallace co-authored Checkmate Humanity: The How and Why of Responsible AI and authored Rapid Transformation. She chairs AI venture fund Boab AI, holds an Adjunct Professorship at the UNSW Australian Graduate School of Management, co-chairs Sir Richard Branson’s B Team AI Coalition, advises INTERPOL’s Metaverse Expert Group, and joined Channel 10’s Shark Tank Australia as a Shark in 2023.
Signature keynote topics
Notable clients and platforms: ServiceNow, IAG, Transurban, Garvan Institute, Royal Institution of Australia, INTERPOL, the B Team.
Authority signals: AFR Most Influential Woman in Business and Entrepreneurship. LinkedIn Top Voice in Technology. Royal Institution of Australia inductee. Onalytica Top AI and Metaverse Speakers globally. Advance Australia’s highest award in Technology and Innovation. Recognised in the Centre of Economic and Leadership Development’s Global Power Women.
Best suited for: Boards, government bodies, and leadership summits seeking authoritative perspective on AI ethics, governance, and responsible deployment from a category-shaping Australian voice.
Verified links:
Primary: https://responsiblemetaverse.org
Secondary: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catriona_Wallace
Lane: AI Founders & Operators
Amanda Johnstone is one of Australia’s most globally recognised AI technologists and emotion AI specialists. She is the Founding CEO of Transhuman Inc., a Sydney-based AI and mental health technology company she co-founded in 2014 with Roy Sugarman. She invented Be A Looper, a daily mental health peer-support check-in app used in 87 countries with over 20,000 users, recognised by TIME, Forbes, GSMA, and Singularity University. She holds multiple patents in mental health and AI.
Johnstone was named a TIME Next Generation Leader in 2019, the first Australian to receive the honour and one of only ten globally that year. She is a LinkedIn Top Voice in Artificial Intelligence (2023-2026), CEO Magazine Startup Executive of the Year, and one of Salesforce’s Top 16 AI Influencers globally. She co-founded retail chain Sebachi at seventeen under the mentorship of Cotton On founder Nigel Austin, was Australia’s first Youth Development Officer at eighteen, and has spoken to corporate audiences including YPO, Allianz, Stanford, Kellogg’s, Google Cloud, Optus, the Australian Government, Commonwealth Bank, MYOB, and Zoom. She hosts the Talk Nerdy To Me podcast with nearly 300,000 subscribers.
Signature keynote topics
Notable clients and platforms: YPO, Allianz, Stanford, Kellogg’s, Google Cloud, Optus, Australian Government, Commonwealth Bank, MYOB, Zoom, The Research Society.
Authority signals: TIME Next Generation Leader (first Australian recipient). LinkedIn Top Voice in AI (2023-2026). CEO Magazine Startup Executive of the Year. Salesforce Top 16 AI Influencers. Holder of multiple AI and mental health patents. Founder of an AI company saving lives in 87 countries. Featured on Wikipedia. Featured in Forbes, TIME, Singularity University, Wired, and GSMA.
Best suited for: Founder and operator audiences, women in tech and leadership summits, mental health and wellbeing conferences, and corporate audiences seeking authentic-voice perspective on ethical AI and modern founder-led leadership.
Verified links:
Primary: https://www.amandajohnstone.com
Secondary: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanda_Johnstone
Lane: AI Founders & Operators
Liesl Yearsley is one of Australia’s most globally credentialed AI founders, with a multi-decade track record building conversational AI companies. She is the founder and CEO of Akin, a Public Benefit Corporation building empathetic AI agents to support human wellbeing and decision-making. Earlier she founded and led Cognea, one of the world’s first conversational AI platforms, which IBM acquired and integrated into Watson in 2014. She holds multiple patents in AI and machine learning, and her work has been featured in Bloomberg, MIT Technology Review, Forbes, and TechCrunch.
Yearsley has spoken at MIT Media Lab, Singularity University, Web Summit, and SXSW on the ethical design of AI agents and the long-term societal implications of conversational AI systems. Her published thought leadership in MIT Technology Review on the manipulative potential of AI agents is among the most cited critiques in the field. She has advised governments, regulators, and Fortune 500 boards on the safe deployment of agentic AI, and was an early voice on the risks of optimising AI for engagement at the expense of human wellbeing.
Signature keynote topics
Notable clients and platforms: IBM Watson (acquirer of Cognea), MIT Media Lab, Singularity University, Web Summit, SXSW, MIT Technology Review.
Authority signals: Founder of two pioneering AI companies. Holder of multiple patents in AI. Cognea acquired by IBM and integrated into Watson. Published MIT Technology Review thought leadership cited globally. Public Benefit Corporation founder (rare among AI startups). Featured in Bloomberg, Forbes, and TechCrunch.
Best suited for: Founder and operator audiences, AI safety and ethics summits, board briefings on conversational AI deployment, and senior leadership groups making decisions about deploying agentic AI in customer-facing or wellbeing-adjacent contexts.
Verified links:
Primary: https://www.akin.com
Secondary: https://www.linkedin.com/in/liesl/
Lane: AI in Banking & Financial Services
Brett King is the closest thing financial services has to a globally recognised AI futurist. Melbourne-born and a Monash University graduate, King is the founder of Moven (the world's first app-based mobile bank) and the host of Breaking Banks, the world's #1 fintech podcast with over 6.5 million listeners across 180 countries. He is the author of multiple international bestsellers spanning two decades, including the Bank 2.0 through Bank 4.0 series, Augmented: Life in the Smart Lane, The Rise of Technosocialism, and his 2025 release Branch Tomorrow. Bank 5.0, on agentic banking, is forthcoming.
King has delivered keynotes in over fifty countries at TED, Wired, Singularity University, Web Summit, The Economist, IBM's World of Watson, CES, and SIBOS. He advised the Obama administration on fintech policy. President Xi Jinping cited his book Augmented in a speech on artificial intelligence, and Bank 4.0 won Top Foreign Author in Russia in 2019. Banking Exchange named him the “King of the Disruptors.” The Fintech Hall of Fame inducted him in 2020.
Signature keynote topics
Notable clients and platforms: Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, TED, IBM, Singularity University, SIBOS, Web Summit.
Authority signals: Eight internationally bestselling books on banking, fintech, and AI spanning two decades. Cited by President Xi Jinping. Voted #1 Financial Services Influencer by The Financial Brand. Regular commentator on CNN, CNBC, BBC, ABC, Fox, and Bloomberg.
Best suited for: Banking, financial services, fintech, and insurance audiences navigating AI-led transformation, particularly at C-suite and board level.
Verified links:
Primary: https://www.brettking.com
Secondary: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brett_King_(businessman)
Lane: AI in Business Transformation & Leadership
Andy Lark is one of the most experienced enterprise marketing and digital transformation leaders working the Australian, New Zealand, and global keynote circuit. His senior executive track record spans Commonwealth Bank (Chief Marketing and Online Officer), Xero (Chief Business Officer), Foxtel (CMO), Dell, Dubber, and Sun Microsystems. He is the Founder and Chair of Group Lark, a global consultancy driving brand, digital, and Web 3.0 transformations for leading enterprises and governments. As CMO of Commonwealth Bank he launched what was then the world’s most successful eWallet. As Chief Business Officer at Xero, he helped Forbes name the company the world’s most innovative growth company.
Lark holds advisory board roles at multiple AI-driven ventures including Jiko (Silicon Valley neo-bank), OCX Cognition (AI-powered NPS measurement), Dubber (conversational AI), and Liven (Web 3 hospitality). He is an Honorary Professor at Deakin University, a regular AdNews columnist, an Amazon bestselling author, and runs The Daily Lark, ranked among the world’s top 100 marketing blogs. His current marquee AI keynote is “Change or Die: The AI Transformation Imperative.”
Signature keynote topics
Notable clients and platforms: Commonwealth Bank, Xero, Dell, Foxtel, Sun Microsystems, Liven, AdNews, Number 8 Ventures.
Authority signals: Consistently ranked Top 100 CMOs globally. NZ Government’s World Class New Zealander Award. NZ Hi-Tech sector’s Flying Kiwi Award. Facebook Studio Award. Honorary Professor at Deakin University. Speaks to over 100,000 event attendees annually. Featured commentator in the Australian Financial Review and AdNews.
Best suited for: Marketing leadership audiences, CMO summits, board briefings, and executive teams navigating AI-led brand, customer experience, and digital transformation.
Verified links:
Primary: https://thedailylark.com
Secondary: https://about.me/andylark
Lane: AI in Business Transformation & Leadership
Steve Sammartino is one of Australia’s most active futurist keynote speakers, with engagements delivered to over 500,000 people across 40 countries. He is the host and creator of Channel 9’s The Rebound, now in its fourth season as Australia’s number one technology and business television program. He co-hosts #techtopia and This Week in Technology on ABC Radio National and serves as a regular technology commentator for the ABC. He is a board member of the NSW Treasury Innovation and Productivity Council and advises ASX top 30 firms on technology strategy.
Sammartino is the author of three bestselling technology strategy books: The Great Fragmentation (translated into multiple languages), The Lessons School Forgot, and Think Like a Startup. He is the co-founder of Macro3D, an AI and robotics company building robots to automate construction. He authored Samsung’s Australians@Home in 2029 future trends report and previously held senior roles at Procter & Gamble, SAB Miller, Kimberly Clark, Mondelez, and WPP. He has delivered a TED talk and is consistently rated the highest-scored speaker at conferences he attends.
Signature keynote topics
Notable clients and platforms: ASX top 30 firms, Samsung Australia, NSW Treasury, ABC, BBC, Smithsonian Institute, Discovery Channel, Mashable, Wired.
Authority signals: Host of Australia’s #1 technology and business TV show. ABC Radio National regular contributor. NSW Treasury Innovation and Productivity Council board member. Co-founder of an AI and robotics company. TED speaker. Featured on Wikipedia. Three internationally translated books on technology strategy.
Best suited for: Generalist business audiences, ASX-listed boards, peak industry associations, and leadership summits seeking accessible, humorous, and broadly-grounded perspective on AI, automation, and disruption.
Verified links:
Primary: https://stevesammartino.com
Secondary: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Sammartino
Lane: AI in Business Transformation & Leadership
Stephen Scheeler is one of Australia’s most commercially credentialed voices on AI, leadership, and digital disruption. He is the former CEO of Facebook for Australia and New Zealand, where he led the platform’s transformation from quirky Silicon Valley startup into one of Facebook’s most successful global markets, working alongside Mark Zuckerberg and Silicon Valley’s senior leadership team. He is the founder of The Digital CEO, a Senior Advisor to McKinsey & Company, and Executive-in-Residence at the Australian Graduate School of Management (AGSM) at UNSW. He holds an MBA from AGSM.
Scheeler is the co-founder and CEO of Omniscient, an Australian-born AI company described as “the Google Maps of the brain” for its work decoding the human brain using AI. Omniscient won the 2022 SXSW Innovation Award for AI and is backed by Gina Rinehart, Gretel Packer, and Will Vicars. He sits on the Prime Minister’s Knowledge Nation 100, top innovation leaders in Australia. His acclaimed TEDx talk The Oldest Guy at Facebook recounts his Facebook journey and underpins his signature leadership keynote.
Signature keynote topics
Notable clients and platforms: Google, Qantas, NAB, IAG, Telstra, JB Hi-Fi, Bunnings, Mirvac, the Australian Government, McKinsey & Company.
Authority signals: Former Facebook ANZ CEO. Member of the Prime Minister’s Knowledge Nation 100. Featured in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, ABC, Sky News, The Today Show, The Australian, and Australian Financial Review. TEDx speaker. 2022 SXSW Innovation Award (Omniscient).
Best suited for: C-suite audiences, technology leadership summits, government briefings, and corporate boards seeking insider Silicon Valley perspective combined with Australian operator credibility on AI and disruptive leadership.
Verified links:
Primary: https://stephenscheeler.com.au
Secondary: https://www.businessthink.unsw.edu.au/articles/stephen-scheeler-ai-brain-mapping-omniscient
Lane: AI in Business Transformation & Leadership
Mike Walsh is Australian-born, globally based, and one of the most prolific futurist keynote speakers working on AI and enterprise reinvention. He is the CEO of Tomorrow, a global consultancy on designing companies for the 21st century, and a regular columnist for the Harvard Business Review. He has delivered over 1,000 keynotes for organisations including Verizon, Raytheon, BBC, Fujifilm, Richemont, Star TV, Televisa, Philips, and HSBC. He holds a Law degree from UNSW and spent five years in senior strategy roles at News Corporation before founding Tomorrow in Hong Kong.
Walsh is the author of three bestselling books: Futuretainment (winner of the Art Director’s Club Design Award in New York), The Dictionary of Dangerous Ideas, and The Algorithmic Leader (translated into Chinese, Japanese, Korean, German, Polish, and Russian). His forthcoming 2026 book for Harvard Business Review Press, co-authored with Deloitte’s Global Head of AI Nitin Mittal, focuses on agentic AI and digital labour, drawing on interviews with leaders of the world’s largest organisations on how to govern and thrive with autonomous AI at enterprise scale.
Signature keynote topics
Notable clients and platforms: Verizon, Raytheon, HSBC, BBC, Fujifilm, Richemont, Philips, the Ambrosetti Global Forum.
Authority signals: Harvard Business Review regular columnist. Author of the Tomorrowist LinkedIn newsletter. Host of the Between Worlds podcast. Featured in Inc. Magazine, BusinessWeek, Forbes, and the Wall Street Journal. The Algorithmic Leader was the keynote book gift to world leaders at the 2019 Ambrosetti Global Forum at Villa d’Este.
Best suited for: Fortune 50 corporates, executive summits, and CEO briefings seeking pragmatic, research-driven perspective on AI-driven organisational design and the future of work.
Verified links:
Primary: https://www.mike-walsh.com
Secondary: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelwalsh/
Lane: AI in Government & Public Sector
Victor Dominello is Australia’s most experienced public sector digital transformation leader and one of the most credible AI keynote voices for government, regulatory, and public sector audiences. He spent twelve years in the NSW Cabinet, including as the inaugural NSW Minister for Customer Service and Digital, a world-first ministerial role pioneered in 2019. Under his leadership, NSW delivered some of the most globally referenced public sector digital projects of the past decade, including the Service NSW app, digital driver’s licenses (now used by more than 85% of eligible NSW citizens with a 93% satisfaction rating), QR Check-Ins, vaccine certificates, and Dine and Discover.
Dominello is the CEO of the Future Government Institute, a global hub for leaders working on the next era of governance, and Co-Founder of ServiceGen, which advises governments and the World Bank on national digital identity and verifiable credentials. He is a Professor at UNSW Sydney, Director of the UNSW-UTS Trustworthy Digital Society Hub, Chair of the Federal Ministerial Digital ID Expert Panel, Chair of the Services Australia Independent Advisory Board, and a Strategic Advisor to the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change.
Signature keynote topics
Notable clients and platforms: Services Australia, the World Bank, Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, Accenture, NSW Government, Westpac, Veeam.
Authority signals: Inaugural NSW Minister for Customer Service and Digital (world-first role). Recognised by The Australian in 2022 among Australia’s top 100 innovators. Professor at UNSW. Chairs two federal advisory bodies. Twelve years in NSW Cabinet across Digital Government, Innovation, Finance, and Aboriginal Affairs portfolios.
Best suited for: Government departments, public sector summits, regulatory and policy events, and boards of public agencies or government-adjacent organisations seeking authoritative perspective on AI, digital trust, and citizen-centred service delivery.
Verified links:
Primary: https://au.linkedin.com/in/victordominello
Secondary: https://www.unsw.edu.au/newsroom/news/2023/05/former-nsw-minister-to-head-up-new-unsw-uts-hub-driving-trustworthy-digital-services
Lane: AI-Native Founder & Visionary
David Hyman is one of the most operationally credible AI-native founders working in the Australian market. He co-founded Lendi Group in 2014 and led the business through its growth into one of Australia’s largest digital mortgage platforms, with a $105 billion loan book by 2025. In April 2026 he founded monō ai, an AI-native venture focused on rebuilding professional services workflows from the ground up using agentic AI. His Lendi tenure is widely cited as one of the most successful Australian examples of AI-led transformation inside a regulated industry, including the deployment of AI agents across mortgage broking workflows.
Hyman was an EY Entrepreneur of the Year Australia, has been profiled extensively in the Australian Financial Review and Business Insider Australia, and is one of the most quoted Australian operators on agentic AI in financial services. His thought leadership focuses on the practical realities of AI deployment inside established businesses: the integration challenge, the human capability gap, the legal and compliance perimeter, and the unit economics that determine whether AI initiatives ever reach production.
Signature keynote topics
Notable clients and platforms: Lendi Group, monō ai, EY Entrepreneur of the Year Australia, Australian Financial Review, Business Insider Australia.
Authority signals: Co-founder of Lendi Group ($105B loan book). Founder of monō ai (2026). EY Entrepreneur of the Year Australia. AFR-profiled operator. One of the most quoted Australian voices on agentic AI in financial services. Sustained track record building AI-native technology businesses in regulated markets.
Best suited for: Founder and operator audiences, financial services leadership, board briefings on AI integration in regulated industries, and CEO and CTO audiences seeking practitioner-level perspective on AI-native business models.
Verified links:
Primary: https://mono.ai
Secondary: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dhyman
Lane: AI, STEM & Emerging Technology
Catherine Ball brings a rare combination of scientific rigour and futurist storytelling to the AI conversation. She holds a PhD in spatial ecology and predictive statistics from Newcastle University in the UK, sits as Associate Professor at the Australian National University and Honorary Associate Professor at the ANU 3AI Institute, and was recently awarded an honorary Doctor of Science from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts. Her work spans drones, robotics, AI ethics, and emerging technology applications across humanitarian, education, and environmental projects.
Ball founded the World of Drones and Robotics Congress in Brisbane in 2017 and serves on the International Advisory Board of the Schmidt Ocean Institute as the only Australian member. She is an XPRIZE Visioneer, a member of the Robotics Australia Council, and host of the News From The Future podcast. Her current AI keynotes include “Technology with a Soul” and “Digital Rebirth: Redefining Creativity in the Age of AI and Quantum Computing.”
Signature keynote topics
Notable clients and platforms: Palo Alto Networks, Schmidt Ocean Institute, XPRIZE, Australian National University, World Science Festival Brisbane, Aviation Australia.
Authority signals: Bestselling author of Converge (2022) and The Future of Sleep (2026). Recognised on Analytics Insight’s World’s 50 Most Renowned Women in Robotics (2020), the Top 25 Women in Robotics list (2016), and the AFR/Westpac 100 Women of Influence (2016). Featured in BBC, ABC, and the Australian Financial Review.
Best suited for: Conferences and leadership summits seeking scientifically grounded foresight on AI, robotics, and emerging technology, with a humanist and environmental lens.
Verified links:
Primary: https://www.drcatherineball.com
Secondary: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_Ball
Lane: AI, STEM & Emerging Technology
Jordan Nguyen is one of Australia’s most globally recognised biomedical and AI engineers, and a Eureka Prize-winning documentary presenter. He holds a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Technology Sydney (2012), where he developed a mind-controlled smart wheelchair as his doctoral project. He is the founder and CEO of Psykinetic, a social enterprise designing AI-enabled assistive technologies for people with disabilities, and the founder of Time-Captain Productions, a media company focused on the intersection of technology and humanity.
Nguyen presented the ABC Catalyst documentaries Becoming Superhuman (winner of the 2017 Eureka Prize for Science Journalism, ATOM Award for Best Factual Television Series, and the ROCKIE Award at Banff World Media Festival) and Meet The Avatars, and has presented documentaries for National Geographic and the Discovery Channel including Smart China, Time of Xi, and Tibet: Living On The Roof Of The World. He is the author of A Human’s Guide to the Future, was a NSW Australian of the Year finalist in 2017, won the Australian Computer Society’s ICT Professional of the Year Digital Disruptors Award, and served as MC for An Evening with President Barack Obama on his Sydney visit.
Signature keynote topics
Notable clients and platforms: ABC Catalyst, National Geographic, Discovery Channel, Adobe, TEDxSydney, Australian Computer Society, Baulkham Hills North Public School (Dr Jordan Nguyen Innovation Centre).
Authority signals: PhD from UTS (Chancellor’s List). 2017 Eureka Prize for Science Journalism. Australian Computer Society’s ICT Professional of the Year Digital Disruptors Award. Featured on Wikipedia. Twice named in Onalytica’s Top 100 Global Influencers on VR. Harper’s BAZAAR Visionary Men of 2019. NSW Australian of the Year finalist (2017).
Best suited for: Healthcare and medtech conferences, accessibility and inclusion summits, STEM education events, and audiences seeking technically rigorous yet emotionally resonant perspective on AI in service of humanity.
Verified links:
Primary: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordan_Nguyen
Secondary: https://www.aidc.com.au/whos-coming/dr-jordan-nguyen/
Lane: Futures & Foresight Methodology
Ross Dawson is one of the most prolific and globally established Australian futurists working today, with keynote engagements delivered in more than thirty countries across six continents. He is the Founding Chairman of the Advanced Human Technologies Group, founder of Informivity and Bondi Innovation Alliance, and a LinkedIn Top Voice. His New York Times-acknowledged book Living Networks is credited with predicting the rise of social networking; his most recent book Thriving on Overload offers a methodology for navigating exponential information. He speaks five languages and previously held senior roles at Merrill Lynch, NCR, and Thomson Financial.
Dawson is the author of five books on the future of business, has run executive education programs and lectured at the University of Virginia, the Australian Graduate School of Management, Singularity University, and the Institute of Banking and Finance. His “Humans + AI Leader” framework underpins his current keynote practice on AI and the future of work. He has been named among the world’s most influential people on the future of work, fintech, crowdfunding, and Enterprise 2.0.
Signature keynote topics
Notable clients and platforms: American Express, Citibank, Coca-Cola, Google, Microsoft, Oracle, EY, Gartner, Macquarie Bank, P&G, PwC, Visa, Walmart, the Dubai Ministry of Finance.
Authority signals: Five bestselling books on the future of business. LinkedIn Top Voice. New York Times-cited futurist for predicting the social networking revolution. Faculty for AICD innovation programs. Lectured at Singularity University. Recognised globally as one of the most influential futurists on the future of work.
Best suited for: Boards, executive leadership teams, and global summits seeking proven futures methodology and structured foresight frameworks applied to AI and the future of work.
Verified links:
Primary: https://rossdawson.com
Secondary: https://www.linkedin.com/in/futuristkeynotespeaker/
Lane: Futures & Foresight Methodology
Morris Misel (formerly Morris Miselowski) is one of Australia’s most experienced business futurists, with over thirty years of practice, more than 2,800 keynotes delivered, and a client base spanning 160-plus industries across four continents. He is an Industry Fellow at Griffith University, Chairman of the Griffith University Industry Advisory Board, and Australia’s first and only member of the Einstein 100 Genius (G100) global think tank. He has been twice recognised with the Australian Micro Business Award for strategic foresight and innovation.
Misel currently delivers his Immediate Futures keynote series, which translates AI and digital disruption into actionable strategy for leadership audiences across hospitality, retail, agriculture, construction, and financial services. His current AI-headlined keynote “Harness AI: Empowering Your Business Future” demystifies AI for non-technical executive audiences. He has presented a TEDxMelbourne talk and consults to Fortune 500 boards, with regular media segments across ABC, Sky News, SBS, RTHK3 Hong Kong, and CBS Interactive.
Signature keynote topics
Notable clients and platforms: IBM, Microsoft, Visa, BP, ANZ, Westpac, MasterCard, Mercedes Benz, NAB, Lufthansa, Caltex, Australia Post.
Authority signals: Einstein 100 Genius (G100) member. Industry Fellow and Industry Advisory Board Chair at Griffith University. Two-time recipient of the Australian Micro Business Award for strategic foresight. TEDxMelbourne speaker. Regular commentator across ABC, Sky News, SBS, Times of India, Sydney Morning Herald, and The Australian.
Best suited for: Industry-specific conferences, hospitality and retail summits, board strategy days, and senior leadership groups seeking grounded, human-first foresight on AI and emerging technology.
Verified links:
Primary: https://www.morrismisel.com
Secondary: https://www.griffith.edu.au/business-government/industry-advisory-board
Lane: Humanist AI & Digital Strategy
Chris Riddell is one of Australia's most internationally credentialed futurists working the AI keynote circuit, with a corporate operator background few peer speakers can match. He served as the first-ever Chief Digital Officer for MARS Incorporated in Australia and New Zealand, architecting the corporate digital strategy behind global brands including Whiskas, Pedigree, Wrigley, Starburst, Masterfoods, Snickers, and Maltesers. He is the inaugural Innovation Partner and current Strategic Advisor and Partner to the Australian Federal Police, providing real-time advice on emerging trends and global drivers to inform strategy and capability development.
Riddell positions himself as a “Human Futurist,” centring his keynote work on how humans adapt to rapid change in a hyper-connected world. He has delivered keynotes to more than 1.5 million delegates at over 180 events worldwide, and has lived and worked across the UK, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Kuwait, China, New Zealand, and Australia. He is an active board member of the Museum of Australian Democracy at Eureka, a trusted media commentator and regular on The Project, Seven News, Sky News, ABC, and Channel 9, and has served as global brand ambassador for more than 65 international PR campaigns for brands including NBN Australia, eBay, Schneider Electric, and Microsoft.
Signature keynote topics
Notable clients and platforms: Google, PepsiCo, University of Sydney, Credit Suisse, EY, Jaguar Land Rover, Facebook, Australian Federal Police, eBay, Vodafone, Macquarie Bank, Telstra, Schneider Electric, Microsoft, NBN Australia, Gartner.
Authority signals: First-ever Chief Digital Officer at MARS Incorporated ANZ. Inaugural Innovation Partner to the Australian Federal Police. Board member of the Museum of Australian Democracy at Eureka. Featured on Wikipedia. Has delivered keynotes to more than 1.5 million delegates across 27-plus countries. Voted in the top five most inspirational keynote speakers. Regular media presence across The Project, Seven News, Sky News, ABC, and Channel 9.
Best suited for: Corporate transformation events, customer experience and retail leadership summits, FMCG and consumer brand audiences, government and law enforcement events, and audiences seeking a “human futurist” lens combining corporate operator pedigree with energising, optimistic delivery.
Verified links:
Primary: https://chrisriddell.com
Secondary: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Riddell_(futurist)
Lane: Humanist AI & Digital Strategy
Anders Sörman-Nilsson is a Swedish-Australian futurist and the founder of Thinque, a Sydney-based futures think tank established in 2005. His core focus sits at the intersection of digital transformation, AI, and humanism: how organisations build digital minds while honouring analogue hearts. He holds a law degree from the Australian National University and a Global Executive MBA from the University of Sydney, and was nominated to the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders cohort in 2019.
He is the author of four published books on digital transformation, AI and innovation: Digilogue, Seamless, Aftershock, and Thinque Funky. He holds Futurist-in-Residence appointments at the Brisbane Broncos, Ord Minnett, and Barker College, and guest-lectures at the University of Sydney Business School, UTS Business School, and Macquarie University Business School. He serves as Adobe’s AI brand ambassador, and has been a brand ambassador for Meta, Visa, and Mars Wrigley, and has advised the United Nations and the Australian Army on emerging technology.
Signature keynote topics
Notable clients and platforms: Apple, Google, Microsoft, Meta, Adobe, McKinsey, LEGO, BMW, Citi, Zoom, the United Nations, the Australian Army.
Authority signals: Featured in the Wall Street Journal, BBC, New York Times, New York Post, Australian Financial Review, ABC News, Monocle, South China Morning Post, and Forbes. Adobe AI brand ambassador. TEDGlobal member with TEDx talks delivered in the United States and Australia. Recipient of Keynote Speaker of the Year recognition. Global Speaking Fellow.
Best suited for: Enterprise leadership teams and board-level audiences navigating AI strategy through a humanist lens. Strong fit for tier-1 corporates, family offices, and global associations.
Verified links:
Primary: https://www.anderssorman-nilsson.com
Secondary: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anders_Sörman-Nilsson
Lane: Maths, Science & AI Communication
Adam Spencer is one of Australia’s most recognised public communicators of mathematics, science, and AI, with a thirty-year career spanning national broadcasting, comedy, and STEM education. He holds a PhD in pure mathematics from the University of Sydney and is the University’s first-ever Ambassador for Mathematics and Science, a role created specifically for him in 2014. He hosted Triple J Breakfast with Wil Anderson and then 702 ABC Sydney Breakfast for over a decade, and remains one of Australia’s most in-demand event hosts and keynote speakers for technology audiences. He positions himself as “Australia’s AI, Innovation and Cybersecurity Expert” for his current keynote work.
Spencer is the author of multiple bestselling mathematics books published by Penguin, the long-running collaborator with Dr Karl Kruszelnicki on the Sleek Geek tour and the University of Sydney’s Sleek Geeks Eureka Science Schools Prize, and a regular media presence across ABC, Network 10, and SBS. He served on the Senate of the University of Sydney and the NSW Premier’s Advisory Committee on Greenhouse and Global Warming, and co-created Dry July via his radio show, which has raised over $90 million for adult cancer services in Australian hospitals.
Signature keynote topics
Notable clients and platforms: University of Sydney, Triple J, ABC, Network 10, AUSCERT Cyber Security Conference, Sydney Swans, Fred Hollows Foundation, Redkite.
Authority signals: PhD in pure mathematics from the University of Sydney. University of Sydney’s first-ever Ambassador for Mathematics and Science. Featured on Wikipedia. Multi-decade national broadcasting career. Penguin-published bestselling author. Co-founder of Dry July ($90M+ raised). Former Sydney Swans #1 Ticket Holder (2016). World's Best Individual Speaker at the 1996 World Universities Debating Championship.
Best suited for: Generalist business audiences, tech conferences, education and STEM events, and any audience needing complex AI concepts demystified through humour, clarity, and warmth.
Verified links:
Primary: https://www.adamspencer.com.au
Secondary: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Spencer
The same set of speakers, mapped against the event types you’re most likely to be commissioning for.
For a board briefing on AI governance, director duties, or AI risk: Nicholas Davis (UTS, former WEF Executive Committee, ASIC and AICD panels) or Catriona Wallace (entrepreneur lens, INTERPOL and B Team advisor, strong for ASX-listed boards).
For a financial services or banking summit: Brett King (the global standard for banking AI keynotes) or David Hyman (operational depth from leading a $105B mortgage book).
For a government, public sector, or regulatory event: Victor Dominello (twelve years in cabinet, world-first ministerial credentials, deepest digital identity authority in Australia).
For a CMO or marketing leadership audience: Andy Lark (deep CMO track record across CBA, Xero, and Foxtel; current AI transformation keynote).
For an enterprise reinvention or C-suite leadership summit: Mike Walsh (algorithmic leadership, Harvard Business Review columnist), Stephen Scheeler (former Facebook ANZ CEO, McKinsey Senior Advisor), or Steve Sammartino (Channel 9 host, accessible and humorous delivery for generalist business audiences).
For a tech-literate innovation or R&D conference: Mark Pesce (VRML co-inventor, deepest technical and historical context) or Catherine Ball (PhD scientist, drones and robotics lens).
For a futures, foresight, or strategic planning event: Ross Dawson (proven futures methodology, thirty-plus countries) or Morris Misel (industry-specific foresight, thirty-year track record).
For an ethics, social impact, or responsible AI event: Liesl Yearsley (conversational AI ethics, MIT Technology Review thought leader) or Amanda Johnstone (TIME Next Generation Leader, emotion AI for mental health).
For a science, STEM, or accessible-tech communication audience: Adam Spencer (PhD mathematician, ChatGPT keynote specialist) or Jordan Nguyen (Eureka Prize-winning, biomedical engineer).
For an HR, people, or future-of-work transformation event: Dom Price (twelve years as Atlassian Work Futurist, TED speaker on personal moral inventory).
For a deep tech or innovation policy event: Sally-Ann Williams (NCI Chair, former Cicada CEO, Director of the Australian Research Council).
For a humanist AI strategy keynote at a tier-1 corporate audience: Anders Sörman-Nilsson (Apple, Google, Meta, McKinsey, BMW, UN, Australian Army track record; Wiley-published author; Adobe AI Brand Ambassador) or Chris Riddell (former MARS Incorporated CDO; Australian Federal Police Innovation Partner; 1.5M+ delegates across 27-plus countries; “Human Futurist” framing).
For an academic, policy, or university audience: Professor Toby Walsh (deepest academic AI authority in the Australian market).
There isn’t a single best. The right speaker depends on your audience, event type, and the lens you need on AI. For board-level AI governance, Nicholas Davis or Catriona Wallace lead. For banking and financial services, Brett King is the global standard. For public sector and digital government, Victor Dominello. For humanist enterprise AI strategy at tier-1 corporates, Anders Sörman-Nilsson. For academic depth, Professor Toby Walsh. For founders and operators, Liesl Yearsley or David Hyman. The decision guide above maps the full set.
Australian AI keynote fees typically range from $7,500 AUD (emerging voices, regional events) to $50,000-plus AUD (tier-1 internationally recognised speakers for global keynotes). Most experienced Australian AI keynote speakers charge between $10,000 and $30,000 AUD for a one-hour keynote. Fees vary based on the speaker’s profile, event location, travel requirements, presentation length, and whether workshops or additional engagement formats are bundled. Confirm fees directly with the speaker or via the website listed in each profile.
Both wear similar hats with different emphases. A futurist applies foresight methodology across many domains: work, society, technology, economy, environment, and increasingly AI. An AI keynote speaker focuses primarily on artificial intelligence: its development, deployment, governance, and implications. The most credible AI keynote voices often combine both lenses, bringing foresight methodology to bear specifically on AI. Several speakers on this list (Ross Dawson, Morris Misel, Anders Sörman-Nilsson, Chris Riddell, Mark Pesce) began as futurists before AI became a headline topic and now anchor their AI keynote work in that long-arc foresight discipline. Others (Toby Walsh, Nicholas Davis, Liesl Yearsley) are pure AI specialists. Both routes are valid. The key question is whether AI is central to the speaker’s current keynote practice or peripheral.
Match them against four practical questions. Which speaker’s lane aligns with your audience’s actual decision-making context (boards need governance voices, founders need operator voices)? Which speaker’s IP, framework, or published thought leadership will the audience encounter again afterwards? Which speaker has delivered to comparable organisations in your sector recently? Which speaker’s voice and energy matches the tone of your event? When in doubt, request keynote video footage directly from the speaker, or speak with two of their prior clients.
Yes. Every speaker on this list maintains an active virtual keynote practice and has delivered remote keynotes during and beyond the pandemic. Several are globally based and frequently appear via livestream. Virtual fees are typically lower than in-person fees because travel costs are eliminated.
Most are. Brett King, Amanda Johnstone, Dr Catherine Ball, Mike Walsh, Ross Dawson, Anders Sörman-Nilsson, Mark Pesce, and Stephen Scheeler all maintain active international keynote practices with engagements across Europe, Asia, and the Americas. Some, particularly those holding government or institutional roles, primarily serve Australian and New Zealand audiences. Confirm international availability directly with the speaker.
Editorial transparency. The seven criteria are applied to my own entry as to every other speaker, and the credentials are documented in the profile above and in the About section: Wiley-published books on digital transformation, tier-1 corporate client roster spanning Apple, Google, Microsoft, Meta, McKinsey, the United Nations and the Australian Army, Adobe’s AI Brand Ambassadorship, and features in the Wall Street Journal, BBC, New York Times, ABC News, AFR and Forbes. The criteria are met. The inclusion is disclosed. The credibility of the curation rests on the methodology rather than on any one speaker’s inclusion.
Each speaker profile is built from publicly available sources: speakers’ own websites, institutional bios (universities, government, corporate), Wikipedia entries where available, third-party media features, and official awards databases. Where multiple sources gave slightly different figures (delegate counts, podcast audiences, capital raised, exit values), the most authoritative or most recent source was used. Specific numbers and statistics are drawn from speakers’ own published materials and may have evolved since publication. For booking purposes, confirm current credentials, fees, availability, and engagement formats directly with each speaker via the verified links provided in each profile.
This guide was curated by Anders Sörman-Nilsson, founder of Thinque (Sydney, established 2005), Adobe AI Brand Ambassador, and author of four published books on digital transformation: Digilogue, Seamless, Aftershock, and Thinque Funky. His keynote work has reached audiences in 5 continents at Apple, Google, Microsoft, Meta, McKinsey, the United Nations, the Australian Army, BMW, Citi, Adobe, LEGO, Zoom, and the Brisbane Broncos. He holds Futurist-in-Residence appointments at the Brisbane Broncos, Ord Minnett, and Barker College, and guest-lectures at the University of Sydney Business School, UTS Business School, and Macquarie University Business School. He has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, BBC, New York Times, ABC News, Australian Financial Review, Forbes, and Monocle.
Booking enquiries: info@anderssorman-nilsson.com
Speaker website: anderssorman-nilsson.com
Thinque: thinque.com.au
* All speaker information in this guide has been compiled from publicly available sources including each speaker’s own website, institutional bios, Wikipedia entries, awards databases, and tier-1 media features. Every effort has been made to verify accuracy at the time of publication. Speaker credentials, fees, availability, and engagement formats may have evolved since. For booking purposes, confirm current details directly with each speaker via the verified links provided in their profile.