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Keynote SpeakerMartin Adams

Ethical-AI founder and innovation expert helping leaders turn AI hype into real value while keeping a human edge

Martin Adams is an ethical-AI founder, innovation expert and keynote speaker. He helps leaders turn AI hype into practical advantage while keeping people and creativity at the centre- so they can decide where to invest, manage risk and keep a human edge while scaling AI. More than just a commentator,... Read more

Biography

Martin Adams is an ethical-AI founder, innovation expert and keynote speaker. He helps leaders turn AI hype into practical advantage while keeping people and creativity at the centre- so they can decide where to invest, manage risk and keep a human edge while scaling AI.

More than just a commentator, he has founded and scaled a number of his own ethical-AI businesses which have then been acquired, including Codec.ai – a UK Top 20 AI scaleup – and Metaphysic.ai, named one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential Companies globally. Named a Maserati Top 100 UK Entrepreneur, and a World Economic Forum Global Innovator, he now advises the boards of organisations building at the cusp of innovation while putting human creativity first.

Martin serves on the Board of UCL (University College London), where he helps oversee strategy, management and innovation at one of the world’s top ten universities – home to 33 Nobel laureates, including AI pioneers Sir Demis Hassabis and Professor Geoffrey Hinton. He sits on the AI Advisory Board of the Marketing Society and a number of companies, and has worked with schools to build human-centred AI curricula that prepare young people for an AI-shaped future.

He originally trained as a lawyer at Harvard, and began his career working with creative business and privacy and intellectual-property cases in New York. That legal grounding underpins his work today: he is known for helping organisations of all types around the world harness AI’s upside while protecting data, reputation and intellectual property value. He helped establish the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA), advancing transparency and trust in digital media, and combines that expertise with technical understanding as an inventor on three patents in generative video.

As a speaker, organisations invite Martin when they need to cut through noise and understand what AI means for their business. He has spoken for clients like Procter & Gamble, Unilever, L’Oreal, Oracle, Arabian Business, as well as the European Commission, the Alan Turing Institute, Cannes Lions, MIT and SXSW, and his arguments on how we can use technology to advance human agency and business impact have been featured in global documentaries on AI.

Martin is an advocate for building AI that advances human potential and preserves what he calls our “immortal insights” about what really matters to people. He argues technology should be used first to expand human possibility. On stage he blends frontier insight with clear, practical frameworks that audiences can act on immediately. He helps leadership teams build belief, and leave the room with a concrete way to move forward with real confidence.

“We were left in a very different place than we came in: informed, engaged and excited for the possibilities. When someone understands not just innovation but its ‘society impact’, you get an insight into something special. We will work with Martin again. Impressive and memorable.” European Commission
“Martin is one of the best speakers I have ever seen. He speaks with conviction, clarity and passion to help an audience understand how they can win in the modern world.” Director @ Soho House Group and SVP Vice Media
“Any talk from Martin is an absolute joy. The empathy he builds with an audience is incredible and sheer energy and passion is contagious. More please!” Former CMO of Redbull
“Martin commands the stage. Audiences love to watch him in action. For me that is what I am looking for as some who owns conferences and an events business. He makes our events better and I am just glad we can keep booking him.” Founder of Social Media Week and AdWeek

Popular Talks by Martin Adams

  • Escaping AI Toyland: Turning AI Hype into Strategy

    How leaders can move beyond pilots and productivity hacks to unlock real innovation opportunities and business transformation with AI.

  • Keeping a Human Edge in the Age of AI

    How to use AI to enhance human judgement, creativity and connection – rather than replace them – and what this means for leadership, culture and talent.

  • AI for Brand Builders: Standing Out in a Copy-Paste World

    How marketing and innovation teams can use AI to create distinctive, on-brand ideas and experiences when everyone has the same tools, so you strengthen rather than dilute your brand’s creative edge and cultural DNA.

  • AI & Education: Designing Human-Centred Futures

    What leaders need to do to prepare their workforce for an AI-shaped future – building skills and mindsets that keep judgement, creativity and empathy at the centre.

  • The Future of Work: Humans, AI and the New Shape of Teams

    A clear, human-centred look at how AI is changing roles, skills and structures – and how leaders can communicate and design for an AI-shaped future.

  • The Sensitive Organisation: Building Companies That Can Truly Sense and Respond

    How to design organisations that can continuously sense what’s happening in the world- and the  things their customers really need- and respond intelligently using AI, data and human insight.

  • Rethinking AI for Authentic Leadership and Innovation

    How seeing AI as a system for redesigning customer relationships – not just a software – is becoming a defining test of modern leadership, and how your organisation can pass it.

  • Deepfakes, Synthetic Media and the New Trust Crisis

    What leaders need to know about deepfakes, and the possibilities of AI generated content – and how to protect brand, talent and public trust in an AI-shaped media environment.

  • EXECUTIVE MASTERCLASS – Outcome-Driven Upskilling for the AI Age

    A hands-on, highly practical workshop where leaders and teams identify their highest-value AI use cases and leave with a focused plan to unlock real business outcomes in the next 6–12 months.

  • EXECUTIVE MASTERCLASS- Boards & AI: The Five Questions Every Director Should Be Asking

    A practical briefing that gives board members and leadership teams the key questions and lenses they need to oversee AI investment, risk and governance with confidence.