Brian Solis Profile Picture

Keynote SpeakerBrian Solis

Best-Selling Author, Digital Futurist, Silicon Valley Luminary, Head of Global Innovation at ServiceNow, Former VP, Global Innovation at Salesforce

Brian Solis is a world-renowned digital anthropologist and futurist who serves as Global Innovation Evangelist at Salesforce. Brian is also an 8x best-selling author and international keynote speaker. Futurist: Forbes heralded Brian Solis as “one of the more creative and brilliant business minds of our time.” He was recently named... Read More

Biography

Brian Solis is a world-renowned digital anthropologist and futurist who serves as Global Innovation Evangelist at Salesforce. Brian is also an 8x best-selling author and international keynote speaker.

Futurist: Forbes heralded Brian Solis as “one of the more creative and brilliant business minds of our time.” He was recently named a “top futurist speaker,” by ReadWrite. ZDNet called him “one of the 21st century business world’s leading thinkers.”

Brian helps executives understand the evolving, complex landscape of digital trends and how they impact our work, markets, and business over time. Whether it’s generative AI, AR/VR or and spatial computing, web3, the metaverse, IoT, digital twins, or quantum computing, Brian humanizes each wave of emergent disruption to help audiences understand trends and see themselves productively shaping the future. He helps shift people’s mindsets from being overwhelmed, confused, or intimidated to taking control and moving forward with curiosity, excitement, and imagination.

Digital Anthropologist: Brian is also one of the industry’s first digital anthropologists who helped define the practice early in his career. This is key to humanizing trends. He’s able to observe how technology changes people’s behavior, in a variety of important contexts (as leaders, employees, customers) and understand their aspirations, their purpose, what they value, how they make decisions, and how they want to work. These changes in behavior directly impact values, relationships, and loyalty.

Through this research, Brian helps audiences empathize with different generations (Gen-Y, Z, Alpha) and understand how technology creates a cross-generational superset of people with similar behaviors, interests, and aspirations. Brian coined these important groups as Generation-Connected and Generation-Novel.

ServiceNow: Currently, Brian serves as the Head of Global Innovation at ServiceNow. In his role, he sets the strategic direction and programming for ServiceNow’s Innovation and Executive Briefing Centers in Silicon Valley, New York, London, Paris, Sydney, and Singapore. Additionally, Brian designs and delivers strategic engagements with important customers to advise on digital and business innovation strategies. He also publishes industry thought leadership in leading publications to help executives (and customers) understand technology and market trends and inspire business model innovation.

United Nations: In addition to his day job, Brian serves as a special adviser to the UN global innovation team. He develops workshops and keynotes that explore emergent trends and future scenarios, scenario strategies, skills development, and culture and leadership.

Salesforce: As the leader of Global Innovation at Salesforce, Brian gained a reputation as the “CxO Whisperer” because of his ability to translate shifting technology and market trends into actionable strategies for executives. He also has a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing companies and helps leaders think differently about current priorities and investments to future proof their organizations. Brian also partnered with leading brands to develop innovation pilots in service, L&D, and commerce, including applications that featured digital humans, 3D/immersive shopping and e-commerce powered by augmented reality.

Leadership: Added up, Brian helps executives unlock insights and ideas that lead to meaningful change in customer and employee experiences, the future of work, business model innovation, digital transformation, corporate culture, and leadership.

Brian’s personable approachable and engaging style is why he’s consistently ranked as one of the top speakers at the biggest events around the world. And as one event organizer recently put it, “Brian has a special gift to engage people and help everyone believe they can be part of change.” The Conference Board said it this way, “Brian is the futurist we all need now.”

Brian is indeed ‘Mr. Futurist,’ but with a big heart. He has personally influenced and shaped business and technology trends, led countless transformation and innovation programs for Fortune 500 companies. He has advised notable celebrities including Oprah, Shaq, and Ashton Kutcher; and startups including Uber, Airbnb, and Tripit.

He’s an eight-time, best-selling, and award-winning author and has published more than 60 research reports on the future of business, work, digital transformation and innovation across industries such as retail, healthcare, financial services, insurance, and public sector. He’s currently working on his ninth book due out later in 2023.

His blog, BrianSolis.com, is among the world’s leading business online resources to his 800,000 followers. Brian also contributes to FastCompany, Forbes, Techonomy, CIO, and Singularity University.

"The information was well received from the entire audience and the style of his presentation was very engaging. I know from talking with my colleagues, back in the office, we all did not want his presentation to end."
“Brian is so easy to work with. When he speaks, he is approachable, while being so smart and accomplished, We haven’t seen this in years past with speakers.”
“What I loved about Brian’s presentation was the data driven perspective. There were a lot of people with wide eyes. It was totally fearless about the potential radical disruption that is clearly upon us. His book, and calm, yet exciting presentation, gave me both professional insight and continuing inspiration to teach and lead.”

Popular Talks by Brian Solis

  • The Four Stages of AI Maturity: The Path to Becoming an Exponential Business
    What does leadership and business model innovation look like in an AI-first world? The answer is ‘exponential.’ Generative AI is affecting the trajectory of all businesses, separating early adopters and high performers from the rest. Brian is on the front lines with leading businesses and has developed a maturity model...
  • The Race to 2030: Building a Culture of Innovation, to Thrive Against Digital Darwinism
    What can we learn from some of the colossal mistakes we have seen from some of the biggest companies in the world? How can you prevent your company from making the same mistakes? Digital Darwinism is reshaping markets and behaviors, and its only accelerating. With AI, automation, spatial computing, robotics,...
  • Hey, Mr. Futurist, WTF (What’s The Future) of…My Industry?
    It’s not enough to be a digital-first company anymore. Digital transformation without business model innovation is still business as usual. Innovation cycles are only accelerating, making the next decade among the most pioneering for organizations that embrace the future and disruptive for those that hold on to the past. As...
  • The Rise of ‘Generation-C’: Learning the ‘6th Love Language’ of Your Connected and Conscious Customers (and Employees)
    You’ve heard of Millennials (GEN-Y) and Centennials (GEN-Z), now meet GEN-C, the cross-generational market of more informed, discerning, and conscious customers. While some pay attention to traditional demographics such as generations and age groups, Brian focuses on psychographic connections between shared and evolving behaviors, interests, and aspirations. This is the...
  • Ignite Moments! How to Become a ‘Customer Company’
    X marks the spot for a new formula to deliver best-in-class customer experiences: BX + CX + UX + EX = X. What does ‘great’ look like to today’s customer? How has their digital lifestyle or relationships with industry-leading brands changed their standards for what great customer engagement and services...
  • Think Like a Startup: Embracing a Founder’s Mindset to Innovate the Silicon Valley Way
    When it comes to innovation, it’s not uncommon to hear the phrase, “think like a startup.” Every year, executives visit Silicon Valley to visit leading tech companies and to meet leading entrepreneurs. Brian brings that experience, and more, directly to you. Brian has helped launch over 1,000 startups, advised every...
  • Business (R)evolution in the Novel Economy: Navigating Uncertainty to Lead, Innovate, and Thrive
    The future isn’t what it used to be. Welcome to the Novel Economy, a time without precedence or a playbook for navigating continuous disruption. A new leader and a new playbook are needed to define the next era of business. In this inspiring keynote, Brian will reveal how our future...
  • The Wheel of Disruption: Exploring Disruptive Tech Trends (AI, Web3, Spatial Computing, Metaverse, Tokens) and Innovative Business Opportunities
    Also please replace description: Every great innovation changes behavior. In 2014, Brian Solis introduced his first “Wheel of Disruption,” which tracked disruptive technologies and explained their potential impact on markets and society. In this bespoke session, Brian will develop a customized “Wheel of Disruption” for your event to explore the...